Ewald Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Franklin — Local services in Franklin

☆☆☆ Please Read This☆☆☆ before purchasing any vehicle from any other dealership or salesperson.... You will thank me you spent these few minutes reading this review! The whole reason I took my time to leave this type of review is for you the people to have this knowledge. 100% Honest and Unbiased!

From start to finish Lonnie Peterson a car salesmen for EWALD dealership in Franklin,WI was absolutely amazing. His professionalism, his knowledge, his communication skills, his calm demeanor, his thoroughness, his honesty, returning calls, answering calls, sending or replying to emails, in a timely manner, transparency about ever detail and on and on. Lonnie checked all the boxes for us to earn our businees this time and in the future. My wife Helen and I both agreed we were lucky he was the one who took our call going back to the 1st time we spoke over the phone when calling EWALD to inquire about new Vans. We live about 1 hour and 30 minutes away North of Madison, WI. So we had never shopped at Ewald or never even heard about the dealership prior. Lonnie assured me this dealership wanted our business, he stated he and his team was there for me no matter what, before and after a purchase, he informed of the 20 year 200,000 exclusive EWALD warranty that only their company gives free to anyone with a purchase of a new vehicle ( only dearlership in the United States) and he spoke highly of the family like car dealership business EWALD stands for. He stuck up for the business when nobody was around to hear it. So either he must love his job is all I got to say or they are a tight knit family run business who take care of their valued employees? I liked that and hope my employees speak that of our company and myself when nobody is listening. Anyways! He sealed the deal from that 1st conversation. Now it was just locating the vehicle then and all the details to follow. I mean the guy made time for me and answered my calls on his days off when we had questions. I never felt like I was being rushed or he was in a hurry to hang up the phone. He truly just wanted our complete satisfaction on anything and everything. We appreciated him more than he realized for that. It meant he cared and understood just how important this purchase of a new vehicle meant to us. Not just the amount of money and time we were spending. It showed, Lonnie didn't care weather I purchased a half a million dollar car or a used junkbox. He wanted what was best for us and our families needs. In all the years of buying vehicles this was our best experience hands down anywhere and sales associate. My wife and I both agreed we will only buy from Lonnie again in the future. Hopefully as a company, if they read this ever, you do whatever it takes to retain this man's services at your dealership. He is the best in the business. Easy to talk with! He was never pushy, listened to everything we said, took notes, stay organized and was on top of every exact detail. We never had to repeat ourselves to him. He kept great notes. I'm not sure how long he has been doing this as a profession, but he seemed to be a well oiled machine. A "beast" maybe is a better term. Ewald just gained a life long customer because of him soley. To Lonnie if you are reading this Thank you! My wife made you work for this sale or even jump through a few hoops some may say, but ultimately you found her exactly the vehicle she wanted, the features, the options, the accessories, the price, the warranty and most of all you never gave up on us or made us feel less important til the job was completed. All that work, just to make a customer you didnt know and never met prior extremely happy. I applaud you sir. You are an overachiever and a scholar. I wish there were more men built like you in our businesses throughout the country and things would run so much smoother. More deals would get done! Thanks for a great experience. It was a pleasure to meet you and do business with you. From your newest EWALD Family members...

For anyone who doesn’t want to read a long review, let me summarize for you. Drive as quickly as possible to ANY other dealership. Griffin’s dealership is only 8.5 miles from Ewald. If I could link to Griffin here, I would. In hindsight, I would take public transportation or walk before dealing with anything Ewald affiliated again, if I could avoid it. We got the runaround from their sales department, and a VERY shady salesman (Bruce) that give salesmen the bad reputations they have. Now we have been left stranded without a vehicle for 6 weeks because Ewald’s service department managed to do thousands of dollars damage to our $83K Jeep from simply installing running boards and seemingly is unable to fix the error in any kind of timely manner. I would love to include photos, but that would require me to have my vehicle to take photos.

We purchased a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland from Ewald. The salesman Bruce was nice enough during the sales process, which I would expect. I had a very specific Jeep color/trim package that I wanted. Bruce found one at another dealership, and the only thing it was missing was running boards. Bruce assured us that if we chose that we wanted running boards we could purchase them at cost and he’d have them installed at no charge. When we took delivery of the vehicle, there was a defect in the passenger window. Bruce said a new window was being ordered. After a few weeks we call and the window hadn’t been ordered yet. Several months later we are told that we can schedule the Jeep for the window replacement and 2 recalls. We took the Jeep in and nobody knew anything about a window. Another few weeks goes by and we are contacted that the Jeep’s window has arrived. The replacement window was damaged and we would have to ONCE AGAIN reschedule our service. 3 more week pass with not a single update from anyone at Ewald. Our AC also wasn't working. So we took it in and the 2nd replacement window had been in for weeks. We also decided at that time to order the running boards. My husband spoke with Bruce, and Bruce wrote up an order for the running boards, selling them at cost. My husband asked about the installation and was told by Bruce “don’t worry, I’ll take care of it”. After 4 days we get a call that the Jeep is ready to be picked up, but they didn’t fix the air conditioning. Despite a technician experiencing it not working they claim they could not recreate the issue, and that the AC was working. My husband goes to pick up the Jeep and was told he owed $290 for installation! He went back and forth with several managers, as he was told there would be no charge, and they agreed on us paying $100. It’s important to note, this was in the evening and the sun was setting. The next day when he went to get in the Jeep he noticed SEVERAL dents and dings, and gauges of paint missing from the Jeep. He also noticed upon further inspection that over 18 bolts were missing from the running board installation. We immediately called and left a message, but as it was Labor Day weekend we did not get a call back until Tuesday morning September 3rd. The air conditioning was also once again not functioning. We took the Jeep in on September 3rd. To make this already long review somewhat shorter I will conclude by saying it is now October 11th. I have not had my Jeep in my possession since September 3rd because Ewald has been “attempting” to fix the thousands of dollars damage they caused installing running boards. They told us they would need it for 1.5 weeks. It has been almost 6. They have also told us that they do not have a fix for the air conditioning, nor do they know when they will. We have gotten the run around from Ewald the entire time. Each time telling us “worst case scenario you will have it back the day after tomorrow”. I understand that the service dept may have their hands tied, and can't fix it faster. However, the lack of transparency and good communication is par for the course with Ewald and a severe...

Unfortunately I have to agree with recent reviews, the service here is awful, the condition of my car is nowhere near what was stated on the Wisconsin buyers guide, and the fees are deceitful. That nitrogen fee is not a joke, I had the exact same experience, and more. I actually caught them TRIPLE charging taxes as well. Watch those fees!

The car I bought is a 2015 Honda odyssey from this dealer (obviously a trade in) only 56,000 miles on it at the time.

I can also agree with the condition of the vehicles, the level of oversight on these vehicles is insane. After giving the car a touchless wash, the paint started coming off all over the car, and little scratches and dings showed up everywhere! I bought the car because I was I liked the price and the mileage, but oh boy I wish I had taken a close look at EVERYTHING on it. That Wisconsin buyers guide 152 something point inspection? Complete joke.

Here's only some of the issues I found: The alignment was off by 17 degrees toe, making the steering wheel shake violently on the freeway, and veer right off the road as soon as you take your hands off the wheel for a second. However on my test drive before purchase this didn't occur, and I figured out why: The salesman FILLED UP THE TIRES BEYOND MAX LEVEL (Over 40psi). This led not only to the car driving better than it should have, which was deceitful, but it also led to a near blowout on the drivers side front tire, leaving it with a slow leak, and requiring ALL 4 tires to be replaced immediately or risk an accident, and an alignment needed to be performed. There goes $800 more out of my pocket on top of the 21k I paid for a 18k value car. I brought this up to the dealer too, and they drove it, and told me they couldn't feel any shaking...... really? I drove home after that and felt the shaking immediately. The only conclusion I can come to is either the manager was numb, or lying. I have videos of the steering wheel shaking violently before taking the car back, and still, the silence continued.

And of course as usual with Wisconsin, I bought the car "As is" so as soon as the sale was over, there goes any support from the dealer. There were other broken things I found in the interior of the vehicle as well, such as the sun shades for the passenger windows (looked like a dog tore them up). Their response was "No we didn't know about that. It is not part of our law required inspection, so it isn't our problem". (Sales associate Patrick). I mean wow that's just sad. Way to back up your product!

Now its 1 month after buying the car and guess what? After replacing the tires and getting an alignment, now I have crazy amount of rattling, parts falling off the bottom of the car from hidden rust, shifting issues AND shaking from the engine? Took it to a honda dealership in madison, and they found the catalytic converters were rusted so bad they were rattling, and all engine mounts are shot, and the torque converter needs to be replaced........ Oh and of course engine mounts are EXPLICITLY NOT COVERED UNDER WARRANTY... There goes another $2000 out of my pocket........ When will this stop?

The car doesn't even have 60,000 miles on it, its carfax record was spotless, and I am just left with a huge hole in my wallet and a horrible taste in my mouth for this dealership, and Ewald as a whole.

Update 10/24: No good resolution has been offered by Ewald. They tried to offer me a $600 check to change my review. I wouldn't call that making this right in any way, I'd call that a bribe. I will not accept a few hundred dollars to cover up a problem that has costed me thousands. People deserve to know what has happened!

Also... To add icing to the huge messy cake that was this car purchase, I have now found that the van is beginning to stall due to a faulty power steering pump. Checked the fluid and it was BLACK. Tried flushing it, and it didn't change anything. Power steering pumps for these cars aren't cheap either, just like the engine mounts. Added...