4 Ontario Maserati Dealers

worst experience for lease buyout and service - GS

WORST dealer experience for a lease buyout and service for a luxury brand such as Maserati. Dealer:In Sept I went for the 4th year service and asked the service manager to check everything as I was planning on buying the car in Nov. I was told that everything was in perfect condition. In Oct I inquired about the specifics for the buyout and I was informed that there was a hidden fee of more than $1,800 for the “lease buyout” which incidentally is more than 3x what say Porsche is charging. When I emailed to ask about it I didn’t receive any reply for over a week. I reached to the leasing company with no avail as you can see from below and then I emailed the general manager (Nino) regarding the situation. His response was an elaborate justification of the obscene amount he is charging due to the various tasks his team has to perform for the buyout but no explanation why such a high fee was not spelled out in the lease; nor why the leasing company who wrote the leasing contract had no idea about it while the safety inspection which only costs $200 is clearly mentioned. He was very clear he was making NO exemptions to the buyout fee. Leasing Company: I then called the Maserati leasing company. They were very surprised that the dealer was asking for a lease buyout fee since there was no such mention in my lease contract, however, they told me that they could not sell the car directly to me so I had no option with one dealer in down but they promised to call the dealer. After making 4 calls to the lease company and talking to as many different people they all seemed surprised by the buyout fee but nobody was able to get in touch with the dealer (which I find hard to believe) and any escalations to their management were ignored. They had called me numerous times before to verify if I was buying the car or returning it but once I called about the buyout fee nobody was interested in returning my call. Ironically, 2 weeks after I bought the car I received a call from them telling me that they had found a way that I could buy the car directly from them. I am not sure if they are so incompetent that they didnt even bother to check when my lease expired or they just called me just to apease me after it was all done. Service Manager: Having no other option but to pay the buyout fee I arranged for the safety inspection in early Nov 3 days before my lease was expiring at the Maserati dealership in Vaughn. I was just there In Sept and I had only put 749Km since then so I was expecting it to be a quick inspection. Imagine my surprise when the mechanic would not certify the car since he mentioned my break pads were down to 1mm and all 4 had to be replaced. When I pointed out that the break light was not even on and that my Sept .service report had no mention that the breaks might be close to replacement (even though I asked them to double check everything) I was told that the safety standards were more stringent than the car’s break sensor. They could not respond to the Sep. service report as it was Sat and the manager (Tony) was not in. After multiple calls and emails I got an email from the service manager 4 days later basically taking no responsibility and saying that the safety standards are different from the service inspection they perform and they could not guess when the break pads would wear off. Any other dealer during any regular service lists exactly how many mm are left on the pads as well as the tires but not Maserati. 10% off was the best I got so another $1,600 for the break pads as it was Sat and they had to be done then and there since I had no time to shop around with the lease expiring in a couple of days. After all the paperwork was delivered I was informed that my ownership would arrive in 3-4 days (for $1,800 for the buyout fee it seemed reasonable). I had to make numerous calls and emails and my ownership finally arrived in no less than 2 weeks later. In summary, the whole experience made me feel like I was dealing with some shady unknow dealership which was shaking me down for every dollar and would not care less about customer experience rather than a luxury brand. It seems that everyone from the Maserati leasing company to their own dealers and their service managers are all part of the scam. The privilege of buying out my car ended up costing me more than $3,400 on hidden and unexpected fees and countless hours of follow up and while I love the car I will ensure I will have no more dealings with the dealership.

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