Steven
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Steven
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2018
- Threads
- 24
- Messages
- 140
- Reaction score
- 211
- Location
- Austin, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- 2020 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara 4x4
- Occupation
- Dad
- Thread starter
- #1
In the summer 2017, there was a hailstorm that blew through College Station, Texas and dented up my 2008 Mazda 3. It wasn’t a super nice car when I bought it used, but I figured since my at-the-time girlfriend, now my wife, and I had a good insurance policy, it would be nice to keep the car looking at least somewhat decent. We took it to the claims adjuster and the guy told us that they were going to total the car. It mechanically worked just fine, but the repair bill to repair or replace the dented sheet metal was going to be more than the car was worth. After a serious discussion with the eventual wife, we decided to keep the car and take the claim money. With that money, we payed-off the rest of my debts and started saving for a new vehicle since she had already recently bought hers. Over the next two years we talked about what I wanted and what we needed. I had a short list of must haves, as did she, so we narrowed the selection of vehicles down to a Toyota Tacoma or a Jeep JL.
I had been saving up for a new Jeep for about two and a half years before I finally test drove a JL. It wasn't the JL that I want, but it is the first time I allowed myself to walk into a dealership and say that I will be buying one soon. I would have enough money saved up to put a down payment on the Jeep that I did want within a month, maybe two. Then I waited some more.
A few weeks later, on a Friday, my car started acting weird and giving some inconsistent indicator lights. After troubleshooting one problem and then another, fixing them as I went, I still couldn’t get my car to run right. I finally pulled the plugs and found two cylinders filled with engine coolant and another with enough oil to completely obscure the piston. The fourth cylinder was also covered in oil, but only covered, not filled. I checked the oil dipstick just to be sure and it was the standard milky water-in-oil color. The hopeful easy fix would have been a head gasket, but if it was a cracked head or, god forbid, a cracked block, the repairs would not be worth the cost.
After talking with the wife and running the numbers of each possible scenario, we decided that the gamble of just replacing the head gasket and hoping it worked was not worth saving a hundred dollars. The money would be nice to save, but if the head gasket didn’t fix it, then the rest of the repairs plus car rentals would be considerably more expensive. We had a car reserved for the following Tuesday and, coincidentally, started our talks with three different dealerships about a factory ordered 2020 Jeep Wrangler JL Unlimited Sahara.
I had scheduled appointments to speak with a salesperson at each dealership for the three following evenings. I figured that would let us speak to each salesperson and then make a final decision as to who we were going to buy from on Friday. Then we would schedule one more appointment for Saturday and place the order. Two days prior to our meetings, I did my due diligence and sent emails to all three dealerships with identical primer questions and a buildout of the Jeep I wanted. I received initial responses and had salespeople assigned to my inquiry.
Or so I thought. The first dealership we visited was Tomball Dodge. I picked up my rental car that morning, went to my classes, and then headed straight home to pick up my wife. We arrived at Tomball Dodge about half an hour early and figured we would wait a little for our salesperson to be expecting us. The salesman that greeted us at the door went to let our salesperson, Ms. Stephanie Cooper, know that we had arrived. He returned a few minutes later to tell us that she had left for the day and would be helping us. We sat down at the gentleman’s desk and were immediately accosted by the scent of his snuff; at least it was flavored. Then, I had to explain to him what I was there for, something that I already explained in my emails. For a salesman, we found his communication skills to be lacking, his answers difficult to follow, and his knowledge of the products to be below par. To top off his excellent service, we only found out his name when he handed us his business card. Ms. Cooper disappointed us, but Mr. Sunny Ahmed lost our business that evening.
The next appointment was at DeMontrond in Conroe. I had heard good things about this place from some Jeep people I had met and even a few that I hadn’t. Regardless, I was trying to learn from my past and sent a message to the salesman, David Glenn. I had been messaging Mr. Glenn leading up to that point and even had a brief phone conversation with him two days before. I now wanted to verify our appointment and I’m glad I did. He too was dumping me off with another salesman but reassured me that the other salesman was expecting me, had all the information, and knew what was going on. My wife and I arrived a few minutes before our six o’clock appointment and ask for Bubba, our alternate salesman. Bubba was an older gentleman that dealt with the commercial accounts. He answered our questions, even if we had to work to get them out of him and told us some personal stories that neither one of us were particularly interested in hearing. It turned out that Bubba was not as informed as we would have liked and our hopes of finding a suitable salesman to deal with were starting fade. That evening was much more productive than the previous, but my wife and I were both unimpressed and ready to continue onto the next dealership. Third time’s a charm?
The two prior meetings had gone poorly, and I was starting to wonder if maybe I was approaching the situation wrong. On the day of the third meeting, I ended up skipping lunch and was in the library’s computer lab making sure that I had all the information I could need. Not only did I have the information, but I also highlighted the pertinent parts and bound it all together in a report binder. That evening, the wife and I arrived at AutoNation –Spring five minutes before our six o’clock appointment. We were greeted by a salesman that quickly pointed us towards a group of salesmen hanging out in front of the building. Our particular salesman, James Del Valle, quickly picked up that we were looking for him and greeted us with a smile. Since it was a bit colder outside, we moved into the building and sat at his desk where he quickly brought up my original email and started discussing my proposal; this was a great start. Before we started discussing the details, I stopped Mr. Del Valle so I could ask him some questions about the process of buying a brand-new car. He then respectfully paused my questions so he could get his manager who had the final say in my questions. Erik Kluna, the manager, came over and answered all our questions and verified that everything that I wanted was on the order sheet. We talked about a few other details and Mr. Kluna printed out the tentative order sheet. That appointment was going so well that the wife and I agreed that we found our dealership. Mr. Kluna handed the appointment back over to Mr. Del Valle to go over the final paperwork before processing our order. The wife asked a few more questions about financing, we corrected a typo in my name, shot the breeze, and finally signed the order form. My wife and I did not walk into that appointment with any intention of putting a deposit down, but we certainly left with that receipt. Mr. James Del Valle and Mr. Eric Kluna were easy to talk to, explained what we did not understand, and most importantly, they respected our time. That is what I was looking for in this transaction and they got our business because of it. Happy Halloween, 2019.
The first week of waiting was not too bad. On day seven, I emailed Mr. Del Valle and received a reply minutes later with my VIN. I immediately logged into the JL Wrangler Forum and looked for my rig being given a build code. Four days later and I was still waiting for anything to indicate that the factory knew about my build. Then a full two weeks after I place the order, I finally received an email from the forum saying that I had a build sheet. It was kind of bittersweet. The day prior I told myself that I would not worry about the Jeep until I received a phone call from the Mr. Del Valle. The build sheet made me excited, but I did not allow it to build into a frenzy. I needed to stay focused on my education and then once the semester was done, I would have time to become engrossed in the Jeep again. A few days after that I received another email from the forum saying my window sticker was issued; I again stifled my enthusiasm. With Thanksgiving and four weeks since I placed my order coming up, I sent Mr. Del Valle an email to inform him that if the Jeep were to come in, we would be out of town until the next Monday. Not to disappoint, Mr. Del Valle called me later that day and reassured me the Jeep was built and being transported. I could be expecting the phone call in the next week or so, right on schedule.
Two weeks go by without a peep from Mr. Del Valle and I was starting to get antsy. I had sent two emails saying as much and asked for an update. When I did not receive a reply to either, I thought it prudent of me to swing by the dealership and check up on the Jeep in person. By this time, I was finished with my school semester and had returned our rental car. My wife, being the bread winner, was still working, but was letting me keep the car during the day. In the afternoon when it was time for me to pick my wife up from work, I decided to drop into the dealership first. Mr. Del Valle was not working that day, but another sales associate looked up the information about the Jeep. He informed me that the Jeep was on the lot then walked me out to physically see it. I figured since it was there and my wife and I had some free time, we would go ahead and finalize the purchase of it. I picked up my wife from her job and was heading home when I received a call from Mr. Del Valle. He was informed that I was ready to buy and was at the dealership starting to make preparations. I was a little confused why he was there since it was his day off, but in the back of my mind I was pleased that I would be dealing with him still. After a brief conversation, I told him to go home and that we could conduct our business the next day. He also had reservations that the Jeep would be prepped enough that evening to be released to me. A mutual agreement to do business the next day was reached. The Jeep was almost mine.
That next morning I dropped my wife at work and rushed home to triple check that I had all my paperwork in order, made copies of everything, and then patiently waited for the my wife to text me that she was finished with work. As the hours trudged on, I fretted and paced around the house. Around noon, I send my wife a message to see if she could leave work early but there was important business that day for her. No longer could I patiently wait, so I impatiently waited instead. At around three in the afternoon I received a message from my wife that she should be finished with work around four. I quickly dressed in my casual business attire and seeing no reason to continue waiting in the house, I opted to wait outside of my wife office for an hour.
When my wife finally made it to the car, we drove the five minutes down the interstate to the dealership. As we walked up to the entrance of the building, we were greeted by Mr. Del Valle. Mr. Del Valle wasted no time and told us to meet him right outside the front door where he would park my Jeep. A few moments later, there it was: my 2020 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara 4x4. We were handed the keys and told to look over it and make sure that everything looked as it should. I had a checklist of items to verify that I had found on JLWranglerForums.com, so my wife and I checked off all the boxes that we could and then she took my picture in front of my Jeep smiling like an idiot. With that, we walked inside to Mr. Del Valle’s desk and went over a few documents and verified our discount. Without even having to ask, he also gave us the printed version of the owner’s manual. He then sent us over the finance guy where we electronically signed five or six forms, handed them a check from the bank and then wrote the biggest check we had ever written. The finance guy gave us a paper license plate and wished us well. Mr. Del Valle meet us a few moments later and attached the paper license plate, handed us the second key, and walked us out to my Jeep. My wife and told him that we thought he was a wonderful of salesman and that we were glad to have done our business with him. He thanked us and then returned to his work. My wife really wanted to ride with me, but she had to drive her car back to our house. I opened her car door, kissed her, and thanked her for buying a Jeep with me. As she started her car, I walked over to my Jeep and hopped inside. That was it. The culmination of two years of saving money, researching all things Jeeps, and hoping that FCA didn’t royally screw up the Wrangler. The waiting was finally over. I had my Jeep.
I had been saving up for a new Jeep for about two and a half years before I finally test drove a JL. It wasn't the JL that I want, but it is the first time I allowed myself to walk into a dealership and say that I will be buying one soon. I would have enough money saved up to put a down payment on the Jeep that I did want within a month, maybe two. Then I waited some more.
A few weeks later, on a Friday, my car started acting weird and giving some inconsistent indicator lights. After troubleshooting one problem and then another, fixing them as I went, I still couldn’t get my car to run right. I finally pulled the plugs and found two cylinders filled with engine coolant and another with enough oil to completely obscure the piston. The fourth cylinder was also covered in oil, but only covered, not filled. I checked the oil dipstick just to be sure and it was the standard milky water-in-oil color. The hopeful easy fix would have been a head gasket, but if it was a cracked head or, god forbid, a cracked block, the repairs would not be worth the cost.
After talking with the wife and running the numbers of each possible scenario, we decided that the gamble of just replacing the head gasket and hoping it worked was not worth saving a hundred dollars. The money would be nice to save, but if the head gasket didn’t fix it, then the rest of the repairs plus car rentals would be considerably more expensive. We had a car reserved for the following Tuesday and, coincidentally, started our talks with three different dealerships about a factory ordered 2020 Jeep Wrangler JL Unlimited Sahara.
I had scheduled appointments to speak with a salesperson at each dealership for the three following evenings. I figured that would let us speak to each salesperson and then make a final decision as to who we were going to buy from on Friday. Then we would schedule one more appointment for Saturday and place the order. Two days prior to our meetings, I did my due diligence and sent emails to all three dealerships with identical primer questions and a buildout of the Jeep I wanted. I received initial responses and had salespeople assigned to my inquiry.
Or so I thought. The first dealership we visited was Tomball Dodge. I picked up my rental car that morning, went to my classes, and then headed straight home to pick up my wife. We arrived at Tomball Dodge about half an hour early and figured we would wait a little for our salesperson to be expecting us. The salesman that greeted us at the door went to let our salesperson, Ms. Stephanie Cooper, know that we had arrived. He returned a few minutes later to tell us that she had left for the day and would be helping us. We sat down at the gentleman’s desk and were immediately accosted by the scent of his snuff; at least it was flavored. Then, I had to explain to him what I was there for, something that I already explained in my emails. For a salesman, we found his communication skills to be lacking, his answers difficult to follow, and his knowledge of the products to be below par. To top off his excellent service, we only found out his name when he handed us his business card. Ms. Cooper disappointed us, but Mr. Sunny Ahmed lost our business that evening.
The next appointment was at DeMontrond in Conroe. I had heard good things about this place from some Jeep people I had met and even a few that I hadn’t. Regardless, I was trying to learn from my past and sent a message to the salesman, David Glenn. I had been messaging Mr. Glenn leading up to that point and even had a brief phone conversation with him two days before. I now wanted to verify our appointment and I’m glad I did. He too was dumping me off with another salesman but reassured me that the other salesman was expecting me, had all the information, and knew what was going on. My wife and I arrived a few minutes before our six o’clock appointment and ask for Bubba, our alternate salesman. Bubba was an older gentleman that dealt with the commercial accounts. He answered our questions, even if we had to work to get them out of him and told us some personal stories that neither one of us were particularly interested in hearing. It turned out that Bubba was not as informed as we would have liked and our hopes of finding a suitable salesman to deal with were starting fade. That evening was much more productive than the previous, but my wife and I were both unimpressed and ready to continue onto the next dealership. Third time’s a charm?
The two prior meetings had gone poorly, and I was starting to wonder if maybe I was approaching the situation wrong. On the day of the third meeting, I ended up skipping lunch and was in the library’s computer lab making sure that I had all the information I could need. Not only did I have the information, but I also highlighted the pertinent parts and bound it all together in a report binder. That evening, the wife and I arrived at AutoNation –Spring five minutes before our six o’clock appointment. We were greeted by a salesman that quickly pointed us towards a group of salesmen hanging out in front of the building. Our particular salesman, James Del Valle, quickly picked up that we were looking for him and greeted us with a smile. Since it was a bit colder outside, we moved into the building and sat at his desk where he quickly brought up my original email and started discussing my proposal; this was a great start. Before we started discussing the details, I stopped Mr. Del Valle so I could ask him some questions about the process of buying a brand-new car. He then respectfully paused my questions so he could get his manager who had the final say in my questions. Erik Kluna, the manager, came over and answered all our questions and verified that everything that I wanted was on the order sheet. We talked about a few other details and Mr. Kluna printed out the tentative order sheet. That appointment was going so well that the wife and I agreed that we found our dealership. Mr. Kluna handed the appointment back over to Mr. Del Valle to go over the final paperwork before processing our order. The wife asked a few more questions about financing, we corrected a typo in my name, shot the breeze, and finally signed the order form. My wife and I did not walk into that appointment with any intention of putting a deposit down, but we certainly left with that receipt. Mr. James Del Valle and Mr. Eric Kluna were easy to talk to, explained what we did not understand, and most importantly, they respected our time. That is what I was looking for in this transaction and they got our business because of it. Happy Halloween, 2019.
The first week of waiting was not too bad. On day seven, I emailed Mr. Del Valle and received a reply minutes later with my VIN. I immediately logged into the JL Wrangler Forum and looked for my rig being given a build code. Four days later and I was still waiting for anything to indicate that the factory knew about my build. Then a full two weeks after I place the order, I finally received an email from the forum saying that I had a build sheet. It was kind of bittersweet. The day prior I told myself that I would not worry about the Jeep until I received a phone call from the Mr. Del Valle. The build sheet made me excited, but I did not allow it to build into a frenzy. I needed to stay focused on my education and then once the semester was done, I would have time to become engrossed in the Jeep again. A few days after that I received another email from the forum saying my window sticker was issued; I again stifled my enthusiasm. With Thanksgiving and four weeks since I placed my order coming up, I sent Mr. Del Valle an email to inform him that if the Jeep were to come in, we would be out of town until the next Monday. Not to disappoint, Mr. Del Valle called me later that day and reassured me the Jeep was built and being transported. I could be expecting the phone call in the next week or so, right on schedule.
Two weeks go by without a peep from Mr. Del Valle and I was starting to get antsy. I had sent two emails saying as much and asked for an update. When I did not receive a reply to either, I thought it prudent of me to swing by the dealership and check up on the Jeep in person. By this time, I was finished with my school semester and had returned our rental car. My wife, being the bread winner, was still working, but was letting me keep the car during the day. In the afternoon when it was time for me to pick my wife up from work, I decided to drop into the dealership first. Mr. Del Valle was not working that day, but another sales associate looked up the information about the Jeep. He informed me that the Jeep was on the lot then walked me out to physically see it. I figured since it was there and my wife and I had some free time, we would go ahead and finalize the purchase of it. I picked up my wife from her job and was heading home when I received a call from Mr. Del Valle. He was informed that I was ready to buy and was at the dealership starting to make preparations. I was a little confused why he was there since it was his day off, but in the back of my mind I was pleased that I would be dealing with him still. After a brief conversation, I told him to go home and that we could conduct our business the next day. He also had reservations that the Jeep would be prepped enough that evening to be released to me. A mutual agreement to do business the next day was reached. The Jeep was almost mine.
That next morning I dropped my wife at work and rushed home to triple check that I had all my paperwork in order, made copies of everything, and then patiently waited for the my wife to text me that she was finished with work. As the hours trudged on, I fretted and paced around the house. Around noon, I send my wife a message to see if she could leave work early but there was important business that day for her. No longer could I patiently wait, so I impatiently waited instead. At around three in the afternoon I received a message from my wife that she should be finished with work around four. I quickly dressed in my casual business attire and seeing no reason to continue waiting in the house, I opted to wait outside of my wife office for an hour.
When my wife finally made it to the car, we drove the five minutes down the interstate to the dealership. As we walked up to the entrance of the building, we were greeted by Mr. Del Valle. Mr. Del Valle wasted no time and told us to meet him right outside the front door where he would park my Jeep. A few moments later, there it was: my 2020 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara 4x4. We were handed the keys and told to look over it and make sure that everything looked as it should. I had a checklist of items to verify that I had found on JLWranglerForums.com, so my wife and I checked off all the boxes that we could and then she took my picture in front of my Jeep smiling like an idiot. With that, we walked inside to Mr. Del Valle’s desk and went over a few documents and verified our discount. Without even having to ask, he also gave us the printed version of the owner’s manual. He then sent us over the finance guy where we electronically signed five or six forms, handed them a check from the bank and then wrote the biggest check we had ever written. The finance guy gave us a paper license plate and wished us well. Mr. Del Valle meet us a few moments later and attached the paper license plate, handed us the second key, and walked us out to my Jeep. My wife and told him that we thought he was a wonderful of salesman and that we were glad to have done our business with him. He thanked us and then returned to his work. My wife really wanted to ride with me, but she had to drive her car back to our house. I opened her car door, kissed her, and thanked her for buying a Jeep with me. As she started her car, I walked over to my Jeep and hopped inside. That was it. The culmination of two years of saving money, researching all things Jeeps, and hoping that FCA didn’t royally screw up the Wrangler. The waiting was finally over. I had my Jeep.
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