AutoNation Ford Katy — Local services in Katy

Long story short this location: Ignores you when you show up to buy a car Ignores you after you buy a car and it has problems Takes 4 weeks to fix a Brand new Bronco, and can’t give a single ETA during the entire process Consistently says they’ll contact you and do not Returns the Bronco to you filthy after 4 weeks

Once they have your money it seems like you’re on your own.

The first time I went to AutoNation Ford Katy someone asked me how they could help and I said I was looking to buy a Bronco and he said oh cool just give me 5 minutes I’ll be right back out. And then I waited there for 20 minutes. I got tired of waiting and went to run an errand and came back like an hour later. This second time a salesman named Draeton (Drae) helps me out and I test drive a couple of Broncos and pick one I like, buy it, and at this point I would’ve given AutoNation a 4/5. Dock one star for whatever dude just ditched me earlier in the day.

After a couple of days I realize the connected features in the Bronco don’t work like they should, and I can’t connect it to anything. Well Drae had sent an email saying “Let me know if you have questions about your new Bronco” so I respond and ask about it. He doesn’t respond. I’m busy for a bit and circle back later and send a question again. Still no response. Maybe they don’t operate mainly on email but his email worked just fine when I needed to send documents to close on the car. Why send an email saying “Do you have questions” then ignore the response? So I call FordPass customer service and they do a couple of troubleshooting steps and determine it’s probably a bad modem and I need to take it to the dealer. I schedule a service appointment detailing the issue and Steven calls to tell me this issue usually takes 3-5 business days so don’t schedule it on Friday if I need it over the weekend. So I take it in on Monday, this is after I’ve had it 4 weeks and 3 weeks since my first ignored email to Drae about it. Steven hooks me up with a loaner and I’m on my way. That was 3 weeks ago, and they still think it will be another week, meaning when I get it back they’ll have had it as long as I did. It’s just ridiculous. Frustrated, I left a bad snarky review and they responded saying to call and the “General Manager” would like to talk to me. So I took them up on that and called and they said they’d leave a note for someone to call me back, and no one did. A day later I call back and instead of transferring me to the General Manager like they say they will in response to bad reviews they transfer me to Drae. Drae also said he’d call me back “in 15 minutes” on two occasions yesterday and did so neither time. Drae also had the nerve to say our situations are basically the same since “I have their car too”. Seems to not take into account the fact that I paid them for mine and it was defective at the point of sale. So today I call again because I just really want to speak to this General Manager like they say in their responses. Addi (I think) assures me they take these reviews seriously and I will get a call back. but, I did not. I think I’ll just wait on my Bronco now to be done after 4 weeks and hope to never deal with this location again.

Edit: I have been informed that when I talked to Drae a week ago and he said 3-5 more days he was lying or misinformed and they have not even gotten approval from Ford for the part yet.

Another edit: They finally fixed it and gave me an ETA of two more days to put it back together which was the first ETA I got during the 4 week process. The service department manager called me and told me he read my review but seemed to feel there was a disconnect because Steven told him everything was “going to plan”. I think it’s easy to claim everything is going to plan when you make zero commitments and have no plan. So I finally have the Bronco back. To top off this experience they gave returned the Bronco to me visibly dirty inside and out. After four weeks could not be bothered to vacuum and rinse off the dirt they left in it real quick before they...

This experience with y’all somehow managed to be bad in every aspect I came in with an expectation of a lack in customer service that is consistent with the AutoNation brand and somehow y’all managed to exceed my expectations in the worst way. I brought my vehicle in for a warning light only due to the expectation created by the advisor that it would be covered under powertrain warranty, he even said and I quote “if it’s not covered I’ll fight for you”. The vehicle was brought in for two things coming up on the dash a MIL wrench and a powertrain malfunction message. Once dropped off with zero time expectation from the advisor he then proceeded to go almost an entire week with no communication unless I initiated the request for an update multiple days after. Finally after an incredible 7 day diagnostic, which don’t get me wrong I understand a majority of that time the vehicle was not being worked on due to shop workload, however, there was zero communication from the advisor as to what was going on. The service experience was concluded with….wait for itttt “this repair is not covered under warranty”. Again not a big deal sure kind of frustrating that I was given an expectation that it would be covered and it took 7 days of not having my vehicle for them to tell me something that a 2 minute quick test and a search of a technical bulletin from Ford states. Again not a problem as I’m happy to do the work myself but just brought it in since I was under the impression it was covered by warranty. Now here’s where my problem starts the advisor has the audacity to say oh yeah there’s a diagnostic fee but I’ll try and waive that for you as if he’s doing me a favor by not charging me for something I was never quoted. Let me help you out, time and money expectations at time of write up it’s SERVICE 101 both of which were not provided. Low and behold I was not charged for the diagnostic fee so I guess that’s one point for AutoNation for doing something right. Upon pickup I was greeted by 3 additional messages. A 12 V battery message, hill start assist inoperative, and a shift selector malfunction message. On top of this the bolt access panel under the shifter was left off and the folding function on the shifter which was working before is not and now I have a vehicle that started its time with y’all with 4 total stored fault codes that now has 25 faults. Most of them being low voltage and I now have zero communication with the GSM and a blinking light on the shifter that stays on all the time and is most likely the reason that I am having to jump start my vehicle every morning until the new part comes in. I understand a technicians frustration of having to work on a vehicle and not getting diag time for it but instead of taking that frustration out on the vehicle and customer maybe take it out on the advisor that should spend a little more time updating customers and performing his duty as a service advisor and a little less time pretending to be a technician/warranty admin.

Update: Above was the review I left to their direct survey that they email out. Fast forward a few days and I got the correct part to replace directly from another ford dealer. Noticed it had a different trim and stitching than what the vehicle was returned to me with. I looked back at a picture my salesperson had sent me when the truck originally came in and it was the same trim and stitching as the part I ordered. So AutoNation returned the vehicle to me with a different shifter that clearly wasn’t even a new part and was faulty for the reasons above. After changing out the shifter myself with the new one everything is working fine minus the battery that is still dying after getting the vehicle back to them. I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS DEALER OR HOW ANY AUTONATION STORE IS STILL IN BUSINESS! I’ve tried to contact a manager and the advisor both of whom do not want to answer...

It started out positive with the transparent pricing but quickly turned into the most frustrating car buying experience I've had at any dealership. Not sure how, but I was never given any copies of my sales contract. I called the finance department multiple times across multiple days just asking to email me a copy. I never got a call back or email. I had to drive down there and have them print me a copy at their desk.

After buying the truck I noticed an oil leak in the first day and brought it back to get looked at. I had to call the service department multiple times for updates across multiple days as I was never given any. I had them make a new key fob for me and the price when completed came in $200 over what I was quoted in person and over the phone. I raised my concerns to the service manager onsite and he said he would take a look into it and make it right. I'm still waiting on that phone call back to "make it right".

When I went to pick up the truck, it had dried mud chunks all over it. It was obvious that the tech doing the road test took it mudding/off-roading during it. They didn't bother to wash it and make sure they delivered it back to me in the same condition I brought it to them.

When I finally got my truck home my entire tank of wiper fluid poured onto the driveway. The tech disconnected the wiper line and never connected it back again. I immediately texted the service agent but did not get a response. After the terrible experience with the service team, I researched the issue and just fixed the issue myself. The next morning, I finally got a response back from the service agent asking if it was fixed or it's still leaking. Definitely not the response I was hoping for, where he assumed I had just figured it out. I addressed my other frustrations about the above quote cost and the tech taking my truck off road. The response was to just drive back to the dealership and they would clean it for me, but no apologies for the mess or the extra time I need to take out of my day to let them fix the issue they created.

I absolutely love my truck, but every experience with this dealership (sales, service, financing) has been below average or terrible. It never felt like they cared about me at any point or considered the bad experience they were providing across the board. My dad worked for Ford for 15 years and he would be extremely disappointed to see this is the customer experience provided. And at no point has anyone reached out to acknowledge the bad experience, apologize, or try to make things right. If you're going spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a vehicle, you want to feel like you matter and that did not...