  Many of you know I bought a new car last Tuesday. I sent the following letter to the owner, Sam Pack, the general manager, the sales managers and floor managers of Five Star Ford.
I also sent it to the general manager and sales manager of Don Davis Ford. *********************** To Whom It May Concern: My husband and I had the displeasure of working with Mike Huntzinger and Dan Balich at Five Star Ford in North Richland Hills in buying a 2004 Explorer Sport Trac on Monday, July 26th. After an initial test drive, we decided to discuss the purchase of the vehicle and the value of our trade-in with Dan. Unfortunately, our 1999 Honda Prelude was appraised at $6000, a huge disappointment since my husband and I were fully aware that our vehicle was worth much more. Feeling that our intelligence had been severely insulted, we decided to go home and return after doing a bit more research. Dan, not wanting to lose a sale, said he would discuss the value with his manager. He came back and offered $9000 – a 50% markup!
Feeling even more insulted, we once again insisted that we would sleep on it and return the next evening. Again, Dan asked us to wait a moment while he retrieved his manager, Mike, from the back so that Mike could “come over and say ‘Hello.’” Well, Mike’s ‘Hello’ turned into a battle to leave. With a cranky and tired one-year old on my hip, I explained to Mike that we wanted to do more research and assured him that we would return the next evening to discuss the sale.
His attitude immediately changed, asking what more we needed to know, what our current payments are (as if the our Honda and the Sport Trac are comparable) and then he finally huffed off assuming they had just lost a sale.
My husband, trying to assure Mike and Dan that we would return, asked about taking the vehicle home for the evening ensuring that we would be back the next day – Mike’s words, “That ain’t gonna happen.” In an effort to redeem his sale, Dan asked that we not hold Mike against him, because “it’s his job to act like that.” The following evening, my husband and I bought a 2004 Explorer Sport Trac from Patrick Jackson at Don Davis Ford in Arlington. From the moment we arrived, we were greeted with a smile. We were given room to breathe and inspect the vehicle and felt no pressure to immediately discuss numbers.
Our vehicle appraised at a much higher number and we were told many times how nicely we maintain both of our vehicles (my husband and I were in separate vehicles). Patrick worked with us on dropping the price of the Sport Trac since it included options we hadn’t originally anticipated. We also discussed, in detail, the advantages and disadvantages of financing through Ford Motor Credit since we’d already been pre-qualified through our credit union. After shaking hands with Patrick, we discussed financing with David Barragan. David gave us the information we needed to make an informed decision about our options and we left feeling very good about our buy.
I want to thank Don Davis Ford, as well as Patrick Jackson and David Barragan, for a wonderful experience. And I want to thank Five Star Ford, especially Mike Huntzinger, for leaving us no choice but to continue our search elsewhere. Regards, TMR ******************* I'm not sure what the outcome will be, or if anything at all will happen, but I received a note back from Sam Pack himself saying he would investigate the situation. Better than nothing! 
