CJ Wilson Mazda of Countryside

The five stars is for our sales person, Omar Vides. Please see further in the review for some frustrations with the dealership in general.
We came in to look at and test drive a used CX-​5. Omar assisted us and also suggested that we test drive at a new CX-​5. He test drove both cars with us and provided below invoice pricing for the new car. Omar also offered an extended test drive where we could the car home for an evening. Throughout the sales process he was quick to respond to questions and very friendly and helpful. We cannot recommend him more highly.
The Frustrations:
— New car prices are quoted without destination fee. On the CX-​5, destination is $ 900. This is deceptive.
— Cars sold by CJ Wilson come with their ‘All Star Package’ (which includes ‘VIP Program’, ‘Lifetime Car Washes’, ‘2 Autoguard Applications’, ‘Basic Maintenance’) for a price of $ 995. Again, this is not included as part of the quote and is added later. if you decline, they will ask you to suggest a price. We continued to decline and it was included at no cost.
Ultimately, we got a car that we love for a good price and I would recommend Omar to anyone looking for a Mazda. Some of the games did disappoint — read the paperwork and go in with open eyes.

Terrific dealership. Last year I bought a new CX-​5 from CJ Wilson of Countryside, and the sales staff here were friendly and surprisingly low-​pressure, and worked with me to get me into a vehicle for a fair price. When I had a minor warranty issue with my car, they took care of it with no questions asked. When I accidentally knocked my rear-​view mirror off my windshield, they installed a new one for free. Service through three oil changes has been consistently excellent — the technicians here really know Mazda vehicles and it shows. Great experience all the way around.

Such a great experience! Manny Castillo was so helpful and patient. They made accommodations to make buying a new car as easy as possible… and even delivered it because we had to leave emergently!
Thank you Manny, Bryan Anderson, and CJ Wilson Mazda

Another GREAT Experience from C. J Wilson Mazda-​Countryside, Illinois.
Special Thanks to Eric Vates and his staff MOE and Alex for an AWESOME Car Buying Experience. These People treated me like Family and I appreciated that. Myself as well as my wife, will be back for any of our future Car buying needs. Truly a well run and class dealership.
Thanks once more.

Omar Vides is the BEST. From the moment I spoke to him over the phone to inquire about the price of a new CX-​5 he was honest and completely upfront (rare for a car salesman). He gave us the best price, compared to 4 other big dealerships we connected with. There was NEVER any pressure from him — he was so accommodating and responsive with emails and follow up calls (even on his day off). He made sure that we got everything we asked for. We love our car. And surprisingly, the whole process — And it was all because of Omar. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending Omar to anyone thinking of purchasing a Mazda.

Run away while you can folks. I’m in the market to buy a CX-​5, I use Truecar and Edmunds to get pricing, but the specific car I wanted was not at the dealership by me. Enter
, where I found the vehicle I wanted. I messaged them about availability, and instantly they told me the price was 2700 under what other dealerships have told me. Not being born yesterday, I asked them what the catch was. They instantly said no catch come in! I wanted to know what the real deal was, so I kept prodding. Took several tries to get a breakdown, but no guarantee that they would honor the price. I know I don’t qualify for any rebates, so I wanted them to just admit that the price they gave me was an advertisement, and see what the real price would be. They doubled down hard saying I could buy the car at what would amount to 1800 loss, all while refusing to give me a written guarantee that they WOULD sell me the car at the price quoted out the door, IF I came in with that amount on the check. Why not be honest and tell the truth, or just go ahead and find out what rebates I qualify for? The GM finally wrote me a letter saying they decline to guarantee the price they quoted me, meaning they lie to get you into the brick and mortar.
Here’s the deal that I was told from the guy I just left a deposit with. They quote you the price with all the rebates and take out the destination to make it look amazing. They put a footnote that destination is added back in to buy the car, then when you get there, they tell you that you don’t qualify for the rebates (even though I told them upfront) and the price is more, then they have wheel locks and other things on the car you have to buy. After everything is done you pay around the same price as all the other stores, but you have to bash your head against the wall to do it.

Alex Pickett and CJ Wilson provided an exceptional car buying experience! Alex did a great job not only providing information but also sitting in my and my wife’s shoes to understand our needs. He was fair and straight forward with us, never pressuring us while offering ideas and advantages we may not have thought of. I can’t say enough about Alex and the staff for making the car buying experience not only painless but enjoyable.
Since purchasing our Mazada 6 around 2 months ago, we have loved it. Additionally, I have came back to Alex with some weird and random questions… he was more than willing to both answer them and take care of me.
Go with CJ Wilson and be sure to look up Alex while you are there! You will be quite happy with your decision.

UPDATE
It’s been less than 24 hours but I need to update this review. Mr. Brian Anderson, General Manager at CJ Wilson Mazda in Countryside, has offered to make things right and honor the certification of the pre-​driven vehicle that we purchased last evening. Matt, one of the dealer’s sales managers, had worked with me and previously offered to refund the certification charge (as mentioned below).
I believe this shows that CJ Wilson Mazda truly does wish to make their customers satisfied. They’ve taken the time to work with me. If not for going through this experience, I would have certainly given them five stars. I have another older vehicle and will be in the market again soon. I would be confident in returning to CJ Wilson because I know that they will work to make me a satisfied customer.
ORIGINAL (please read UPDATE first)
A caution to those seeking to purchase a certified pre-​driven vehicle from this dealership. The prices listed on their website for certified pre-​driven vehicles don’t include the certification. You can request an «eprice» from them. The «eprice» also does not include certification. Obviously most consumers know that there is usually some room to negotiate from the prices listed on the website. As you are negotiating your price just be aware that an additional fee is required in order for the vehicle to become certified. You are not negotiating for a certified vehicle. You must pay the fee in addition to whatever you negotiate in order for the vehicle to be certified.
This scenario was not made clear to us when we recently purchased a pre-​driven vehicle. To their credit, CJ Wilson has agreed to refund the certification charge; however, we now own a regular pre-​driven vehicle when we felt that we were negotiating for a certified pre-​driven vehicle — as advertised on their website. We are not satisfied customers. Hence, the one star review. We will not be patronizing this dealer group in the future.

I recently walked out of CJ Wilson Mazda of Countryside with a brand new 2016 CX-​5 AWD GT. My salesperson, Marta, was very accommodating and gave me a no-​pressure car buying experience. All the staff at this dealership seem very approachable as they always had a ready smile for everyone they interact with. I came into the dealership with a list of options I desired and walked out of the dealership happy to have had all those options I wanted. The showroom was nicely adorned with the latest Mazdas so it was quite enjoyable for me to gaze at those beautiful machines and sit inside a couple beauties (CX-​3, Miata). All in all, it was a 5-​star car buying experience and all thanks to the wonderful people of CJ Wilson Mazda of Countryside.

I love this place, not just because I bought my car from here, but the staff, the service, the complimentary drinks. Its an awesome place.

Bait&Switch. Grew up in Chicago, thought it would be neat to get a car and drive it down to my current residence. looking for a used mazda3 hatchback. their site listed the car as a Certified Pre-​Owned vehicle, as did cargurus, emunds and autotrader. While i did receive photos from the sales person, half the time I felt like I had to track him down. However, the kicker was when I was trying to obtain a final drive-​off-​the-​lot figure and was told that if I wanted to drive it off the lot as a CPO, oh, that would be an extra $ 1495. The only Mazda dealership in the country that advertises the car as a CPO but price listed is not CPO price. Every other Mazda dealership I called confirmed if it’s listed as a CPO, price includes CPO. The response was that he could not speak on behalf of the other Mazda dealerships. Mazda Corporate should cringe.
found this

Just bought a new 2016 Mazda6 I Touring. All can say is that my Salesperson Marta did a great of getting me a good deal on car. She was very professional, & very good at job. Again thank you Marta.

This facility is clean and organize. They have a good amount of vehicles in stock to choose from. I had a great and fun experience purchasing my Mazda CX-​3 here. Martha greeted me with a great smile and asked how she can assist me on purchasing a car. She had told me that it’s important to believe on what you are selling and love what you do. It’s important to have a salesperson like her to purchase your vehicle. She, her boss and the finance person worked hard to get the deal I wanted. I am really happy with my car and my purchase experience at this place!

Bought a brand new Mazda at CJ Wilson in 2012. My daughter leased new Mazda spring 2015. We both have had terrible post-​sales customer service experience. I will never do business with CJ Wilson Mazda again. My next vehicle purchase will be with Honda who I had fabulous experience with for 12+ years. I should never have changed to Mazda.

I can’t give a car dealership 5 stars. Yet, Alex Picket was a great salesperson. He spent the time getting to the bottom line and offering what I wanted. It did take a while to talk to financing. About an hour. So that wasn’t great. It is a large dealership, so I’m hoping support is there.

My experience: Liars and (so far) thieves. Last Thursday I called Omar to confirm if a certain vehicle was in stock to lease. I put a down payment of $ 500 that day to hold onto it until I came in early afternoon on Saturday. I was told that it would not be a problem. The money was immediately taken out of my account. I corresponded with Omar over the next day or so via email and told him I was on my way (with my parents too)
So after a half hour drive — with almost that amount of time in the shop waiting to talk to Omar, he finally informed me that my car was sold 1.5 hours ago by his manager, Mohammed. Now mind you I informed Omar before & after that time about me coming in for the car still, yet it was sold without any kind of warning. And after expressing my extreme displeasure with Mohammed, he gave no reason for it being sold before I got there, and even said it was 20 minutes ago that it was sold and not 1.5 hours as I was initially told.
As of today I still have not received my deposit back and feel I won’t. Because of this one instance I will never do business with them again and consider them nothing but liars & thieves. I took my business — and money — that day and got a car elsewhere. I will be contacting their corporate offices about this too.
RE: Bryan’s message below — I’m sorry, what? Not come together on that deal? I put $ 500 down to hold the car until I could come in to get it! I DID come in to get it as I said I would, and it was underhandedly sold to someone else that day which rightfully still pisses me off! And I already said I took my money elsewhere and got another car from another dealership that. So for what reason would I call or come in there now? If I don’t get my deposit back ASAP, I will contact the authorities. I was lied to and had money taken from me.

If I could, I would give this place ZERO stars. Unfortunately, the site won’t let me.
All in all, sales people are really nice, but their Finance person or GM was the one who drove us (sorry for the pun) away from purchasing a Mazda. Would not deal with us, would not even attempt to help finance us.
Wound up going down the street and leasing a Honda Civic for $ 100 LESS than than the price I was quoted on the Mazda, and had a MUCH better experience.
I feel bad for my sales person Ronnie. I really wanted to give him the sale, but Jim (or whatever his name was) certainly made sure that didn’t happen.
Go to Continental Honda and ask for Jacek. You can’t go wrong with them!

If we had decided on a Mazda we would have definitely chosen this place. The back of the dealership is a see of well organized and clean Mazda. We had Bart, a sales associate, help us out. He was low pressure, informative, polite, and eager to help. If we had chosen Mazda we would have definitely bought from this guy because he knew the car we were looking at inside and out and he could also provide a comparison against the other brands comparable models. Great experience!

Let’s be honest: it is nearly impossible to have a good experience at a car dealership. We’ve bought two new cars (both Mazdas) in the past two years. First, we went to the Autobarn in Evanston. BIG MISTAKE. Then, just a month ago, we went to CJ Wilson Mazda of Countryside. The difference in our experiences at the two places alone is enough to justify 5 stars.
As two young-​ish females, it is especially difficult to get through the car-​buying process without feeling like we’ve been patronized. However, Bart, our salesman at CJ Wilson Mazda, was about as forthcoming and honest as any car salesman can be. It helped that we came in informed. We’d done the rounds. We did a TON of online research. We printed out a True Car certificate.
So, we knew exactly what we wanted and what we were willing to pay, and Bart never tried to wheel and deal us. Within an hour of walking in the door, we were signing the paperwork.
Bart was kind, patient, well-​informed, and, like I said, HONEST. Those are invaluable characteristics when dealing with the stress of a large purchase.
It’s also worth mentioning that the guy who did the financing stuff was also really, really kind. (That part was the biggest nightmare in Evanston; they tried to sell us every warranty they offered and were angry when we wouldn’t take the bait.)
The facility is clean, convenient to get to, and quick.
It’s hard to sing the praises of any car dealerships but, after having dealt with several, CJ Wilson Mazda was truly a breath of fresh air.

When it comes to car-​buying, this is the place to be. After months of test driving and dealer-​visits, we found CJ Wilson. We had contacted and/​or visited three other dealerships, and though one offered a better deal (we found out they were showing a price with every possible incentive applied) and one had more to choose from, on a whim, we chose CJ Wilson.
We made the right choice, and we knew it right from the start. Upon walking in, the place wasn’t crawling with 40-​somethings in suits and slick-​back hair, but younger men in jeans and casual shirts (but really, would it kill dealerships to hire female sales associates?! I swear I’ve never seen one.). The place was decorated with signed jerseys and had a strong sports theme to it (not surprising, considering the owner).
I had dealt with Cameron Webber for a week or so via email, and he was the first to greet us. His soft-​spoken, non-​pressuring attitude works. We took a quick test drive, and then came back to start the negotiation process.
Now don’t get me wrong — this is still a dealership. There’s still the BS back and forth, and plenty of items for them to screw around with. And at first I was going to knock them a star for that, but if you have to deal with that everywhere, and it’s easier here, then that’s still a leg-​up in my book!
A few of the popular items that were unexpected: freight (nearly $ 1,000), the All-​Star Package (say it’s not your cup of tea, and they’ll ask how much it’s worth. We ended up getting it for $ 250 when it’s supposedly worth $ 1,000), and also the last minute plus-​up to your warranty that is sold by the finance person (bonus: you can negotiate this, too!). I’ve only ever bought one car and don’t recall all this BS, but realize I likely blocked it out of memory.
The negotiation itself on the car price was laughable. Cameron seemed so intense that I could barely contain my laughter. But it’s part of the sales person act. Though the negotiation itself took less then 20 minutes, we were still at the dealership around three hours, including the test drive. I have no clue what takes so long… as I was nearly delirious from hunger when we left at 9pm with no dinner yet!
They DO ask you to review your experience online after the deal is made. But you know what? I would have done this either way. They don’t state that you have to do it while you’re there, and don’t resist the sale if you don’t review… I mean, it’s not like they’ll take my car back if I hadn’t reviewed :)
Remember, if you’re trading-​in, you have two negotiations: the trade-​in and your new car. Get a quote at CarMax first so you know what you have to deal with (we were lucky enough to get more out of CJ than CarMax would have offered).
Details: We bought a Mazda CX-​5 Touring Base Model in September of 2014, and qualified for 0% financing (awesome!!!). I traded in a Chevy Cobalt and absolutely love the CX-​5.