The Arlington Automotive Group

BUYERS BEWARE!
I usually don't post reviews but I've had such a negative experience with this dealership so figured it was worth a review.
I was looking for a 2019 RAV4 and ended up Arlington Toyota since their website posted a deal for certified cars stating they were giving the 2 year free maintenance as the deal. Went there on Oct 3/2020, and the sales person was Michael *** and he kept selling the 2 year maintenance offer. Found a car I liked and test drove it, and noticed the steering wheel was squeaking. Michael told it would be taken to the service dept and it would be fixed right away. So then sat down to sign the paperwork, and the manager, Chung tells us the maintenance deal is only if I purchase the extended warranty and it's not his problem that Toyota advertises it differently on the website. So I think, fine whatever. Sign the papers and I trade in my 2016 Corolla, and as Michael was dropping the car off, he tells me the service dept was not able to fix the squeaking noise and that I would have to bring the car in again. So I bring the car back, and they spend 45 min and tell me they couldn't replicate the problem and I would have to leave the car at the dealership overnight. I'm a physician so I need a vehicle for work and I live nowhere close to Arlington. So the following week I speak to Chung (the manager) and bring my car back again, and they finally fix it.
Now all this while, I'm waiting for the title for the car and Toyota keeps making excuses. They gave me a 30 day drive away temporary license but I need to get my car registered/ licensed in Wisconsin. So on Oct 26 I get a call from the title person, Lisa Reed telling they only realized recently that the car is titled in New Jersey and they only applied for the Illinois title on Oct 23. So this dealership basically sold me a car on Oct 3 that was not even titled in Illinois, and only filed for an Illinois title on Oct 23. And they tell me it will take another 1.5-2 weeks for the title to reach the dealership, and my drive away temp license expires in 5 days. So Lisa tells me to go to the Illinois DMV to ask for an extension. I wait 45 min outside in the cold at the DMV and they talk to their supervisor/manager and tell me they can't give me an extension on a drive away. They tell me to report this issue to the Secretary of State Police since it's very unfair what Toyota has done (which I will be doing). So now I have 4 days remaining on my temp license, Toyota doesn't have a solution and I've spend far too much time on this situation.
Never have I had such a negative experience with a dealership. I've stuck with Toyota all these years because they had great customer service, and I had previously purchased cars from Toyota Lincolnwood and Northside without any issues. I will never be returning to this dealership again, and would caution others to stay away from this place.

I test drove and purchased a vehicle on 5/30/2020.
I went back to the dealer to pick up my vehicle.
I spoke to the General Manager, *** Sabzali. I told him I did not want to purchase the "pro pack" and VIN etching on my contract, as I did not perceive value for the two items. VIN etching was $384.11 and pro pack was $299.00
I requested a refund of $683.11 plus tax and interest (as these items were written into the loan agreement.)
I was then given a "goodwill release" for stating the dealer would send $683 to the lender.
I have heard nothing from the dealership or the lender as of today (6/11/2020). Why should I pay for these "made up" extras plus taxes and interest?
The sales rep *** Bejda gave me false information about these "extras." I did some checking after I left the dealership and found out these extras were not legitimate items worth the expense.
I was told that VIN etching would lower my insurance rates (this is false). The only discernable items in the pro pack were nitrogen for tires (a free item from a reputable dealer) and door guards ($6 worth of rubber and 10 minutes to apply them.)

I am seeking $683.11 plus taxes and interest (my loan is for 2.89%/72 months)

I have received multiple notices that my Toyota Sienna has an Air Bag and sliding door issue and both issues will be fixed with no charge (under recall service). I have been driving my Toyota Sienna for almost 8 years now and so far didn’t have any problems with that car, none. However, due to safety issues, I decided to schedule recall repair and left my car in the Arlington Toyota in Palatine for recall service, which was on Wednesday morning.Wednesday afternoon I was informed that problems were fixed and my car is ready for pick up. Few hours after I pick up my car from Toyota, I was not able to start my car and was pretty sure that the battery got some lose wire.I've called for a friend who brought jump wires and that helped to start my car, but the car had no power and I couldn't drive it at all. I had to call for a towing company and towed my car back to the Arlington Toyota (which cost me 114$).On the next day ( Thursday) Toyota's service has called and said that they think that one of the wires was damaged like I mentioned before I left my perfectly running car for recall, but after Toyota's service, all my problems started. It took them an entire day to fix it and they charged me $624.75 for it because per Toyota, the problem with wire was not related to recall service. When I came to finally pick up my car and was trying to open the sliding door I noticed that the sliding door didn’t work. It stayed closed when I was trying to open it (something that supposed to be fixed as a recall), so I called the manager, Jeff *** because that was already too much for me and Mr. said that they need to check something. I was waiting for my car for 2 hours to hear from Mr. that the car need to stay and they will get back to me the next day. By that time I have already told Mr. that I don’t feel ok with charges that I had to already pay not even mention towing and uber costs because it looks like something was damaged during recall service. Mr. ensured me that he will investigate what has happened. The next day (Friday) I was told that during first repair ( damaged wire) another wire was accidentally damaged by their mechanic when he was working on something else, and they will fix it without additional cost; however; first wire damaged was not done by them and was not related to recall service, so all charges are on me. Mr. said that he will get back to me within 2-3 days, but didn’t call me at once. I was calling him multiple times and left many voice mails for the last two and a half weeks to get an explanation, but he was always either very busy and couldn’t talk to me or was not at work. Nobody offers us any reimbursement for our costs, we were 3 days without a car and had to pay for uber to get in and out of work. Today, after two and a half weeks Mr. finally called me and said that there is no refund or whatsoever.
I thought that this will be free recall repair, but it cost me almost one thousand dollars and nobody feels to reimburse us in any way. I highly not recommend this place.

Overall: horrible communication, horrible customer service, and seems to be overpriced and not great service (over-recommending unnecessary service, not recommending things that need to be done/giving inspection report, not thorough, etc.) anyway.
The long version is LONG and I guess there's a character limit, so here's the list version (which is still pretty long...):
*salesman told me car was still under warranty, found out it wasn't after signing the papers and was pressured into purchasing one
*was not given spare key, was told they would make one for free and who to talk to, that person was not communicated with and tried to charge me for the key
*brought my car in regularly for service, oil changes, multi point inspections
*scheduled service online days in advance and still told I had to wait hours sometimes because they were very busy
*had throttle body service done at one visit and then had it recommended to me that I needed it done at the very next visit
*had rotors resurfaced and brake disc service
*brought car in for loud noise and was told I needed all rotors and brake pads replaced ($500+)
*had it in for multi point inspection a few months prior. Was not told anything about brakes or given inspection report. Upon looking it up in the computer, he had noted that something was rubbing on the brakes causing them to wear unevenly. Never told me or gave me report.
*brakes had always been at 7-8+mm in the years I had owned my Prius. Now they supposedly went from 6/7 down to ZERO in just a few months.
*communicating with John *** in customer service was a nightmare. Really hard to get ahold of. Would not email me back because "he prefers to talk on the phone" even though our schedules conflict and I was having a really hard time getting ahold of him
*admitted fault on the tech's part "he knew he was leaving for awhile so had been doing a sub-par job for weeks"
*scheduled a follow up phone call. never called. excuse was "couldn't get everyone together in time". Did not tell me he wouldn't be calling as scheduled beforehand or to apologize afterwards. I had to contact him to find out what happened.
*was only offered $100 credit for the incident. Excuse was "She would have had to have her brakes done eventually anyway..."
*service manager refused to talk to me or explain further
*was told it's hard to "justify" doing anything for a customer when they won't be returning (...due to feeling unsafe with the service done and customer service given...) so he probably wouldn't be able to help any further (no ethics, morality, or CUSTOMER SERVICE then, eh?)
*filed a report with corporate. Was told it would be sent to John at Arlington Toyota and they would have 1 business day to respond.
*no response a week and a half later.
*followed up with corporate. they noted it but said they could not force Arlington Toyota to follow up, even though that was their policy. Suggested I could try to talk to a general manger.
*called general manager and was put to voicemail two times. Left a message both times. no response a week and a half after the first call. No response after the second call now either....

I purchased a *** Wrangler on 3/20/2018 with a Titanium Pro Pack Warranty plan that cost $2,779.00. This amount was financed with car. This warranty also allows the buyer (me) to cancel the contract at any time within the 72 month coverage with a prorated refund minus a $50 admin fee and any claims. I have used less than 17 months of this warranty and one towing claim of $100. I am entitled to a refund of approximately $2,000. Under this plan, the refund should be sent to the lienholder: *** Bank *** Elgin, IL 60177 with a reference of loan ***.

I called on 8/1/2019, was transferred 5 times before getting a voicebox where I left a detailed message for Finance Manager Al S. He's yet to call me back. So I called today, 8/2/2019, and was transferred to someone calling himself Danny who gave me the runaround on getting this refund. The information he gave me was not what I was sold and not what is on the contract. I asked to speak to the manager, at which time he said he was the manager. I asked him for his last name which he wouldn't give me, instead continued with his runaround. I then told him that I've been a bank manager for over 30 years and what he was telling me made no sense. I asked twice more for his last name which he still would not give me. He then said that he would take my information to the Finance Manager Mike H who would call me back in 3 minutes. It has now been almost 3 hours. I then looked up the dealer's website and found out that Danny is Danny L who is in sales/leasing and not the manager and there is no Mike H listed working there!! So then I attempted to call the GM Mike *** and the owner Gary V, but reached their voicemails. I left detailed information but have yet to receive a call back from either of them.

I Trade in my car with dealership and they never paid off the car. Im now with two loans. I call dealership so many times and every time they said they will paid off the car tomorrow. Its has been 1,5 month and seams like they are scamming me. Today they even hang out the phone on me while I was trying to solve again my problem. My bank report me to a credit agancy and my credit is affected.

I purchased a CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED Toyota Ia, 2017 model, in late April 2019. The dealership claimed to have performed a 100+ point inspection and I was put in a false sense of ease. I purchased the car, drove it less than 3,000 miles to date, and there has been a number of problems with the car already. The car was purchased at 42K miles and is now at 44K. Already, the passanger side front side window does not want to close, and moreover, the middle panel that controls volume and other settings has collapsed.

This is plain fraud and if the business does not contact me and resolve these issues I will bring this attention to my attorney.

They sold auto theft insurance saying it comes with car I find out later they charge me for it, When told them I do not need they told me to call insurance company and cancel it when I call insurance company they said we can cancel it but can not return money only The Arlington automotive group will return the money. when mention this to The automotive group, they said o we have find out if we can do this on phone or in writing. After this they never pick up my phone or reply my message, I email them many times no reply. this has going on since march

This complaint is more involved with a customer service issue within the automotive service department.

I had scheduled service on my car to have a remote start product added to my vehicle to be done throughout the day today. I had brought my car in right at 7:00 AM so that the vehicle was available from them throughout the entire day.

I had gone to work after they had taken my vehicle back to have work done. I had stopped by around 3:30 PM at the end of the work day to see if they car was ready and was told that it still needed another hour. When I had stopped back in an hour later, I was told that the car needed another half hour (they had gone back to check and apparently asked). After 45 minutes of waiting, I went back to get more feedback and why it was not done. The polite service representative had gone back and after 10 minutes of searching, found that my car hadn't even been touched. No work had been done and it was past 6 PM later this day.

In my opinion, a customer should not be exposed to this type of service with multiple misleading directions from the company providing the service.

This branch of Toyota really needs to look into their structure of their service department to prevent a customer from having the same aggravating service that I had.

Hello. I have been to Arlington Toyota twice in the past two years and my complaint is this: I will see a vehicle on their website at an advertised price INCLUDING certification. When I go to the dealer and sit down with the salesperson they tell me that to have the vehicle certified I would have to pay for that separate from the price of the vehicle. Certification cost right around $1,500. I then iform them that it is advertised on their website for that certain price including certification and they tell me again that its separate from the price of the vehicle. I went online again to make sure they didn't have any fine print on the bottom stating that certification is separate and it does not. The drive to the actual dealer is about an hour from where I reside so clearly I am frustrated to have done this twice. The manager would come out at the end and try to drop the price another couple of hundred dollars thinking that that would make me jump but I ended up leaving furious.

Hi, Danny -
I have really enjoyed my first 21 hours of ownership of the new (black) Yaris iA. I researched well, and have no doubts that it's the most ideal car on the market for me. I'm a fuel-efficient driver and love the mileage upgrade with this car (it's such a different mileage era than it was 16 years ago) and the fact that I can now keep track of it so easily -- although I need to take care not to become obsessed with the mileage display!.
Thanks for ushering me in as soon as I parked, and then giving me the drive and pointing everything out about the car that I needed to know. Also, for explaining every step of the purchase process so well. Of course it helped that I came in having done my homework and knowing exactly what I wanted (after all, I was a teacher by profession, so I know the value of homework).
I appreciate your telling me that I can turn to you as an adviser on the car if I have questions. (I doubt there is anyone more knowledgeable.) That is the sort of thing that builds loyalty in customers.
Enjoy your Labor Day holiday.
- Jon

For a few years I have service my wife Toyota Rav4 at Arlington Toyota. I have always had a great experience.
However, that change this past weekend on 8-3-18 @2:45pm. On my previous visits I had been turned back because there was no room to do a oil change as a walk-in. After making my appointment I had to wait a week, for an oil change. This time, I was surprised that there were, so many openings from one day to the next. So, as usual I set my appointment. I arrived at my set appointment time an was introduce to Ruben ***. Who was the person to help me with getting in and out. Well, my experience started with me being check in by 3:00pm as Ruben *** claim they were so busy and back up. And off course I saw they were but most of the busy moment was right behind me everyone seem to arrived after me. Next, I ask Ruben *** if they could look into some problems I was noticing on my wife vehicle. He reply by saying it was late and he's technicians wouldn't like to work late that I should come back some other time. I said not to worry the oil change would do. I also ask for an estimate for a muffler and installation. He agree to get me that info. Also, I ask him to check a front air leak tire but every time it seemed as if he was the technician by the way he answer. Through my whole stay waiting for the vehicle not once did Ruben *** came out and mentioned any advancement of processed on our vehicle. I was there with a friend until 4:20pm. When he finally approach me it was with all paper work done. All the paper work stated the work done and how I refused for Arlighton Toyota to do any other work on my vehicle. It seem strange to me. He also said if I wanted to pay with him that he could take credit. I mention that every time I have been there I have paid at the service desk, as he stated that if I paid there I had to pay cash or check. So, I said it doesn't matter. As I approached the service desk I repeated to Ruben *** what he had said about the payment of cash and check infront of the cashier when the cashier replied by said that I could do credit if I liked. I responded to Ruben *** by saying I thought you said I couldn't do credit. At this point he immediately change his response by agreeing with cashier. Plus the estimate he gave me was for the whole front to back exhaust system not the muffler. Yes the muffler is in there but that was the only part I was asking for. Not everything.
As a customer I have no idea what happened that day with this employee but for a fact I had nothing to do with this. However, I didn't expected to receive such treatment when all I wanted was a simple oil change and to know if my wife vehicle had any problems. Sure enough, I saw and experienced in this dealer what I had not in all this years going there. But I played it calm because I had a good dear friend with me. But I did Express to Ruben *** that I would be doing this review. I just hope that someone that cares about Toyota business will look into this because as I loyal customer I am strongly considering to go else where.

I financed a vehicle with this dealership on October 31st, 2017. I gave the sales rep Akash and his manager Raymond my information to see if I am eligible for a vehicle. I was approved and I was able to walk out of the dealer with a new car. One month later I requested a copy of my credit application because I realized that I never reviewed the credit application for accuracy prior to my electronic signature; Providing I was giving the dealer the most accurate information and it was being entered on the computer screen.
When I requested a copy of my credit application to Toyota Finance, I realized that the question for how much I pay for rent was split exactly half. This was done by Akash and Raymond so that I can get approved for a car which is ultimately Credit Application Fraud. Fast Forwarding, 3 weeks later, sometime in November, I sat down with Alan (one of the finance managers) to remove my extended warranty on my vehicle which totaled up to be $2,400.00 . We got into a small disagreement in his office and he ultimately removed some docs from the back of my original contract and explained to me that he would take care of it. I did not sign anything nor did I obtain any confirmation of some sort.
Two months later, on 01/31/18, I decided to stop at the dealer to do a pop up because no one was able to return my calls. I sat down with another finance manager and I began to inquire what the status of my extended warranty is. I could tell by his body language that he was lying when he told me that he did not know and he doesn't have access to that system at the moment. I already knew what was going on but he pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Alan, the finance manager never submitted my request to remove my extended warranty from my contract because that is how they make their commission; I already know how this goes. What confirmed this even more was when the finance manager I sat with this time said, "Yeah if this was submitted back in November, you would have seen the difference already on your account. You will not get a check but Toyota Finance would, as we are directly associated with them. I would give them a call at the 1-800 number". After that response, I thanked him for his time, shook his hand, and left the dealership.
When I got into my vehicle, I called Toyota Finance and spoke to a Peggie who was really really helpful. She reviewed my account, my contract, and my inquiry and she confirmed with me that nothing was ever submitted by the dealership to remove the extended warranty from my contract. I filed a complaint with all of the issues stated above and Peggie was able to submit a request on my behalf to get the extended warranty cancellation that will have a 30 day turn around to reflect onto my account.
Going forward, sales reps are very misleading and to anyone who is interested in buying a car, just make sure you are reviewing all material and documents. Get confirmations so that you have the information for your own records and do your research. I would not recommend working with Raymond or Alan at this dealership. Alan can be really really rude so if you ever deal with him, make sure you are able to stand your ground and state exactly what you want or he will manipulate you to agreeing to something that you truly do not want or need.
Thank you .

Bunch of Scammers Please be aware of this dealership! Financial service is scam. They are just trying to make money.
Don't pay for any extended warranty or certification. Negotiate with them and you will get it for free.
Worst Dealer in Chicago land area or may be in entire United States. I went to purchase Toyota Sienna there. I liked the vehicle so I finalized the price and proceed further for purchase and financing the vehicle. I was told by the sales person "Roman" that I can do my first maintenance over there and then after I can go to another Toyota dealership for further maintenance which was included in the warranty. Also, He told me that I can pay my down payment of $4500 with two different credit card as they have limit of $3000 per credit card. I agreed to that and then he collect all the information and run my credit for financing. After half an hour of wait I was send to finance service and the financial Analyst called me in and told me that interest rate for first time buyer is too high and you r rate is 6.99%. Also, he was forcing me to purchase extended warranty for $2800 extra. Interest rate was bit high than what I expected so I told him that I will give some money for deposit and hold the vehicle for couple of days so I can finance it from outside. He declined my proposal and told me that he can not hold the vehicle. So, I decided to leave without purchasing the vehicle due to high interest rate. Then he said that he can do 4.1% and I again agreed to his condition as I wanted to purchase the vehicle. Financial Service member then started working on the documentation and after all the formalities was done he asked for down-payment so I told him that as per conversation with sales person "Roman" here are the two credit cards I would like to use. He told me that you can not pay more than $3000 with your credit card. I told him that I already spoke with your Sales person about this matter and he was agreed to it. So, Financial service guy called sales person "ROMAN" in his office and then Roman came in and said that he forgot to tell us that credit card limit was $3000. I told them that it was not my fault and I clearly stated that I can only do my payment with credit card so now what do you want me to do. I was told that they cannot do anything so I left the dealership without purchasing the vehicle.
I spend almost five hours at dealership for nothing.