Tom Leh

Review of Autobarn Mazda - Evanston,IL

I just purchased a new 2012 Mazda3 sedan a few hou...

I just purchased a new 2012 Mazda3 sedan a few hours ago. I had been researching dealer prices for this car for about a year, and The Autobarn in Evanston had the best inventory available for the deepest discounts. I knew the dealer would not discount any further, and this was perfectly reasonable since I knew they had already discounted significantly (23% off MSRP). I had hoped to get a bit more back on my trade-in vehicle relative to Kelly Blue Book estimates, but I also understood that my car is very old and had a lot of mileage on it, which made it unprofitable for them to resell in their used car inventory. I got the sense Autobarn was being reasonable with their final trade-in allowance through the explanations they provided to me, and through my own common-sense awareness of the age of my vehicle.

Jusuf Hodzic was a very friendly and down-to-earth sales consultant. He was enthusiastic and persistent(as a good salesperson should be), but was not overly aggressive and did not hard-sell me or play games with me. He was simply supportive and did whatever he could to facilitate closing the sale. I had financing already approved through my bank, but since the bank was closed Saturday, I gave Autobarn the chance to match the financing arrangement. They did, so I bought the car.

Some of the other large Mazda dealers in Chicago have a practice of advertising an artificial selling price on the internet via third-party sites like autotrader. So when I would call these dealers or check their direct websites, there would be price discrepancies of 2K or more for the same car. They would tell me on the phone that the autotrader internet price is 'aggressively advertised' and includes multiple rebates to qualify for that price. Without qualifying for these rebates, they would tell me I could expect my price to be higher. Each obscure rebate was 500, and they would list them all off for me (e.g., the Korean War veteran rebate, the rebate for people with six fingers, etc.) I am exaggerating to make a point, of course, but in the end, I did not qualify for any of their rebates. So these dealers' advertised prices turned out to be a pointless waste of time at best, and a deceptive practice at worst. In direct contrast to this, Autobarn was on the up and up from start to finish.

Autobarn sold me the car for precisely the price they quoted to me, which also matched the price on their website and the various auto aggregator sites. Jusuf also quoted this same price to me on the phone before I visited the dealership, so the entire dealership was consistent throughout the process. I appreciate that transparency a great deal and I was also quite pleased with the complete selling experience. I strongly recommend Jusuf and The Autobarn for other prospective Mazda buyers who want a no-nonsense low-stress car-buying experience.