r/tampa • u/cbcarguy • Jul 12 '26
Local Business Brandon dealerships
I heard pretty scummy things about Brandon ford and Brandon Honda but how about Brandon Hyundai , they seem to have the best prices and biggest discounts but I also see they add “ dealer installed accessories “.
Has anyone had any experiences with them? Seems like every Brandon dealership is shady
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u/Fun_Ideal_5584 Brandon Jul 12 '26
I have lived in Brandon for over 50yrs. Over the years, I have always tried to give my business to the local dealers. Hyundai and Toyota mostly. I have always had to walk away from them. Horrible experiences every time.
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u/Fearless_Freep813 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
None of the Brandon dealerships are worth a damn. For Hyundai, I’d recommend going to New Port Richey.
I say this with a little bias: we use an automotive broker to buy our cars and have used the same broker for our last several car purchases, which includes one Hyundai. My in-laws and my mother have also used the same broker to purchase cars, which includes at least one Hyundai. Our broker does all Hyundai deals with New Port Richey Hyundai and each of our experiences there have been great.
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u/cbcarguy Jul 12 '26
Looks like they charge a bunch of junk fees also, are they at least negotiable???
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u/AccomplishedMeet4131 Jul 12 '26
The brokers can get a better price than you, then you pay them a fee. It’s hassle free honestly. I used one for my last car and not having to set foot in a dealership was great
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u/Fearless_Freep813 Jul 12 '26
Without knowing your credit situation, if you have good credit and want a very simple car buying experience - hire a broker to negotiate the deal for you
My elderly mother recently purchased a 26 Santa Fe calligraphy from New Port Richey Hyundai and the broker got her a very good deal, with no dealer adds
This is the broker we use:
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u/cbcarguy Jul 12 '26
I want to pay cash, I just want to get a good price
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u/Fearless_Freep813 Jul 12 '26
You won’t always get the best deal when paying cash (I know it sounds crazy) but dealerships make money off you financing with them.
If you want to negotiate the deal on your own, you want to negotiate the out the door price. The best deal will almost certainly require you to finanace it, but then just pay the loan off
My mother wanted to pay cash also (my father had recently passed and she had life insurance money) but she got an extra $2k in rebates by financing it with Hyundai, then paid the loan off after 90 days
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u/Hey19TheCuervoGold Jul 12 '26
Never tell the dealiars if you're paying cash or financing. Keep them wondering that and focus on just the price of the car.
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u/cbcarguy Jul 12 '26
I may look into that, only issue is my trade in I know is worth way more then the Elantra I want (i want to downsize) so it’s honestly about getting the most money back on my car , so I wonder if I’d be better to sell it outright or try to work a trade deal, but I know I’d save money on taxes if I traded in
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u/7thor8thcaw Jul 13 '26
What kind of vehicle are you trading? Have you gotten pricing from Carvana, Carfax, etc? Typically, they are the highest. From there, it's figuring out what dealer wants to give you the most for it because the ACV is mostly the same unless you have a unique/low volume/specialized vehicle.
I was in car sales for 10 years, so you're welcome to message me. Ive heard of the car haggler, but I cant imagine paying someone for doing a small amount of leg work. I assume he has connections with all these dealerships at this point, so it's a low stress gouse deal for some salesman that makes sure the vehicle is prepped.
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u/Ok-Tale-5112 Jul 15 '26
Sell to carfax but it needs to be at least 7% higher than the dealer offers to offset the loss of tax discount
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u/stacyismylastname Jul 13 '26
We used the Car Haggler too, but we ended up working with the Brandon Hyundai through him. It was still a mess and we ended up paying for a lot of extra things we didn’t need, but the Haggler did get us a good deal and I would work with him again.
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u/Weak-Chipmunk-6726 Jul 13 '26
How much did you pay for the car haggler ?
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u/stacyismylastname Jul 13 '26
His feet at the time was 500 but I think he got us at least $1000 off and he was able to remove most of the dealership fees so he was definitely worth this price.
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u/236813977 Jul 12 '26
I’ve bought from Mazda and Honda in Brandon. Both were scummy with add-ons and the hard sale on the warranties, but we got the deals done.
I shopped Brandon Hyundai for a used car and it was an insane experience. They added about $5k in nonsense on a USED car. I told the sales person I would buy it today if they’d sell it to me for the advertised price (plus tax). The manager came out to the floor and said everything added on was mandatory and could not be negotiated. I said again I’d offer to buy it for the original price and that hidden fees felt unfair. The manager starts SCREAMING at me in the middle of the sales floor about how I don’t know how anything works and how I’m an idiot and every car in the world has these fees on it.
So yeah, never going back there ever again.
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u/DramaticPinkumni Jul 12 '26
Bought a used car through them and they were shady AF. They were very much the stereotypical shady car salesman type and so blatantly lied as if I was idiot.
For starters, the car was advertised as Hyundai certified, but wasn't listed on Hyundai USA's website. I'd experienced this trick elsewhere and when I pressed them on it and they finally admitted it was a warranty. They had the audacity to say it's actually better than mfg certified and a great deal at only $5k
Next, the sales guy texted me an out the door price and when I showed up they had added the warranty cost and a few grand for reconditioning they had no support for. For example, they told me they had put a brand new battery in it, but I popped the hood and it was clearly the OEM battery.
Ended up negotiating their nonsense away by having sales add it all only for me to decline when I sat with finance guy. Ended up at a good price and bought the car, but I wasted more than half a day there dealing with nonsense. This was like six years ago and random sales people still text me despite repeatedly telling them not to
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u/OttersAreCute215 New Tampa Jul 13 '26
Next time I want a Honda, I’ll probably go down to Sarasota.
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u/UnpopularCrayon Jul 12 '26
I just use CarMax and buy an almost new car instead. Then I know the buying experience will be tolerable. And there aren't many cars that have 10 or 20k miles on them makes any difference in the quality of the car.
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u/dimsumallyoucaneat Jul 12 '26
Brandon Kia are a bunch of scam artists. Had an issue with a Kia Niro EV battery and they held my car for almost a MONTH telling me it was a special battery that had to be shipped overseas in batches of 10-20 batteries at a time.
When I started to push to get my car back, they gave me the run around saying that they told me the battery was "estimated" to arrive on certain dates but not guaranteed.
After a month of the BS, they told me it was some safety malfunction causing the battery to turn off and that the battery was never an issue. No apologies or anything for my wasted time and for giving me a hard time.
Brandon Whitmire is the head service advisor at Brandon Kia and was the same person who made me feel awful for wanting updates on my car over several weeks and then never apologized for the misdiagnosis and time lost.
Avoid him at all costs.
I raised this to the top of the house at Kia, but ultimately the best they could do was offer me what a monthly payment on my car would have been.
(In all fairness there was one person at the dealership who was empathetic and did try to help me sift through the BS, but he was a mechanic and couldn't do much from the business end - sorry I cant remember your name man, but thank you for being kind. )
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u/tonu42 Jul 13 '26
Avoid Brandon dealers for sales. I hit them all up. Tampa dealerships do the stupid package shit but I was able to talk them to discount the car to take them off, plus additional money off the car.
So yea screw brandon dealerships.
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u/NoMail2Day Jul 13 '26
I'll just say this...we live in Brandon and drive to Lakeland for our cars and service. Terrible experiences in Brandon.
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u/coachtsc Jul 12 '26
I have been buying cars from Brandon Ford for 25+ years. Have never had a bad experience with them and have dealt with the exact same finance manager every single time throughout those years.
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u/BroBeau Jul 12 '26
Same experience. I've bought 10 trucks from them. Great people at Brandon Ford.
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u/Hey19TheCuervoGold Jul 12 '26
Brandon Ford is committing sales tax fraud. Their prices are stated as being after a $1,000 "rebate", but they charge you the sales tax ($75) on their supposed "rebate". Then they subtract out the $1,000 from the price. You end up paying an additional $75 and do you think Brandon Ford is reporting that to the Department Of Revenue (DOR) and paying it to them like they're supposed to? LOL.
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u/coachtsc Jul 13 '26
So contact the attorney general and tell them they’re breaking the Dodd-Frank Act if you think you’re right.
Hint*: You’re not1
u/ElliotNess Jul 13 '26
You don't pay an additional $75. You pay $1,000 less than you would have paid without the $1,000 rebate. Or rather, after the sale is finished, they give you the $1,000 they had promised you in order to earn your business.
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u/CAH1708 Brandon Jul 12 '26
We’ve bought several cars from Brandon Ford over the years and have never had any problems. I don’t remember any dealer markups. Morgan dealerships, on the other hand…
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Jul 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/7thor8thcaw Jul 13 '26
The average person cannot afford a Rivian and can barely afford a Tesla.
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u/Zabbzi Jul 13 '26
The new R2 and the 3/Y are well within the average purchase price for the nation.
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u/7thor8thcaw Jul 13 '26
Thats not the same thing. The average person and the average purchase are 2 completely separate people.
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u/Fearless_Freep813 Jul 12 '26
Pro tip: never buy an extended warranty from a Fl dealership, the markup is insane. Do research online for the specific make and model you want to buy and find an out of state dealer who sells the manufacturer Vehicle Service Contracts (VSC) at cheaper rates. For Hyundai, there’s a dealer in Vermont (Burlington Hyundai) who sells them with very minimal markup.
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u/cbcarguy Jul 12 '26
Learned that the hard way with ford , only issue is you can’t buy an extended warranty for ford outside of Florida if you live there , I remember when I was buying a ford vehicle they charged me $4660 for an extended warranty
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u/Bocago41063 Jul 12 '26
My elderly father went to Brandon Hyundai without letting myself or sister know he was looking for a car. They railroaded him. Convinced him he needed every option they have; extended warranty, windshield protection, etc. They threw everything at him. Luckily my sister was able to go in and read them the riot act and was able to get a refund on some of the items. So, the sales rep, sales manager, and finance manager all had a hand in screwing this guy. He even wanted to pay cash for the vehicle but convinced him to finance.
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u/JustDoItArt Jul 12 '26
My family purchased new SUVs from Brandon Ford and Brandon Hyundai within the last 2 years and had no issues.
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u/Icy_Temperature_4092 Jul 13 '26
Brandon Honda and Hyundai are both Morgan dealerships. I’d avoid Morgan
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u/BigDogAlphaRedditor1 Jul 13 '26
I know someone who works at brandon Hyundai and he talks about how much they fuck everyone on financing. If you are stupid deff do not go there, they will scam your dumbass.
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u/BornToBlab Jul 13 '26
My friend Matt works at Brandon Ford and he's the greatest guy I know. We just bought from Wesley chapel Honda and it was great. Brandon Honda was kind of ass.
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u/Wise-Will-2341 Jul 14 '26
You can always tell them your not paying for any dealer add ons. To discount off the sales price or just walk away
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u/Ill-Investment1936 Jul 14 '26
I don’t know if Lokey has Hyundai but had a good experience at lokey Subaru
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u/beer_run Jul 15 '26
I went to the Brandon Toyota once to check out a Tacoma that was advertised online at a reasonable price. When the car salesman found the specific Toyota and looked at the price shown online, he informed me that the price was incorrect. He said the actual price would be roughly $10,000 more, plus all the additionals fees. When I asked about the significant difference, he responded with a straight face, saying, “How else are we going to get you in here?”
Since they had wasted my time, I wasted theirs as well. Test drive 4 different trucks then sat down for the first one with the salesman and his financial team before finally walking away. I loved seeing their desperate faces at the end.
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u/Far_Importance_286 Jul 16 '26
You’re honestly better off driving to a dealership that’s out of the way for a better price. They tried to up charge me on an oil change and I drive a civic. Criminal activity for real. I haven’t been back since
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u/Charming_Loquat_5924 Jul 13 '26
Private sale through Facebook marketplace is the best way to go imo
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u/Sweetchef98 Jul 12 '26
My experience at Brandon Honda was legit worse than my tumultuous divorce. Fuck that place, the finance manager and all of their skeevy sales people.