DFW Service Departments

[goboom]

I am curious what everyone in the DFW area thinks about the dealer service departments around? I've had not so good service from Huffines (my wife drives a chevy and problems on that side too). Since the opening of Subaru of Plano, the various service departments have had "turnover". I've been driving to Teape of Hurst because it is convenient at times and I've had better customer service there. What do you folks think about the prices, service, value, and overall customer service experiences at the dealers service departments?

[XLeezardx]

I think Subaru of Plano has really good service. Their 10 times bigger than SOD and have good guys that work there likr Niel and Kevin hiest. Neil has helped me out a bunch of times and ive been very satified with his service. I dropped my LGT off at SOP last night around 6:30 for a valve gasket leak. They gave me a forester loaner car to drive home. They fixed me right up and i picked the car up today at 1pm.

 

I live right next to Subaru of Dallas but i chose Subaru of Plano (20 mins away)..that should tell you something. =)

[forestir]

I think all the "good" people were moved from the SoD location to SoP. Same owner, and the Plano location is the flagship.

[Mr. Ed]

HAHA...TUNROVER...that is actually why i quit going to teape.

 

SOP yippee...i am there like once a week just to say hi

[B4SubieGT]

For the most part I am happy with the service level. My issue is that I come from a differenct service experience with my former cars. These are my first Subarus (Legacy and Outback) and prior to that I always drove Saab, Acura or Infiniti. The dealer service (mostly Sewell) was always A++, they rolled out the red carpet during each visit, furthermore they would provide non-charge loaner cars for "any" issue even an oil-change. While I understand this was more about the brand image, let me tell you it sure was nice and I miss it! This does not come as a surprise as the "3-yr 36K Warr." should have tipped me off from the start. The above brands all had between 4yr/50K or 5yr/60K. Well, anyway I love my TWO Subarus and "got what I paid for." I usually go to Sub. of Plano and they always try to take care of me ... With a smaller operation than say Sewell or McDavid Acura it only make sense you have to wait a little longer. ...

PS, I got one of my cars at Teape ... the one and ONLY time I went to the Service Dept the girl working there had her feet on the desk filing her nails and playing solataire on the PC while drinking her 48 once Sonic ... I was thinking - "This is the person that is going to be taking care of my new ride?" - needless to say I did NOT leave the car there. I guess first impressions are important after all!

[hal9e3]

Here are my experiences w/ area dealerships:

 

SoD - bought my car from them, had my DP and AP installed there, my 15k service done and some warranty issues. I forgot to ask for my stock DP back and when I called a couple of days later to get it Neal made a bunch of BS excuses - they threw it away, they couldn't hold the next one that came off another car for me, etc. Basically they stole it, as I heard from another local legacygt member that they don't throw them away and in fact warehouse them somewhere. Also, they didn't fix any of my warranty issues. Since Neal and the 'performance' oriented staff have since moved to SoP I assume things aren't any better at SoD or SoP.

 

SoP - no direct experience but see above.

 

Huffines - no experience.

 

Teape Arlington - When Jeff was the service manager there I thought they did a good job. He's an ex-motocrosser so he 'gets' us modders. However, he transferred to the Hurst dealership early this year and my experiences since then haven't been very satisfying. I took my car in for the fan ECU recall and told them specifically not to worry about CEL codes relating to the EGT sensor because I had an Invidia UP and the sensor was off the car. They had the car most of the day and when I called to find out how things were going the service manager told me they spent 2 hours trying to debug the EGT sensor CEL - morons! I had to bring it back again to get it done. Also, they started selling Suzukis this year so their service department is under a lot more time and cost pressure than before.

 

Teape Hurst - no direct experience but if Jeff's still there I suspect they'll be alright. They're also a Subaru-only dealership AFAIK so no bargain-basement mentality in the service department like their Arlington location.

[Mr. Ed]

SOD has never treated me right...thus why I bought my car at Teape...first one was a lemon it got replaced. I dealt with them for six months, after repeated requests I never met Mr. Teape, or even talked to him. The guy there that helped me is long gone...actually the only people involved that are still there are his Daughters, whom now run his multiple dealerships. (I due to the repeated trips and some other issues, actually ended up losing my job over this deal...granted it turned out for the better, it still sucked at the time)

 

Teape Dealerships: Ford Lincoln Merc, suzuki,mazda, subaru and whatever else he has now added. During the purchase/lemon/purchase of replacement ordeal i WATCHED AN ENTIRE turnover of multiple staff memebers 4 times, They strung a friend and myself along on a supposed marleting gig and then used what we gave them as a pitch to try and gain suby crowd. and they tried to put pressure on me about my exhaust, even blamed it on a few issues I was having. Back at that time all i had was a cat back. 6 months later I realized that they doubled my interest rate on my replacement purchase and I was pretty much stuck with that. Jeff has been gone for a while now from what I understand (I may be mistaken) They have moved the current service manger from Arlington to where he now is at Hurst. While at Arl he was great...but I only got results by dealing with him directly. Since his move to Hurst he has been impossible to get in touch with. They constantly try and sell me a new vehicle while I wait on service and they call me all the time.

 

 

SOP, I gave up on trying to deal with neil, he seems to shrug me off when I try and tlak to him. I deal with Betty and she is a blast. I also direct my performance questions to Adrian and Chris and haven't been steered wrong yet. When something I do is at risk of voiding my warranty Calvin lets me know, and I fix it. They have only pissed me off once and I got over it.

 

As for huffines, I never have been over there...too many horror stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are my experiences w/ area dealerships:

 

SoD - bought my car from them, had my DP and AP installed there, my 15k service done and some warranty issues. I forgot to ask for my stock DP back and when I called a couple of days later to get it Neal made a bunch of BS excuses - they threw it away, they couldn't hold the next one that came off another car for me, etc. Basically they stole it, as I heard from another local legacygt member that they don't throw them away and in fact warehouse them somewhere. Also, they didn't fix any of my warranty issues. Since Neal and the 'performance' oriented staff have since moved to SoP I assume things aren't any better at SoD or SoP.

 

SoP - no direct experience but see above.

 

Huffines - no experience.

 

Teape Arlington - When Jeff was the service manager there I thought they did a good job. He's an ex-motocrosser so he 'gets' us modders. However, he transferred to the Hurst dealership early this year and my experiences since then haven't been very satisfying. I took my car in for the fan ECU recall and told them specifically not to worry about CEL codes relating to the EGT sensor because I had an Invidia UP and the sensor was off the car. They had the car most of the day and when I called to find out how things were going the service manager told me they spent 2 hours trying to debug the EGT sensor CEL - morons! I had to bring it back again to get it done. Also, they started selling Suzukis this year so their service department is under a lot more time and cost pressure than before.

 

Teape Hurst - no direct experience but if Jeff's still there I suspect they'll be alright. They're also a Subaru-only dealership AFAIK so no bargain-basement mentality in the service department like their Arlington location.

[RallyNavvie]

I've only experiences SoD and SoP, but since I'm much closer to SoP and they're the flagship (so I can rub it in on the Subaru community back home). SoD was like my dealership back home (minus all the Acuras on the lot) but it wasn't much of an experience since it was just a 15k service.

 

SoP has been great the few times I've been there. Time goes by pretty quick when you can go over to the parts window and talk cars with the staff and the usual gang of other Subaru owners that are there to pick up performance parts. Other than the near heart attack one saleperson almost gave me when I was over there looking at Spec Bs and them tagging my car after it left the shop last time I'd probably go back. Oh, the heart attack thing? They had a severely modified 07 Spec B with very very low mileage but it was still "used" and the sticker price was something like $28k. I was ready to write a check and give them my car on the spot for it. But it ended up it's one of the staff's cars now and the ECU was out in SLC getting a proper reflash done (since apparently the 07s don't work with the AP yet?). Damn their bait-and-switch tactics!

[hal9e3]

So, it sounds like I need to take my car to OK for service:) Seriously, any South Centralistas outside the D/FW area have any recommendations? If I HAD to take my car to Austin or OKC to make SURE it was done right I would.

[Mr. Ed]

was that the one with like 11k in upgrades?

suspension, brakes, prodrives, bigger turbo etc

 

I've only experiences SoD and SoP, but since I'm much closer to SoP and they're the flagship (so I can rub it in on the Subaru community back home). SoD was like my dealership back home (minus all the Acuras on the lot) but it wasn't much of an experience since it was just a 15k service.

 

SoP has been great the few times I've been there. Time goes by pretty quick when you can go over to the parts window and talk cars with the staff and the usual gang of other Subaru owners that are there to pick up performance parts. Other than the near heart attack one saleperson almost gave me when I was over there looking at Spec Bs and them tagging my car after it left the shop last time I'd probably go back. Oh, the heart attack thing? They had a severely modified 07 Spec B with very very low mileage but it was still "used" and the sticker price was something like $28k. I was ready to write a check and give them my car on the spot for it. But it ended up it's one of the staff's cars now and the ECU was out in SLC getting a proper reflash done (since apparently the 07s don't work with the AP yet?). Damn their bait-and-switch tactics!

[WannaScooby]

The blue WRX that was like $42k? Or am I thinking of something else?

[Mr. Ed]

no this was a spec b, custom built for a guy that traded in a zo6.....one of the investors or something like that

[WannaScooby]

Oh.....never saw that one. And, of course, I didn't read what the other guy said that you quoted.

[RallyNavvie]

Yeah, it had pretty much every part in the Cobb catalog added to it. But to the sales guy it was "modified" and so the price tag stood at what a low-mileage stock Spec B would have sold for. As he was asking around about the status of the car I was already making calls to my bank.