Southworth Chevrolet GMC — Local services in Bloomer

Massively disappointed with my experience. At first, I was very happy with our sales guy. I told him what I wanted and what I hated about my old truck. My two biggest complaints were that it was rusting out pretty badly, and it was starting to nickel and dime me where it need something fixed every month. I took good care of it, but the truck was 17 years old. My main requirements of the new (used) truck were: No rust, not needing any work (other than maintenance items), fit a car seat in it, and be newer than 7 years. We looked at a few trucks, but I was directed to a newer, shiny Silverado. It always looks nice when it’s all shined up, but I’m finding a turd underneath.

During the shopping process, we asked about financing to see if it was better than our bank. The only way to do that was to run our credit. That makes perfect sense, I agreed to do that. After waiting about an hour for any information, we were taking back to the finance lady to look at the numbers. What we found was that she had transferred our old truck to them, transferred the plates from our old truck to the new one, renewed the plates that were not due for 6 more months, and basically started the loan. In hind sight, that was my sign. I should have walked away. I liked the truck and was serious about buying it, so I stepped away with my wife to talk about it. Hind sight is 20/20. I was annoyed that they decided to finance an extra $85 by renewing our plates that early, but whatever. I tried to let go of the small stuff and just focus on buying the truck or not.

After about 2-3 weeks, the “shoe polish” that they rubbed on the tires slowly came off to revel all 4 tires had a lot of dry checking, some of it pretty deep. Looking up the date code, I found the tires were 7 years old, but had very little ware on the tread. There was something more on the tires than just the normal tire shine. A gunk that masked the cracking. My wife took the truck in for Southworth to tell her the cracking was fine and nothing to worry about. Within the next 5 weeks, I was getting new tires because I realized these were no longer holding air. ($750)

It only took the first cold night about 3 months after buying the truck to learn the battery was weak and wouldn’t hold a good charge. ($125)

One thing that helped sell me on the truck was that it had a nice bed liner. The first time I hauled a load of grass and brush, it chipped off in 3 places. I took it to a place in Chippewa to ask about it. They told me the bed liner was new, and they put very little prep into applying the bed liner. Today I probably have a dozen chips in the bed liner that have grown to the size of my thumb, or a little bigger.

A panel on the A pillar fell down. It looks like it was broke and someone fixed it with Permatex black gasket maker. Yeah, that held for about 2 weeks. I cleaned it up and repaired it properly with epoxy.

I was assured that the extended cab Silverado was good for a car seat. We didn’t own a car seat at the time to try and fit, but we borrowed a tape measure and looked up dimensions on line. We were a little skeptical, but it did look ok. The only place an infant car seat will fit is directly in the center of the back seat. I don’t know what’s going to happen after a year.

After just one year of ownership, the truck if blooming rust from everywhere. I see where it was covered up with color matched paint, and I couldn’t tell when I bought it. I saw a lot of rock chips that had been filed in, and I liked that. It showed that someone cared to seal the truck from rusting. In reality, a lot of rust was concealed. Rust is blooming big time from the wheel arches, the cab corners, the door seams, and the tailgate. I can’t explain how utterly defeating it is to spend almost $20K on a truck that ends up looking and running like this after just one year. I haven’t even got quotes on the rust yet. I’m considering just trading this in at a better dealer and getting a...

I was extremely disappointed with my last and final visit at Southworth. I sent my car in for a tire alignment, oil change, and tire rotation. They came and picked up my car from work in Bloomer which was a fantastic service, but sometime later that day I got a phone call from them. The man I was talking with told me that the inside of my tires were worn and I was going to need parts of my front end fixed because that was causing the wear (I can’t remember exactly what it was) and he continued on to tell me that I needed new tires immediately and that my brake pads were worn. I asked for a grand total and he told me the price and I told him that I couldn’t afford it all. I asked what could be done without the tires and he told me he couldn’t do much without them and insisted on me needing tires. I told him to do what he can (since supposedly he couldn’t do barely anything without the tires), to wait on the brakes because I was thinking about it, and just give it back to me because my dad could do minor fixes that it needed. I get done with work at the end of the day and get into my car. I picked up the bill and everything was done except the tires (which I thought he couldn’t do most of it?). So I’m stuck with this hefty bill that I cannot afford. I did call and the man that worked on my vehicle would not let there be a price drop, so I asked to talk to management. We finally came to an agreement on a fair price saying the I would pay for all parts and for the service I originally asked for, then I dropped the issue. Now I am starting to have more problems with the car. On my receipt, it says that my brake pads were replaced (the ones I told them to wait on) and my car is still pulsating from bad brake pads?? Stuff that should’ve been addressed on the car were not and I’m starting to doubt that the man did some of the stuff he did because of the brakes. Don’t go here if you don’t know a lot about cars because you will be taken...

Reading this review you need to understand that in the economy and time we are in, you are not going to negotiate a lower price on anything. If you aren't in a bidding war with another potential buyer, then you are doing better than everyone else. Paying sticker price is a bargain. With that said, the buying experience was more than I expected. Typically buying a car, the salesman is trying to size you up, figure out where you fit for what car they can sell you. Not what you want/need. Their energy is spent typing you into a category of profitably. Not so with Ryan at Southworth. He knew I was interested in one vehicle and didn't try to sell me any others based on my credit or monthly spending limit. Even at the test drive, most salesman will have a predetermined route they want you to take, to minimize exposure to a vehicle's flaws and maximize its "potential" to a buyer. Not so with Ryan. As soon as we left for the test drive he said " go where you want, drive as you will, but I'm not paying any tickets". I told him my intention of jumping on the freeway to open it up and test the acceleration and speed. He immediately got on his phone, programed a mock trip on google maps, and confirmed for me there were no speed traps, and told me to open her up. I did. When exiting the freeway he stated that his seat belt is on and tight, so might as well test the brakes. I did. Hard. There was no pressure in this process. Just a flow of information and the freedom to do what I thought necessary to feel comfortable in this purchase. I cannot say that this is specific to the southworth dealership in bloomer Wisconsin, but I can say that this is specific to Ryan. There was no push, there was no misdirection. I will definitely be back to purchase my next...