Unique Automotive

I had a verbal agreement with the owner Jake to purchase a used 911. Everything was set, price agreed upon, and date for inspection and pick up agreed upon. Receive a text message from Jake today saying he sold the car. Jake does not honor his word. Be very careful dealing with this guy.

I purchased my car at Unique and couldn’t be happier that I did. They take pride in ensuring that you are happy with your purchase. Jake is the owner and he personally handled my transaction and responded to calls to answer my questions. The entire staff works as a team to ensure you are satisfied with your purchase.
I highly recommend them and would make them my first choice in any future car purchases.
Thank you Jake and the unique team! Love my Jag!
Diane H.

I found a car online that I was very interested in, so I drove from San Diego up to Escondido on Saturday with cash in hand to test drive and hopefully purchase the vehicle. Unfortunately, they decided to close 2 hours early that day. I was going to drive back up there after work this week, but of course they changed their hours today. They made it sound as if I could set up an appointment and they will make something work with my schedule, but soon as I gave them a time they referred back to their new hours and told me I would have to make that work. This also came with a ridiculous amount of unprofessional excuses that really don’t concern me. I’m very glad that I did not give them my business, because I can only imagine how they would respond if I had any issues with the car. Fair warning.

I usually don’t write reviews, but I was very happy with my car that I just had to. I’ve been looking for a car for a whole year. I wanted a specific car and I stumbled upon this car from
. I bought a 2011 Lexus IS250 from the owner of the dealership, Jake. He was very straight forward and honest.
The car has leather seats, navigation, sunroof, auxilary/​usb, everything that I wanted. There were a few scratches on the car but they are unnoticeable. I justified the price because of the clean carfax with frequent maintenance.
I had a budget of $ 25k and wanted the car to be as close as possible to that price (out the door with tax and licensing included). We negotiated it to a price we both agreed upon and we were both happy. I love my new car, especially for the price. Ask for Jake, especially since he is the owner of the dealership.

I give this company ZERO stars, they are EXTREMELY rude, all I wanted to do is negotiate pricing on a 2012 C250 for $ 21,995. I asked «how low can you go with tax, title & licensing out the door, I’ve already been pre-​approved thru my bank» he chuckles and says «Why should i go any lower then what it is, i have too many people who want it». I was very sarcasticly polite before I hung up on the jackass.

Just spoke to a sales person over the phone. Was inquiring about a vehicle I saw listed on CarGurus. CarGurus stated that the vehicle was posted on the site 62 days ago. When asked the man on the phone told me they had the vehicle for 30 days. After telling him it said 62 days online, he confessed that he was unsure how long they had it and asked why it was important (wanted to make an offer and YES that bit IS important). He was VERY RUDE from the start and worse after I had asked how long they had it on the lot!!! Terrible customer service.

I would have given this place 3 stars, except that I couldn’t justify it in the end based on my overall experience.
My husband and I were in the market for an SUV and I needed to trade my 10 year old VW in. We had a specific vehicle we were looking for, and we found one here at UA that seemed to fit the bill. The website had it listed for a certain amount, which we felt was fair given the market value generally.
I drove all the way from Long Beach down to Escondido to look at this car and, at first, was pleased at the prompt communication with the sales department. The car, which was described to be in «excellent condition,» wasn’t exactly in excellent condition in my opinion. There were several dings and scratches, the headlight covers were completely cloudy, and there was a crack next to the drivers seat where the seat controls are. Other than that, it was in pretty good body condition.
I brought my car-​savvy friend with me who did a visual inspection of the car and determined that it was a pretty decent used car, esp since it was 5 years old. I took it for a test drive, and didn’t notice any problems in the short 5 minute drive around the block.
The entire deal went off without much drama, although he tried to tell me I was getting a deal by them knocking off $ 1K from the sticker price, when that price actually equaled the price listed on website, which was not listed as a «special internet price» which was what he kept insisting that it was. Shady, but typical of used car dealers, or car dealers in general.
The bigger problem for me came after I brought the car home. I hadn’t driven it much after I brought it home, but several days later, I noticed some shuddering when the car went from 2^nd to 4^th gear. I called UA, and they became immediately defensive, rude, and accusatory. They made me feel as though I was doing something on purpose so that they’d have to pay to fix it (as they provide a 30 day warranty on only engine/​transmission). Uh, I don’t have time for that BS, ya’ll. I’m a busy lawyer, remember? Fortunately, I took the car in to get checked out by an independent mechanic who informed me it was actually a problem with spark plugs and ignition coil, all of which needed to be replaced.
What’s my point in telling you all this? Just take everything they tell you with a grain of salt. when they say «this is an excellent car» and «we can’t sell you a car with problems» and «we have our own service tech inspect the vehicle from head to toe before we sell it,» seriously insist on bringing your own mechanic to inspect the car b/​c their service tech seriously missed some big issues that they should have caught. All in all, I am out only $ 400 bucks to replace these defective parts, and I guess in the grand scheme of things, I still got a relatively decent deal on the car. I just don’t like being treated like 1) I’m an idiot, 2) I’m purposefully doing something to the car to hussle them, and 3) I’m not going to do my own inspection through an independent mechanic who discovered something in 5 minutes that their mechanic should have in the same time.
UPDATE (8÷7÷13): After taking the car to 4 separate mechanics who told me two different things about what could be wrong with the car, Jake, the owner, asked me to bring the car back to UA so his volvo specialist and his own transmission guy could take a look. They kept the car for a week. During this week, they did the routine computer diagnostic testing, which is fine. However, they replaced all three motor mounds and all 6 spark plus (which i had ALREADY replaced prior to bringing it back and advised them as such) WITHOUT MY AUTHORITY. I presumed that since they did not ask for my authority to perform those repairs/​replacements, that UA would be covering the costs for it. Uh no. I went to pick up the car on Monday and the volvo specialist (who is actually very good) informed me that Jake stated that «under the warranty,» it’s 50/​50, so I was on the hook for $ 500. For repairs that I never authorized. and for spark plugs that I had already paid to replace. After my husband spoke with him, we were informed that we could rescind the sale and return the car-​ok, that’d be a win for them considering we put in over $ 1000 in repairs/​replacements (including 4 new tires) and the car was in BETTER condition than when we purchased it.
They run a very sketchy business here and we were not satisfied at all with how they dealt with this situation. Beware of this when you decide to purchase a car from here.

We bought our Mercedes here about 4 years ago. The prices are terrific. Tyson was our sales guy and we found him to be professional and attentive. I think the only thing that was not great was that we purchased a platinum extended warranty that cost about 2500.00. The one time we tried to use it was not covered. We should have saved the money. Overall experience was positive and we would purchase from them again.

I finally got my car fixed. I would like to add just be careful when buying a car from this place. They say the cars are «ready to drive off– that they have been fully inspected. As turned out that is not the case. There were small things wrong with this car that I hadn’t noticed– light bulbs missing in taillights, small crack in left hand side of windshield. 2 tires had to be replaced. JUST BE VERY CAREFUL.
New Follow Up: May 2012: Took the car to Volvo Carlsbad because breaks were making funny sound. They said car had very poor after market breaks that were put on and now ruined the rotors as well. They also said that in six years none of the fluids had been changed and were BLACK. He said it was one of the poorest maintained car he had ever seen. Wow.

I went their to buy a car and found the best selection of cars. They ranged from mini coopers to range rover all the way up to Poorsche. They were super friendly and helpful… they also gave me the best deal in town. thanks Unique!

We really enjoyed our salesman, Tyson Cano. Apparently, he’s been at Unique Auto since he was in his early teens.
He was easy going, yet highly professional.
My husband has credit problems at this time, yet Tyson was able to get us a pretty good loan for the auto we wanted.
He also gave us a VERY fair price on a beautiful Saab.
He also came in on his day off to take care of our final paperwork, get the car ready to go (including putting ½ tank of gas in it).
So, yes. We are very pleased!

Had driven by here for years and never stopped. Hubby was curious about the different cars we’d been seeing out in the lot and decided to stop by. So happy we did!
We’d been looking for a used car in good condition and really hadn’t considered buying from a dealer — we were looking on Autotrader and Craigslist. Turns out we ended up liking some different Audi types and when we took a peek at the inventory inside they had several of what I liked in stock. The cars were all in great condition, the carfax was available on their website — no guessing, no asking — very upfront.
The Sales team was very relaxed and were definately «no pressure.» They were easy going and taking a test drive was simple — just ask.
Of the 4 times we were on the lot 2 of the times we ran into second time Buyers who had nothing but great things to say — so much so they were back!
So I’d do 4.5 Stars — and I bought a car — what more can I say!

Just had to look out of curiosity and the exact same car I was shopping last fall is STILL for sale on their site, which makes me wonder what kind of dealership this really is? Everyone has to turn cars, even if they’re on consignment and they haven’t lowered their price a cent in nearly a year. Are they waiting for this car to become «vintage?» So glad I went elsewhere.

I looked at buying a car here about a year ago because it was a great car at a great price. When I arrived, the one person working there wasn’t very attentive — I’m not sure if it was because I wasn’t buying the Rolls or if he just was like that. Personally, I liked it because it didn’t feel so pressured, but I can see where one would find that annoying.
Anyway, I explained that I wanted to have someone do a point check and the guy assured me that their mechanics had gone over. I did it anyway, and I sure am glad I did! Apparently, the doors were close to coming off their hinges, the tires all needed to be replaced, the breaks were so bad that I could’ve died on the test-​drive, and it was «missing various nuts and bolts.»
I ended up not buying the car (thank God!) and getting one elsewhere. Between the lack of service and the fact that I almost put myself in severe debt makes me not only not recommend this place, but tell people to stay away.