H. Dolan

Review of Autobarn Mazda - Evanston,IL

Ok, here is the deal with my family's Autobarn exp...

Ok, here is the deal with my family's Autobarn experiences.

A couple of weeks ago we bought a new vehicle from sales consultant Kissy Freeman. Kissy was AWESOME. Thank you Kissy!

She was super-helpful, knowledgeable about her products, answered every question we had truthfully and quickly, and helped us work out financing issues. It helped that we had done our homework and knew what we wanted, but Kissy took care of business and had us driving away in our new Mazda 3 Sport in under 4 hours. We got there at 11:00 AM and we were connecting our iPhones to the car by 3:00, no kidding, which was terrific. There was no unnecessary delay and no BS about checking with the bosses and all that stuff that dealers seem to want to put you through. In closing, if you are looking to buy a Mazda, we highly recommend that you contact Kissy Freeman directly before you do anything.

Now, to contrast, in 2012, we bought a used vehicle, an Audi A4, at Autobarn, and the guy we worked with - Ross Conlon - was ultimately pretty useless. Now, I kick myself for getting the wool pulled over my eyes by Russ, and it's on me in the end, but here's what happened: when I test drove the Audi, I could hear the bakes squeaking a little, and I said to Ross, can we get those checked out before we purchase? And he gave me a BS line about ceramic brakes being squeaky, and that the standard for used vehicles was if the brakes are 50% worn or less, then they are good, and when they check out incoming used cars, that's the standard they are looking for before they sell them.

It still irks me to this day that I bought this from Ross, but unfortunately, I accepted that crap. Well, lo and behold, less than a year later, I took the car in for service and the service guys tell me the brakes are almost down to grinding metal. Whoa. I work from home, so I don't commute, etc, I used the car to get my kid to school, do shopping, etc, and had only put a few hundred miles on the car, and there was no way I'd worn them down that much.

I contacted Ross and he says the best he could do was to get the service department to give us the brake work at cost. I only accepted that because, honestly, no one else would give me any better pricing, but it still stung.

So, in summary, I was flat-out lied to about the work the car needed when I bought it, and then Ross did not take care of me as a customer when I had a legit complaint.

Don't get me wrong - the service people at Autobarn were great, and every bit of work we had done on the Audi was done well by them. My beef is with Ross alone. I have no doubt he did not really try that hard to take care of us. This is why I ended up going to Kiss. When I submitted an online request to be contacted by a sales person, knowing I would be in Ross' database, and that he would respond, I waited to find out when Ross would NOT be in, and came in on that day, and did not hook up with Ross' desk partner.

Unfortunately, this means that Kissy had to split commision on the deal with Ross, and I wish that were not the case, but I wanted to make sure I did not have to deal with Ross Conlon ever again. We will give repeat business to Kissy, but not to Ross.

Avoid working with him if you prefer someone be straight with you and take care of you when you have a problem. In my business, that's what I do, if I screw up or something goes wrong, I fix it - not Ross - at least, not with me.

I knew I'd be replacing this Audi anyway, and I was hoping to go back to Autobarn and get a good deal on a new car, which I did, but take my advice and go to Kiss Freeman or her partner. She deserves your business and I have no doubt she would take care of us if we have a problem.