Having always bought cars third party or through smaller dealerships I am finally in a financially secure position to buy a newer vehicle from a dealership and have found my experience with Steven Nissan to be extremely lacking.
I bought my 2020 Kia Rio (74,000 miles) at the dealership back in 2/2024, process for buying the vehicle was fine, though their knowledge on why no key fob existed was strange but can't help what the previous owner did or did not give them so I brushed it off. Car was detailed nicely and had the show room shine about it. When leaving the lot I noticed that the tire pressure gauge for low pressure was on despite the tires having just been filled, it did not go away so I called them back to get it looked at. I had to call several more times for them to take a look at it and fix the issue. A month later I am driving and the car begins to shaking and then idles out. Get it towed back to Steven Nissan and come to find out a fuel injector is stuck open and they want me to pay 750 dollars to get it repaired. Their powertrain warranty does not cover it because "the fuel injector is outside of the engine". Got this fixed, things happen and it was off their lot so I got it fixed and that was that.
Recently I was driving and my car began to leak gasoline from the front of the car, I got it towed to my local mechanic who found the same fuel injector that they replaced was now stuck open again. Steven Nissan when I first called them told me since it had been less than 12 months and driven less than 12,000 miles the parts, labor, and tow would be covered at no additional charge. I called back again to clarify something and got a different technician. They then told me I would need to pay a $160 diagnostic fee and that if they found more issues I likely would be paying more. I inquired about the tow again and they implied that if they found any other underlying issues then the tow would not be covered. In this instance (if the tow wasn't covered), I would be out of pocket 300 or so dollars on a repair that they said they would cover which does not make it free of charge. Additionally the second mechanic was getting a bit annoyed with me when I was asking for clarification on the wording. I did apologize if I got heated at all but it was met with silence and very quickly getting off the call with me.
The reason for the large up front story here is this, the process seems normal on the outside, they seem nice but at the end of the day this is a business that wants your money and will do what they can to convince you of a sale. It seems that despite the fact they have a service department that they did not actually check over the car very well and mostly detailed it. Their service department does not seem to be extremely forthcoming with information and the price of their work is much higher. Local mechanic in Staunton VA quoted me 350 for parts and labor on the same part that they quoted 750 on.
If you buy from Steven Nissan and expect a better experience than buying privately or through a smaller dealership then you would be wrong. I'm disappointed that this was my first vehicle purchase experience through what I assumed was a reputable dealership according to their total review score. I assume they will not actually read this review and will throw a copy and paste reply to give them a call to discuss which I have no interest in.
TLDR; sales tactics galore to get you to buy, lack of knowledge from sales team, mechanically cars are not checked over, and service department is extremely over priced. You're better off buying a car privately for cheaper and getting it fixed up.
