Castle Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM of Chesterton — Local services in Chesterton

Edit: They will also ask customers to change their reviews and make it positive, after yelling at them and blatantly telling them to shut their mouths???

Unethical business practice — will say whatever they have to in order to push the sale, and then refuses to take accountability once issues are addressed. This dealership truly does not care if you are safe in your vehicle. The red flags started with them stating that the listing price for this vehicle on cars.com is less than the selling price at the dealership, and for that reason they would not allow any sort of negotiation. Which makes absolutely no sense being that selling platforms take a percentage of the total paid by customer. With that logic, the online listing would actually be marked up in order to compensate for the percentage going to cars.com. The car was sold “as-is” — which is standard practice among many dealerships. However, they will refrain from disclosing any information that may steer the customer away. Issues with the vehicle will not be disclosed and sales are rushed in order to ensure that the customer doesn’t have the time to find issues with the vehicle. They will say that there is nothing wrong with the vehicle mechanically, and then you’ll find yourself stalling on a highway less than TWO weeks after purchasing the car. This car was purchased on July 1st. Better yet, the car will shut off on you out of nowhere. They will sell you the vehicle, only to find out that the key fob does not work and you can’t lock the doors without going to each specific door and manually pushing down the locking mechanisms. They will gaslight you and say the battery in the key fob is just dead, but in that case, why couldn’t they have changed it prior to the sale? A brand new battery did nothing for that key fob and when informing them of that, they say to bring the fob in and they’ll reprogram. Once the car began having issues running, we made an appointment to have them evaluate it. Mind you, the dealership is over an hour away from home. After making arrangements to bring it in and drop it off, they refuse to assess any other issues (such as the key fob previously mentioned) because this appointment is for the stalling specifically. When picking up the car two days later, they state what the issue with stalling “may” be— but he’s not sure. Doesn’t offer any solutions or recommendations, just rubs in the “car was sold as-is” line. At that point, why waste the customers time and have them come back out to the dealership? They half assed putting a panel back on the vehicle and gave it back with said panel dragging. The key fob must have actually been checked out at some point because the back cover was not put back on correctly and the cover + new battery we put in had fallen out at some point. To top everything off, they added a OPTIONAL limited warranty to this transaction (which doesn’t cover anything you actually need it to btw) for an additional $2,000 without asking the buyer. They also did not take the moment to show how much interest that would be applied to the total cost of the vehicle, essentially adding an extra $3k to a now $7k sale. Again, rushing things and not giving the chance to thoroughly evaluate or check paperwork prior to purchasing. It’s truly disgusting to see the way they’ve handled this situation. What would likely be a cheap and easy fix for somebody mechanically inclined (or, yanno, a dealership with mechanics on sight), they absolutely refuse to do in order to rectify the situation. Unfortunately this will not be the last you’ll hear of this...

05 - 06/2025 - Back again for bum bum bum...warranty work. Long story short, I had my engine replaced under warranty 12/2024. The timing cover was leaking (also covered under warranty and fixed summer 2024 before the engine was replaced). The warranty company gave me a couple of options - have the dealership that installed the engine three hours away in Ft. Wayne perform the repair or have them pay Castle to do the repair (both are Chrystler Dodge Jeep Ram dealers). Glenbrook in Ft. Wayne chose option C, contact the company that supplied the engine (LKQ) as the engine was under a 1-year warranty. They argued that there was no way to tell that the timing cover wasn't faulty on the already installed engine. I had an oil change at Castle in April, 2025, and they did not note the leak then. The real superhero in all of this was Jamie, scheduling services as a front, and making headway and achieving results as her full-time duties. Talk about perseverance and due diligence - she covered EVERYTHING: repeat calls to the warranty company, Ft. Wayne dealer, LKQ; updates, recommendations for who to call next and how to keep things moving forward - without her clear communication, who knows how long I would have waited for the repair. With her hard work, my car was serviced within 2 weeks -THANK YOU, Jamie!

02/2025 - I came in to get a second opinion regarding some rattling from the rear of my 2015 Jeep Patriot as another dealer quoted me $3,000 worth of work on completely replacing my rear suspension. Jason was so helpful and filled the technician in on my situation. The technician did a thorough inspection and noticed my rear passenger brake drum was loose. He adjusted it, and the problem noise is gone. He added that my rear strut and control arm need to be replaced, nothing more. The quote, with tax, is $1240! I am so glad I came to Castle Jeep for a second opinion and will be returning...

Worst customer service ever experienced in my life. Service Advisor had a poor attitude from the minute I walked in and was very unresponsive, I had to make calls repeatedly. Said they were down some mechanics and were very busy with customers, guess I wasn’t considered a customer. Was told there would be a delay of parts for six days and when I followed up on the sixth day was told it would be another four days for the parts due to the recent hurricane, this was not in their control. They never called me about the second delay. Apparently they must only get parts from the southeast area. When I expressed my disappointment I received a call the next day stating they would not do the repairs on my car and I could come and pick it up, 11 days they had my car but did absolutely nothing and parked it in the back lot outside under several trees. Totally unprofessional considering the car would be somewhat unsafe to drive for the type of repairs needed. Apparently they don’t care about their customers, that much was obvious. At no time did anyone one from their team reach back out to me to discuss this situation especially when I contacted them after learning about the second delay. I took it to a local repair shop the next day and had the repairs done within two days and for a lot less than what was quoted to me by Castle, obviously the repair shop I went to was able to get the parts from other than the southeast. They were premium parts and offered a lifetime warranty as well. I guess I got the better deal in the long run. Will never be using Castle again, least of all for repairs and least of all to purchase a vehicle. Bad,...