Lake Norman Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM — Local services in Cornelius

BUYER BEWARE! The cost of the used car I was interested in was not the same as online. It was initially listed at $44,000 and reduced to $40,000 ($2,000 trade credit and an additional $2,000 finance cash, aka, YOUR MONEY) I didn't have a trade as my previous vehicle had been totaled and when I called I was told it was $2k off, not cash down! When I told him my bottom was under $40k. He came back with a $38k+ figure plus tax, tag, title (mandatory) then dealership administration fees of $970+, taking it to just barely over $40k.I was then pushed into using their lending companies, stating they were confident with my credit score of 700 they could get me in a better rate than what my bank had pre-qualified me for even though I repeatedly said I didn't want a bunch of pulls on my credit profile. They were not able to beat the rate. It was actually 1.95 HIGHER! He argued that it was better because it was more months lowing my monthly payment! I didn't want to finance for 7 years!These pulls on my credit dropped my score over 40 points!!! I should have left then, but I had already been without a vehicle for over a month and the total that was shown to me was close to what I was willing to pay. I knew I could just refinance through my bank on Monday.

After being there over 3hrs I went to make the deal. I also was putting $4,500 down so to only finance $36k. My amount financed after my down payment was $39k, I was signing the docs and I quesioned the amount and was told the additional was from their dealership maintenance warranties, offering 5 oil changes, 3 years key replacement and Mopar Theft protection. When I told him I didn't want that I was informed it was not an option not to get them. He then told me they were making nothing on the car. This was a bold face lie! I specifically asked about any damages to the vehicle because the carfax listed minor. The sales peraon stating they did not see any damages and it had been thoroughly checked upon arrival. While looking over the vehicle in dusk light, I did notice a small scratch on the black plastic part of the bumper, however, I didn't notice a small but definate crack in the actual bumper. I didn't notice until the next morning which was too late to call as I felt sure they wouldn't do anything about it.

Lastly, I brought my tag to transfer and was told in NC if was going to expire in less than 60 days you could not use that tag. That was another complete lie. Unfortunately, I'm not educated on all the laws regarding tag transfers!

All in all, if you are the buyer be sure to ask specifically what their dealership "must" add on top of the cost of the car. Don't be nieve like me and waste hours of time to find out in the end! I did not get the option of a refund of the "maintenance add ons. They are of no value to me as I live over an hour away from any of their locations but yet the still made me add it.

I should had done my research by looking at reviews and the BBB before I considered this dealership. As the guy said "I've been doing this for years. I'm a numbers guy". He completely manipulated the sale, and was too exhausted, nieve, and too trusting that he was being honest and fair.

Lastly, I understand that companies have to make money to pay for overhead, but that doesn't mean take advantage of the customer who is taking time away from their life and job to buy from you. If they couldn't have got me to the figure I could work with, they should have told me and let me walk away. They should have removed the add ons as soon as they learned it would take me over an hour one way to take advantage of such. My mistake for completing the transaction instead of walking...

All I can say is, once the deal is done, good luck after that. I had several issues that needed to be resolved, and if I didn't stay on top of these things to the point that I was a pest, I was forgotten about. When you trade in a car, they're pretty adamant about wanting 2 sets of keys. This vehicle is a 2023 and at the last minute I found out they only had one key fob. It was all tore up, looked like it went through a world war. They said sorry, that's all they had. I demanded another one and they did order one, not the exact one, but one that probably should work, but it was not programmed and they didn't offer to. What good is that? The latest issue was I called yesterday morning to cancel my maintenance agreement contract. I spoke with the person in credit and he said he would send me an e-document to sign later in the day. It didn't happen, now I have to follow up again. Unless you live real close, I would not suggest purchasing the service agreement. I spoke directly with Fidelity, which is the 3rd party insurer and they told me good luck trying to find anyone else to do the oil change for the price of the coupons in the contract. The dealer makes the money up front on the contract, so they are willing to do the service for $35 that they've been contracted to do with Fidelity. So you can really only go to Lake Norman for the oil changes and tire rotations. Last night I received an email from Guidepoint Systems. Apparently, they are a monitoring service for the systems in your vehicle, if equipped. At first I thought it was a spam email, but I decided to call them. They said they received a notification of "low battery" from my vehicle. Now I purchased this 2023 vehicle used, about 3 weeks ago and today I'm going to call Lake Norman about replacing the battery and checking out the charging system. I did purchase a service contract, which they said is 5 years, 60k miles, starting at the 40k miles it had on the vehicle so that should bring me to 100k miles for warranty, so let's see what they say about this battery issue today. I'm probably going to call Fidelity to find out if that 5yr 60k really starts from the 40k the vehicle had when I purchased it. I know I asked that question before I purchased the contract because since the vehicle had 40k miles, and the contract says 60k miles, why would you spend $4000 for 20k of warranty? This review may be continued........Well, here we are a week later. Guess what? The Smart Vehicle Contract doesn't cover the battery, as a matter of fact, it only covers electrical stuff inside the car so the service dept told me. I verified that with Fidelity, so they were correct on that. I left a message with someone, you never know who you're speaking to if the receptionist doesn't pick up, for a manager to call me. Apparently there are many managers, so I don't know who was suppose to call.....but didn't. BTW, don't you usually get a call about how everything is? I guess they're scared to call and they're really not going to do anything anyway but say sorry. That would be something though. I'm done. I've already wasted too much time on this. Last...

I highly do not suggest going to this dealership to buy a car!! Maggie does not listen to your needs just wants to sell you a car fast and expensive! Horrible trade prices!! Her suggestion was to sell my Jeep on marketplace and to target the people up in the mountains where the devastation was from the hurricane because they are despite for those type of vehicles. I saved 9.5K by going to Gastonia instead!!!

I have reached out to have further conversation based on their response to my review and have yet to hear anything going on three weeks.

Read on for more information...

I worked with Maggie and my experience was terrible!! I went in back in early December looking at a used Gladiator. I took it for a test drive and it was in good shape inside, did have some sun fading on the back fender and the bed was in rough shape. The dealership ran numbers on my 2015 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Hard Rock Edition fully loaded with 98k miles. The Jeep KBB for 17k-21k. It was paid off, Maggie came back to me with an offer of 7K for my trade in. An absolute insult!! I got up to walk away and she was like maybe we can find something else. She asked what my requirements were for a new vehicle. I gave her a list of items that I wanted in my new Wrangler or Gladiator, but she was so focus on finding something that moment and getting the deal done that none of the suggestions were even close to what I asked for. It didn't matter at this point what she found for a vehicle because the trade in value of my Jeep was next to what a wrecked Wrangler would be worth. I told her that the value of the trade in was 10k off from where it needs to be. Her suggestion was to sell it on marketplace and aim to sell it up in the mountains where they just had the devastated from the hurricane because they are in need of those type of vehicles. I was dumbfounded at this response, especially since we just talked about one of my family members being effected by this!! Needless to say I got up and walked away. A week later a manager reached out and asked how my experience was and I explained the whole situation in depth and I got a "i am sorry" response that's it. I did ended up going to the Park dealership in Gastonia (same owner different location). I ended up buying one of the first 2025 Willy's that they had on the lot. They gave me 16.5K for my Jeep and got the deal done. Having one dealership offer me 9.5K less than the other under the same ownership is a real problem! driving the extra minutes saved me 9.5K!!! I am not sure if Maggie was just trying to advantage of me because of my age or the fact that mine was paid off, or what the deal was but it is unacceptable and morally wrong, especially when the other dealership under the same name was able to give me...