Baldwin Motors — Attraction in Covington

Good Afternoon! I wanted to pass along some feedback that I believe Baldwin Motors would find helpful for current and potential future clients. We visited Baldwin Subaru on Saturday 4/18/2020 and met with Kenny who was extremely helpful and knowledgeable and unfortunately we are not able to do business with this salesperson due to an extremely negative experience we just underwent with the Subaru Sales Manager "Derrel". We were originally educated that all details related to the Subaru we wanted to purchase would be provided over the phone on Monday. After not receiving a call, we decided to call the dealership Tuesday 4/21/2020 to inquire on the vehicle in question. The sales manager would not even let me speak a full sentence without interrupting me, told me there are "8 million people in his dealership right now" so he couldn't be bothered to call us with information soon (we visited this dealership numerous times during the COVID pandemic and have never seen more than 1-2 other customers inside, and considering the special promotions and incentives every dealership is offering it is safe to assume sales are not at an all time high). After asking that the sales manager would allow me to finish my sentence he laughed over the phone and said "what do you want to say". When I asked for information on the car we spoke about on Saturday, he stated "The car you are looking for is a unicorn and you just need to wait". He then continued to laugh at his own jokes and threw out a price after confirming he does not even have confirmation from the second dealership regarding releasing/transferring the vehicle, which led me to believe he did not have a firm price in mind and just "came up with a number". On Saturday the dealer said "we are around $2k with your trade in" and today it is "your car is only worth a grand, it's in terrible shape and has a bad carfax and honestly we don't even want it, it is just for auction". I have been in management with AT&T for nearly a decade and I have never spoken to an existing or potential future customer like this. I absolutely love the Subaru brand and I have had nothing but excellent purchase experiences at Baldwin Subaru prior to this. I have chosen to do business with another dealership that is actually further from my home just to avoid doing any future business at this location. As stated earlier, Kenny the salesperson was extremely friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. The reason we chose to do business elsewhere has nothing to do with cost, with a competitor incentive, or with Kenny. We solely chose to do business with another Subaru dealership, even if it costs more in the longrun, just to not have to do business with Darrel. He is an embarrassment to the Subaru brand, and Baldwin Motors should be ashamed to have him on payroll. Absolutely the worst vehicle purchase experience I've been through (this will be my 9th car purchase in less than 5 years). Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any additional questions regarding...

I recently had two trees fall on my Toyota Rav 4, while I am very pleased with the relialibility of toyota, I decided to look at a pre-owned Lincoln. I saw one on the internet at Baldwin and went to test drive it. When I walked in I was not greeted at all, had to hunt down someone to help me. Mr Cleveland ended up helping me. He told me the car I was interested in was in the body shop because of a “minor” fender repair, but that the car should be back in a few days. Several phone calls by me over a week to the dealership, Mr. Cleveland said the car was back. I went back to Baldwin to test drive the car, but it was not the car I saw on the internet (the interior on this car was black) the internet car interior was brown. I was VERY frustrated ! Mr. Cleveland said there was some kind of paperwork mixup. I continued to look for a car at other dealerships, since I live on the Northshore I wanted to shop locally. I went to Rainbow Buick where I was immediately greeted by Justin, a very helpful salesperson who showed me and explained in detail the car I was interested in. While I liked the Buick, I left to weigh my options. I liked the Luxury of the Lincoln, so I contacted the preowned manager at Baldwin, Roberto, where I explained to him that for two weeks I have been trying to see a car that has been I the body shop for repairs, he was very short with me and again could not give me an answer as to when this car would be available for me to see. I could not understand how anyone could run their business so BADELY ! Being a small business owner myself, I would want to know if my customers had this much trouble making such a significant purchase, my final phone call was to the owner of the Baldwin dealership. I was not able to reach him, I did speak to his secretary, whereby I explained the two week ordeal I experienced. She assured me someone would be calling me back, which later in the day David, a manager phoned me and said the car would be available for me to drive tomorrow. I went back again (my THIRD trip) to Baldwin. Took the car for a ten minute test drive, I LIKED the car. I asked Mr. Cleveland would I be able to drive the car longer because I was considering purchase. He comes back and tells me This was not done by the dealership. I was so livid I left And will NEVER return. Mr. Baldwin, this message is for YOU shame on you for making my car experience so HORRIBLE! I would NEVER treat my customers the way I was treated at your dealership. FYI Rainbow Covington DID let me take the car I was interested in overnight which I purchased and paid Cash for ! Thank you Rainbow Buick of Covington for making my new car purchase so helpful and smooth. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND...

THE ONLY REVIEW YOU NEED TO SEE!

You know, it's been several years since I bought my 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STi SE from Baldwin Subaru, but I received my "Happy Anniversary" email from them today and I felt compelled to write a review of this outstanding dealership.

I had just gotten out of the military a few months before and at 24 years old had only ever driven family hand me down type vehicles, but when I saw the LA Auto Show promo pic for the 2010 STi SE I knew it was time to pull the trigger on a car that I had dreamed of owning since I was a teen. The only problem was that this particular model was a limited run of 125 production units. I immediately assumed I would be looking at paying some unspecified amount above the MSRP as I began calling around dealerships in the Texas/Louisiana area. At the time I was working away in Minnesota, so I couldn’t just walk into a dealership and have a face to face conversation with any of these dealers.

Anyway, I must’ve called 6 or 7 dealers to inquire about the car, and I got responses ranging anywhere from, “you’re definitely going to pay far above MSRP,” to, “keep dreaming.” I basically had dealers laughing at me for wanting to get my hands on one of these cars. Then I called Baldwin Motors in Covington, Louisiana and John Baldwin Jr. answered my call. Basically, John had a conversation with me about how he and his family raced these cars on the weekend and how passionate he was about Subaru and motorsport in general. We must’ve talked at least 45 mins to an hour. The thing that struck me about John Jr. was that he was sincerely passionate about these cars and about making sure his customers got exactly what they wanted. There was never even an inkling of pressure to make a sale or to put me in anything other than exactly what I was wanting. He was courteous, respectful, and unlike other dealerships, he took me serious about wanting this car.

By the end of the call I had put down an approximate $1k deposit just to get the ball rolling, as this car wasn’t even in production yet. After the deposit was placed, I was told that John Sr. wrote several letters to people at Subaru on behalf of me to ensure that I got this car. That, to me, is above and beyond service to me, and it made a very lasting impression on me. John Jr. actually agreed to sale this limited production car to me below ask price. I was shocked and thoroughly satisfied with my experience and still tell people all over the country that, if they are looking for a Subaru, make the trip down to Covington, LA and pay Baldwin Motors a visit. You’ll be...