Pennington Ford — Local services in Newton

6/23/2021 PENNINGTON FORD NEWTON, IL CUSTOMER REVIEW

This is a 5-STAR Review for Pennington Ford in Newton Illinois relating to my experience as an internet purchaser of a used vehicle. Like folks in my small hometown in Western NY, the people in Newton soon proved to be hardworking and conducted most of their business with a handshake. It is entirely possible that Abe Lincoln based some of his famous stories on folks from Newton. Anyhow, I left Western NY in 1962 for college, California, Vietnam and projects that took me all over the country. Yet part of Western NY stayed with me. In 1950, I was six years old and there was a Ford dealer just down the street. My friends and I were what today are called, "free range kids." Occasionally I wandered over to the Ford Garage to help the mechanics. When it was time for lunch, mother called Mr. Sherburne and asked him to chase me home.....if I wasn't there, she might call neighbors down by the old Erie Canal where us boys used to chuck stones at frogs. Today I live near Pittsburgh PA----520 miles from Newton, and in the last 26 years I have put a lot of miles on minivans. The last was a 2010 Chrysler Town & Country that I had purchased from the Chrysler Executive Fleet in 2012---and which now was on the verge of 300,000 miles. I had planned to drive it forever, but it was beginning to show some rust in the wheel wells from northern winters, and I was keeping watch on the oil dipstick. Then my brother-in-law showed up with a new Lincoln, and other friends started sporting new cars. Thus I decided to look for a 2016 Chrysler with a factory "Tow Prep Group" (load leveling suspension / auxiliary transmission & oil coolers....) similar to the set-up on my 2010. After several weeks of periodic internet search, the right 2016 T&C (with only 119k miles) popped up at Pennington Ford. And after several telephone / text discussions and negotiations, we struck an agreement. Just before shoving off for Illinois, I realized I had forgotten to ask about spare keys --- Al Cross, Pennington Sales Manager took care of it, and also arranged for the van to put on a lift so I could take a close look at the undercarriage. Perhaps a good thing since it needed a spare tire. (The Load Leveling Suspension and brakes were in great shape.) Al took care of a spare tire.

Upon departure, my shotgun driver realized the passenger seat-belt needed repair / replacement --- so Al had one shipped to my home near Pittsburgh. We visited my grandchildren in Indiana for a couple of days, then continued East on the scenic back roads of Ohio. Near Mt. Vernon OH, we had a transmission issue --- which again was resolved quickly by Pennington, even though the van was nearly 450 miles distant. This has been a rather long narrative --- but I am compelled to say "Thank You" to all the nice folks at Pennington who made me feel right at home --- like I was back home at Sherburne Ford in Palmyra...

I am so furious with this place. I am extremely respectful and never ever get snippy but I definitely lost my cool with this place. I had found an ad on carfox stating that they had a truck I desperately wanted for a little over $9,000 and they could finance it too for the perfect price a month. I have been looking for a decent prices truck and a decent truck for so long. I don't make much but this was perfect. I sold my previous car and even had enough to put the extra down payment on it. And I explained it to whoever originally took my call. I also explained I lived 11 hours away so I needed to have pre-approval before even heading that way. Every other dealership that I have went through only took 10-20 min to get back to me so I was respectful and I waited for a call back. A little after 2 hours I called back to see what was taking so long and they told me they didn't know how long it would take. I asked a few more questions and waited till the next day. I went to work and it was almost 12 and I know most companies go off to lunch so I called again to make sure I didn't catch them at a bad time. I was told Jason the head of sales would call me back. Needless to say 6 and a half hours had passed and I found that I was looking at cars. Yo give this place a final chance I called again. I was met on the phone by Jason and gave him the short explanation that I had been waiting for the whole day for them to tell me if I was approved or not. He responded with a snippy tone stating now you listen here. Well escuse me Jason but you better learn some manners. That's no way to speak to a customer expecially when they gave you their trust enough to give you their ssn and dob. I hope you are reading this and I hope you understand you need tl learn some manners. Maybe that's why your company has such a low rating and you've been called out on your bad attitude by multiple reviews. Oh btw, here is the kicker for what you couldn't approve not one hour later I got approved for a 2016 for $17,000, easy and was approved before that for a $30,000 truck as well. That how I know you didn't even bother checking...

First off, I want to say that I do not like leaving bad reviews for any business so I have to have a pretty bad experience before I will do so. I was looking to buy a new Ford Bronco Sport and contacted this place about one listed on their website. The salesman told me the vehicle was not at the location listed on the website, but stated that he could get the vehicle there from 2.5 hours away, and wanted to know when I wanted to see it. I explained that I was shopping and planned to buy "today" and had already been to another local dealership that had 4 on their lot for sale, but I liked the color of the one on their website so I wanted to see it before I made my decision/purchase. The salesman then asked me "Well, did they bother to tell you how much over sticker they are asking for the Bronco?" I told him that they were not asking over sticker price, and he acted as if he did not believe me. Then he had the audacity to ask me what dealership has them, stating "I'm going to go buy all 4 of them and sell them on my lot because people were paying $10-20k over sticker for those vehicles". Needless to say, I did not purchase a vehicle from this dealership, nor will I EVER in the future. I did buy a brand new Ford Bronco Sport that day from an awesome dealership that did not take advantage of me, and wants to be sure I come back to them for all my vehicle purchases in the future. Smart businesses see the need for customers to walk away smiling, and telling others of their awesome experience! Thanks Faulkner Automotive, for allowing me to tell this place to take a long walk off...