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Wagons Subaru Crew Subaru Crew Best Service Facilities
326 messages, Last post on Dec 22, 2008 at 9:59 AM
You are in the Subaru Crew Forum. Your Host is kcram
Your Community Leaders are ateixeira and rsholland.
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How about these onions, girl across the street has a 1999 sunfire she changed insurance companys and had a chip about half an inch in her line of vision this means the windshield has to be replaced, well here in Ottawa you have to have the car checked before the company will insure it. The upshot was they saw the chip and will not give her glass insurance until she replaces the wind shield her cheapest quote to date is $700 to replace it, the moral of this story if you have a damaged windshield get it fixed before changing insurance companys. Cheers Pat. |
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I had a very negative experience earlier with a 7,500 mile service on a '01 Forester costing me $150 at Carlsen Subaru. I took the '01 Outback Sedan in today for the 3,500 mile service and the quoted price was $31. A far better experience. I called this morning for an appointment and they could take the car immediately. I was impressed. A vast improvement to my earlier experience. I wonder what changed? Daniel |
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Its possible the change is a new service manager. Earlier this year a new guy took over that role at Carlsen... Joe Sui. bit |
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Great news, Daniel! You're probably on their "Don't make this guy angry list". Watch out for the 15,000 svc. that they don't load up on add-ons and are reasonably close to "by the book." Dennis |
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Anyone have experience with Philly dealers? I'm a new owner and am open to suggestions. Glazmann, Colonial, Wilke or Fred Beans??
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When I picked the car up this morning from Carlsen I asked how much the 15,000-mile service would cost me for the Forester. I was told about $230. Subaru suggests the following work for a 15,000-mile service: Replace: Engine oil Replace: Engine oil filter Inspect: Disc brake pads and discs, front and rear axle boots and axle shaft joint portions Perform: Inspect brake lines and check operation of parking and service brake system Inspect: Clutch operation Inspect: Steering and suspension If the Engine oil and Engine Filter service cost $32, how can the remaining "inspection" cost $200? With an automatic gearbox, the Clutch Operation inspection is not even needed. How much do people typically pay for a 15,000-mile service? Daniel |
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The Subaru 15k suggested service should only cost no more than $50, maybe $75 tops. Heck, I think most of that stuff is checked during a regular oil change. Carlsen must have their own suggestions to that list. What do they say they do for the 15k service? You are only required to get the stuff listed by Subaru, not the extras that the dealer might 'suggest' you do. -Brian |
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Well I have been dealing with Austin Infinity/Subaru for about 3 years since I bought my 96 OB used from them. In that time I have delt with 2-3 service managers. Generally speaking they suck. Story 1 My first encounter was not long after I took delivery of my 96 (maybe a month or two). I had changed the air filter, oil and whatnot when I was pouring over the engine and noticed a piece of hose missing from the emissions control system (funny thing was the car never missed it). I brought this to their attention (and the fact that the piece of metal this hose attached to was slighly oxidized, this had been missing for some time). They immediatly blamed it on my maintence and refused to fix it. They said it fell off when I changed the air filter. Well $60 and 4 WEEKS later (seems that nowhere in the US had a little piece of rubber with a 45 degree bend in it) I got the part. It would take a pair of plyers and significant effort to remove this thing. It didn't "fall" off. I had some inspections, coolant and transmission flushes done. These were all on the watch of the Current service manager (as of 5-01) Shannon (he's a guy). His brother is the Infiniti Service manager. I made appointments beforehand but usually had to wait 10-15 minutes and have him paged twice before he would show up. Then when you came back to pick your car up in the afternoon he was nowhere to be found (no matter how many times he was paged). Eventually they will find someone to get your car for you. The problem was they overcharged me on a transmission flush. Of course the checkout clerk doesn't know anything about this and Shannon is nowhere to be found. No choice but to pay it and take it up later. Story 2 I had a problem with my door locks. The drivers door is supposed to unlock all other doors. This was not functioning. To complicate factors I had a third party auto alarm/door unlocker. This was of course imediatley blamed as the cause for the problem. So I went to the alarm installation place (Mothers window tint, great service, lousy quality). They of course said it was the suburu mechanism. Finally I got the card of mechanic at Mothers who worked on my car and gave it to Shannon. Eventually they concluded that it was a faulty door actuator and needed to be replaced. This was going to take 2 hours of labor and $150 or so in parts. Net result it was going to be around $250 to fix it. No prob, I got the extended warranty ($100 deductable). Shannon had to do a doubletake when I told him this as it meant that they needed approval (and justification) for what they charged. This repair job suddenly required less than one hour and $15 in parts. Net price $87. I'd like to say my experiences are unique but I have a friend with an Impreza who experienced the following. Took it in for 30K maintence. Was overcharged $90. Shannon was nowhere to be found to correct this. Took 3 weeks to get the overchaged reverse and was given some lame excuse that they mistakenly charged him for service on the 2.5L engine instead of the 2.2 (there both 4 cylinders and the 30K service is mostly inspections!). Also the little light that indicates your AC button is pressed quit working. He brought it in for that. They fixed that but broke the whole AC vent switch in the proccess. They fixed that and broke something else with the electrical system (lights and mirrors). After the third try they finally fixed the problem without destroying anything else! Another friend of mine who has a 00 OB has also reported being overcharged and having difficulty finding Shannon afterwards to correct the matter. This is very discouraging. The only reason I keep going back is because the dealership is biking distance from both my work and my house. So if I need something done I just throw my bike in the back, drop it off and head off to work. On the plus side I have had some neutral of positive encounters (when shannon was not there). I had two check engine lights. The first time cause was a misfire. They did an injector cleaning job. The second time was a bad camshaft sensor, $97. I had the brake light come on, the cause was normal break wear, no charge. Parking lights came on after a cleaning, that switch on the steering column is hard to see, no charge. The service department is not open on Saturday. It is a combo Infinity/Subaru dealership. Infinity is clearly the bread and butter of the place. Loaner cars, guys with neck ties, coffee and dougnuts etc.. Subaru customers pull up to the rear.... Parts I've had mixed luck with the parts department. On the downside 1/3 of the time the parts are NOT in stock. Bringing the broken part in and showing it to them is not especially helpful, you still have to pour over the exploded technical drawings (which they kindly show you) and tell them which part you want (they never take the chance of ordering the part that YOU didn't ask for, of course YOU might have asked for the wrong part, not their problem) The drawings are not especially detailed or even entirley accurate. The parts that come in are similar but not exactly like what was orginally on the car. On the plus side the same guys have been working there a while and are fairly friendly and service oriented. |
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| Wow, I logged on to report a good experience I just had with Austin Subaru today, and was surprised to see the prior post. They fixed my mysterious moonroof rattle that Gillman wouldn't even look at (I'll post on the Forester board about that repair, in case anyone else encounters it) along with a vibration in the dash. They gave me a ride to work and would have given me a ride back after work, but I got out of work after their driver left for the day. They even washed my car, which made me happy because now I'll have more time this weekend to play! I guess my repairs were minor compared to those reported above; we'll see what happens if I need anything serious done. If your vehicle is no longer under warranty, I'd recommend Import Auto Center on Gray Blvd. I took my Mazda to them for years and always had the work done right the first time. A few years down the road when my Forester is no longer under warranty, I'll go back to them for everything. | |
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Performance Subaru in Chapel Hill, NC provides excellent service (only minor jobs on weekends however). If you've got a real problem, make sure you ask for Bill - a top notch mechanic who knows his Subarus inside and out. (You have ot watch out for Guy the service manager - always trying to talk you into unnecessary extras!) Although I bought my Impreza there in '94 I would not buy there again - they really try and screw you. |
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