Dealership woes

[jwrezz]

This is probably the wrong place for this, but I'm trying to help a friend. I'm a gen3 outback sedan owner (I know, a rare car for sure). I already cross post this on the SubaruOutback.org forum.

 

My friend, well my sister's friend, has a 2010 Legacy. It has less than 100k miles on it and has been to her local dealer too many things to mention. From multiple brake replacements to crank position sensors. She estimates having spent close to $20k in repairs since buying it new. All work done by dealer and she (and I) are convinced it's the classic "woman vs mechanic" issues. I think she got a lemon and the dealer never made good. Not to make this a sob story, but she's in cancer treatments, and in chronic pain from multiple back surgeries from a prior injury. She's not able to travel more than an hour or sit for too long or do much so her local dealer is her only option (according to her). I have told her of the massive success stories of AZP installs for us NJ folk, but it's just a bit too far for her. I've heard people get good results when they call Subaru Of America. Should I tell her to basically tattle on her dealer and see if she can get some of the needed re-repairs done? I think her local dealer is World Subaru in Tinton Falls, NJ if anyone has any experience. 

 

Any other advice welcome! Thanks y'all. 

[DrD123]

What are you wanting to have SoA or the local dealer do?  It's hard to comment on repairs without knowing what the are - brake longevity is a function of (among other things) the driving habits of who is driving the car - I hope she recovers from her chemo treatments (they can be pretty rough)

[jwrezz]

Right now it's only tires that need replacing and she agrees with that. Over the past year it's been an entire short block, brakes, crank position sensor and new master cylinder and brake booster. Before that I'd have to check. She's stated that over the past 3 years (since 55k miles about) she's spent about $600/month on repairs, totaling close to, if not over, $20,000. The car is still under 100k miles. That is the issue. I've heard people get results when contacting SoA, but I'm not sure what results we can expect. A coupon for repairs maybe? On the outback forum where I cross posted this, we've heard stories of the dealer she's using. Not good stories. We also know that bringing a 10 year old car to the dealer for work is not a good idea. We are working on finding local, reputable independent shops. She's not close to me or my sister so that is a challenge. She's also mostly alone. She's not well, but she's also living with and caring for her mother. No real friends in the area to help her find a shop.

I still feel the car was a lemon, and she should've started this process years ago.

 

Thanks for the help!

[DrD123]

SoA helped me when the car spun a bearing when it was out of warranty for time, but still under 60k miles - they gave 2500 towards the repair (basically covering the short block) - that was approaching them with a single repair they knew the cost of, etc. - if there are some parts that keep failing, you might get some traction if you can provide the paper trail showing the repeated repairs with the specific cost for that component, etc. - for me, they needed to see evidence (receipt) for the required maintenance (since it was the short block, that was oil change info) then there was some negotiation to get to the final payout.  The work had to be done at Subaru, so SoA reimbursed the service department directly.  Anyway, I think the key is having your ducks in a row for what you are hoping to get reimbursed for.  The hard part is that it's a 13 year old car with 100k miles on it

[kattz]

Seek out a reputable dealer.  My nephew's wife has a horrible one in Albuquerque, but right on the other side of town, there's a dealer that will bend over backwards to help her.  I had to call SOA on her behalf and they replaced her CVT at 140K miles for free.

Short block?  I had a bad one around 2004, was sucking coolant.  Dealer swore it wasn't.  Turned out cyl 4 was machined out of round and had tore up a number of thing.  They replaced the short block, head gaskets, and reworked the heads for free.  SOA, again.  And the dealer went to them on my behalf.

Dealers take advantage of women.  They do, and I know this because my wife worked at three different ones, and they all took advantage.  Some more than others, but most do IMO.

However, hard to see all of the facts here via the web.  She should've raised holy hell about the short block at that time.

Now?  Not much will be done.  But- If she has records and someone to help her get her info together, call SOA and maybe they would be willing to give max value on a trade or something.  When calling SOA, be nice.  Ask for help, don't just crap on the dealer.  A little honey attracts lots of flies.  Hope it works out. 

And tell her to find another dealer.

[NVAKeith]

In my experience, SOA may give goodwill assistance paid directly to dealer *during* a repair, I received $2k off an out of warranty short block. If you call after the repair they may only offer Subaru bucks…. Some powertrain repairs at dealer include 3/36 warranty on the repair so hopefully she hasn’t paid for anything twice. 
 

Yes it pays to be car savvy when having cars serviced anywhere. I’ve overheard service advisors making calls to customer along the lines of: your 60k mile Outback needs tires, brakes, alignment, and service package c, that’ll be $3,600. (!)

[DrD123]

20 hours ago, kattz said:

My nephew's wife has a horrible one in Albuquerque, but right on the other side of town, there's a dealer that will bend over backwards to help her.

Albuquerque has been weird - we had 2 dealerships - Garcia and Galles and Davis, then Garcia bough Galles and Davis and we had Garcia north and Garcia south, then they split off Garcia south (which was actually the "original" Garcia) and it's now Fiesta Subaru - I got my old WRX from Galles (back in 2002) then got my Legacy GT from Garcia in it's original place, and then had the shortblock replaced at Garcia in the new location - I think it depends a lot on your service writer - the person who helped me made sure I had a loaner the entire time, was able to bring down the costs from the Dealership side, then I got the additional $ from Subaru.

I've found that most of the dealers here are sort of pinheads when dealing with women - when we were buying our first Odyssey, I had to literally take my daughter and walk away before they would pay attention to my wife at one dealership!  Toyota was better, but when we showed up I was pretty direct about who they needed to convince for the van (we had looked at a Sienna as well) - probably the best treatment we got for my wife was at Carmax.

[MoleMan]

A Gen 3 Leggy Outback Sedan rare? I see at least two a day in my area.  Along with probably ten Gen 3 Outbacks a day as well.  Just depends on where you live I guess.

As far as your friend. The car is a 2010. We do not know how your friend drives the vehicle at all. All the records are in place as stated. But the time to push SOA was at the time of repair.  So it's a longshot on if SOA will do anything at all unless it's very recent.  I would only really question the block replacement.

I am not being an asshat about how someone drives.  I just have seen friends buy brand new cars and drive over every pothole and floor it all day to redline etc..  then they get upset at the dealer when they need this or that.  My wife is a great example of this.  Exactly why I tell her to drive her SUV and not her S4.  Then she gets mad at me when I don't want her driving according to her "my Subarus that sit and never get driven"

 

Good luck to you.

Edited September 29, 2023 by MoleMan