Downtown Auto Center
reviews and complaints

This business is ran by HORRIBLE human beings, the type that make the world a worse place.

In my entire life, I have never come away from a transaction feeling as violated, then after purchasing a car from Downtown Toyota. I came in to look at a car on hoping to get the 0% interest rate that was advertised. The sales person convinced me to try a used 2019 Corolla, which I was interested but wanted to figure how much it would cost. He used aggressive sales tactics and bullied me into agreeing to some deal. When I repeatedly asked to see the numbers in a written form, I was refused. I was also refused a document that listed the fees and payments by the finance person. Furthermore, the most egregious part of the transaction was that I was not allowed to see the contract before signing it, which is highly fraudulent. I later learned that I signed the contract electronically without ever being told it was the contract or given the option of viewing it. They purposely tricked me into signing the contract without looking at it. Had I viewed the contract, I would have learned that I was financing $25,000 instead of the $19,000 that was verbally told to me. I also would have saw that the extended warranty that was supposed to be included in the purchase price was also costing me extra. I revisited the dealership to speak with the General Manager to try to come to some resolution about the way I was treated. I was met with contempt by the Sales Manager. He told me that I would not be allowed to speak with General Manager. He was extremely condescending towards me and my husband who was on the phone. Run far far away from this dealership.

On February 14, I purchased a 2018 Porsche Panamera from Downtown Toyota of Oakland. When I purchased the vehicle lojack was installed in the vehicle. I asked the finance manager for the price and he said $1400. I told the manager I was not interested and asked if he can remove it. The Finance manager told me no because that was Toyota's policy. I contacted an attorney to see if that is true. I was told that, they can not make you purchase the lojack. I went back to the Finance Manager a few days later and he refused to remove the price of the lojack. I'm requesting the recission of the lojack cost to be refunded.

On February 16th I leased a new Subaru Outback from Downtown Subaru Oakland, to have a reliable, safe, brand new car experience. I have had nothing but issues for OVER TWO MONTHS while paying to lease a brand new vehicle. Since our months-long conversation has gone nowhere, I tried another avenue in reaching the dealership directly last week. They were responsive initially, and I was hopeful for a resolution. I took my car in immediately on April 19. However, its now been over a week and Ive not heard back regarding my vehicle from the dealer whatsoever. It will be three months of me not having a fully operational and safe vehicle. I am requesting the vehicle be fixed or replaced ASAP.

On 2/28 I went to this dealership with a pre-approved loan. They lied to me saying multiple thousands of dollars worth of add-ons to the car was mandatory to purchase the car. They lied saying they couldn't use my bank then presented me with a high interest rate. They agreed to reduce the interest rate and take 3000 dollars off the sticker price. The finance manager then had me sign a finance contract using an E-pad without telling me what I was signing or presenting me with the contract before hand to read prior to signing. The 3000 dollar sticker price deduction was not put in the finance agreement. If I was given the opportunity to read the contract, I would have read the last page and negotiated accordingly. I was the sticker price modified and the APR modified

I have been searching for a vehicle to purchase and found a Toyota Yaris from this dealership. The price was listed for $13,608. After contacting the dealer and wasting time trying to organize the purchase, I was directed to an outside salesman who went along with my call. Then when we started discussing price, I told him the price they had it listed for after the $1000 incentive was perfect. He then started saying that there was much more to the price including an already installed anti-theft system and several other rices not disclosed. I have photo evidence of the previous price which after this incident the price was relisted for higher. You can still look at the price history of the vehicle and see an even lower price they were using to bait potential customers in.

This dealership is fraudulent and misleading, I was promised vip pricing way below online prices. Needless to sat they say anything and everything to get you down to the dealership. When I got to the dealership the staff was very rude and unprofessional Also unfriendly, I was basically told by *** the sales manager, our pricing is our pricing there is no VIP pricing Basically they were trying to tell me to bend over, I drove over 1 hr each way to get to this dealership, I asked to speak to the general manger and they kept bringing out *** the so called sales manager. THIS DEALERSHIP IS HORRIBLE, THEY ARE CROOKS AND MISLEADING.I would not go back if they were the last dealership on earth. Apparently they dont value peoples time or money. I am also filling a complaint with Toyota

Quoted $209.00 for computer diagnostic due to my vehicle "check engine" on. When I asked why so expensive, was told if repairs were needed, this money would go towards repair cost. One hour later, called me, said my o2 sensor needed replacing, quoted me $390.00 parts and labor to repair.My understanding was $390.00 INCLUDED the original $209.00, meaning my total would be $390.00 plus tax.I was charged $418.00 labor, plus $166.08 for 1 of the 2 O2 sensors in my car, totaling $584.08. Tax was not added. Labor rate is not listed, nor is the amount of time spent diagnosing, repairing, and test driving my car. There is no way it took over an hour and a half to do this. I've attempted to speak with the service manager 3 times, and asked twice what this shop charges for labor per hour. No answer, no call back.

I purchased a "Service Agreement" with these folks when I bought my 2018 Subaru Outback. I have since moved to the east coast and was looking to have my money for such refunded so I could purchase a new service agreement with a Subaru dealership near where I currently live. The service agreements are not transferable which is why I was doing such. I have called numerous times to speak with someone in the finance department regarding my refund, I have yet to speak to an actual person there. Nobody has returned my calls, and in fact, I have left several messages with folks who work on the sales side(because nobody in finance would answer/respond) of things in hopes that a manager or anyone would call me back to assist and please provide some answers. I basically feel as though I've been robbed of $2,200. Thank You

On May-10,2021, 2018 Toyota Rav4 I completed the sales contract and came outside to pickup the car and I asked the Sales Rep. where is the Owners Manual, he said it was in the Glove box. I looked into the Glove box and there was none & the Rep. said well you have to go online. Then I asked where are the keys because I observed only one key was attached to the key ring. The Sales Rep. walked away and the Mechanic who was installing Temporary Plates said well that's the only key.Next day I spoke to the sales Manager about it because the Car was missing standard equipment that should have come with the car. He said sorry but this is a use Car, I wish they were upfront with what was missing on the car or I would never have purchased the car. The one key that came with the Car I discovered was actually bent, but they didn't care to at least address such an Important issue. They were only concern about selling me Nitrogen inside of the Tires for $444 ( which is free at *** & sell etc.

SR 1-[protected] - On 2/23, I was given the diagnosis of my car needing a new engine at a cost of $11,682, from ***, *** I did not like the diagnosis. He gave me the number of the customer advocacy department to ask for help. A reimbursement offer of $1069.10 was given on 4/15 from ***, the 3rd member of the Customer ***. The 1st agent, ***, offered no assistance. The 2nd agent, ***, offered $1000 off the cost of a new engine. I had asked for help on 2/23. All these agents ignored the facts of my experience and cited the car being out of warranty. I repeatedly reminded them that this issue had nothing to do with a warranty and everything to do with the negligence of the dealer repair center. The car has an oil consumption issue that the service center could not solve. They are the the official service center of the car. Who else would know better how to fix the car?

I purchased a car and paid in full with cash, and was then talked into purchasing a *** Agreement for 3 years to the amount of $2,595.00 at $66 per month payments. The dealership then put in an extra $1994.00 and made the financing for 6 years. They kept the monthly payments at $66 per month, which is how they were able to sneak past the extra amount. I received NO extra coverage or warranty for this extra cost, but the dealership has used this financing to list themselves as the lien holders of the car, when the service agreement contract shows the car is paid in full, cash, with no lien holder. When I went to the dealership in person, they admitted to doing this and trying to get more money out of me. But they also said they would not do anything to rectify the issue, because they were able to get the documents signed and thats all they care about. They then began yelling at me and threatening me until I left. I am too afraid to go back in person, but I cannot pay $4,200 when I only agreed to a $2,595 service agreement. I am in fear of these people because of how they treated me, and I am concerned about having to pay an amount to which I did not knowingly agree to pay.

I am writing for my father, ***, as he does not speak English very well. He purchased a Toyota Tacoma 2021 from the Downtown Toyota of Oakland dealership on 1/31. We do not believe the transaction was fair nor transparent and would like the sales contract amended. This transaction was handled by the salesperson, ***, and financial manager, ***. Details of the encounter are as below:*** and my father negotiated an out-of-the-door price of $480/month after trade-in with an APR of 2.9%. After an agreement was reached, he was transferred to *** and offered an add-on maintenance program, which would increase the monthly payments to $499.80/month with a term of *** mind as there was no visualization of the sales contract during the signing process, and he trusted that it would align with what was verbally communicated.However, after receiving the written sales contract on 2/5, we noticed that the details turned out to be remarkably different. We were shocked to see that our payments would be $499.80/month for 96 months with an APR of ***%. Besides the purchase price of the vehicle and the added-on maintenance program, weve now discovered that multiple add ons have been included that were NOT discussed or ever mentioned. This includes:? $1095 for a Paint Protection Film Warranty ? $1995 for Appearance Protection Warranty ? $1495 for Lojack ? $2600 for New Vehicle Maintenance Wrap Plan - I was led to believe this was the Toyota Care plan but now see this is not the case.In short, this is nowhere near what was agreed to and from my point of view, this dealership essentially took advantage of someone who is both older and is not fluent in English. He specifically mentioned that everything was signed on a screen where he was not shown the full documents, given time to review each document, or explained what each document entailed. On a less than $31K vehicle, these representatives illegally and unethically maneuvered and coerced him into adding over $7K in warranties and an additional $9K in finance charges. He walked away from this dealership thinking he would be paying $30K in total ($500x60 months) but was horrified to discover it was actually $48K in total ($500 x 96). Its appalling that something like this would ever take place but its especially disappointing that this took place during current times where many are just living month to month.

Hi, purchased an automobile. Ive good credit not bad & not in the awesome category, but "Good Credit "(Toyota CH-R 2020) 11/17 Tuesday Financer Manager *** Assisted, couldn't take no to the offering *** I didn't need, couldnt take No for answer filled & signed the contract left in believing all was finalised. Confirming my first car payment would be in January . I felt good in building more credit.11/23 Monday received a text ***: "Hi ***, this is the finance manager from Downtoyota. Can you please contact me at your earliest convenience regarding your recent purchase, Thank you" Please keep in mind the following:A dealership will push for a higher down payment for one of three reasons:1.A larger down payment is required due to the customer having fair. The bank will only loan you a certain amount of money, and in order to make up for the rest of the total price, a down payment will be required.2.The salesman makes a commission off of a % of your down payment. So he is pushing for a higher down payment so he can make more money on the deal.3.They are looking for leverage to lower your monthly payment so the deal looks more attractive. If you told them up front your budget is $480/m, the dealer may see the only way to get you there is for you to put x amount of money down.I called, was greeted with the news that I need to add more money to the down payment about 750. to ***. I stated that I heard many stories in how auto *** where horrible & this was turning into one of those, it was my perspective & opinion I couldn't do it, I exhausted my resources that I wanted to spend. *** stated that *** have no *** persisted I come into the dealership during my work hours which could cost me my job which we are trying to keep during these times. I stated I couldn't but I could on the following Sunday he then demanded with a harsh tone turning into being yelled at demanding I come in or he will repo the car, he will ruin my credit & hung up on me. That was a horrible *** a bully move to ruin someones finance within their lives especially during this time (Covid) where I have been very compliant & accommodating. I feel very overwhelmed, scared, & filled with uncertainty. I like for them to honour the deal that was originally given & for the Finance Manager *** to apologise for being a bully & threatening other, which is unacceptable.*** Sales Manager Reached out in wanting to assist he stating he will get back to me at 7:30PM 11/23 Monday

I have Toyota Prius 2019. Called in advance and made appointment for oil change via phone with a service center representative - Tuesday, September 29th at 11:55am. When I brought my car, I was told that there are no appointment and *** in line and it should be ready in a couple of hours (mind you, it's just a simple *** miles oil change). When I came back in two hours, they said it's going to be another hour. I waited another our and inquired again - they told me it could be one more hour (!). I had scheduled a business meeting that I was unable to attend due to almost 4 hour oil change! On top of that, after 4 hours they called me to tell that oil has been changed, but that they found a nail in a tire and it is not repairable. I asked which tire it was, the person who was assisting me, ***, was unable to tell me which tire. I asked how much would cost a new tire, she said $150. Very hesitantly I agreed on the tire being replaced. She told me it's going to be ready in 20 min. It was another 35 min. At that point I was already exhausted and anxious to leave - I asked her to show me which tire as replaced, she did - Left Rear. I asked to show me the tire with a nail, she said she has no access to it (!). After she calculated the fee, she said I owe $190.43 - for one tire! I paid and left. When I got home, I told my room mate about what happened. He looked at the car and to our surprise discovered, that the *** WITH THE *** WAS STILL THERE! THEY REPLACED AND THREW AWAY A COMPLETELY FINE ***. I immediately called back Toyota Service, nobody picked a phone. I wrote an email through 'contact us' - it has been almost a week and nobody has replied to it. I did call them again on Friday and explained to the service representative the situation, asked to talk to ***, who was assisting me, was placed on hold for 15 min, told she is not available. I asked to speak to a manager at which point the person on the other end of the line hung up on me. I went to *** Toyota Service on Friday, October 2nd, told them about my situation. They told me the tire with the mail is repairable (contrary to what Downtown Oakland Toyota service told me), but that they are completely booked up. I went to repair a tire elsewhere in *** and paid $25 for the patch. I am furious, that Downtown Oakland Toyota forced me to replace a completely fine tire - 1 tire! for almost $200 for NO REASON! They did not even fix the problem. i had to fix it elsewhere and pay extra $25. I now lost $215.43, when i could have cost me only $25. I am a classical orchestral violinist, one of the professions that was hit hard by coronavirus and am unemployed since March. i receive food stamps and am on Medical. I really did not have extra $190.43 to throw away+the terrible service from a respectable company.

We purchased a Toyota RAV4 from Downtown Auto Center (dba Downtown Toyota of Oakland) on July 17. In connection with that transaction we traded in our then-current vehicle. Numerous problems have arisen, which are summarized below:-We requested to purchase the car with a check (pay in cash) for the full purchase price. We expressly told the dealership we did not want to take out a loan. They said they would accommodate that request. They gave us a contract they claimed was for the full purchase of the car by check and assured us it was a contract for full purchase and not a purchase by loan, notwithstanding what the agreement stated. We relied on their statements and signed. We signed a check paying the full amount. That check was made out to the dealership, not to Toyota's financing affiliate. They cashed the check in full. We later learned the agreement was for a loan in violation of our request and contrary to their assertions to us throughout the process.-We agreed on a price for the car, all in except with respect to taxes and government fees. When we asked for a copy of the terms as they were negotiated, the dealership refused to let us have a copy. They wrote up a contract that included $606 in additional fees in clear contrast to the terms to which all parties had agreed.-They did not give us legally-mandated disclosures, in violation of *** Vehicle Code Section 11713.6(a). Therefore, we were not presented with this form to sign nor given a copy of the signed disclosure per CVC Section 11713.6(c).-They still have not transferred title of the new car to us, in violation of *** Vehicle Code Section 5753(c)(1); it has been 20 business days since the dealership received full payment for the new vehicle from us. Toyota Motor Credit is listed as the lienholder on the new car. Even if there were a valid loan to us for the car, it would have been paid in full immediately on 7/17 so the title should be in our name. We also have reason to believe they have since resold our trade in but have not transferred title, such that we are still on file with the *** as the legal owner of the car. This is in violation of *** Vehicle Code Section 5900(a). Per the terms of our contract with them, they agreed to transfer both. We paid them $30 and $293 (to public officials) for a total of $329 to handle these transfers. Online Vehicle History Reports taken from the CA *** website on the evening of 8/14 confirm that we are still listed as the owner of the previous car as well as that we do not yet own the new car.-They made us wait a couple hours to finish up the paperwork while our two-year old child was screaming from hunger and exhaustion. We requested to finish paperwork in morning, including putting down a deposit that night to hold the car, but they refused. They knew we were unduly distracted and used it to slip terms not agreed to between us and them into the contract.

My wife and I purchased a new 2020 Toyota Camry SE Hybrid from this dealership back on the first week of October . The finance manager, *** was not transparent with us on the interest rate and finance of the car. He didn't tell us what interest rate we were getting after we had signed for the loan. Had we known that my wife's locked credit was affecting the interest rate we were getting, we could have just put the car loan under my name but *** did not want us to know that information. We were also pressured into getting an extended warranty that we didn't need. When we tried to cancel the warranty, *** was not helpful in telling us what we needed to do to cancel the extended warranties. There were multiple calls and texts with *** to resolve this but when I pointed out to *** that he was not transparent with on the details of the loan, he got mad and threathened us that he was going to get their attorneys involved if we didn't get my wife's credit cleared and if we wanted to go down this road, it was not going to be good for us. He then told me to call him anymore about our loan. i told him that this was a mess that could have been avoided if we would have just put the loan under my name. I know now why he didn't want to do that because we would have received a lower interest rate for the loan. After *** told me to not contact him anymore, I sent an email to General Manager, *** to let him know about our situation with the loan and with ***. *** responded to my email by telling me that I lied about the issues with the loan and with ***. *** never call to speak with me about the issues that I was dealing with his dealership. They made it very difficult to cancel my extended warranties. I asked *** to provide my proof that they had sent the paper work to Toyota *** Services to cancel my warranty and he did not provide me any copy of the paper work or proof that this was done. He told me that his email to me that they submitted the paper work for the warranty cancellation was proof that it was done. To make matters worse, *** enter the wrong home address for all of the loan paper work and *** registration. So we never received our *** registration, tags and plates. We finally received a call from their title and warranty staff, *** in November that the dealership had the wrong address on all of paper work and the *** registration, plates and tags were sent to their dealership. I told *** that we didn't see any of the paper work until after we signed for the loan and *** did not verify our address with us to make sure it was correct. *** sent me the *** form to correct the address and for me to mail it back to her. When I received the *** paper work a few days later, I signed it and put it in the mail with the self address prepaid envelop that she provided. We are now in December, we have not received the corrected registration from the ***. I emailed and called *** to find out what was going. She emailed my back to let me know that she did not receive the *** paperwork from me. I told her that I had signed and mailed the *** paper work back to her the same day that I received it in early part of November. I asked her if I can just make the changes myself with the *** since we want to refinance this loan with our local credit union before the year is over. The dealership gave us a ***% interest rate. I have excellent credit and should qualify for the current credit union new car interest rate of ***%. She told me that I can make the changes online or go to the *** office. I told her that she should have given me this information so that I could have made the corrections already so I can refinance the vehicle. But I feel like the dealership was purposley doing this so that the loan remains at the ***%. I have read the many reviews on *** about this dealership and many of the bad reviews reference their sales and finance practice, especially with ***. There's a bad review that someone posted ***'s picture about how they were treated and misled. I wished I would have read the reviews and listened to all of the people that said to don't walk but run away from this dealership. I'm not sure what your office can do about this but these practices whehter intentional or not, just doesn't seem right and needs to stop. Thank you.

i bought a new Subaru Impreza Limited from the Downtown Auto Center in Oakland. They advertised the dealer price of $28528 but refused to honor it, they finally agreed to honor it but billed me for another $1900 for items I told them I would not pay for, but disguised those options by telling me I did bnot have to pay for them bu added them below the agreed price without telling me. I sent 2 certified letters but only got confirmation on one. The letter said: Subject: Request of Refund of $2019 on myu Subaru Imprez Limited purchased from you on Maarch 13 2020 because of your false advertising and deceptive pricing practices. Dear Mr. On March 2 I followed up on your *** ad for a 2020 Subaru Impreza Limited with all the latest features. Your advertised Dealer Price was $25828 and your advertised MSRP was $30,276. Here is what happened when I asked for more information on this car: 1. On March 12, I called the number listed in your *** ad, and subsequently had several different conversations with both *** and *** at your dealership. I asked lots of quetions and they ansewered all of them, assuring me that the advertised car was still available for the advertised deler price on ***. I was having trouble finding hte same car on your dealer website, so I called *** again and she sent me the link to the car on on your dealership's website and said the "Stock #" of the car was ***. I then confirmed that *** was in fact the Stock # of the listed car on both the *** ad and the dealership websites. It had all the features I wanted. I made an appointment to come look at it the next day. 2 dOn Marach 13 i drove from Cupertino to Oakland (a one hour drive) to see the car. had a test drive, and it was exactly the car I wanted. I said I would buy it for the advertised dealer price. 3. Then I was put in a room , and a sales manager (named ***?)came and put down lots of papers on the desk. He said the price of the car was something over $30,000. I showed him my ad and asked for the Dealer Price of $25828. H laughed and said they couldn't afford to sell cars for that price, and requoted me the $30,,000+ price. I again asked for the advertised price. He then told me that the car had about $5000 of "aftermarket features" added by the dealer. He said all dealers add features to the cars and the buy has to pay for them. I pointed out that their ad referenced the car by Stock #, and both websites (*** and the dealer website) listed all the features insling those added by the dealer on the car. He told me that was nonsense. I told him I would not have driven an hour when I could buy the car for lesss than this price in SAn Jose. l repeatedly asked for a written quote and he repeatedly refused. He told me ehey often advertise cars for lower than the actual price to draw people in, but they have to pay more I told him that was false advertising and I asked him to return my driver's license and I would leave. He then walked ou of the office 4.Another person then came in and I had to go back to the Honda office next door and talk to the "big boss" and they woul make the deal work for me, "whateever it takes". Eventuallly the big boss (***?) came in and explained why I had to pay for the dealer added features. I said I didn't want those features and would not pay for them and they could take them off the car. He said that was impossible. H finally agreed to take some $2000 of aftermarket features off the car. I don't know what they are because I was never given a written quote. I repeatedly asked for the written quote and he repeatedly refused. I was ready to leave again,when He asked what I really would pay. I told him I was ready to pay the quoted dealer price of $25m828 okys abiyt 11% to cover sales tax and DMV fee. That would be a total of $28,410. He said he could di it for $29,000, bur finally agreed to $28, 240 for the car with all its features and sales tax and DMV fees. 5. They took me back to the Subaru office to talk to the finance guuy and sign the papers. There were tons of papers.. I immediately looked at the car's price which was $25,826 "for the Motor Vehicle and Accessories" (as agreed). The sles tax was $2502 and the DMV fees were $402, all as expected. So I signed all the papers and drove the car home. 6On the way home I realized that the amount I paid was more than the price we had agreed upn.. I looked at the paperwork in detail . I was charged an extra $1900 for the LoJack system which I had told them I would not buy. The LoJack system was listed under "optional", and I had not opted for it. What ewe had agreed upon was the $28825 as the price of the car with all its accessories and sales tx and DMV fees. I would also get a trade in value for my old car, whch was to be deductged from that agreed price. Now I knew why they had continually refused to let me see a detailed quote. I am requesting a refaund of $2109 ($1900 for the LoJack system which I did not want plue $209 (approx 11% for sales tax and DMV fees). Please send this to me by March 31. At every level your pelpe lied and cheated on ths order. IIf necessary I will go to the ComplaintsBoard.com and courts. Now I have looked at your uers' comments nd see that they are all dissatisfied and tlhey advise that no one else ever do business with you.