Auto Park Ford of Bremen — Local services in Bremen

HORRIBLE COMPANY SERVICE! I would NEVER recommend anyone doing business with Auto Park Ford in Bremen,IN.

I reached out to them through Auto Trader where I found a vehicle that I was interested in. Vehicle was a 2020 Ford Explorer with 261 miles on it. It was over the weekend so I was contacted by someone the following Monday morning. My husband and I had questions regarding the warranty and the salesman (Seth)did not have the answer and said he would have to find out from someone “higher up”. When he finally got back in touch with me the following day he did not have an answer to give me. Sounded very wish-washy about the warranty. (Didn’t make me feel confident in his knowledge of the product he was selling). I was upfront with him that I did not live in the area and that I was two hours away and I was very limited on the amount of time that I had to actually come to the dealership and sit down. I made it VERY clear that I was wanting to discuss numbers prior to making a trip there to avoid wasting a lot of time. I was constantly having to reach out to them multiple times just to try and get answers to questions that they said they would get back to me with. Finally on this past Wednesday I asked to speak with a manager. They put me in touch with Justin. First of all… I asked Justin about the delivery option that is stated on the ad with the vehicle and he told me that was not an option. I told him that was false advertisement. He also mentioned to me that there are a lot of scammers out there (very rude and I professional I thought to call a potential customer a scammer ) and I clearly stated to him that I am 100% serious about this vehicle and just need to make sure that the numbers are where they need to be before I schedule an entire day off to make a trip there. I also told him that I had a vehicle to trade and he asked me to send him pictures of my vehicle as well as any pertinent information so that he would be able to try and put some numbers together. I reiterated to him that I don’t live in the area and that I’m interested in this vehicle and I want to make sure the numbers are where they need to be before I drive there. Thursday I received a phone call from a third employee (Doug) stating that he wanted to help me “find a car”. When I returned his call an hour later I clearly stated that I already had a vehicle that I inquired about through Auto Trader. I informed him that I did as Justin asked the night before and sent all kinds of photos as well as an appraisal done by a previous dealership so that they knew I was serious about trading the vehicle. He said he would check into it and get back to me. When 3 o’clock rolled around on Thursday and I did not hear from anyone at that dealership - I called back in. Doug said again he would have to look into it. NO RETURN CALL THURSDAY NIGHT. First thing Friday morning (this morning) my husband called up and spoke with Justin to not only find out that they sold the car Thursday night- Justin also HUNG UP on my husband not ONCE but TWICE!!!! When my husband tried to explain to him that we have been working on this for a week and that as a courtesy to us they could have called us and let us know that they had someone walk in and was interested in the vehicle.. on Thursday. But instead they went ahead and sold the car without even one single phone call to us. I decided to call in and talk to Justin myself and when he returned my call… He told me he was too busy yesterday to call and let me know that someone else was interested in the vehicle. I explained to him that I thought this was POOR customer service as well as being highly unprofessional on his part to not even give me the common courtesy of a phone call. Especially when he knew that I was interested in this vehicle.

This dealership is all about making a quick dime… They DO NOT care about you as a customer. They only just care to move...

Great service department at Auto Park Ford in Bremen, Indiana! We had some some minor warranty work for an open recall on the front disc brakes performed. Jerod explained everything beyond my expectations. That’s not easy - as a lifelong professional automotive master tech / technical trainer . . . I’m a VERY picky service customer. I teach professionals how to do service, diagnostics and customer relations the right way. This dealership is doing service the right way! Their key drop box was perfect for an overnight vehicle drop off. Our vehicle was retuned on time and the front brakes work and sound fine. Jerod called the next day and advised me that there was more minor recall work (and a technical bulletin to be performed under warranty). These will be completed when Ford makes the parts available - but I’m no longer dreading another trip from my hometown (Kokomo, IN - 87 miles away) for the next service department visit in Bremen. When you get things get done right - you don’t mind making the drive!

Kind of reminds me why we bought a new vehicle there in the 1st place.

BACKGROUND I don’t normally take the time to do an internet survey - but these people have earned my time and effort to compliment them beyond the good ‘word of mouth’ recommendations I’ve been giving them these past 18 months.

We purchased our new 2021 Ford Escape SE in the fall of 2021 when everyone else in Indiana had low/no inventory and/or had a “take it or leave it” attitude. We were VERY tired of car shopping by the time we found Auto Park Ford online, and noticed a few vehicles that looked worth checking out. We almost didn’t make the 87 mile (each-way) drive. Glad we did! When we made it up Bremen, we entered an entirely different world at Auto Park Ford. Due to construction and traffic on the way, we arrived on a Saturday afternoon 20 minutes before closing. We apologized for dropping in so late and stated that our intent was to “just look” at their inventory and come back Monday if we saw something we liked. Hailey and another sales associate made us feel like family - but not the kind of family you rush out the door! Before we knew it, we were test driving what would be our next new car (after our family car was totaled in an accident 6 weeks prior). My wife fell in love with the color (bright blue) and the panoramic roof. I was happy with the techie stuff like duel fuel injection (GDI and SFI), Turbocharger, Ford BLISS (blind spot monitor) and Torq Vectoring (high tech all wheel drive). We both wanted the vehicle but feared the usual BS once we tried to get a sensible deal.

Auto Park Ford is a “No BS / No Head Games” dealership. We made a deal and Hailey even secured us a supplier discount from my company (BorgWarner). Discount? Other dealers were charging retail price PLUS a healthy mark up at that time. (post Covid vehicle shortages). The owner / general manager let Hailey go home and he personally stayed over to close the deal, obtained financing and demonstrated / delivered the vehicle to us THAT very Saturday afternoon. I recall him calling his wife and making arrangements to rearrange some family plans that afternoon so he could finish the sale and still have some family time..

Whether it’s sales, service or management, this Ford dealership has an excellent small town atmosphere with Hoosier hospitality and ‘golden rule’ business ethics! To whomever reads this review - please don’t give up on dealerships and buy a nearly new vehicle online out of a ‘gumball machine’ as we almost did. Check out Auto Park Ford online, give them a call, then make the drive to Bremen, a friendly little farming community in Northern Indiana to purchase your next new or used vehicle!

Dave & Teresa...

Where does one start? It’s hard to say a car dealer is worse than another but Bremen Ford is the most dishonest I’ve ever come across and my family has been in the car business in one way or another all of my life.

*I have plenty of photos which prove what I’m reporting.

Here are your warning signs to stay away....Please for your sake stay far from this company as they are up there with the dirtiest dealerships there are.

Purchased - 2019 Ford Flex w/16,471 (ACTUAL MILES)

1)Dealer claims they don’t use Carfax because it’s not what Ford uses. Yet on FORD’s website it states all pre-owned vehicles are run through Carfax. Carfax is the most trusted car verification system for a reason. Three other dealerships stated they must always use Carfax and that even if they use another system that they still have to run Carfax.

2)Dealer claims they have an inspection process which follows Ford’s guidelines. Problem isn’t Ford’s guidelines, it’s that this dealership doesn’t have an actual inspection process (ie. chips in paint which should have been touched up, did not clear previous drivers SYNC info, cracked headlight housing). The dealer knew of the accident and still didn’t inspect the impacted area or decided to ignore it hoping someone bought the car in daylight which wouldn’t allow you to see the headlight is 1/2 as bright as the other.

3)Dealer WILL NOT allow other dealerships to service a vehicle if an issue which they blatantly missed is found. You MUST take it back to them because they’ll claim it was the other dealer who broke something.

4)There is no actual customer service. It’s your Salesman - Service manager - Sales Mgr/GM of a location - Owner. The owner is a working employee as president over all their dealerships.

5)They do not fully detail used cars, they only sweep the carpet, wipe down seats, doors and dash (we had dirt all over the center consol and the engine looked like we drove through the Sierra dessert).

6)Dealer will offer more times than not the local credit union as the “best they can do” on rates even though there are better options (ie. They get kickbacks when using certain banks/credit unions. Every dealership has a relationships like this).

7. If you have even the slightest thought that you are being taken advantage of (you are), the Sales/GM will hang up on you the minute he feels like he’s being backed into a corner where he’s caught lying. The Sales/GM washes his hands of you the minute you take ownership of a vehicle.

8)Fraudulent mileage reporting (Our car had 643 extra miles than what was stated. They do not use ‘actual’ mileage on your title or financing paperwork which is fraud).

9)Bait and Switch is running rampant at this line of dealerships (multiple dealerships allow the website to show many vehicles which are hours away at times but state are on a lot local to you).

10)Dealer will not willingly disclose vital information for you to make an educated buying purchase or in other words they are doing what is called affirmative-misrepresentation (ie. Carfax, when car actually arrived on site, what miles are actual and what is not, options of financing).

11)They know that Ford will not get involved in ANY used car cases no matter how new the car actually is so you are on your own.

12)They promise their word is gold but will always under deliver (we were supposed to get a bottle of paint with in 2 days of purchase so we could touch up the chipped areas. Over a week later and...