Nae V.

Review of Autobarn Mazda - Evanston,IL

DON T BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS DEALER!

DON T BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS DEALER!

In August 2016, I purchased a car AS-IS no warranty from this dealer under the impression that it s got a clean CarFax, the dealer did and inspection and the car was fine- it was all a lie.

Within a month of owning the vehicle (which I paid cash for $4K plus a few hundred) the car starting acting funny (de-accelerating when I put my foot on the gas, engine sputtering, engine light flashing, etc...) whenever I put gas into it. At first I thought I was using the wrong gas so I contacted a Mazda dealer closer to where I lived (I live in the South Suburbs so I called the one in Tinley Park) after describing the symptoms over the phone I was told it could either be A) water in the fuel I m using or worst case, B) it s a valve malfunction. I did not have the money to pay for either an inspection or service repair as I literally shelled out all the money I had saved from working holidays and summer since I am only working part-time and a college student.

Mid September I was finally able to get an inspection, this I got through the site Your Mechanic as it was cheap. I was told that I needed an Intake Manifold Valve Repair. This is where I consider the turning point in owning this vehicle to be. The mechanic who checked out the car swore that this problem it was having could've been there when they sold it to me and that the "clean bill of health Car Fax" was total B.S! The issue I have wrong with my car would've had the engine light on at some point prior to me buying it and the mechanics at Mazda definitely knew about it!

After hearing this news, I contacted the dealer explaining what was happening and they basically ghosted me as I did not speak to any of the guys who sold me the car, I was referred to a guy who claimed he was new and it was his first week there (allegedly). The new guy spoke to his managers and came back only to tell me I bought the car AS-IS no warranty so basically they have nothing to do with the car being in bad shape. Their way of placating me was to send me the vehicle record.

This record was more detailed and honestly had I seen this record when I bought the car, I would've NEVER purchased this car to begin with. I was basically screwed over.

Though I wanted to have Your Mechanic fix the issue it was about $150 if they did it- when I contacted them to fix it, I was stood up by two of the mechanics for appointments dating in October. Mind you during this time the car was barely drive-able as it kept stalling after putting in gas and it even went as far as to shut completely off once while I was waiting at a redlight!

By November I gave up on Your Mechanic and contacted Chicago Driveline to fix my car. They fixed the Intake Manifold Valve and replaced the Ignition Coil. According to one of the mechanics they were stunned with the state of the valve and the coils because the part looked as if it had been in a car with over 100,000 miles- my car only had about 53,000 at the time. For this fix the price including the inspection fee $608.54 to fix this car.

Flash forward to December 29, 2016, that fix by Driveline must ve only been part of the problem as the the car still has the engine light and it is still having issues accelerating on the highway (which is ironic since I live in the suburbs and work in the city) and it takes a good 10-15 minutes for the car to even start as the cold weather keeps making the engine freeze-up. I am basically in a hole financially as I needed this car to get to and from school and work. Now I basically have it sitting unless I have absolutely no choice but to drive it as I have no other means to travel.

I regret doing business with this dealer as they make Mazda look bad. I went into this dealership expecting honesty and good service, what I got I could have received from a no-name dealer flipping junk cars.

P.S.
To be honest with all the issues my car is having I'm actually wondering if the darn thing is a FLOOD VEHICLE. That was not listed on the CarFAX nor the socalled Mazda inspection.

Again, so disappointed.