Delica Dealer / Importer Ratings and Feedback

[The Pinkfingers]

Disclaimer: this thread expresses the feedback of individual forum members, and not the opinion of delica.ca

This topic comes up so much, that I thought I'd make a thread to help people looking to purchase. You can only rate the dealer you bought from. If you wish to participate, please feel free to answer any of the following information (or only one question).

- The dealer or importer from whom you purchased
- Please state if it was a positive, neutral, or negative experience
- Any relevant information you'd like to include about your experience
- Would you recommend them to others?

If you are going to leave the story of your experience, please make sure to also state the overall experience as either positive, neutral, or negative, and your overall recommendation (should you choose to). It's great to put both positive and negative aspects, but for the sake of categorizing your response, I don't want to assume anything.

I'll keep track of the answers in this post (listed alphabetically). Some customers bought more than once from the same dealer, with different experiences, so the number of ratings do not always equal the number of customers to the dealer.

To make sure that each response is authentic, the following guidelines have been put in place:
1. Responses are accepted only from those who have been a member for at least one month and have posted on other threads
2. After leaving feedback I will pm you to confirm your feedback. Ratings will not be changed until I receive a reply from the confirmation pm.

Those responses that do not meet the above criteria will be considered "pending" (see list below).

NOTE: This thread is not for glorifying or venting - just plain and simple feedback about your experience.

DEALERS: The purpose of this post (as stated above) is to gain feedback from customers about their buying experience, for the sake of helping future Delica purchasers. Of course, I realize it is one side of the transaction story. If you wish to thank the customer for their kind feedback, please do so via private message. If you wish to respond to neutral or negative feedback from the customer, again please first pm the customer to resolve the issue, and then either the customer can edit their post to add the outcome (best option), or you can write a post to explain the result of the interaction (second-best option).

Thanks, everyone, for keeping this thread relevant and objective.

NB: Dealers / importers are BC based unless otherwise noted. Exporters are based in Japan.

DEALER..........................................CUSTOMERS.............POSITIVE FEEDBACK.......NEUTRAL FEEDBACK..........NEGATIVE FEEDBACK..........RECOMMEND?

AMAZING AUTO IMPORTS...........................10............................10...............................0..................................0............................100%

BONSAI MOTORS......................................1.............................1................................0..................................0............................100%

FIVE STAR AUTO / COOMBS COUNTRY AUTOS....2.............................2................................0..................................0............................100%

JAPAN ROAD TRIP / BLACK DIAMOND LODGE
(JAPAN EXPORTER)...................................1.............................1................................0..................................0............................100%

JAPANOID..............................................2.............................2................................0..................................0............................100%

LUXURY IMPORTS (CALGARY / ONTARIO).........1.............................1................................0...................................0...........................100%

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE................................3.............................3................................0...................................0...........................100%

MOTORWORLD DIRECT (JAPAN EXPORTER).......1.............................0................................0...................................1.............................0%

MUSTANG CONNECTION..............................1.............................1................................0...................................0...........................100%

SILK ROAD AUTOS....................................5.............................2................................1...................................2............................40%

TERRA 2 IMPORTS....................................6.............................3................................2...................................2............................50%

V.I.B. MOTORCARS...................................1.............................0................................0...................................1.............................0%

VI CUSTOM.............................................2.............................0................................2...................................0.............................0%

ZEN AUTOWORKS.....................................1.............................1................................0...................................0............................100%


Pending Responses: arnold.delica (posted July 27 / 08); irek (posted July 29 / 08); bws (posted Oct 15, 2008); alec (posted Jan 7 / 09)

[The Pinkfingers]

Edit: now that we have completed our warranty time with Japanoid, I thought it best to update our recommendation. We had a very positive buying experience with Japanoid, and would recommend them to others with a bit of a caveat.

Pre-purchasing experience: Excellent. They found us the ideal vehicle and worked hard to get it here and fully serviced. They have people in Japan who look at the vehicles before buying them, which we appreciated.

Purchasing experience: Excellent. Easy to work with. Very nice folks. They did a full inspection and maintenance, and a free warranty (90 days, when other places we checked were 30 days).

Post-purchasing experience: O.K.. Had a fairly serious (IMO) transmission problem that developed within the warranty period. First they brought it in right away and flushed the tranny, which worked temporarily. Second they flushed it again and changed all filters, which didn't work at all. Third they took it to a tranny shop who diagnosed a problem, but it would require a rebuild. After this diagnosis, I was first told by Japanoid they wouldn't repair the tranny because it was a sporadic problem that did not happen all the time. I shared my thoughts on that decision (especially since I thought it was a safety issue), and the next day got a call back saying they would cover the repair. In fairness, Shogo said that he did not have all the information I gave him when he first told me they would not cover the repair.

They had our van for three and half weeks (the length was not all their fault, as the first tranny shop to which they took it did not do the repair when they said they would). However, they did lend us a Pajero to use for the whole time they had our van, which was above and beyond what they had to. When we got it back, the rear air and heat didn't work (it did before), but they said that was nothing to do with the tranny repair (dunno if it was or wasn't, but it's an odd coincidence if it's unrelated).

So in summary:

Pros:
- found us a great van at a great price
- fully serviced it
- often went above and beyond to the little bit extra

Cons:
- disagreement over the warranty repair after the first two attempts at fixing it did not work
- their busyness meant that we always had to initiate contact, often twice, before we'd get a reply (only a small con really)

Overall:
Considering that the 90 day warranty was an extra bonus for us (it wasn't a deal breaker), I still think we had a positive experience. I would recommend them as a great place from which to get a van (from a full service dealer). Very nice people who genuinely wanted to see us be very happy with our van. However, when the rubber hit the road, what was and wasn't covered under warranty took a bit of haggling.

[Schwa]

Gonna have to give Silk Road Auto a 5/10... Would have been a 7 but just recently took it in for the Delica tune at CVI and discovered unreplaced timing belts that we were told had been replaced ($800 job), as well as a bunch of smaller things over the last year... Rear tires are Japanese (should have failed inspection but somehow passed with RHD headlights and no DRL too), when DRL was eventually hooked up they wired into accessory power (headlights come on when listening to radio when the engine's off), flaky headlight high-beam wiring (had to go back to get him to fix it), undisclosed rear-end damage that ended up costing us more for the hitch install... brakes squeaky from day 1 (told it's normal) but seems like something's not right (pulls left, now pulsating too)... He's too disorganized to give the details of what exactly was done to each vehicle, so buyer be extremely aware.

[Todd64]

This is a great idea and should be stickyfied.

[Jester]

Mardy-Amazing Auto Imports
9/10
Excellent and straight forward guy, honest and reliable. Excellent post-purchase support.
Only lost one point in my eyes because he's very busy, so sometimes hard to get a hold of lol.
But then, he's busy helping other Deli owners, so I guess it's OK

[jessef]

Mardy's the man. I wouldn't buy from anywhere else.

A note about this thread (rating dealers).

Although it's a good idea, I think it can also backfire on good dealers.

Reason being is that everyone is different, has different expectations and experiences at dealers.

So the ratings can go from one extreme to another.

I would hate to see a good dealer get shafted because a customer has higher-than-average expectations and rates the dealer unfairly.

It's just something that can't really be measured accurately.

My 2 cents.

[marsgal42]

I am on record as having bought Gumdrop from Japanoid, and am happy with the vehicle itself, and the pre- and post-sale service I have received.

I will not comment further, even though my comments would be entirely positive: there is too much potential for abuse and misunderstanding.

...laura

[The Pinkfingers]

A note about this thread (rating dealers).

Although it's a good idea, I think it can also backfire on good dealers.

Reason being is that everyone is different, has different expectations and experiences at dealers.

So the ratings can go from one extreme to another.

I would hate to see a good dealer get shafted because a customer has higher-than-average expectations and rates the dealer unfairly.

It's just something that can't really be measured accurately.

My 2 cents.

I am on record as having bought Gumdrop from Japanoid, and am happy with the vehicle itself, and the pre- and post-sale service I have received.

I will not comment further, even though my comments would be entirely positive: there is too much potential for abuse and misunderstanding.

...laura

I understand where you are coming from, and thought about the same thing myself.

However, take Ebay for example. Every seller AND buyer gets ratings and feedback. That helps others enormously in knowing who to take their business to. That's also why I said people could only rate those they purchased from - to prevent hearsay and 2nd hand info.

You are perfectly within your rights not to rate or give feedback, but I think it will be great info for others. And there is less likelihood of abuse here than there is on Ebay.

I think dealers and importers know that word of mouth is the best advertising ever. If I am served well, I want to tell others and recommend them to others. If I am not served well, then others are warned.

If the community feels better about it, we can change the number rating to simply a positive / neutral / negative experience.

[The Pinkfingers]

OK - I changed it from subjective number ratings to a simple positive, neutral, or negative experience. Hope that helps this thread be a little more objective and less likely to be abused...

Schwa - because you rated SRA 5, I made it neutral - if you want that changed let me know.

[marsgal42]

Another concern is that any dealer can do something out of the ordinary. A good dealer can inadvertently bring over a lemon, or a clown can stumble across a good Delica. The exceptions are the ones that get reported - always - and could give a totally misleading view of which dealers are worth dealing with. I will not take responsibility for that.

...laura

[deltadeli]

V.I.B. Motorcars - negative experience - would not recommend.

[konadog]

We bought Hazel from Derek at Bonsai Motors in Campbell River and had ccautos complete the mechanical refit. No complaints, only praise. ccautos Glen spent a solid half-hour giving me free advice on the phone before we had even bought a bus - very impressed. When we get our next delica (Would love to have TWO ) I would do it the same way if Derek had a bus we wanted (his inventory is, so far, pretty small), though would also probably take a day over on the mainland to see Mardy's selection as well. I like Derek 'cause he is a local small business and an honest trustworthy guy, but if a good deal was waiting at Amazing Autos, well, I'd take it. Always ccautos for our repair and maintenance needs

[Schwa]

OK - I changed it from subjective number ratings to a simple positive, neutral, or negative experience. Hope that helps this thread be a little more objective and less likely to be abused...

Schwa - because you rated SRA 5, I made it neutral - if you want that changed let me know.

My recent discovery makes my experience a negative for sure, although initially I would have given positive or neutral at least, again based on what was said was done at the time of purchase.

[The Pinkfingers]

Another concern is that any dealer can do something out of the ordinary. A good dealer can inadvertently bring over a lemon, or a clown can stumble across a good Delica. The exceptions are the ones that get reported - always - and could give a totally misleading view of which dealers are worth dealing with. I will not take responsibility for that.

...laura

Anyone can make a mistake. It's how they rectify it that counts. If I inadvertently got a lemon, I would say I got a lemon, because that's the truth. But I'd also say how they handled it - did they take the car back and get me a new one, or did they fix the lemon, or did they say "Too bad for you," etc. It's how they deal with their mistake that makes the experience positive or negative.

This thread is simply a way for people to share their Delica buying experience, so that other potential Delica buyers can be aided in their search. It's meant to be a helpful post. Business owners understand that people share their buying experiences (well, hopefully they do).

I understand opinion posts are always subjective is some way. I've tried to limit the subjectivity as much as I can. I understand some don't want to take responsibility for how their opinion might be misinterpreted or misused. That's all cool. But I don't think we need to protect businesses by preventing different opinions about people's experience with them. I don't mind sharing my thoughts about my good experience with Japanoid.

[deltadeli]

I agree with you Pinkfingers. We bought a van that was great except for one (significant ) flaw. All we wanted was for the problem to be rectified, and we were strung along for almost a month by this dealer. We finally got results when we threatened them. That should not happen - especially when the problem was known to the dealer and not divulged to us before the purchase. Just beware out there!