Magnolia Motors

My family has purchased several cars over the years from Magnolia Motors. Because of my family’s long relationship with the Gene Mayer, I have complete faith in the backstory of the vehicles and in the condition of the vehicles. We have never been disappointed!
My most recent purchase is a total delight! I didn’t know I was looking for a new truck until I saw this beautiful 2004 Crew Cab Tacoma! In short, I upgraded from a ’98 Tacoma to a ’04 Tacoma. Even though this truck is 11 years old, it is clean with only 63K miles! I love how it handles; much cleaner braking, steering and acceleration than my ’98. Plenty of room for my dogs in the 5′ bed and for family in the crew cab, which I love! Gene upgraded and did extensive maintenance/​repairs to this ’04 Tacoma including a full skid plate and wheels/​tires. I have every confidence in this vehicle because of Gene and Magnolia Motors. I recommend Gene to everyone I know!

I bought a 2002 Mazda Protégé 5 from Jeff a few months ago. He made the experience extremely easy and was flexible and reasonable. I looked at the car at his Bellevue location and when told him I wanted to have my mechanic take a look at it in another town, he was very workable.
The entire experience was easy and smooth, which isn’t always the case when buying a used car. While he may be considered a «dealer» because of the Magnolia Motors location, I found the experience to have the best part of the personal experience with the advantages offered by working with a dealer.
I’d highly recommend if looking for a good deal, with a personal touch and great customer service.

It was a pleasure working with Jeff through the purchase of my ’01 Forester (October 2014). His professionalism, expertise and honesty gave me the peace of mind I was looking for in making a big purchase. While he was working on behalf of Magnolia Motors, I should note that I never actually visited the business and dealt exclusively with Jeff on two occasions.
For me, the most important factor in buying a used car was a complete and detailed service history along with owners I could trust — I wanted to know the car would be reliable from purchase and I wasn’t stepping into a money pit. Jeff was quick to offer up a long list of service records which he backed up with his own knowledge and expertise. Some records had been passed on from the previous owners (a single family) and some were from the 34^th Street Garage (sister company owned by his father). At first, I thought it was a little sketchy that repairs were claimed by a family-​owned company as this might allow for false records. Jeff claimed the work was done by an outside company, but I didn’t quite realize that company was owned by his dad, so a little more disclosure would have been appreciated. Despite his honest demeanor, I wanted to take the car for a buyer’s inspection at a local Subaru dealership. He was very accommodating as I returned the following day and allowed me to take the car for a few hours to be inspected. As it turned out, the car was in overall good condition with the exclusion of a few minor repairs which I do believe he was simply unaware of.
After purchasing, he mailed the necessary paperwork to the DOL the very next day, as well as all the service records I had accidentally forgotten. Days later, he checked in with me to ensure that they’d been received.
I first found the car via a «private owner» listing on Craigslist and while that’s not technically true, I don’t think it’s all that misleading. On behalf of his company, Magnolia Motors, Jeff acquired the car from a family that owned it since new. He had the car for a short period of time before I bought it during which it was cleaned, inspected and serviced. I believe this is standard practice for most used-​car dealerships, however I think the smaller size of Magnolia Motors (with smaller overhead) allows him to sell at lower prices. He relayed all important info/​documents from the previous owners so it felt like dealing with a private owner, with the added benefit of a professional inspection and service.
I’m happy to recommend Jeff and his company, Magnolia Motors.

To be clear from the outset, I’m trying to be as fair and objective as possible on this review.
I just purchased a used 2002 Ford Focus from Jeff at Magnolia Motors. Jeff is a nice guy and it’s clear that he is working hard. However, this was the first car that Magnolia Motors has sold as a dealership and I wanted to leave some honest feedback for others to see and think about.
My overall impression is that the transaction went no differently than it would have had I purchased the car from a private party on craigslist. This is not a complement. The devil is in the details and there were a lot of missing details in this transaction. Hopefully Jeff will figure things out for the next car sale.
My car buying experience:
1) The car was listed on craigslist as «by owner» not «by dealer». When I found out that it was a dealer I felt like there was some sneakiness going on. Unprofessional. But the car looked good and the price was around the point that I felt a good negotiation could happen.
2) The test drive was uneventful (a good thing) except for the fact that when I mentioned that I wanted to drive the car at highway speeds to check for vibration etc. Jeff didn’t really have a plan for a good test drive route. As he was from the Bellevue area, he said he didn’t really know the roads around Magnolia very well and that he «needed to figure out a better test drive route for the future». This was unprofessional; we ended up waiting for 15 minutes on the Ballard drawbridge as the bridge went up and down. Again, Jeff is a nice guy, but the situation was awkward. We ended up doing 50 mph on Hwy 99.
3) After the test drive, there were a few things I wanted checked before purchase (think A/​C recharge) but that I was interested in the car. Our negotiation felt fair for both parties.
4) Jeff was considerate and allowed me to make a cash deposit to hold the car for a day or two.
5) When it came time to do the transaction, we arranged for a time to meet (7pm) at Magnolia motors. I was asked to have the entire purchase amount in cash. No debit or credit cards possible. Is this standard? It sure felt like I was doing a private deal, not interacting with a dealer. Previous used car transactions I’ve done were by debit or credit card. I was uncomfortable carrying around thousands of dollars of cash and the timing made it difficult to get a cashier’s check.
6) 2 hours before our appointment to get the car I get a call from Jeff saying there was a problem. Apparently Jeff didn’t have the timing right for faxing the paperwork to the DOL to get the temporary tags for the car. He wanted to meet another time. As I had moved shifts around at work and gotten a ride arranged to Magnolia just for the appointment, this was unacceptable and unprofessional. Thankfully Jeff figured out that I could do an «extended test drive» for 24 hrs and he would get me the temporary tags for the car the next day (today).
7) Before we do the transaction, I want to do a once-​over of the car. It looks freshly clean. That’s good. I check the A/​C. All good. I ask about lights and Jeff says he had it checked out and everything was good. I want to see for myself. I check the turn signals. All good. I check the brake lights. The top middle brake light has 4 of 5 bulbs burned out. Uh oh. I ask Jeff to replace the bulbs. He fiddles with it for awhile and then says it must be replaced as a unit. We finally agree to split the cost. That’s fine, but not awesome. I check the fog lights. One is burned out. Jeff replaces it and everything is good. After I check the oil level (all good) the hood suddenly crashed down on the metal rod that was holding it up bending both the rod and the hood. Shoot! Apparently there was a missing grommet at the bottom of the hood holding rod and it slipped. I couldn’t bend rod back, but hood is flexible enough (yay Ford quality!) to make it virtually invisible. No harm, no foul, but I walked away with a sour feeling.
8) We complete the transaction and I drive the car home only to realize that I was given the car with ¹⁄₈ tank of gas. Unprofessional! I know this has changed a lot over the years, but I probably wouldn’t have batted an eye if the car was half full. ¹⁄₈ a tank? Where is the customer service? After all of the above, I felt like it was just «one more thing». Sigh.
9) I get home and take a closer look at the receipt for the recent Firestone clutch job that was in the glove compartment. This was something that was emphasized during the sale of the car; that a $ 1300 clutch job had been done about 1500 miles ago. When I looked at the invoice, all of the above was true, but there was also another page that described $ 950 more work. Why wasn’t I told about this? Felt slimy.
10) The day after sale, Jeff and I met to exchange the dealer plate for the temporary tag. Everything went well, gave Jeff feedback.
Was it different than CL? You decide; hopefully it works out…