John Sauder Chevrolet of Ephrata — Local services in West Earl Township

On January 25th, 2018 I was at John Sauder Chevrolet of Ephrata, Pennsylvania to purchase a vehicle from John "JD" Dowling. He showed me a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am with a sticker price of $6000.00. I purchased the vehicle at close to the full asking price. On the sales agreement the salesman added the addition of selling me protection stickers at the rate of $200.00. He did not explain to me what they were or ask if I wanted them. Recently I checked the Kelly blue book value of the car. According to that, the maximum amount that should be charged for this car is $2500.00. I paid almost 6 thousand dollars and essentially purchased worthless stickers for an additional $200.00. Please do not EVER do business here, with this salesman or this dealership. In response to both this and a post on the dealership's Facebook page, the dealership contacted me on Friday, February 16th. During the ensuring conversation I was given two radically different figures as to what profit they made on the vehicle, which tells me, that the Sales Manager I spoke to was obviously not being honest, as both figures could not be correct. By the end of the conversation I was offered 200 dollars for the sticker scam, but was told that as far as the overpricing of the vehicle, that it was buyer beware, and they were comfortable selling a vehicle at as high a price as any fool was willing to pay.

Also during the previous conversation, it was offered to me to sell the car back to the dealership at a 1000 dollar loss. After my above post, that offer has since been "respectfully rescinded". It was also stated during that conversation that the offer had been generous at that amount. If over a quarter of the purchase price lost was a generous offer, then the mark up when sold was exorbitant. From the original salesman, to the sales manager with whom I have since spoken repeatedly, to the owner of the dealership with whom he checked, this experience has made me untrusting of any car salespeople but especially of...

I was uncharacteristically disappointed with my experience. when I called to schedule my 2018 Cruze, I relayed to the service department the two check engine codes I was getting, one of which was an EVAP system code. I inquired if EVAP system repairs were covered by the Federal Emissions Warranty. I was told they were and that other code might be as well. When I received a call to outline the necessary repairs, I was told that EVAP system repairs were only covered under the 3 year warranty and were no longer eligible and that the other repair was not covered. It was obvious that my car was beyond that age when I scheduled and I was mislead. Additionally, after changing the EVAP vent solenoid , the service department indicated the problem was solved. However, when my wife drove to work the next day, the check engine light came on with the same code. I think it's very likely the technician did not run the car enough for the registers to reset. so the repair and expense I incurred did not resolve the problem.

I understand dealership wage rates are higher for some reasonable reasons, and that they have access to tools, capacity, and information other garages do not. I will happily pay those rates when necessary. However, I would not have chosen a dealership for this repair if I was not mislead into believing it was covered under the warranty. Additionally, the repair I paid for did not resolve the problem - and I suspect, but cannot prove, that they didn't adequately run the vehicle to see if the code was resolved.

I will have the problem fixed at...

I brought my new vehicle in for its first oil change around 360 miles per a break in point mid April and asked for tire pressure to be adjusted down from factory because they were all too high. Recommended is 34psi front 31psi rear. I picked up the car after I was done work after dealership hours. First thing I noticed is they “adjusted” my psi and balanced them all out at 46psi…this is considered optimal level to them? A few days later I paid a visit to my shop for another service and I was told the oil filter currently installed was still what came from factory and also no signs of the oil even being changed which that part was just a best guess by them considering the low mileage on the vehicle and it being hard to tell. But considering the simple tire pressure thing and the oil filter discovery, why would the oil bother to be changed? This was used as my first “freebie” service provided by Chevy which makes it even easier to believe that nothing was done. The Chevy app also records any instances of the vehicle being on and moving in a trip tracker which records it if the car moves at least 0.01miles which is well below the total moving it would’ve required from lot to garage and back to lot. There were no recorded trips at all between the time I dropped it off and picked it up. The oil change is easy to get away with on a fresh vehicle, but the tire pressure thing? It’s like a bonus middle finger if I ever saw one. Most likely won’t be taking my vehicle here for ANY future service if something this simple gets...