Principle Volvo Cars San Antonio

It took me 1 month to get a preventative maintenance appointment, for which I had to drive 3 hour for as I live in Rio Bravo, Texas. It took 6 HOURS to get my oil changed. When i asked the technician why it would take so long just for a PM inspection, despite me having an appointment, he said the appointment was to discuss my needs with him, not the mechanic. I now have to spend the night in San Antonio when I had planned to drive back home, as I cannot see that well in the dark. I love my car and have had wonderful experiences in the past in Alaska and North Carolina. I bought a $52K car to have a luxury experience. This is the worst experience I have ever had. I had considered buying another Volvo but not if this is what I can look forward to. My Volvo car has been great but this is by far the WORST Service Department ever! If you want a luxury experience because you buy a luxury car...DO NOT GO TO THE VOLVO DEALERSHIP IN SAN ANTONIO. So incredibly disappointing.

Since my last review, the manager contacted me and worked with me to resolve the issues. Everything went very smooth with the process of swapping out vehicles, and the employees were very respectful. This was a completely different experience than my first experience, in a positive way. I’d recommend any Principle dealer to friends and family after this experience.

I’m response to my last review, no one from Principle Volvo has “worked with me” or even contacted me following my review. The manager’s reply is likely an automated response as I sent him a detailed email and heard nothing in response. This only reinforces Principle Volvo’s terrible customer service and lack of care/empathy for customers.

Buyer beware! They sold me a used vehicle they said they inspected, but they did not inspect the vehicle, or they had a blind mechanic inspect it. The vehicle had no oil in it at all and had damages that were not disclosed to me during the purchase process. I had the car for 3 days and started discovering all of the issues. I tried to take the car back, and Principle Volvo told me they wouldn't take the car back, but they would buy it back at market value, which would have been a huge loss to me. I've continuously had problems with the car since buying it, and now I've learned the car was probably wrecked and fixed by an amateur due to spray painted primer underneath the front. I've tried calling and emailing Principle Volvo about the issues with the car, but no one will return my calls, so I am stuck with the money pit of a vehicle. I'll never do business with Principle Auto Group again, and I'll forever tell others not to do business with Principle.

This was one of the worst purchasing experiences I have had buying cars, and I've been through the process over 20 times in my life. I feel bad for our salesman Julius as he was put in between a rock and a hard place trying to make this sale and handle everything that happened after, he was the only pleasant part of our experience. If you go to the website and look at the "Principle promise" and go through our experienced you will note that they failed to meet many of them. The issues started when we first got to the dealership, we ended up waiting for almost 45 min to see the first vehicle that we were to be shown because of a lost key. Then after that wasn't the car for us and we asked to see one that we found on their website, we were stuck waiting for another 30 min. This time the car ran out of gas coming from the parking garage. This ended up being the vehicle we purchased, so we wasted time looking at other cars while this one go gas put in it. Both of these issues are small, but show a lack of attention to detail, especially when the website advertises "purchasing in a hour or less". We spent over 4 hours to make our purchase due to the issues above. Once we purchased the vehicle we were sent home in a rental because it needed to have a oil change, tire rotation, and inspection completed. This was a little annoying, but we went along with it because we wanted the car. We came back the next day around 4pm to finally get the (we kind of figured we would get taken care of it the morning so we could have our newly purchased car) to just find out that the AC vent on the passenger side was pushing out hot air while the AC was set to cold. I pointed this out to Julius and he took it back for service to look at. We went home in a loaner again. This car was cleared from the "170 point" inspection and was sold to us broken and was going to be sent home with us broken after the inspection was completed and this major issue was missed. I say it was a major issue because the car sat with Principle for over two weeks while they couldn't figure out how to fix the issue. On the site they claim "We continually train our master technicians for each of our brands to handle whatever concerns may present themselves." which is crazy because they had to call into Volvo corporate to get our issue fixed. After from purchase date June 24th, 2022 till final delivery date of 13 July, 2022, Principle did nothing to remedy the situation. They asked how they could make things right, my first response was to have them pay the first month of the car. I figured since we wouldn't even have the car for half a month that seemed fair. I was instantly told no. They then told me that they would swap it for a car on their lot, but I would have to cover the cost difference. I found a car with the same color and packages with 10k less miles. It was listed for just under 4k over what ours was, and I requested to be swapped to this one. Again they told us if we paid the difference. I didn't really agree with doing that since we had found the car we wanted, and purchased it, but it was sold to us broken. I didn't see it fair to have to pay more money to a dealership that hadn't delivered on any promises so far. To top this off, I was told by Mark the sales manager that I was being condescending and that he wouldn't talk to me any longer because I made one to many comments about being sold a broken car. I guess the truth hurt his feelings. I told him I just wanted my traded in car back and was going to walk away. I was told that we couldn't do that as the car was already paid off and the new one financed. We go notification the next day of the pay off completing. With all this going on I have tried to reach out to Bryan Barton (the GM) 4-5 times by phone, had messages delivered to him by two members of the sales team, left voicemails, and sent two emails with no response.

This was one of the worst purchasing experiences I have had buying cars, and I've been through the process over 20 times in my life. I feel bad for our salesman Julius as he was put in between a rock and a hard place trying to make this sale and handle everything that happened after, he was the only pleasant part of our experience. If you go to the website and look at the "Principle promise" and go through our experienced you will note that they failed to meet many of them. The issues started when we first got to the dealership, we ended up waiting for almost 45 min to see the first vehicle that we were to be shown because of a lost key. Then after that wasn't the car for us and we asked to see one that we found on their website, we were stuck waiting for another 30 min. This time the car ran out of gas coming from the parking garage. This ended up being the vehicle we purchased, so we wasted time looking at other cars while this one go gas put in it. Both of these issues are small, but show a lack of attention to detail, especially when the website advertises "purchasing in a hour or less". We spent over 4 hours to make our purchase due to the issues above. Once we purchased the vehicle we were sent home in a rental because it needed to have a oil change, tire rotation, and inspection completed. This was a little annoying, but we went along with it because we wanted the car. We came back the next day around 4pm to finally get the (we kind of figured we would get taken care of it the morning so we could have our newly purchased car) to just find out that the AC vent on the passenger side was pushing out hot air while the AC was set to cold. I pointed this out to Julius and he took it back for service to look at. We went home in a loaner again. This car was cleared from the "170 point" inspection and was sold to us broken and was going to be sent home with us broken after the inspection was completed and this major issue was missed. I say it was a major issue because the car sat with Principle for over two weeks while they couldn't figure out how to fix the issue. On the site they claim "We continually train our master technicians for each of our brands to handle whatever concerns may present themselves." which is crazy because they had to call into Volvo corporate to get our issue fixed. After from purchase date June 24th, 2022 till final delivery date of 13 July, 2022, Principle did nothing to remedy the situation. They asked how they could make things right, my first response was to have them pay the first month of the car. I figured since we wouldn't even have the car for half a month that seemed fair. I was instantly told no. They then told me that they would swap it for a car on their lot, but I would have to cover the cost difference. I found a car with the same color and packages with 10k less miles. It was listed for just under 4k over what ours was, and I requested to be swapped to this one. Again they told us if we paid the difference. I didn't really agree with doing that since we had found the car we wanted, and purchased it, but it was sold to us broken. I didn't see it fair to have to pay more money to a dealership that hadn't delivered on any promises so far. To top this off, I was told by Mark the sales manager that I was being condescending and that he wouldn't talk to me any longer because I made one to many comments about being sold a broken car. I guess the truth hurt his feelings. I told him I just wanted my traded in car back and was going to walk away. I was told that we couldn't do that as the car was already paid off and the new one financed. We go notification the next day of the pay off completing. With all this going on I have tried to reach out to Bryan Barton (the GM) 4-5 times by phone, had messages delivered to him by two members of the sales team, left voicemails, and sent two emails with no response. I am sure the dealership can do well then things go right for them and the sales, but how they act when things go wrong really defines a place for me. Nothing was done for us but being told to wait for our newly purchased car to be fixed. It was touted as a huge favor being able to drive a rental, we saw it more as being forced into a car we didn't buy or want for over two weeks.

Horrible communication & have not sent us registration sticker which they are legally obliged to do! We bought an XC90 from Principle in the summer of 2021. Over 2 weeks, communication was very poor as we kept trying to come into the dealership & give them over $50,000 to buy this car - but kept getting excuses that it had been loaned out or was being detailed, etc. We finally were able to come in & purchase. However, a few weeks later when we received our license plates, we did not get our registration sticker. We followed up with Principle a few months later and once again, communication has been poor as emails & texts have gone unanswered - including to the GM of the dealership. It's now 9 months later - we still don't have our registration sticker and we don't know if they ever properly submitted paperwork to the DMV.

This is a first class dealership. We just purchased a 2022 Volvo XC90 Inscription. It was a comfortable process, with no high pressure sales or extras pushed from the Finance Department. I highly recommend Jeremy Meurin (Finance Manager) and Cameron Haynes (Sales). Overall, I don't think we could have had a smoother transaction. A+

Here I sit at Principle Volvo. Waiting for my ride back. Had to call my ride and tell them to turn around to come get me. Drove two hours down from Austin and now will be driving back two hours to Austin....without purchasing a vehicle from them. I did get a bottle of water. And the bathroom was clean. Ricco (sales person) was responsive to my questions prior to coming down. Also discovered the same day that I was coming down that the back bumper had a couple of circular indentations from when it backed into something. I could live with that. No offer to discount anything because of the damage. I accepted that. At least I was told before coming down. Unfortunately there are a number of paint issues that were apparently not discovered until I came down here. Once again, four hours of time that could have been better spent on almost anything else you can think of...if only the car dealership that is selling the car could have brought forward that information before I wasted my time. I highly recommend you get triple confirmation on the condition of the vehicle before wasting your time. Buyer beware. There was a big scratch on the hood that was brought forward that they did address. So I applaud them for that. Yes Covid, yes used cars are selling fast, etc....they don't negotiate much on pricing, but that is their prerogative. So please go in knowing that. The 'Manager'...Mark. A little gruff. Not the personable type. He was brought out to look at the car. He basically asked me what the situation was. I told him to ask Ricco what the situation was. That's not my job. He said, 'We already discounted it'. Yep, that is true, before you showed me at the last minute that something had eaten through the paint. I told him I would pass then as they offered nothing to make this fair. He walked away. I then used the bathroom and they asked to speak with me again. They offered $500 off. That was nice, but I told them I have no idea how much it would cost to repaint the issue areas. They said they don't have anyone to evaluate the estimated cost to do the work. I am confused as this is a car dealership and they do this for a living and have a lot more resources, people, a repair shop and vehicle understanding than I do on this stuff. I offered to let me take the vehicle and have them pick a spot for me to get the vehicle fixed. They said no. Which leads me to believe that this is more than a $500 repair. Well...not an enjoyable way to spend a Friday, but it is what it is. I will not be purchasing from here. I wish you better luck than what I went through.

Here I sit at Principle Volvo. Waiting for my ride back. Had to call my ride and tell them to turn around to come get me. Drove two hours down from Austin and now will be driving back two hours to Austin….without purchasing a vehicle from them. I did get a bottle of water. And the bathroom was clean. Ricco (sales person) was responsive to my questions prior to coming down. Also discovered that the back bumper had a couple of circular indentations from when it backed into something. I could live with that. No offer to discount anything because of the damage. I accepted that. Unfortunately there are a number of paint issues that were not discovered until I came down here. Once again, four hours of time that could have been better spent on almost anything else you can think of…if only the car dealership that is selling the car could have brought forward that information before I wasted my time. I highly recommend you get triple confirmation on the condition of the vehicle before wasting your time. Buyer beware. There was a big scratch on the hood that was brought forward that they did address. So I applaud them for that. Yes Covid, yes used cars are selling fast, etc….they don’t negotiate much on pricing, but that is their prerogative. So please go in knowing that. The ‘Manager’…Mark. A little gruff. Not the personable type. He was brought out to look at the car. He basically asked me what the situation was. I told him to ask Ricco what the situation was. That’s not my job. He said, ‘We already discounted it’. Yep, that is true, before you showed me at the last minute that something had eaten through the paint. I told him I would pass then as they offered nothing to make this fair. He walked away. I then used the bathroom and they asked to speak with me again. They offered $500 off. That was nice, but I told them I have no idea how much it would cost to repaint the issue areas. They said they don’t have anyone to evaluate the estimated cost to do the work. I am confused as this is a car dealership and they do this for a living and have a lot more resources, people, a repair shop and vehicle understanding than I do on this stuff. I offered to let me take the vehicle and have them pick a spot for me to get the vehicle fixed. They said no. Which leads me to believe that this is more than a $500 repair. Well…not an enjoyable way to spend a Friday, but it is what it is. I will not be purchasing from here. I wish you better luck than what I went through.