I recently bought my truck from Koons. The experience overall was a good one but I'll outline a few points where I expected things to go more smoothly. While I am not affiliated with the dealer in any way, I have a background that among other things has allowed me to work with automotive marketing and sales technology companies. So I have a perspective from both sides of the table so to speak.
I reached out to Craig Benner, of whom I have known about from my days on some of the Jeep Forums back in August 2021. I received a quote for 6% under invoice for my Ram1500. Standard $899 doc fee is "not negotiable". Unfortunately the time between the first quote and my acceptance of the quote, Ram increased the price by $500 and changed some minor options. We locked in and I began a very long wait with little insight as to what was happening with my order.
Craig (and now his team) suffer from their success in that they can't scale to provide the customer service experience that I truly believe they would like to provide. As we all know Stellantis/RAM's systems don't support a self service model for updates in any way. So you are forced to: 1/Call or email the dealer for updates, 2/Call or chat with RamChat for updates, and pray that
@Eighty gets a hit on his tracker. This is a miserable experience for both parties. The dealer team is inundated with status update emails as well as pricing emails and after deal service questions.
I emailed Craig monthly through October requesting status. After that, I went to RamChat. By December I had forgotten that I had ordered a truck at all. In Feb I went to RamChat and after getting the run around yet again, I told the rep that I was ready to try and claw my deposit back from my credit card company and go elsewhere. At that point I got connected Cara from Ram Trucks Information Center, and she said she would "opened this special tracking file to both help ensure your order is given prioritization through to delivery, as well as to provide you with available status updates along the way. " I thought all of this was hot air until I started getting meaningful updates -- like my truck was actually scheduled to be built.
I almost simultaneously learned from
@Eighty and Cara that my Build Sheet and Window Sticker were ready to go and eventually I got the notification that my truck was shipped. I emailed Koons to see if the truck was on the lot and at that time learned that Craig had added some additional team mates and the process that they needed to check the truck in and prepare it for delivery.
In speaking with Craig, we made arrangements for when I could come and pick up the truck, aligned on incentives that I could apply. I originally had a mind to trade in to them my Jeep Cherokee but I got such a low offer that it wasn't worth it to: 1/Drive it up to Koons and 2/Forfeit the substantial amount that CarMax and Carvana wanted for the Jeep. So we aligned on no trade in and I had a date.
When I got to the dealership, I worked mostly with Bella and a little bit with Brian. The initial meet, greet and paperwork part was perfectly pleasant. My initial meeting with the F&I Manager they tried to suggest I use one of their interest bearing bank financing options. I had a back up offer from my credit union, but was gunning for and qualified for the March 0% for 48 months financing through Chrysler Capital. At first they tried to claw back all of the incentives but I held firm and reminded them that Chrysler is their financing. I kept the bulk of my incentives but lost out on $500. I chose not to fight about this as a goodwill gesture. After a brief wait I went upstairs to finalize the paperwork.
Upstairs in the Business office, I have to say was a neat experience. The entire desk was a big screen where I used a stylus to sign all of the documents. The technie in me was impressed. When it came time for the warranty discussion I had my Zieglers quote and so I got MaxCare at a fair price. About 1k lower than the dealer originally offered if I remember correctly. There was what I am calling a misunderstanding about what MaxCare offered in that the way I understood what the dealer was matching seemed to include Road Hazard and a oil change maintenance plan. However, as I later found out none of that was included in MaxCare. I opted out after the fact after a few days for Road Hazard (as it wasn't the Mopar plan) and kept the scheduled maintenance plan as (I couldn't find an apples to apples quote even on Mopar's page and I'm genuinely curious on if this is of value.) I'm certain I gave some ground on the maintenance plan in dealer profit and I reserve the right to cancel later, but it didn't seem outrageous. Getting in and out of F&I was an above average experience. It wasn't perfect, but it was one of my better interactions.
After I got home, I had a few calls to the dealership and Bella over some questions I had about some truck features and my questions about the warranty. Both Bella and Brian were very responsive. Brian even called me after hours on a Sunday. The Finance manager also called to send me over the paperwork about the warranties. I wasn't pressured in any way when I wanted to cancel the non Road Hazard warranty.
To close if I had to give Koons a grade here: Overall Experience: A-, Quote and Price: A, Pre-Delivery: C (not entirely their fault), Logistics: A, Dealer Experience: A, Finance: B+, Post Sale customer service: A+
While I know Koons is experiencing stiff competition on this forum (probably all of them) from our friends in Lake Charles, LA, I would definitely consider buying a truck or jeep from Koons again. The drive up to DC Metro and back was pleasant (albeit long).