Capistrano Car

Price was negotiated over the phone since I was coming from 1.5 hours distance at $ 12,501. The out the door value was quoted to include all fees taxes and registration at $ 14k. The tags were to expire the following month and registration fees were due. Once we arrived, we demanded title since our bank required us to bring title to receive funding. On the contract it said $ 14K however Mr. Dave changed the selling price to $ 12,701.
We paid him cash $ 14k, signed the contract and realized that we have to pay for registration and transfer fee at the DMV after asking Dave «We just take this paper work to DMV and will walk away with new DMV registration without paying anything right?» The answer was «No». I was upset and demanded that he gave back from the cash $ 14k that we gave him. He refused and said that you are buying a good deal…
Over the phone he said that the tires have 60% thread but in reality they had almost 20%.
I demanded the $ 15 dollar transfer fee which was paid to him already and he just handed me a $ 20 and bill as if he’s doing a favor to charity.
I am very upset from this transaction and will not buy a car from him.

«Dirty» Dave, ex mechanic, is a grouchy old codger (like me), and he knows all the car salesman’s tricks, establish a bond, create urgency, cry about overhead, carp about the 3^rd party mechanic, etc, BUT, that being said, Dave gave me the best deal in a hundred mile radius. I know because I checked out the situation with the car I wanted for two months on four internet sites. Dave sold me a very low miles BMW Z3, 1.9 that for it’s age, was in stunningly good repair, at a price that matched or beat the private party sellers. A few cosmetic quibbles here and there but even the original rag-​top was tight and clean. The damn thing even seems to have new tires!
The car just got another mechanical thumbs up from a BMW shop I took her to for a sticky gas gage, which turned out to be nothing.
5 stars because the bottom line is the deal I got from Dave for the car I wanted.
Also, as per the previous review, according to California law, the dealer must give the buyer an option to purchase a two day return policy.

I’m a new fan of Dave @ Capistrano Car Co. My husband and I bought a car there about a week and a half ago. We didn’t haggle much, but we were buying a pretty affordable car that we thought was priced fairly (especially after seeing similar cars in worse condition at a few less reputable used car dealerships). We noticed a few «granny» cars on the lot — low miles cars with wood and leather interior that were older but looked clean and like they would run well. We ended up buying the car we came for — a Honda with 131K miles (which I consider not too high for a used Honda). The car runs great so far. We did have to replace the back tires, which were pretty bald, but that was part of the discussion with Dave — that the car would need two tires ASAP — so it wasn’t a shock. Other than that, the car will need new windshield wipers when it starts to rain in California again. The car had recently had an oil change and runs smooth.
I don’t tend to give out five star reviews easily, so that is part of the reason this is a four. It was a little frustrating to see another couple sitting in the car we wanted after drove a long way to buy it. However, after a couple of minutes on the lot, Dave jumps out and asks us if we are the couple who drove over an hour to get there. He had explained our situation to the couple he mistook for us (they showed up when we would have if it weren’t for traffic) and they let us have a first chance at the car. They waited while we test drove it. It didn’t make for good bargaining conditions, but we were impressed with the service we received. I felt like Dave was very ethical & honorable, but because of the difficult bargaining situation, this isn’t a five.
The final reason that this isn’t a five star review is that Dave made no guarantee on the car. Once we paid, it was ours. We didn’t have three days or a month or several months like some used car dealerships offer. We had enough faith in this car and the overall stock at the dealership to take the plunge, but it wasn’t fun to hand over that much money on the hope that our instincts were correct. If we had even three days to change our minds, this would be a five star review.
Tips:
1.Call first. If we hadn’t called first, we almost definitely would have lost out on this car. The website says to call first, so do it if you’re serious about one of the cars.
2. This dealership is right off Highway 1 (there was an old address on Google Maps that we went to first — about 15 minutes or so from the current location).

I had the pleasure of dealing with Dave. We did haggle quite a bit, but in the end I got the deal I wanted. I believe that Dave is an honest family man who goes to extremes to earn your business and backs up his promises. I bought a used Buick Lesabre from him and I’m thoroughly satisfied with the Buick.
I would recommend him to anyone looking for a clean, low mileage used car.