Outten Chevrolet of Allentown

The mirror on my truck had been knocked off and the parts department was instrumental in getting me a replacement on short notice. I drive a lot and not having side mirrors is annoying. It is a brand new truck so many of the stock parts are not available at regular autoparts store so it had to be special ordered. It took one day to get there and as soon as it was there I received a phone call that it was in. When I tried to attach it I realized that a second piece called an actuator was missing and that I would need that part to re attach the mirror. I went back to parts and we were able to find that part in Bloomsburg, and although it was a long drive I was able to re attach it that day. I was extremely pleased with the service.

One night after work my wife and I went to the dealership to ask for the Internet sales person we had previously talked to. She was gone for the day, so we were «helped» by Al. I do remember his name. We told him we had talked to Mary and were interested in the Equinox from the ad. He didn’t know which one that was, so he went to get the ad to make sure we were looking at the right one. He came back with the ad, and the keys for a test drive.
At this point I should explain that my wife was 8 months pregnant with our first child. We wanted an SUV to haul the stroller and other stuff that would come with a new baby. She would be the primary driver, but Al couldn’t get that into his head. He was a stereotypical male chauvinist, only talking to me and trying to pretend my wife didn’t exist. SHE is the one who actually did the test drive, much to his surprise. She loved it, so we went inside to do the paperwork. In addition to the price confirmed by Mary, I had a printed confirmation that I work for a GM supplier and was entitled to a supplier discount. I also had the approval notice from my credit union for the auto loan. Al had no idea what a supplier discount was. He insisted it had come from my credit union, and was only valid as proof of approval. I can assure you that one has NOTHING to do with the other. As is typical with car dealers Al couldn’t give me a price himself, he had to go talk to his manager. At this point he still had his copy of the ad from the paper. HE HID IT UNDER HIS DESK BLOTTER. When he came back the price was about $ 1,200 more than advertised. I told him the price would be what it was in the ad, less the supplier discount, or we’d get up and walk out. He called his boss on the phone to say that Mary had quoted a lower price. The manager said he didn’t give Mary that price. The only reason they honored it was because I had the printed copy, plus the advertisement from the paper on my phone. I never did get the supplier discount.
Al asked if I wanted to take it home that night. I was surprised, but said sure. Turns out because we lived in NJ and Outten is in PA we couldn’t take it home that night. Only one person in the company is able to handle out of state paperwork. No big deal, we’d get it in a couple of days. That part went relatively smoothly. The lady who showed us the features of the car didn’t know how to use them, but I was able to figure out how to sync the Blu Tooth myself.
Fast forward a few weeks. My wife gets a call from the dealership saying our neighbor had our license plates. They put the wrong address on the envelope, so they went to the wrong place. My now nine-​month pregnant wife had to walk down the street to get them. I went to put them on when I got home from work and realized we had no front license plate bracket (a front plate is not required in PA, but is in NJ). I called Outten to see if they could put one on for me. The customer service liaison who didn’t know how to use the radio had given us her card and said we should call her if there were any concerns at all. For some reason she didn’t address my concern herself, or give me the service department, she gave me Al. He said he’d have to check to see if they had one. He’d call me back. Two days later we hadn’t heard so my wife called. He’d call us back. The next day we called again, they didn’t have one in stock, but the factory was sending one to our house. How a company that sells used cars doesn’t have a bracket is beyond me. Every single car they sell has one that says Outten Chevrolet on it. But whatever. The problem was, I didn’t want to install it myself. I didn’t want to drill holes into my brand new bumper myself. Plus my temporary tags were only good until Sunday. Al assured us that this was a different kind of bracket that required no drilling at all.
On Thursday my wife went into labor, and on Friday morning our son was born. I made a quick trip home Friday night to give our cat his medicine and take a shower. On my front porch was the new bracket, complete with holes for a bolt, but no actual bolts. It was useless to me, I had a wife and new baby in the hospital, with no way to get them home because I wouldn’t have had valid license plates on the car.
Saturday morning I called, and Al actually answered the phone himself. After three hours of sleep in three days I lost it. Al told me there was nothing he could do I was on my own. I live in NJ, it’s up to me to fix my own problems. I believe the phrase «tough, buddy» was used once. Eventually I talked to a manager. First he told me I had been talking to the wrong guy. Al couldn’t help me. THEN WHY DID YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE LADY KEEP GIVING ME TO HIM??? He told me to go to the dealership in NJ and have them bill Outten to put the bracket on. I did that, which meant spending half an hour in a car dealership instead of with my newborn.
TL;DR — avoid Outten like the plague

Worst service I’ve ever experienced. I took my car in to have the blower assembly fixed for my air. Dropped my car off at 7:30 and went to work, I was told my car would be done at 4PM. I received a call at 3:50 asking if they could keep it, when I said no they obliged and said they would put it back together.
I had arranged for the shuttle to pick me up at 4, waited around until 4:10 at which point I called the service center who claimed I had called the driver and told him to pick me up later. Not sure how I would have done that when I don’t have the driver’s contact info.
When I finally got to the dealership around 4:45, after being picked up a half hour late, I was told my car was still not ready. Waited around until 5 when I was finally able to leave. My car is still making the same noise as when I brought it! They didn’t fix anything! They had my car for over 8 hours and did nothing to it. Not to mention they ordered the wrong part for my glove box so I have to bring it back again.
When I called the service number to tell them my car was still making the same noise the person who answered asked if it made the noise when my car was running or just when the air is on, like I don’t know the difference between my car running and if I have my air on.

I can honestly say I was very disappointed with Outten Allentown. First off they lured me in with «Mistaken advertisement» on a used car. Its a big dealership… things happen… i get it. Finally I figured I spent the last 1.5 hours on a car I should at least test drive it. Test drive the car, the car is in real good shape, They wont negotiate the price any lower but for an additional $ 400 they will give me a 3 year/​36K mile warranty. I say fine and they start the paperwork.
We are signing the paperwork and they mention they can only cover the car for 15K miles of the 36K mile warranty. (Car had 85K miles cant warranty a car over 100K miles). I about loose my mind because not only am i now at 2.5 hours, they would not accept a personal check I needed to go get a cashiers check from the bank. The manager stated he would get us a gas card for our troubles… So, 6 weeks later, still no gas card.
The car went through a «170 point inspection» … yeah, we took the car back 2 days after we left the lot because the rotors and breaks were shot, the door locks did not work all the time.
All I can say is Buyer Beware…

Terrible.
I contacted Outten’s Service dept initially to see if I could find out some information about a Chevy Suburban that was serviced at their dealership. I was considering to purchase this Suburban through another local dealer who received it as a trade in the end of December 2011.
In my inspection of the truck I noticed some things that looked like the it been in a crash or fender bender and then repaired, so I looked at the carfax report and Outten was listed as the repair shop that did the work. The repairs listed were small and there wasn’t much info, but the thing that bothered me the most was that the headlights didn’t match (one newer then the other) and the front strut was listed as being replaced. I wanted to buy the truck but I was wary about the repair info so I contacted Outtens Service Department to see what I could find.
The person who answered the phone was very rude to me. He exclaimed that he couldn’t give me ANY information due to privacy laws. I explained that I wasn’t looking for former owner info or anything of personal nature. But he insisted that unless I owned the truck, he could not help me.
Well after careful consideration I made the purchase and the next week personally stopped into the dealership with the truck. I was treaded rudely, and asked to wait in the waiting room. After nearly 20 minutes of no help, … I went back and I was told the manager was too busy to talk to me and that he would return my call. I never got a call back, the man at the counter refused to even bother helping me even though I had proof of ownership with me! I found the attitudes there to be macho, rude and unfriendly. With all the good reviews I saw about this dealership I was disappointed to have been shrugged off this way. I was making an important purchase and all I needed was a little help and incite about the vehicles repair history. wasn’t looking to Wright a book about the previous owners!

The parts department is suspect and disappointing thus far. We have had 2 nteractions with the parts department and both of them have been poor. They have poor communication and conflict resolution skills.
We attempted to order an add on product, we were told a day or two for the product to arrive. Turns out the product is on back order. No calls to follow up. The phone tree won’t put you through to the department. When reached the parts manager offered no apology, no timeline and a complete lack of desire to resolve the matter, simply taking our dissatisfaction in silence.
We are now concerned about the overall quality of the experience and will give the service department a try before writing off the dealership completely. We will update this business when we have more information.
The Equinox is still awesome and we love it!

(I’ll preface my review by saying that my car buying experience at Outten is from four years ago and I have not been there for service on it in a little over two years.)
So I had an older junkie Ford that had 100K+ on it and more and more problems were creeping up on it including crazy things like having issues with the car’s on board computer and finally I knew it was time to bite the bullet and look for something else.
Initially I was pretty hardcore on the idea of buying a used car that was a year or two old figuring that if the mileage were low enough and the price was cheap enough things would be good.
But as luck would have it I have a family member that for his business leases and get service for several vehicles at Outten so he said he would go with me since he knew everybody there and he would help me «break a few arms» to get a better deal.
I knew what kind of car I was looking for and I knew that I didn’t want it loaded. Just the basics with a V-​6, anti-​lock brakes, and front wheel drive.
They had a few I could look at and I test drove one briefly, it was already after 7pm, and then we went inside to take care of the pricing details.
The initial salesman clearly was not allowed to be part of this as he really didn’t know his head from a hole in the ground and it was time to deal with «L» who was the head honcho.
We negotiated back and forth and after a scripted and fake call to my wife that she was upset about the price he knocked another 2K off the price plus would take care of the taxes and tags as part of that price.
Also during the paper work phase the F&I guy really tried to hard sell the whole extended warranty and kept lowering the price everytime I declined and finally after the fourth and fifth NO he finally got it that NO meant NO.
I initially got the vehicle serviced there but the attitude and arrogance of the service advisors, «C», in particular, made me take the vehicle elsewhere as I grew to detest the no loaner car, always 10−15% higher than the estimate, never having AM appointments available, and the holier than thou disposition that even when they would break something while fixing something they wouldn’t pay for it even though they did it.
I know more people than not love Outten for some reason but whatever that reason is other than maybe the old Dutchy standby of that’s where everybody else goes so I have to mindlessly go, I truly don’t understand.