The Autobarn Mazda of Evanston

My mom and I walked into The Autobarn Mazda of Evanston ready to ask tons of questions about the Mazda CX-​5. We were immediately greeted with enthusiasm from Corey Jackson and unlike most sales people, we didn’t feel like there were any hands down our throats when we first started to express interest. We went for the best test drive ever, too! Corey took us on a route around Evanston and somehow made a standard test drive into a fun, relaxed drive that really made me comfortable driving a smaller car than I’m used to. He went over the features fairly well and if he didn’t know the answer to a question (he’s a newer addition to the Mazda team), he would admit to it and promised to get us the answer. Which he did! Overall, it was a very personal experience. By the time we got back, we were introduced to what it seemed like the entire team. Everyone was super friendly. When the time came a couple days later to sign the lease paper, it was a stress free process. Again, everyone was chatty and personable and made sure all my questions were answered in terms of lease agreements and even the technology aspect of the car. I ended up leasing a CX-​5 but I wanted the sand interior rather than the black– they jumped on it and got a car of my liking from Wisconsin. It arrived in Arlington Heights the next day and Corey drove there to pick it up for me to bring it back to Evanston. Talk about going over and beyond! They are all very proactive about covering their bases when it comes to communicating– I would receive text messages about updates which was amazing due to the fact that I’d be at work and couldn’t answer a phone call. Looking forward to head back to my Mazda dealership to receive the best service in town!

We recently bought a used vehicle from The Autobarn Mazda. Our salesman was Corey Jackson. The process started with a call to Corey who understood our situation and really did a nice job of keeping me informed. following-​up in a very reasonable and professional way… until we finally made it in to see the vehicle. When we arrived Corey was totally helpful answering our questions or finding the answers from whoever he needed to. As we gained interest in the vehicle we were introduced to Daniel Lendon, sales manager, who also was professional, courteous, knowledgeable and overall very helpful. When we decided to buy the car, we worked closely with Corey and Daniel and in the end felt very comfortable that we made a very reasonable deal. We had one small issue after reviewing the paperwork and both Corey and Daniel took care of it immediately.
I would not hesitate for a minute to work with both Corey and Daniel if the opportunity arises again.
Thank you guys!

I have to say that purchasing a car here was great. Cody was incredible. My opinion has changed SO much about car salesmen! Not only was Cody honest and friendly, but knowledgeable, attentive, professional, and worked with us all the way from looking around up to the actual purchase. Chris then took over the actual purchase/​paperwork and provided us with other options and the details, but was not pushy or rude whether you accepted or declined the options. Even the service gentleman, I believe his name was Alex, who prepared the car to drive off the lot, was courteous, prompt, and professional. You will definitely be treated like a human being with respect, professionalism, and a friendly, staff. After a bad experience at a different dealership a few years ago, we were dreading this. Thank you Autobarn for a favorable and pleasant experience. We will keep you in mind for all future purchases and pass along out experience to our friends!!!

I can’t say enough good things about my experience purchasing a car here. Our sales guy Cody Varilek was patient and honest. He took 5 hours with me on a Friday night and helped me get into exactly what I wanted. I honestly can’t say enough good things about his professionalism and expertise on all makes and models of cars.

Great place! They worked with me got me into my car and at the best price! Very friendly

Expect lots of typical game playing on the sales front. I was kept waiting for so-​called Financing for an hour (a salesman jumped his customer in line in front of me) and Autoburn pulled a credit report (without telling me) even though I paid cash. Autoburn installed the front license plate by drilling into the sheet metal of a brand new car — really? They did not use hardware or anything else to prevent rust (and did not install a plate holder, just a cheap dealer surround that I cannot wait to get off my vehicle) — Autoburn just drilled holes into the car and slapped a plate on it. They also wanted to charge $ 300 for VIN etching, but I refused to pay 10x the cost for that service — I am sure that Autoburn made up for it otherwise. I regret doing business there, as will you.

Buying/​Leasing process: This would have been 4-​stars. John and Chris Norton were helpful, responsive, and laid back throughout the process. We were deciding between a Lexus NX and the CX-​5 Grand Touring. My previous car was a Lexus, and this experience convinced me to join the Zoom Zoom nation
Maintenance/​Service: Sllloooowwwww! I always prefer to bring my car to the dealership for service, but I doubt I ever will again. I had a 10:30a oil change appointment that was not completed until 12:15p. However, when I went to check out, they had not finished all of the extra work they said they would do (removing an ugly «Al Rosen» sticker on the tailgate that was there when they gave me the car). For an oil change and removing a small bumper sticker, I was there for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

This is a two part review. One on the buying experience and another on service for the vehicle. Not only did Lewis get us into a car that worked for our family; there was nothing pushy or uncomfortable with the buying experience. He was friendly, professional, and relatable.
Our remote was having difficulty working so we brought it in to have it looked at. Cody was very helpful and took care of the problem promptly. He personally took it upon himself to get to the bottom of why the remote was on the fritz and had me personally taken to the VW service department to have the situation rectified.
I couldn’t be happier with the customer service in this dealership.

Yes, I understand, small place… yes I understand, not too many Mazda dealers…
BUT…
I don’t think it is cool to leave someone standing there in the middle of your showroom, with NO ONE coming to talk to me, and obviously not there with anyone else. I was giving the typical buyer signs, looking for help, checking in windows of cars, writing notes. I would have even been okay if everyone had been busy, but they were not. Couple of I am assuming salespeople had their faces in their computer, as if trying not to acknowledge me.
It took 4 separate people to bring in a car, but no one could take the time to even speak to me. Sorry, I can take my hard-​earned money elsewhere for a new car.

BEWARE: Attempted to sell me a damaged, insurance reimbursed vehicle (so not a clean title) as «new.»
About 3 months ago, I was in the market for a Mazda. I met with a nice young man (either intentionally or not «good cop»). We negotiated for a long time before coming to agree on a price of new car (he checked with his supervisor a few times, and even brought him out once). To his credit, he offered me to see the car first, but since the cars were not on the lot, but at a remote location, and I was very familiar with the model, I said I’d rather be sure we can agree on the price first.
We got the car from the lot. He chose the one with the LEAST amount of dents from the recent hale storm. We brought the car back to the dealership. I felt very uncomfortable buying this car as new, despite repeated assurances that all dents will be fixed at no charge.
I consulted over the phone with a friend who told me that the dealer will repair, claim the repair on its insurance, which will become part of my cars history forever. Anyone checking carfax will see this. The car thus is not «new» but with a damage and repair history, and should be sold as such.
I confronted the salesman with this, and said I want a new car for the price we agreed upon, or a damaged car at a deep discount. He brought out his supervisor, who said it would take long to bring in a clean car and anyway, there would be not difference than this car. I directly asked him that he is in fact going to make an insurance claim and sell me a car without clean title, and he just responded, with, «well, what do you want to do?» I left.
Terrible experience, giving credence to the auto-​dealer shyster stereotype.
I bought the car at Wilkins Mazda in Elmhurst (worth the drive to not deal with the Autobarn), who told me right away that it is impossible for them to sell me a new car at the price I negotiated with Autobarn. I bought the same, mid-20’s vehicle for about $ 450 more, new.
For the next week, I got calls from the Autobarn supervisor and his boss offering to continue to work with me. They knew I caught them, and I wonder how many people didn’t… How many are driving «new» cars without clean title.

Lewis Belcher gets top rating. I bought a 2016 MX5 from Lewis. The shopping and discussion period went on for several days. Lewis was patient … never a hint of pressure. He listened carefully to what I was looking for and did his best to delver that.
When the sale was done, I told Lewis that I would have to pick up in a small hurry so that I could park it in long term parking at O’Hare for about a week. My plan was to fly into Chicago, pick up the car and leave from there on a road trip.
He offered to store the car at the dealership. Generous. The he offered to meet my plane with the car so I would not have to come to Evanston SUPERB service.
Sure enough, I landed at O’Hare midday on a Friday and left straight from there on a road trip. Lewis saved me ½ a day … and some parking fees.
Lewis was professional, helpful, trustworthy, and reliable. Can’t say enough about his handling of this sale.

I came for an airbag recall and my service was ok.
HEED THIS: Definitely CALL and ask to speak to the Mazda Service/​Parts department before scheduling to see if they have the parts in stock. The call center employees don’t know anything. I called and asked if the work could be completed the day scheduled and the woman on the phone told me yes. Except when I came in, they didn’t have the part and I had to schedule another appointment and take another day off work. Fortunately, after throwing a fit and speaking to the manager, he was able to make some amends.
Once I received the service it went smoothly. Juan was great. Very professional and friendly. Their upstairs waiting area is quite nice and complete with free wifi, light snacks, coffee, tea, etc and has plenty of seating.
Overall an ok experience, but make sure you CALL FIRST to determine they have your parts.

My wife bought a car for me in April and it has been paperwork hell since that moment, which is still continuing today. I’ve been working with the manager mainly with the busy schedule I have but have come up unsuccessful. The only options are for me to come over there which is super hard to do. My regret is that my wife bought the car from here.

The only positive experience I have had thus far is with their service department. I would definitely recommend them. Now for the negatives:
–after purchasing a vehicle and trading in our old one I made a trip to Evanston to give them the title for the vehicle we traded in. A week later, we were charged a fee for not giving them the title for our trade in. To correct this, I was required to make a trip back to Evanston.
–We never received a second key to the vehicle we purchased. The vehicle we purchased was previously a lease, if a second key was not returned by the previous owner Mazda would have charged them a fee. Poor customer service on their end.
–After purchasing an extended warranty my wife and I had second thoughts. Per the contract we were to submit a written request within 60 days and would be eligible for a 100% refund. After writing the letter and not hearing a response for two months I went to speak with someone in the finance department. His immediate response was to question why I wrote a letter (because thats what the contract says to do). I was then told by him that an employee recently left (Bojan) and that he probably lost the letter. I was then told I would not receive a full refund because I never called for a follow up. He then told me to not ‘get smart’ with him when I showed proof of the letter and the date it was written. At this point I asked to speak to a manager to which I received the ‘I am the manager’ response. He then asked me to sign something and he would submit it to the person in charge of claims. I refused and asked to speak to the person in charge of claims. She then informed him that they had in fact received the letter and had just cut a check to my financing company. So after being chastised for sending a letter it turns out that was the correct way to handle the situation.
Lesson learned. Definitely not a place I plan to purchase a vehicle from again. I plan to contact management with these concerns. If they decide to take any action I will update.

Bought a Mazda CX 5 today from John Norton of The Autobarn Mazda of Evanston. If you want a hassle free car buying experience with a knowledgeable and friendly salesman, this is your place.
John Norton was friendly, no pressure and was a straight shooter. It was the most enjoyable experience. I used the True Car app before going to the dealership and they honored a couple incentives from the use of the app too. The Finance guy and the Manager were all polite and professional. I recommend if you want a SUV, come see John or his brother Chris at the Autobarn Mazda of Evanston.
Happy car shopping!

Learn from my mistakes.
1. See if the car you are looking at is at CJ Wilson Mazda Orland Park or Countryside. Mine was, but when I brought the $ 3000 dollar less offer into Autobarn, I was convinced that CJ Wilson was doing some shady pre-​qualifying for rebates and that if I went there the incentives I didn’t qualify would be added to the offer and I’d pay the same that he was offering. Even went as far as saying that he was going to notify the Mazda Corp. of CJ’s «vague/​ambiguous pricing.» I naively ended up buying the car and 3 days later received a TrueCar Price promise from CJ in Orland for the $ 3000 less than I paid… I contacted both CJ sites (Orland and Countryside) and they assured me they they DO NOT pre-​qualify price. I mean they could have been lying but I think it is definitely worth checking out.
2. TRADE-​IN: I got $ 500 for my 2005 Pontiac Vibe with 160,000 miles, cosmetic blemishes and check engine light on. I figured, yeah its probably seen it’s last days… Saw it on the site for $ 4,500. I could have gotten more…
3. If you decided to buy DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING in financing until you are shown the final financing payment options… I was told to sign a bunch of things before even shown how much I will pay a month… one of those papers was the ownership of my trade-​in… if I saw those final numbers and decided I wasn’t able to afford it… would I have lost the ownership of my original car?!
I hope things work out better for you.

Things have really changed since Brian left. I have had so many problems with my Mazda 3 TPMS sensors attached to the air valves breaking and deflating my tires that the Mazda Corporation issued me a gift certificate, which I found to be useless at the dealership. I literally have to book oil changes 2 months in advance now, and I always wait there for about 2.5 hours. One time, I was waiting what seemed like all afternoon, and I finally called (while I was in the dealership waiting room) to see if my car was done yet, and indeed it was. No one was apparently going to call me and tell me this. The thing is, if you are going to be charging the prices of a dealership for everyday maintenance, there had better be some perk to taking your car there after the warranty expires versus any other garage. Now that the service team has changed, I see no benefit.

The best part of this whole experience was dealing with my sales consultant Luke Rispoli. He was never pushy and made car buying a breeze. Another sales manager (pretty sure he was anyway), Ross, was also very helpful. However, the good times stopped at Luke and Ross.
Two things wrong with this place: the finance department and some of the people in management.
After we agreed on a price we were sent to the finance department to complete the sale. It took about an hour and twenty minutes (!!) just to see Boyan our finance consultant. After finally getting into his office I was given a brief explanation and was told to sign. Luckily for me I read everything I sign and I did not sign a warranty extension that did not include the terms we agreed upon. Boyan at this point became visibly irate and tried to convince me that the contract was correct. Soon after Ross came up and verified the contract was incorrect and edited the papers himself. After finally completing all the paperwork we went home in our new Mazda — 6 hours (!!) after we first arrived.
Later that week I received the corrected form in the mail. However, the price on this warranty was about $ 300 more than we had discussed. I reluctantly agreed with this because I was able to get some free services in exchange. Soon after I was called by the finance department and informed not to turn in those forms – a new insurance company had been found with the original terms I wanted and so a new form would be sent to me. A week later those forms were sent and, after calling the insurance company, I decided to not go through with the extended warranty after all. I managed to get some free oil changes through Ross for having to deal with this whole debacle.
Now onto the my woes with management — when I went to talk to the finance manager to cancel the new warranty he was curt, dismissive and an all-​around unhappy person. He acted like I was wasting his time and could not be more bothered to have me sitting before him. Also, listening to him yell commands made it evident that his subordinates were his personal punching bags. He reminded me of why I don’t work in the private sector.
Also, it is very obvious that certain people (i.e., the sales manager) are very disliked. Won’t say how I know that but lets say I have good sources.
So anyway it was not the worst car-​buying experience but had it not been for a great sales department it wouldn’t have been a car-​buying experience at all. More of regretful car-​trying experience.

Sales Manager (Michael Allegretti)
Bought Car in March/​April. Michael has been great through whole process. He has been very responsive. I truly appreciate his help all the way from the sales through to helping me getting issues addressed that no one else would help with.
Sales Consultant (Daniel)
Was great through the test drive and answering questions. Told me to call him anytime, when I did he didn’t return my call (because the recorded odometer number was wrong) until he was asked to by the Sales Manager. Needless to say, he was very cold on the phone. Had to call him again, never returned my call.
Finance Manager (Katy)
Wrong Odometer recorded, had to have corrected. Got the extended warranty, gave me the wrong warranty and charged my credit card incorrectly.
Found out when I took my car in for the first service, my extended warranty wasn’t in their records. I was told I had to go back to the Finance Manager and get it added. I called her office and her voice mailbox was full. I called and texted her several times and she never returned my call. I then called the main number again and got another Finance Manager who told me I had to talk to my old Katy and that she couldn’t help me. She texted her and I texted her again and she never returned my calls. I then found out she didn’t give me all of my documents like my Sales Tax Transaction Return form or my Sales Contract. After 2 months (because I was busy at work), I contacted the Sales Manager who got me someone who could help me.
Service
I was told I would get a rental when I brought my car in. Maybe I misunderstood. I thought it was anytime I took my car in. After asking several times because they aren’t very clear in the explanation, it seems it is like if there is something wrong with my vehicle under warranty. I think. I tried for 2 months to get a rental so I could schedule service and they always told me I was on the list. I even said, «Am I doing something wrong, this can’t normally take this long». Just tell me what I should expect since I am new here. Never got a clear answer.
Even the Service Manager (John) said he would return my calls. Never did. I kept calling and got a wonderful guy in service that kept giving the Service Manager my messages. He still never called. Finally this wonderful guy got me in. Service was good and the system on how they keep you up to date is good. I got my service in October.
Once I dealt with another Finance Manager that said all was taken care of I called and got John on the phone who said he would return my call and let me know when my extended warranty was in the system. Never did. I had to follow-​up.
In November while in busy traffic my car would no longer accelerate. I fortunately was close to work and able to «glide» into the parking lot. I turned off the car and turned it back on and it worked. No warning lights. I called the Service Department to ask if they had heard of this happening before or had a clue what it could be. They said they hadn’t heard of the issue and for me to bring the car in. That night after leaving work in the middle of a busy intersection my car stopped accelerating again, warning lights came on. I quickly put my flashers on and started tapping my brakes. Luckily, I didn’t get hit. I turned my car off (in the middle of heavy traffic) and turned it back on. I then got to Roto Mazda in Arlington Heights (closer to where I was). They found out I was low on transmission fluid and found no leaks.
My only conclusion is when I bought the car they didn’t top off fluids and when I took it in for my October checkup, they didn’t check the fluids like is on my invoice that I paid for in the «check up». Also, a co-​worker just bought a car there too and her fluids weren’t topped off and a month after her car was in their shop. I called the Service Manager (John) to talk about this and he never returned my call.
I bought from Evanston because of the wonderful reviews on line. I researched and specifically picked them because of this. I am very disappointed. I have spent so much time and energy on this and don’t trust for them to make sure my vehicle is safe.
I have on multiple occasions expressed that I have had many issues and no one seems that concerned about it.
I bought a brand new car so I wouldn’t have many issues and since I have bought this car, the dealership has cost me a lot of time with all of the unnecessary issues based on their lack of service. I have never had as many problems with a dealership before. I kept saying, is this how it is with everyone? I have had to many problems. They just say no. I will also never by a car there again. As wonderful as the Sales Manager has been, it is the whole experience.

My review is based on the service department only. I purchased my car outside the area at the worst dealer imaginable (another review).
I’ve had two of my service visits at Autobarn. I waited until after my second visit to write a more objective review. Both of my experiences here were excellent. At my last visit, Juan Vargas was my service advisor. I’ve worked at a Mazda dealer in the past, so I can usually see through many of these clown’s BS. Juan was great at pulling up my vehicle history and explaining what a 30k service entails. He even offered a complimentary vehicle for me to use while the car was getting serviced. i declined because I couldn’t stay for the several hours required, so I opted for just the oil and filter service for the meantime. Juan kept constant communication throughout the process and was respectful.
Autobarn isn’t such a bad dealer to be stranded in. The WiFi works well, and they even have Starbucks coffee (not the greatest but better than most dealers)!