Square One Auto — Local services in Rahway

TLDR- Classic price bait-and-switch and sleazy sales tactics. Saying anything to justify the preinstalled add ons. Do yourself a favor and don’t go here period. Especially if you don’t know your stuff. If you do go- go with comps of similar cars, focus solely on the out the door price (don’t get sucked into monthly payment talk until you’re at the financing stage) and GET EVERY COUNTER OFFER IN WRITING and put them in order for ease of tracking them.

Better yet if the ad price is so tempting just use it as leverage with other used car dealers.

We went in because of the internet price- the actual price was almost $10,000 more after unadvertised “mandatory” add ons that they say are preinstalled in every vehicle, but not disclosed online or reflected in the advertised internet price and ridiculous dealer fees. Just sleazy from the start.

What you need to know: -dishonesty in advertising and then when you’re on site saying that they they “have to include theses mandatory add ons”: Appearance protection, Ally Theft DNA, and FlexProtect. “Mandatory add on” is an oxymoron- if it’s included in everything you sell then it’s not an add on and should be reflected in the advertised price. But something tells me “Every car has gps tracking installed” isn’t really a great ad line.

Add ons in order of annoyance: -FlexProtect is a gps tracker for you and law enforcement that they claim they have to include legally or else they are liable if your car gets stolen after you leave the lot. This is a lie and what they leave out (which I found out after) is that FlexProtect collects your data and sells it.

They said I can remove it myself because “they can’t remove it even if they wanted to because they don’t know where it is on the car”. Well then how am I going to remove it if you don’t even know where it is???

-Ally Protect is essentially “Beware Of Dog” stickers put on select areas of the car to deter chop shops. If removed they are detectable with uv light.

-Ally Appearance Protection is a coat they put on the exterior and interior to resist paint damage and staining.

In total these add $3,885 to the price they show online. Not including ridiculous dealer prep fees.

Practices at play: -the classic they’re taking a loss on the vehicle with their initial counter offer already.

-every answer to a question about the reason for something/why something is in place or done a certain way was started with some version of “we have to” or “it’s mandatory” in hopes that your brain associates it with “by law” or “oversight”.

-attempting to treat your trade in as a discount when calculating the out the door price. (Trade ins are down payments and an out the door is before down payments).

-After the manager got involved we realized their most current counter offer was higher than the original counter offer they came back with.

The manager went to discuss, came back and raised it EVEN higher after (they were being roped in for the “mandatory” add ons). Manager gave us a number $1.5k less than their initial price was and then said the lowest they can go is 2.1k lower than the initial price they gave at the start. The e initial count was $3k off!!! Apparently the sales person didn’t have the authority to give either counter offer (even though the sales rep ran the numbers by the real show runners). The manager even said she asked the owners to confirm.

The kicker is that after all of this- their. own. system honored an offer that the rep gave (and even went a bit lower) which was ultimately in line with what the car is worth based on market research.

My next step is ensuring this tracker is deactivated and removed.

Also who thinks it’s a great idea to put the info stickers on the front passenger side windshield!? It made test driving...

TLDR. They just want your money, don't waste your time.

In summary, my experience at this dealership left much to be desired. I initially visited to explore a particular car model and made it clear that I was not ready to make a purchase and was simply comparing options. Despite this, the salesperson repeatedly pushed me towards buying the car, despite my repeated statements of not being interested in an immediate purchase.

Furthermore, I found it perplexing that the salesperson requested my driver's license even though they hadn't offered a test drive, and I had only expressed a willingness to test drive the car if it was presented as an option. Notably, the option for a test drive wasn't presented to me during my visit, most likely because I had clearly indicated that I was not interested in making an immediate purchase. This situation raised questions about the necessity of requesting my license, given that I had no immediate plans to drive the car during my visit.

It's essential to highlight the importance of offering a test drive to individuals, whether they are potential buyers or simply exploring their options. Test drives provide valuable insights into a vehicle's performance, comfort, and suitability, and they should be extended to all visitors to ensure a comprehensive and informed decision-making process, regardless of their immediate purchase intentions.

When they finally returned with the car keys, I proceeded to examine the vehicle outside while the salesperson remained indoors, showing a distinct lack of interest in assisting me as a potential customer since I wasn't an immediate buyer.

After spending about five minutes alone in the car, I returned inside, only to find that the salesperson had started assisting other customers, leaving me feeling rather disregarded and disheartened. This experience was nothing short of disappointing, as it clearly demonstrated that the salesperson's sole focus was on securing a sale, even though I had clearly expressed my disinterest multiple times.

Consequently, I promptly returned the keys and left the dealership, deeply unsatisfied with the service received. I strongly recommend considering alternative dealerships where your needs and preferences as a customer are prioritized over the relentless pursuit of your money.

Just take your...

These people are thieves they are supposed to give me a refund and it has been a year and even the owner always lying saying the refund has been issue and when i call back and tell them it hasn’t they tell me they going to take care of it and that they are going to call me back and they never do avoid this dealer and the sales person which was Brian was literally begging me to write a good review right after I bought the car when I insisted i was going to write it after making sure everything was in good condition so i gave him 5 stars because he convinced me with a bunch of promises that so far has only been words thats why i always pray to God who sees everything so now i just lower it to a 1 star review due to some issues im currently having with them n i hope they keep their promises and solve it because i bought a really expensive car now my car is sitting at the dealer waiting to get fix so i started reading at the bad reviews and i go check my contract and guess what the same thing is happening to me i was hit with ridiculous fees and the listing price which is different than what i agreed on is like 10k more than the price I agreed and it doesn’t show the money they promise me to give me for my trade in just the money i put down so im just hoping this was a mistake from their end because i gave a trade in if not i will be taking this into legal matter i just hope i dont have to get there and is up to them this review goes back to 5 star again before i even knew what was going on and if that end up being a mistake from their end and depending on how long they going to take to fix my car i trust my God who is not going to let them play me and God is great that theres only one guy that is actually helping me that even went more n beyond to get me a loaner car because they were not going to give me one either even though i was basically taking my car to the dealer for repairs 4 days after i bought it and they promise to repair any issues under my 30 days warranty with them so im waiting to see whats going to happen im not going to say his name yet because i dont want to give credits until...