Don't go to Brickell Honda unless you want to get the rudest treatment you have ever seen!
I was looking to replace my car that had been in a wreck with a newer Honda Accord. So I saw an advertisement for Brickell Honda that basically stated that they were the lowest priced and best service Honda dealer in Miami Florida. So I decided to give them a shot and visit their car dealership.
So I walked around a lot looking at the new Honda Accords and other vehicles when I was approached by a salesperson. I told him that I wanted to test drive a blue Honda Accord that I pointed to. He told me that I had to come in the building first and that he would be glad to let me test drive any vehicle I wanted. So I followed him into the building.
He had me sit down at a table and told me he’d be right back. When he came back he put a credit application in front of me and told me to fill it out. I told him I wanted to test drive the vehicle to make sure it was the one that I wanted and that I liked it. He said it was company policy in case an accident were to occur that a credit application be on file along with a copy of the drivers license for the person test driving the vehicle.
I said I had never heard of this policy. I knew that in the past several car dealers had wanted to make photocopies of my drivers license and that was the standard policy before you went on a test drive, but I’d never heard of having to fill out a credit application in order to take a test drive. At this point he wasn’t even nice. He said to me that until I filled it out there would be no test drives.
So I filled out the credit application and gave it to him. He looked it over and scribbled something on it. Only later did I find out what that was. In the section where it asked for monthly income I had written $1500 per month and he creatively turned the 1 into a 4. So it no longer stated that I made $1500 month, instead it stated that I made $4500 per month which was far from the truth – I wish my current job paid $4500 a month that would be nice.
He then whisked me into an office with a very hard selling finance manager. The finance manager told me that with my credit it was going to be very hard for them to put me into a car. I told him I don’t see how. He pulled out my credit report and it had all these red markings and circling all over the place. It looked like a test you got back in high school with a grade of 23 on it out of 100. But what he did know was I had already pulled my credit with the score online and knew I had a 720 credit score which qualifies me for the best rates out there.
He went on and on about red marked areas he had circled and drawn all over the credit report trying to get me to bite on his argument that I have bad credit and that I would be hard to get financed and needed to put some serious cash down. I told him first of all I do not talk about my credit now and how did they know I didn’t want to pay cash for the vehicle? I still hadn’t even test driven it yet let alone wanted to buy it and finish the purchase right now.
He didn’t change his argument and kept trying to push the fact that I had bad credit. So I pulled out the credit report I had pulled online and showed him what my credit score was. He got angry with that and told me it was for a credit bureau that they do not use. I asked him what credit bureau they use and he would not tell me. He tried to avoid that question. So I showed him on my credit report that I had pulled that it was for all three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Trans Union) and that my credit was fine and I had a 720 credit score which according to respectable websites like Edmunds.com qualified me for all the best rates out there.
I then demanded that I get a test drive of the vehicle because I would not buy it or sign anything until I had driven and determined that it’s the vehicle that I wanted to buy. At that he stormed out of the office and never came back in. Nor did the salesperson come to get me or try and take me on the test drive that I had asked to go on probably an hour before this. So I waited for quite a while and then I just got up and walked out of the store and all I got was dirty glares from the sales staff at Brickell Honda.
I got in my car and left and vowed never to return to that car dealer ever again. I thought car dealers were in the business of giving test drives in trying to create a persona of great customer service before, during and after the sale. I guess I was very wrong at Brickell Honda. I have never had a worse car buying experience then I had there that day. I believe what happened there was they saw me as a vulnerable woman and were bent on taking advantage of me to make a huge profit. I also found out later that what their salesperson had done by altering the monthly income I had put on the credit application was a federal offense and illegal.
If I were you and you were looking for a Honda or any other type of car or truck I would definitely steer as far way as possible from Brickell Honda. There are several other Honda dealers in the Miami area and I’m sure none of them could be half as bad as Brickell Honda.
I am one of the owners of the dealership and I truly apologize for what happened. I would love the opportunity to talk to you in order to correct this from happening again. Feel free to reach me on my cell phone 305-951-7408. Alex
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Brickell has some really sleazy salespeople. I went there once and the guy lied to me along with the sales manager and said they don’t negotiate on new or used car prices. When I told them that other dealers did they said that was a lie and that no one did this. They are liars and were trying to make a huge profit off me. I went across town to a car dealer where I was treated much more fairly and got a deal where I paid around $4,000 less for the exact same new car! My advice is go elsewhere.
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I’ve decided to use this in my essay on unethical company activity
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Brickell Honda sucks. They will rip you off if given the chance. They are not looking for longterm customer relationships. They just want to squeeze every last penny out of you!
I went there with my sister and they tried to rip us off, lied to us, etc… We went elsewhere and got far more car for our money.
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Thank you for this great information. I thinK I will take my business some where else!!!!
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Brickell Honda sucks. They are racist and treated me like dirt all because I am black. I think the NAACP should look into them and sue their asses off! I am an American citizen and just because I am black does not mean they should treat me worse and charge me more money to purchase a car! I will not go back to Brickell Honda ever again and I recommend to all my black brothers out there that they do the same.
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Brickell Honda is racist and sucks.
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I think it comes down to the sales person. The best car buying experience I had was at Brickell. I got a great deal on a new Civic. The salesperson was ridiculously patient while I test drove 6 vehicles and inspected every nook and cranny. I even financed through Honda as they matched the lowest rate I had received from my military credit union.
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Brickell Honda sucks. They are racist and want far too much money for their cars. It’s a complete ripoff and they are rude as hell on top of that!
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Brickell Honda is a very sleazy car dealership – I buy my cars elsewhere and advise you to do the same.
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