Carsmith Motors

Great experience overall. I didn’t think much of carsmith since I personally didn’t know of them being from the east bay. But I did my research and stumbled upon the Unilocal reviews and noticed how great it seemed. I looked at all their vehicles online and the price was more than fair so I drove down to see them in person. First impression I wasn’t sure how it went since I noticed only a business office then once I walked inside I saw the vehicles in the back. I was greeted immediately by Dave and he walked me back while asking what brought me in. I knew what cars I wanted to look at and took them on a solo test drive. To me that says a lot about a dealer trusting your client to drive alone. I got to drive without a sales pitch on my drive. Simply came back drove another until I found the one I wanted to go home with. Dave answered my questions and didn’t persuade me to purchase anything. We crunched numbers and I went home with a beautiful car. Thank you again Dave and car smith.

I bought a car from Carsmith a few months ago and had a great experience! We worked with Kevin Smith himself and Kevin was very informative, friendly and professional. We came in close to closing time and we did not feel rushed or pushed into anything! Kevin took his time and made sure we understood the contract and we went home in our new car that night! Even after a few months I can text Kevin with questions that came up and he got back to me quickly every time with my answers. Overall a great place to buy a car! BTW, they have a VERY BEAUTIFUL inventory of luxury cars at VERY FAIR PRICES! I’m a happy new owner of a 2014 Q50 Sport Infiniti! Thanks Kevin Smith!!!

All the positive review are really true. Kevin is the guy that you can trust. I ended up with Lexus GS 350 F Sport. It was a nice buying experience in Carsmith.

I want to start off by saying that I could not have chosen a better place to find a vehicle. I had been searching for the longest time for a Lexus IS250 and to my surprise I ran across one in their inventory with very low miles and the color I was looking for. I was also skeptical since it had been the first time I had heard about this dealership and began doing some homework of my own before contacting them directly. I ran across nothing but great reviews and decided to contact them. Once I had reached out I finally went and was greeted by Kevin. The team at Carsmith is very welcoming and easy to do business with as there is no sense of urgency when looking at the vehicle. My financing situation was frustrating to say the least but Kevin and his team were finally able to land my loan at a financial institution that gave me a great rate and allowed me to finally take my new baby home. I am nothing but grateful for the professionalism that Kevin, Dave and the team showed during this process. I would highly recommend this dealership for anyone seeking their next luxury vehicle.

I recently purchased a car through CarSmith Motors. The experience was great. Jeff and Kevin walked me through the process, I test drove a few cars and within a week decided on the one that I wanted. They took care of the financing and all the paperwork. Very easy to work with, great people and would definitely come back again.

Best experience ever buying a car. Normally a woman would go with a male friend, husband or partner to look for cars. After reading the online reviews, I decided to believe what I read and I went alone. I left the place with my dream car: a manual Black Camaro. One of the owners, Kevin took care of me, and he made me feel comfortable, and made the process of purchasing a vehicle very easy, specially because I dont have any experience and I went alone. I am very satisfied with the service that Kevin provided me with. He comes across as a very trustworthy salesman. I highly recommend Carsmith Motors for anyone who is looking to buy a car. I will certainly go there again!

I met with Dave to purchase a commuter vehicle, a 2012 Prius Plug-​In on Wednesday, January 20, 2016.
I can tell by the interactions with Dave and his team members that they were a tight group that worked very well together and respected each other and their customers. I ended up purchasing the Prius and really appreciated Dave’s help.
Bonus: This is the perfect location to test drive vehicles. Some long and empty streets and right next to the freeway.

Unilocal has been a great resource to me but I seldom leave a review. This may be my first. My apology to Unilocal nation! Just bought a car from Carsmith Motors yesterday and feel compelled to contribute to Unilocal nation by sharing my own experience.
Due to a unforeseen circumstance, I need to get a reliable pre-​owned vehicle quickly. Through a referral, I was happy to learn about
. I was very close to committing a deal with Beepi and through sheer luck, I saw an ad on Craigslist from Carsmith Motors. Checked them out on Unilocal and read a couple reviews. Decided to call Carsmith. Talked to Kevin on the phone first and drove 20 miles to checked out the vehicle on Sat ¹⁄₁₆. On 1/​18, with Jeff’s help, I finished all the paperwork to drive away with a car I want at slightly below the Fair Market Range from a dealer per KBB.
What impresses me most is Kevin made an effort to make sure I make a good decision, including disclosing all relevant info, making arrangement so I can take the car to my trusted mechanic for inspection, consulted me in evaluating the extended warranty they provide, and asked me to sleep on the deal before committing. Trust me, I do know a thing or two about making good decisions. I have a doctoral degree in Decision Analysis, decision making under uncertainty, from Stanford and was a strategy consultant to many Fortune 500 companies for over 15 years.
All in all, I am confident I made a good decision, with Kevin and Jeff’s help. What’s amazing is Kevin and Jeff actually made the process enjoyable! If you are in the market for a pre-​owned and they have something in their inventory that you may be interested, you owe yourself to check it out. Carsmith is a DIFFERENT used car dealer!

This is really late review, but I really want to do this right after my experience with CarSmith if it had not been for the holidays.
Summary:
— — — —
I came here on November 2015 for my birthday with full intentions of buying a car and trading in my leased VW GTI. I did a lot of research before coming here, and decided to come here cause of all the Unilocal reviews. When you see Unilocal reviews as good as CarSmith, you almost want to be wary because sometimes, it’s really too good to be true.
First, I sent an inquiry using the website, asking if they would take un-​finished leased cars (They do). Instead of waiting for a reply, I just went ahead and gave them a visit in the morning with my fiancé.
They had a wide variety of choices, but mainly had Infiniti G37’s and Lexus. I had been looking for a decent used G37 and they had the most choices at the time (~14 Infiniti’s)
Experience:
— — — — —
I went in, and Jeff the Sales Manager is the first to help us. He asks if we are looking for anything in particular, and gives us a quick tour.
Buying a car is very tricky because you never know who is really helping who. I knew from the get-​go that these guys are honest businessmen, because they don’t work off of commission. They are all part-​owners of the business, and they really want to provide quality of service and time to ensure you and they are taken care of.
My fiancé and I test drove 4 G37s (so it took some time), and really spent some time considering the pros and cons of each car (features, color, mileage, price).
Jeff, who is a football coach, had to leave a little early for practice. Before that, he and I verbally agreed to a fair trade-​in price for my lease, which was very close to the pay-​off price (mind you, this was for a VW right after Dieselgate), and a price for a G37. The price for the G37, was even in the lower end of the fair market value on Kelly blue book.
At that point, Kevin Smith, actually got to office, and continued to help me. I was at first scared, because I thought, «What if Kevin doesn’t honor Jeff’s price?». But, to my reassurance, Kevin did honor Jeff’s price. At that point, I really did trust CarSmith to take care of me. Kevin worked for the next hour or so to finance the car with the best option I could get given my credit score.
What you should expect is this:
— — — — — — — —
— Make sure should have an idea of what car you are looking for, they aren’t going to «sell» you like a normal car salesman. Use their website to look at their inventory.
— If you have any questions, they will answer it for you, they are really helpful.
— They will let you test drive until you are confident with the car you want to buy, because you are spending quite a bit of money.
— Be reasonable, because they will really try to help you.
— You don’t have to have pre-​approved financing, but do keep in mind, that big banks may/​will not finance small-​sized used car dealerships. Don’t worry, they will help you to their best ability, based on your credit score, the best financing option you can get.
— They will not force or scare the extended warranty they provide down your throat, unlike other car dealerships.
— Don’t worry if the car doesn’t have a «CarFax», the AutoCheck service they use is pretty reasonable and trustworthy. Don’t get caught into the «popularity» of a service as a way to measure its accuracy. Sometimes they even have both on a car.
— If you have a lack of credit or a bad credit score, don’t expect something otherwise in terms of financing.
Overall
— — —
In the end, this is one of the businesses that really deserves the high rating on Unilocal,because they really value your time and business. It may seem too good to be true, but give it a try yourself. If you treat them with respect and trust, they will reciprocate that.
I would come back here in the future to get another car.
Thank you very much Jeff and Kevin!

Very easy and pleasant time buying a car. Would definitely buy again from Carsmith Motors.

I bought a GTI here a while back and it was overall a good experience. You can expect the posted price to he competitive so there was not much back and forth which was nice. They do put a premium on customer service and never felt pressured into a deal. I would buy again from this place and trust that I was receiving a fair deal.

I was lucky to have walked in on a weekday and meet/​deal with Kevin Smith (the «Smith» in carsmith motors). He is very professional, got straight to the point and we closed the deal on the same day. I went there on a Tuesday afternoon from work and was back home in time for dinner. There was no haggle or hassle. I told him the price I was willing to trade-​in for and a price that I was willing to buy the 335is from him. I test drove, we came to an agreement and we signed. Simple, concise and done!
A little more on the details — the bank we were dealing with made a mistake on my Benz’s pay-​off and things got delayed. Kevin communicated, stayed in touch till the end and we finished the deal. 6 months later I realized that the bank still owed me money back from the difference of my pay-​off quote and what had been applied. Since it took too long, I had made a payment in between. I reached out to Kevin, he said he will look into it, 2 days later got back to me and told me «you’re right. we owe you that money. I will work with the bank and get it back. should I mail a check to you?» and done! I received that check today. No questions and no BS! He assumed I was right and did his due diligence and looked into the issue. It was over $ 1,000. He didn’t say that it has been 6 months so too bad!
Another little issue — when I test drove the car, i felt like the wheel alignment was off. So I told him and he, again, didn’t ask any questions and believed me for face value. Gave me 2 options — either he gets it done for me or I get it done myself and he will reimburse me.
I have bought 4 German cars (Audi, Benz, 2 BMWs) in the last 5 years. I have dealt with enough people and dealers and know enough to be able to tell a good one apart from the crowd. These guys are those good ones.
Before writing this review, I read through some of the other reviews and everything sounds consistent with my experience. But to shed some light on the lady complaining about multiple hard credit hits — the credit bureaus know that you won’t just go to one dealer and buy your car. You will shop around. Multiple dealers will have to check your credit to price up your loan. They understand that. Hence, they count all similar credit checks (car dealers or banks for auto loans) as only 1 hard hit, as long as it is within 30 days.
I look forward to doing business with these guys again.

I had a pleasant experience from start to finish. I started my experience talking to Kevin (one of the owners) and he was very pleasant. No pressure to purchase, offered to let me test drive it on my own. I actually went in to see another car, but I saw a sport model and he went over the differences between this model and the model I came in for. Really sold me on it, but I had to leave early that day to pick up my kids.
Arranged to meet with Jeff on the weekend since Kevin would be out. Had a little issue with my bank’s financing, Jeff turned it around and got financing with one his partners for a competitive rate and got me in and out of there with my new car in less than 2 hours. I’m usually a big haggler on price, but they had great prices on quality vehicles and will recommend them to any of my friends looking for a used car.

I used Carsmith more as a broker than a dealer, since I knew exactly what I wanted, but really had given up on trying to find and acquire it myself. Dave listened to what I wanted and what I was willing to pay, then went out and found it and acquired on my behalf. He facilitated mechanical inspection and history, and even let a local friend take the car for a test drive before I sent final payment. Two weeks later the car appeared on my driveway (I’m out of state and Dave talked me out of arriving and driving it home to save a bundle in taxes.)
All in all it was the most painless and pleasant car buying experience I have ever had. I will use Carsmith again in the future.

Great buying experience, walked in and got to test drive my car immediately, don’t have to deal with salesmen asking you a million questions. I ended up buying a 2011 G37 with 36k miles from these guys and so far love the car– have been driving 5 months with no issues.
The reason I will only give them four stars is because I really don’t believe they gave me fair market value for my two trade ins, 2006 Altima and 1999 Range Rover. I understand they invest in these cars to get them in proper order but still after seeing what they are advertising these cars at now– I do feel pretty disappointed in what they offered me. Bottom line, if I could go back I would just sell these cars myself and come to Carsmith with a few extra grand versus trading them in. Not a big deal but definitely worth the hassle to sell your old car yourself.
Overall, I do recommend this place to anyone looking for Infiniti’s in the Bay Area. I can’t vouch for their warranty service since I haven’t had an issue yet but it seems like they have you pretty covered if anything arises. Cool business model and definitely beats the typical old fashion dealerships.

Great service overall!
I was searching around online and they had a car that caught my attention — Tasman Green (BMW). I drove down from Hayward to see this color in person because of all the interesting color descriptions from the forums.
LOCATION: Once you make a left onto Milmont Dr from Dixon Landing, you must make a left into the driveway past the water canal. I drove past it without GPS thinking I would find a medium-​sized dealership. Nope, they have a small warehouse.
PERSONNEL: I was greeted by the secretary, offered me water, and notified Jeff I was here. Later, Jeff greeted me and allowed me to spend some time with the car.
I told him my intentions and left. Through out the day, he kept in touch via text messaging.
The paperwork process was smooth, and since I have decent credit, the bank rates came back fast.
The customer service provided by the sec and Jeff is everything you would expect from a business. The only one problem I had was my wife snapped a picture of the rear end from the trailing vehicle, showing a shiny object dangling underneath. Jeff had no idea what that was in the picture, and offered to examine it if I returned the next morning. (I drove off on a wet night.) In the morning, I got down and found it the muffler hanger bracket nut was missing, so only one of the two brackets was working. I’m a car guy so I fixed it myself. I’m sure had I returned the next morning they would have taken care of it.

I’m not your typical Unilocal reviewer. I’m a bit different in a sense that I only write reviews if the business extremely pleases me or extremely displeases me and Carsmith Motors definitely falls into the former descriptor. AHHMAAZINGGG!!!
First off, I know nothing about cars. Thankfully I have an aZnb0y408 supah ricer as a brother so he came with me to the dealership. When we first walked into the place, we can already feel a different atmosphere when compared to all the car dealerships that we stopped by earlier that day. There was no salesmen running around, pressuring us into checking out cars and pretending to care about us by offering us donuts (gurl, bai). There was just Kevin (the owner) who greeted us and make sure we feel comfortable checking out all the cars he had in the shop. Anyways, we test drove a couple of different cars and decided to come back the next day.(BTW, this place has the largest selection of Infinity coupe that I’ve ever seen so if that’s the kind of car you’re looking for then you should DEF come here, actually you should come here no matter what!!)
When we came back, Kevin (the owner) remembered me!!! (duh, who wouldnt jk). We told him the exact VIN number of the car and we started the paperwork. I’ve never met a more honest carsalesman than Kevin. He did everything in his power to make sure I had the best deal. HE IS SOOO AMAZING AND KEVIN IF YOU’RE READING THIS THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING MY FIRST TIME CAR BUYING EXPERIENCE SO AWESOME!
So glad I made my first big girl purchase here! So regardless if you’re going carshopping with your main bae or your side bae, rest assure that you will have an amazing experience if you go here!
P. S. SHOUT OUT TO ARLIN W. FOR SHOWING US AROUND!!!
An

This is how car buying is supposed to work…
No dealership sales guys.
No price shopping.
No calling around to find the colors and options you want.
No pressure tactics to buy the floor mats or paint sealer.
You just email them the car you want; they email you back with what’s available in the Bay Area and the best prices across dealers.
For delivery, you just tell them when you want to get the car and they’ll have it ready. They’ll give you a ride or even bring the car to you if your time window is flexible.
I leased a car through Carsmith back in 2009 and bought another through them last week. In both cases I spoke with a couple dealers just to get a sense of price comparison… and in both cases Carsmith’s price was lower. Not sure why that makes sense for the dealers, but hey, if that’s how the system works, ok with me.

My previous car was getting old and I needed a new car. We decided to get a Certified Pre-​Owned Vehicle, since it seemed like a safe way to save money. I was hesitant about buying the car from a private seller, but instead wanted to buy from an authorized dealer that would be able to back up the car with a warranty.
I had planned to just visit all the big dealerships (Lexus, Jaguar, BMW, Benz, Infiniti etc) to see if they had trade-​in vehicles that they were eager to sell. Then I happened to see Carsmith’s ads on Craigslist. At first I was reluctant to buy from a company I had never heard of, especially when dealing with used cars.
But since Carsmith had a huge section of Infiniti G37’s, we figured it’d be worth the drive down to Fremont to check out their inventory. When we got to the location, we weren’t sure if we were in the right place, since we didn’t see any cars outside and it just looked like an office building.
When we entered the building, we were pleasantly surprised. We were greeted by the owner Kevin and were told a little about the company. Then we were brought to their back warehouse, which was quite impressive. The warehouse was HUGE and it’s nice that they keep these cars inside, instead of being exposed to the elements outside. Plus it’s easier to browse so many cars at once!
They had a lot of different brands, including Nissan and BMW, but it seemed that most of their inventory consisted of G37’s, which was great for us! We had so many different vehicles to choose from — different colors, different specs, etc.
When we decided on one, we were able to take it out for a test drive. The area that Carsmith Motors is located in is a nice one — lots of straight roads with little traffic, so we were able to drive it around and feel the ride. Kevin showed us the car report and answered any questions we had. I liked the car but I felt like I wanted to see a few more cars before deciding on one.
We then headed to some dealerships in Fremont and test drove a car at the Fremont Acura. That place had a nice selection but there were way too many customers and not enough places for employees to meet with the customers. It was a totally different feel from Carsmith. At Carsmith, we felt like we were getting good customer service and undivided attention at an upscale company. At the Acura dealership, I felt like we were walking into Wal-​Mart with too many people who didn’t look very happy.
I did more research for the next few days/​weeks and then texted Kevin some questions. He was quick to respond and was able to answer all my questions. A few days later, I decided I wanted to buy the car from Carsmith Motors. Through texts with Kevin, we were able to agree on a price. I called him with my credit card to leave a $ 500 deposit so they would hold the car for me.
When we got there on Saturday, Dave greeted us and through a very quick and easy process, we got the car. It was a very smooth and painless process and I liked how I could communicate with the owner directly, and via text!
I would recommend Carsmith Motors to all my friends and would definitely come here again.

This place isn’t your average car dealer. They’re not going to call you begging you to come in and look at cars. They’re not going to send you generic emails and ignore what you’re really looking for. This dealer prides itself on being upfront and honest. They know the car trade. They like cars. They know what they will want for a car. In fact, the guy who showed me the cars was Eric, the lead technician. He wasn’t trying to make a sale. He was honest and showed me all the records they had available.
I would describe dealing with them like this. These guys are your Dad’s car show acquaintances. They know their stuff about cars. They know your Dad, maybe threw back a beer or two with him, but they don’t really owe him any favors. Your Dad tells them that his kid needs a car and he says ok, send him over.
You show up at the shop. There are tons of cars. Maybe you already have one in mind. You decide you want to buy it. Now this friend of your Dad’s isn’t his bff. He doesn’t have to sell you one of his cars, but he’s not going to be a jerk and try to take advantage of you. He knows how much he wants for the car. You know how much you want. If you’re not within his range, no car.
Sure you can try tactics like walking out of the dealership, or whatever, but that won’t work with these guys. So you either buy from them with a little bargaining room, but unless you’re negotiator level expert, don’t expect be be discounted thousands below their asking price.
So you figure out a price with your Dad’s buddy. Or maybe you have to talk to a few people at the dealership here, like the owner, for a broader range discount. Heck, they might let you walk over $ 500. Again, not your average dealership here. Eventually, you figure out that price you’re both happy with and that’s that.
Now this dealership goes the extra mile too. I didn’t like the impression in the seats left from the previous owner. They ripped it out and put new seats in BEFORE I put down a deposit. After the deposit I found about 30 things else that needed attention. The dealership addressed all of the concerns that they could and didn’t give me crap about sending them a super long list. Instead, they were nice and thorough.
There was another problem with the car we identified after we took it home. It was an unusual issue not easily caught at first. These guys said they would fix it if the warranty didn’t cover it. How nice is that? You even sign something when you leave the dealership saying you take it «as is.» yet, they’re still willing to help out post-​purchase.
So here’s a review of the people I worked with.
Eric — Dedicated, helpful, honest, will make your future car look wonderful
Jeff — Business-​like, direct, knowledgable, hard to crack a smile, doesn’t waste time
Kevin — The owner, super nice, willing to work with you and excels in customer service
Dave — Helpful, answered my questions via email and it sounded more like a coworker was responding to you than a salesman. He actually reads what you write which is more than what I could say for other places.
So yeah, I’d come here again. They get five star Unilocal for a reason. Unlike a burger place downtown where drunk people flock to claiming that burger is the best ever because they’re wasted, this place deserves the rating it has.
And just like your Dad’s bud helping you out, you guys will grow on each other.