Winnisquam Auto

This car dealership is by far one of the best I’ve ever dealt with. We had already shopped several places for a new vehicle to accommodate our growing family before deciding to take the drive to Winnisquam Auto. In my opinion it was well worth the trip, and would still have been even if we lived twice as far away.
When we arrived we were promptly greeted by the owner, John. He was extremely friendly and helpful as he showed us several vehicles we had looked at online. He didn’t immediately steer us to cars out of our price range, like most car salesmen tend to do. His upbeat and positive attitude was appreciated, and he promptly set us up with a car to test drive. We fell in love with an adorable mazda that was amazingly well priced. John brought it in to the shop for a once over and inspection before we did the paperwork and let us know that even though the tires pass state inspection (and easily had another 5−10k left on them), they didn’t meet their high standards. He told us he would put new tires on it for us! We were already set on buying the car, mind you! When does that ever happen at a dealership?
The entire financing process was easy and quick. They were accurate, honest, and straightforward. There weren’t any games with numbers or other funny business you so often find at used car dealerships. We felt confident in our purchase and our financing, which was done through a local reputable credit union.
A week later we came back for the new tires and had noticed a little noise when we went over bumps during the preceding week. We told them about the problem and it was found and fixed, no hassle and no charge. They stand behind the quality of their vehicles like no place I’ve seen before.
Overall, we had a positive experience and it is very clear that they value their customers and hold themselves to the highest standards of good business conduct. We will not hesitate to come back and purchase our next vehicle here in the future. In fact, I can guarantee you’d be hard pressed to convince my husband to buy a car elsewhere after the service we have received at Winnisquam Auto.

I just purchased a 2004 Toyota Corolla from John. I picked it up and drove it about 20 miles and the check engine light came on. Called John to see what he wants me to do and he paid to have it towed back to his shop. John called me the next day and gave me a line about an 02 sensor, soft codes, hard codes, etc and told me what a great guy he is for taking car of this (I had the car for a total of 45 minutes AND it had a 30 day warranty). Before purchasing from John, he assured me the car would be serviced. Obviously it wasn’t. It wasn’t even clean when I picked it up, but I looked past that.
John knows I’m from MA and my retired father who lives in Laconia helped me find a car for my son for Christmas. I thanked him replacing the sensor and asked to have it shipped back to me in MA. John went on a tirade and said «I will absolutely not do that. You bought the car, it’s your problem now». How quickly John went from a used car dealer who stands behind his cars to an average used car salesman trying to maximize his profit and screw the customer.
DO NOT BUY A USED CAR FROM WINNISQUAM AUTO.

Needed to purchase a car for my Norwich College student who is now in the Vermont National Guard. Flew in from California to New Hampshire with a list of 9 dealers to visit. John and his staff at Winnisquam earned our business. Cars are all visibly marked with the price. John was there after we had comfortably looked around. Test drove two Subaru Outbacks, John pulled the carfax on both. Was amazed at the clean car history on the vehicle we selected, John told us he does a lot of research to get clean vehicles to offer at his lot. Price was excellent value on Kelly Blue Book. Agreed on final price and completed the sale.
Was traveling in to Vermont the next day, so requested that John have the Title sent to his office, he told us it should be there by 2:00 and would contact us. Got his call about 1:15 letting us know it had arrived, swung by and picked up our vehicle. It had been detailed again and was ready to go.
We visited 5 dealerships before choosing Winnisquam. Very happy with the Subaru, and very happy with the service. Feel we were treated honestly, received full disclosure on the vehicle, and that Winnisquam really tries hard to get good cars and offer them at fair prices. Would highly recommend John and his staff!

John sold me a 2007 Yaris. It is in very good mechanical condition. It was a fair price and they gave me a limited warranty. I would recommend and do business with them again.

Was scammed so hard by this place, buyer beware PLEASE! They not only put the car under the wrong name (they literally did not get my name right, they put it under another name, so I had to drive all the way back from Concord for them to correct it) but they also knowingly sold me the car I purchased with a timing belt that had half of its teeth already missing. Had I not caught it right away my car would have been totaled. They knowingly laughed about screwing me over after I told them it was the only money I had and I was planning on driving it across country with said car. They should be ashamed of themselves. The mechanic who repaired the car couldn’t believe how dishonest they were, and they have been in business for 30+ years (the repair shop). PLEASE avoid and be very careful! RUNN They did absolutely NO work on my vehicle except for cleaning it after purchasing. Extremely dishonest and John knows he’s running a scam. Typical sleezy used car salesman.

OK, so I never thought I’d write a 5 star review for a used car dealership. I mean c’mon. *maybe* I’d give 4 stars for an exceptional experience where I was served fresh sushi as I filled out some paperwork and got a neck massage as I was sitting in finance. But 5 stars?
Well, John and his team at Winnisquam sure won me over. Not only did I get a phenomenal deal on the exact car I was looking for, but John, the owner, struck me as a very down to earth, hard-​working and honest guy. And in the end, he proved that’s exactly who he is.
Before my test drive, John was up front about an issue on the car that he was going to address. I appreciated the full disclosure. It ended up taking a bit longer and costing him more money than he’d anticipated. He kept me in the loop and the deal we struck remained the same despite the additional cost he incurred.
Michelle, who handled our financing was professional and very helpful. She had everything prepared so when we got there, we were in and out in less than 25 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever been in and out of a car dealership in less than two hours when buying a car before this.
The next time I’m in the market for a used car, Winnisquam will be the first place I look. It was really a pleasure dealing with them and well worth the hour drive from Southern New Hampshire.

I only gave this business a 2 star rating because I noticed that 1-​star ratings tend to be hidden. This is definitely a one-​star dealer. Only buy a car from this business if you plan on doing a LOT of repairs yourself and don’t mind having to find issues the prior owner didn’t want to or could not fix. They are just re=sellers who buy autos cheap and bring them back, clean them up and stick a for sale sticker on them. They do absolutely no maintenance check at all. The only things they will fix are the real noticeable ones. They are hackers when the problem has to be fixed. They had to change my valve cover gasket and hacked right through a ground wire because they were too lazy or didn’t want to take the time to disconnect it. Then they didn’t even bother to solder the wire, they put some connector on it that wasn’t secure and caused me a lot of headaches. The spark plugs were BLACK when we checked them ourselves because of the stalling problems. I could go on and on. Stay away unless you want to pay top dollar for used car with lots of issues.