CarWise Gurnee

When I choosing a BMW X5, they overcame the hidden "double combo" of $1,200 for navigation, which is already installed from factory.. when I said that I don't need their non-existent navigation, what BMW did is enough for me, they said that they can't sell the car without it.. the sellers do not understand what they are selling.. when I asked why the soft close does not work on the driver's side, they said that they do not know that BMW has such a function… I really do not recommend this trash dealer. The cars they sell are imported from an auction in Canada..

Looked at a truck and since I am 1 1/2 hour away, I worked on the phone with a representative of their dealership. Told her that I was in the $30 - 31K range and the vehicle's price was $34k. She checked with a sales manager and said they would come close to that which was ok. Drove the 1 1/2 hours and through the next 3 hours found out the best price was $34k and valued my trade $3k less that what I was offered at Carmax. He said they cannot compete with trade in at Carmax because they are a small dealership. Less than 8 hours later they dropped the price of the truck to $33.5 which they could not do the night before. So, I call again, and spoke to the sales manager he said he could drop the price a few hundred more which I was ok with. Then came the hidden fee of $2995 that is for tires, etching and misc stuff. I told him I would not pay, and he indicated they will not wave. Based upon the price of the truck the deal was fair but when adding the hidden fee, the price of truck is considered high. If this fee is on all vehicles they sell then why is it not listed on their web page under additional fee's??? Additional Fees and Taxes (copy & past from their web page) Applicable fees are: $10 thirty day drive away permit fee, $324.24 documentary fee, Sales tax (for Illinois residents and residents of tax reciprocal states with the state of Illinois). Please call or email to see if your state is reciprocal with IL. Out of state buyers are responsible for all state, county, city taxes and fees, as well as title/registration fees in the state that the vehicle will be registered.

PROBLEM 1: My experience started by entering a credit app on Elite's website. I received no response, so I started trying to call the dealership. They outsource their calls, and there seems to be no connection to the outsourced phone people and the people at Elite. Eventually I found a local number and got on the phone with them. PROBLEM 2: Where other dealers gave me immediate approval, I had to provide a pile of documents to get approved with Elite. PROBLEM 3: After I got approval, I made an appointment to come pick up the vehicle. I showed up on time for my appointment, but Elite had nothing ready. I waited 3 hours. PROBLEM 4: On the bill of sale Elite packs on a lot of extra charges. These are included in the advertised price of the vehicle, but you have to purchase them or Elite won't do business with you. PROBLEM 5: One of these is a GPS device that you pay $400 for. It's so they can send you texts based on your driving to try to sell you service in the future. You have to sign a service contract for it, which I refused to do. I signed everything else and left with the car. Elite then called insisting I sign the service contract or the bank couldn't fund my loan. This is obviously false, and the service contract itself says that it is a separate agreement and NOT a condition of purchase! Nevertheless, Elite stated they would "send someone to pick up the vehicle" if I did not sign it. A bold-faced lie, and a threat to get me to sign up for a service I didn't want. PROBLEM 6: Even when called out and shown the terms of the agreement, Elite still harassed me to sign the document. So, I called the Illinois Attorney General and filed a complaint. Definitely a hassle. Magically, they "found a way to fund my deal without it." PROBLEM 7: Prior to purchase, I saw the tires looked bald. I asked about it, because I would be driving the vehicle back to Denver. They assured me the tired passed a "safety inspection." In reality, they had less than a 32nd of tread left on them, so that had to be replaced for $1600 before I drove home in the snow. PROBLEM 8: There were huge scratches on the vehicle not in the pictures, and not disclosed prior to my flying in. PROBLEM 9: On the way home, I discovered the door handle to the drivers door would stick open. Cost to repair: $950. PROBLEM 10: I also discovered the sunroof was off the track, and inoperable. Cost to repair: $7,600!!! That's more than $10,000 in repairs that were not disclosed by Elite. PROBLEM 11: Elite promised they would reimburse my $77 uber ride from the airport. They did not. CONCLUSION: I should have done a more thorough inspection before I left with the vehicle, but even if I had, and if I'd refused to buy the vehicle I would have been stuck in Waukegan with no way to get back to Denver but to uber back to the airport and purchase a return ticket. In that scenario, Elite would have cost me airfare, hotel, and Ubers due to a failure to disclose problems with the vehicle.

HORRIBLE COMPANY!!!! Emailed and texted asking for a total out the door price on a vehicle. Even explained that I did NOT want or need financing or an extended warranty as I can purchase one cheaper through my credit union. Kept asking me for my address after I gave them the county I lived in (WI). Sales tax here is 5% with a 164.50 title fee, they kept asking for my address, I told them all they needed to know to figure out taxes is my county which was provided to them already. Car was listed at 26000.00 tax 1300.00 and title fee of 164.50 (I was transferring plates so no charge there) they came back with a total price of 31684.00--- wait what? asked them how they figured that amount as it should be around 27465.00 total, they came back with 2998 for total protection package (which mind you I told them at the beginning that I did NOT want that) also stated that it was applied to every vehicle sold and 324.24 document fee? for what making a contract up? since there was no financing involved and I would have had to pay the sales taxes and title fees on my own there should have been little to no paperwork involved. Well I texted them back and stated that they cannot force a customer to take a protection package if they don't want it ( their website states that they offer it but NOWHERE does it state that it is mandatory with every car purchase. Needless to say I have not received a text or email back.

TL;DR: If you can possibly avoid this dealership, you should. PROBLEM 1: My experience started by entering a credit app on Elite's website. I received no response, so I started trying to call the dealership. They outsource their calls, and there seems to be no connection to the outsourced phone people and the people at Elite. Eventually I found a local number and got on the phone with them. PROBLEM 2: Where other dealers gave me immediate approval, I had to provide a pile of documents to get approved with Elite. PROBLEM 3: After I got approval, I made an appointment to come pick up the vehicle. I showed up on time for my appointment, but Elite had nothing ready. I waited 3 hours. PROBLEM 4: On the bill of sale Elite packs on a lot of extra charges. These are included in the advertised price of the vehicle, but you have to purchase them or Elite won't do business with you. PROBLEM 5: One of these is a GPS device that you pay $400 for. It's so they can send you texts based on your driving to try to sell you service in the future. You have to sign a service contract for it, which I refused to do. I signed everything else and left with the car. Elite then called insisting I sign the service contract or the bank couldn't fund my loan. This is obviously false, and the service contract itself says that it is a separate agreement and NOT a condition of purchase! Nevertheless, Elite stated they would "send someone to pick up the vehicle" if I did not sign it. A bold-faced lie, and a threat to get me to sign up for a service I didn't want. PROBLEM 6: Even when called out and shown the terms of the agreement, Elite still harassed me to sign the document. So, I called the Illinois Attorney General and filed a complaint. Definitely a hassle. Magically, they "found a way to fund my deal without it." PROBLEM 7: Prior to purchase, I saw the tires looked bald. I asked about it, because I would be driving the vehicle back to Denver. They assured me the tired passed a "safety inspection." In reality, they had less than a 32nd of tread left on them, so that had to be replaced for $1600 before I drove home in the snow. PROBLEM 8: There were huge scratches on the vehicle not in the pictures, and not disclosed prior to my flying in. PROBLEM 9: On the way home, I discovered the door handle to the drivers door would stick open. Cost to repair: $950. PROBLEM 10: I also discovered the sunroof was off the track, and inoperable. Cost to repair: $7,600!!! That's more than $10,000 in repairs that were not disclosed by Elite. PROBLEM 11: Elite promised they would reimburse my $77 uber ride from the airport. They did not. CONCLUSION: I should have done a more thorough inspection before I left with the vehicle, but even if I had, and if I'd refused to buy the vehicle I would have been stuck in Waukegan with no way to get back to Denver but to uber back to the airport and purchase a return ticket. In that scenario, Elite would have cost me airfare, hotel, and Ubers due to a failure to disclose problems with the vehicle.

HORRIBLE COMPANY!!!! Emailed and texted asking for a total out the door price on a vehicle. Even explained that I did NOT want or need financing or an extended warranty as I can purchase one cheaper through my credit union. Kept asking me for my address after I gave them the county I lived in (WI). Sales tax here is 5% with a 164.50 title fee, they kept asking for my address, I told them all they needed to know to figure out taxes is my county which was provided to them already. Car was listed at 26000.00 tax 1300.00 and title fee of 164.50 (I was transferring plates so no charge there) they came back with a total price of 31684.00--- wait what? asked them how they figured that amount as it should be around 27465.00 total, they came back with 2998 for total protection package (which mind you I told them at the beginning that I did NOT want that) also stated that it was applied to every vehicle sold and 324.24 document fee? for what making a contract up? since there was no financing involved and I would have had to pay the sales taxes and title fees on my own there should have been little to no paperwork involved. Well I texted them back and stated that they cannot force a customer to take a protection package if they don't want it ( their website states that they offer it but NOWHERE does it state that it is mandatory with every car purchase. Needless to say I have not received a text or email back. Taken from their website: Warranty Unless otherwise stated in the vehicle description, this vehicle is being sold "as is". No representations or warranties are made by seller, nor are any representations or warranties relied upon by Buyer. Manufacturer's warranties may still apply. Extended warranties may be available; please contact us for details.

I Really wish I would've read some reviews before driving over an hour out to this hole. This is absolutely some type of scam. They tried to tell me there was an unnegotiable 6k "premium package". A car listed at 16k suddenly cost 21k+ with entirely unnecessary addons. Unwilling to negotiate more than a couple hundred and tried to tell me it was because the dealership has to make their money back from the insurance they pay to keep the cars parked there. Massive waste of an afternoon. Even if you do have the money to spend, it would be better spent at an actual accredited dealership that isn't gonna try and rip you off. Edited to add that I was contacted by management saying it states somewhere on their website (spoiler alert it absolutely does not) that they apply that "premium package" to all their vehicles ahead of time and was encouraged to "read the fine print". I'll try to make this easier to understand with smaller math since there still seemed to be some confusion around my frustration during our phone call. IF SOMETHING COSTS $5 BUT YOU ADD A PERMANENT, NON-NEGOTIABLE $10 ACCESSORY, THAT ITEM NOW COSTS $15 AND SHOULD BE ADVERTISED AS SUCH

Service fees are $3000 on top of car price!! We called on a car with a price similar to all other places but I kept asking about their dealer service fees and he FINALLY admitted it’s $3000. The highest I’ve found elsewhere is $600. $3000a what a joke!! 😆

i set up an appointment for a vehicle, spoke to Robert the sales manager, test drive the vehicle, afterwards they told me I had to buy an addendum. All customers have to pay for it, from what I was told. Wventually we were able to workout a deal where I put down $500 refundable deposit. A day later I decided I didnt want to go with the vehicle and wanted my deposit back. I have left many methods of communication without response. DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE!

Dishonest, scammers, and terrible communicators, true essence of a liar. Do whatever to sell car