Dave Smith Motors Chevrolet GMC — Local services in Kellogg

Wow, what an unscrupulous organization!

If you are purchasing a vehicle from Dave Smith Motors DO NOT work with Danielle in sales, as she does not know anything about the vehicles she is attempting to sell, seriously! My expectation for purchasing a $60K vehicle is that the person selling the item is competent and has a high degree of understanding of the product. That is definitely not the case with Danielle.

I attempted to purchase a Jeep Gladiator from Dave Smith Motors and unfortunately Danielle was assigned as the salesperson. I sent Danielle my exact specifications and told her since I was unable to find these exact details it would probably be a custom order. She told me there was a Gladiator on the way that had everything I wanted except for a few items that they could arrange for once it arrived. At this point unfortunately, I didn’t know that Danielle was lacking in basic knowledge of the vehicle. I made arrangements to travel (flights, hotel, etc) to Kellogg, Idaho as I am not local. As the date grew near, there were certain statements made by Danielle that caused me concern, as I verified some of the information, my worst fears were realized, this vehicle did not have the items expected and Danielle didn’t even know these items were possible on the vehicle. I had now spent almost four weeks of time, which could have been utilized on the special order which takes eight to ten weeks.

Danielle realized her mistake and even texted me an apology; "I got your message I just reprinted your list and I am going to go on our ordering site for Chrysler and build this and send you a copy and then call you to discuss. I really apologize this was totally my oversight. It was almost perfect but I do agree that if you are going to spend this kind of money it should be exactly what you want. Thank you!".

After this I decided I was too frustrated to deal with Danielle going forward and asked for my deposit back, she and Dave Smith Motors refused.

You may want to avoid Dave Smith Motors, but you definitely want to...

My problems with my experience are primarily related to my salesman. If you are shopping for a car and your salesmen introduces himself as David, I highly recommend you request a different salesmen, because all the other people I interacted with seemed awesome. I don't want to take the time to fully explain every problem, but he mislead me about how quickly they would be able to get a shuttle to take me to the lot. Then he missed multiple calls when I tried to follow up. I eventually got a hold of another salesman who said he could get me there by 2, but apparently David scared him off to save his own commission even though David couldn't pick me up until 8.

He also didn't send the car I was going to get over to get detailed that day so I had to wait several hours for it to get detailed, even though I had stressed how important it was that I get on the road quickly where he had already cost me a day.

David also failed to tell me it had a check engine light on, that it had a cracked windshield (which the photos had been taken from careful angles to avoid), and after I bought it I found out that it IMMEDIATELY needed an oil change. I took it to a Jiffy Lube the next day only to find out that they couldn't change the oil because the oil drain plug was stripped, the oil pan gasket needed replaced, and there was a leak in the main transmission plug.

Edit: I reduced this to one star after being contacted by a manager and basically being told "we gave you a great deal on this car already, so there is nothing we can do." (For information purposes, KBB says it is worth 5500, they gave it to me for 5150. The problems are going to cost 750-1000 to fix, and that's assuming the mechanic doesn't find any more problems.)

These guys are predators who don't care about their customers, only about their commissions. Avoid them...

Great purchase experience and support after 5 years. I purchased a RAM ProMaster van late 2018. In 2024, Chandler D. was super helpful in providing documents needed for an appraisal. I felt comfortable calling Dave Smith to ask for help because of the good experience I had purchasing the van. Other dealerships I've bought from - I would not not even bother contacting to ask. 5 years ago, I had my only positive car buying experience. It was at Dave Smith. I had given up on the local Litha dealership in Missoula after they did a bait-n-switch on a test drive and then refused to give me 24 hrs to review all documents for what I would be buying. At Dave Smith, I called and said, "I want to show up and hand you a check and you hand me the keys. Anything you need signed has to be given to me to review before I drive to Kellogg." They agreed and followed through. I did need to work with the salesperson to meet all the requirements remotely, but Stephanie L. and her manager made it happen quite painlessly. I'm weary that a good review of a car dealership could somehow jinx my positive experience, so I'll constructively mention some items to improve. 1.The after sale customer survey: Dave Smith does pressure sales people to get good marks on the survey. That's a good thing. However, repeatedly asking me to complete a survey before the car registration is processed/finalized is out of place. The registration went OK, but it was the longest I ever waited for registration - all the while being asked to say "Everything is OK". If registration is messed up, it will be a nightmare. 2. The $500 down payment - I didn't have problems with mine, but I've seen shenanigans around dealership down payments before. All in all, when I need to buy my next car, I will be going...