The Autobarn Fiat of Evanston

I went to purchase a used car at Autobarn. I was given a quote of$ 13,975 and out the door would be about $ 15,500. When I went back to make the purchase the revised quote after talking to the manager wads over $ 21,000. My original salesman told me he would be in from 9 to 9 and when we got there at 12:15 he wash’t due in until 1 PM. They said there were add ons they put on the car and could not take off. I went back and did an internet search and got a quote from their internet call of about $ 15,000 out the door and there would be no add ons. Typical bait and switch. They had me wait almost 20 minutes while the salesman went to «talk» to his manager.
You know how you can tell if an Autobarn salesman is lying? His lips are moving. Never again.

5 stars for service! I worked with James to purchase my fiat 500x. It was an excellent experience! James was thourough and answered every question I had. He was honest and upbeat. By far the best purchasing experience I have had at any dealership! Thank yoh James!

Wonderful service! My Fiat had been making a burning smell for months. Other mechanics said nothing was wrong. One place even sold me $ 600 break rotors that I didn’t need.
Finally, I took it to Fiat of Evanston. It turned out to be a repair that cost less than $ 100. They even stayed a few minutes after close because I was coming from the loop.
Don’t be under the impression that the dealership is more expensive. Even if you’re out of warranty like I am, it’s comparable in price and much friendlier.

Beware of last minute hidden fees not disclosed in the original listed price. They pressure you to finance with them. Management staff was just plain rude. I don’t like dealerships who play games with the bottom line. Very unprofessional team.

I worked with JC on the purchase of a Fiat500x. The entire team at the dealership was wonderful and accommodating and I am very happy with the car that I brought home! I had a lot of requirements that I wanted and JC was able to help me out in every way. He worked really hard to get me a deal that made me feel comfortable and I feel he will continue to take care of me and my car beyond just driving it off the lot. Also, I have to say that the lifetime free car washes is a major plus :)

Got one of their oil change emails (no appointment necessary). Arrived at 11:15 and told the service guy I would go to lunch and return for the car. Was never told how long it would be. Returned at 12:20 and car had not moved. Service guy could not say how long it would take, so I left.
Drove from river north and wasted a couple of hours, plus I have to go to another place to get a simple oil change.
Will not return to this place, nor will I buy another Fiat-​Chrysler product. Had a similar problem with their «service» in the past. Lesson learned… don’t come here for an oil change unless you’ve got time for them to waste.

helpful sales people worked to get me the best price on the model i was looking at. Our sales person Sharon did not try and up sell me to another more expensive trim level which I appreciated. They
let me take the car on a long test drive (alone) without a sales rep so that I could really think and listen to the vehicle to determine if there was too much engine noise, window noise etc.
Paid with discover and a check.
Love my new ride

JC was great. He explained everything about our new Fiat 500x Lounge and even helped me program the car before we left. He remembered us from when we were there last October and even apologized for the horrible service we received from James, Sissan, and Katie. The vehicle we purchased wasn’t exactly what I wanted, and JC worked hard to get the model from another dealership (who refused to transfer it and the salesperson at that dealership told me about it — Bettenhausen) that’s closer to my home.
Speaking of Bettenhausen — they ultimately lost the deal because of their so-​called «No Haggle Pricing» and their funny math.
I give JC 5 stars but the dealership only gets 4 because they didn’t have the color car (it’s a brand new car) that I wanted and because I witnessed some unprofessional communication from the sales manager directed at JC. I know they got rid of three toxic fools, but the lack of respect seems to still be lingering around.

Gigi in the service department is the main reason i purchased my 2016 500x. She is willing to go the distance to make her clients feel valued. Gigi thanks for everything you do.

The customer service at Fiat of Evanston is incredibly terrible.
My husband and I have been waiting for our license plates when we bought a car there at the end of Sept. We have been calling for months to inquire as to their status and have never received one call in return. I would never do business with them again. Fiats are great cars, but the way that they treat their customers is incredibly disrespectful.

Don’t inquire about a car via email unless you want them to add you to mailing lists and bombard your inbox without you opting in.

Came in today with the intention of purchasing a 2015 fiat 500 sport. I used the car buying service through my bank and had pre-​financed. Through this car buying service I was supposed to receive a certain number of incentives and a certain discount off MSRP. When the papers were drawn up I was being told I was to pay over 5000 dollars over my quoted price. At the same time they were pushing me to purchase a bunch of additional things that I didn’t need and seemed to have a very difficult time being told no. They assured me that all my incentives were being honored and this was the lowest price I could get. Now I understand that tax title and licensing drive the cost up but a quick call to another dealer got me a price quote out the door over $ 3000 less than what the folks at Evanston wanted me to pay. I shared this with them and the sales manager refused to price match and assured me that the deal I was quoted would have the same extra fees that they had.
I left and went to the other dealer and received the car I wanted for the price they had quoted me over the phone. I saved over 3000 by going to another dealer which the manager said was impossible.
The folks here sell aggressively and you better believe that pricing is far from transparent. It was clear out the gate that they were trying to pull one over on me.
If you want a fiat go to Bettenhausen they are transparent and don’t pressure at all. I had a great experience there.

Received oil change, tire rotation, detailed inspection, and car wash for my 2014 Fiat 500 Pop. Service was excellent and Shaun was extremely professional the whole entire time! Very convenient location and I will definitely be back!

Found a used vehicle for sale that I was very interested in via a sales website. Visited Fiat of Evanston’s website to confirm inventory. Submitted a request to confirm availability of the vehicle. I receive a phone call from a dealership representative who confirmed the vehicle was available and I scheduled a time for that evening for me to see and test drive the vehicle. I also received a voice mail from a salesperson from the dealership confirming that he will be available when I arrive.
I drove two and a half hours that evening only to find out they don’t have the vehicle. I was given an excuse that he didn’t have time to check and the person who contacted me earlier was new and didn’t know. Of course he was happy to search his existing inventory to find me something else. I wasted a total of three hours of my time and who knows how much fuel for NOTHING!!!
Two days later and the vehicle is still for sale on their website. This is a perfect example of a bait and switch and I will be contact the Illinois Attorney General to report this.

This place made me laugh today. Went in to look at an Audi A6. Liked the car, prepared to buy it on the spot. Offered me $ 8500 for my car… What a joke. I already have two offers on paper nearly double that. They must think their customers are idiots. Kept asking me to counter… here is my counter… I’ll be buying at another dealership on Monday

Avoid this dealership. I encountered the rudest salesman and sales manager. They were unprofessional, pushy the exact definition of the «used car salesman» persona. They only care about making the sale TODAY! What they didnt know was that I had the cash to purchase the car outright, but I wanted to finance some of the price to rebuild my credit. Had they been the least bit patient and thoughtful they would have made the sale TODAY. I will never return and will tell everyone I know about this experience.

The was the worst customer service experience I have had-​even by a car salesman standard. My husband and I were making a deal with another dealership not too far from their dealership. We contacted Fiat Evanston about the same exact car and they told us to hurry and get their dealership as they would make us a better deal for leaving our current deal on the table. We rushed over only to find that the car was being shown to someone else. We told them we wanted to leave because we didn’t want to deal with the back fourth counter-​offers but they assured us they wouldn’t sell the car underneath us and after wasting 2 hours of our time… they come back to us saying «sorry, we just sold the car». Um, shouldn’t we have gotten priority? Horrible experience! Also, this was all done by the manager, Alex.

I have a bazillion years in customer service, and my experience at the Autobarn Fiat is like a case study in how not to deal with customers.
In mid-​May I bought a Fiat 500L from Frances, who was lovely and a pleasure to work with. She gave me a great purchase experience, although admittedly I probably paid more than I needed to, but I should have been more prepared. Anyway, Frances was where the good experience ended. Here, reader, is a chronicle of my negative experiences at Fiat Autobarn Evanston, numbered for your reading ease.
1. The day after I bought the car, the check engine line came on. No big deal, stuff happens. I brought it in and got it serviced/​got a free rental Fiat and got it returned to me the next day. That would have been fine, except for that same day, the check engine light came on *again.* Like five minutes after I drove it off the lot. I brought it back in the next day, fairly annoyed that I had to surrender my new car now twice in 48 hours, and I was told that the dude had basically just reset the computer and that was that. They were apologetic and promised to service the car quickly, and in the meantime lent me a Lexus GS 350 (I think) so fine, I got to roll around Chicago in a nicer car that I’d ever driven before in my life. It turns out that there was a manufacturer defect with one of the tubes, which was not easily caught, so I wasn’t super upset/​easily forgave the situation.
2. Upon purchase of the car, I wasn’t given proof of registration ever, at any point. The lady who filled out the financial paperwork and registration information was frazzled as hell, and apparently she was some kind of hologram or illusion, because I’m pretty sure she doesn’t actually exist. We tried calling a dozen times to go in and get a copy, and were always told she wasn’t working (regardless of the time of day). Apparently she is also the only person with access to these documents, and absolutely no one else at the dealership can possibly get this heavily guarded information, so we were always told «we’ll have her call you back.» I’ve never once received a call back from this woman. So after complaining about a million times, the GM, Sassan, managed to break into the vault or whatever and promised me an emailed copy. It never came. Why, you ask? Because at Sassan’s School of Management, they apparently taught him that sending a blank email with a blank subject line and an attachment was acceptable and would never go to a spam box. So not knowing it was chilling in my spam, I had to call back some more, firmly cementing myself on the List of Annoying Customers. I finally got the email, like two weeks or so after I made the initial purchase.
3. THIS emailed copy had my name spelled wrong and had the wrong address on it. So after all this effort to get proof that the car was mine, the proof wasn’t sufficient anyway. I called back, kind of upset at this point because I’ve wasted like a week of my life on the phone with Fiat. My boy Sassan picked up, and utilizing the awesome customer service strategy that I’ve seen so many times since, basically told me in his trademark monotone and kind-​of-​annoyed-​to-​be-​talking-​to-​you voice that it wasn’t his fault, he didn’t have anything to do with it, but he could email it to me. So that’s great, I have an emailed copy that finally has my correct name.
4. As of August 12, I still don’t have a hard copy of my registration. I got a ticket because I couldn’t get a city sticker at a currency exchange with an email, and the EZ-​Pay system couldn’t find my car in the database, so not online either. Two days ago my husband went in and, like always, was told that Mysterious Registration and Finance Woman Who Never Works wasn’t working but they’d call back that day. As of 6pm today, no call, so once again, I found myself on the phone with my bff Sassan who was basically like «well idk why you didn’t get your registration yet because I sent it out,» but what he didn’t seem to get is that I have no proof of these claims because no mail carrier has put this supposed «sent registration» in my mailbox. He confirmed the address and oops, it was the wrong address that I thought we’d rectified two months ago! So that might be a reason. Through the entire conversation, Sassan tried to talk over me and basically kept implying that I’m wrong. He also kept saying «well, I emailed it to you.» Ok Sassan, a cop is not going to take kindly to me pulling out a phone and being like «here’s this email that has a shadow-​y ass copy of my registration attached to it» in the event I get pulled over. So finally, FINALLY, he has promised to send it with a tracking number «first thing tomorrow» — this is something he probs should have done two months ago.
We’ll see, Unilocal,if this is the end of my chronicles of horrible customer service at Fiat, or if I’ll have to expound with another long ass review because they Just Don’t Get It.

Went in there for oil change and tire rotation without making any appointment ahead and Gigi Guiliano took really good care of the service. She was knowledgeable, nice, and also knows the Fiat Abarth really well even with the aftermarket parts! Overall process took less than the time they told me and car was washed and cleaned up at the end! Sure will come back for service again.

Usually when you need a car repair right away, you are told it’s not going to happen today. Not so with the helpful service staff at Autobarn in Evanston. Kathy got me in the same day at my convenience and Gigi Giuliano provided friendly, efficient service. She looked up my service contract, making sure that I didn’t pay for the covered repair.
All in all it was a wonderful service experience. Thank you Autobarn and Gigi Guiliano.
Stuart Green