Subaru Dealer Whitelist (positive experiences, truthful dealings)

[Trikle]

CA - San Jose - Capitol Subaru

Sales: Jamie Cassady
Service: [name or N/A]
Story:

Put a 500 dollar deposit down about 2 months ago over the phone, was put on a wait list. Emailed last week to ask when the first ones were coming in so I could see them in person. Emailed me while they were still being unloaded off of the truck with a cell phone pic of them being unloaded...Quite cool of him.

Worked out all the details via email, loan approved via email and everything. I have crappy credit but great income and Jamie and Mike (finance) worked something out with their bank and got my a great APR. All via EMAIL! Which is awesome since i work all day and have no car at the moment. Pick up my BRZ on Thursday.

Highly recommend this Dealer, they are slated for 35 total this year.

[2pt5RS]

Originally Posted by BR33Z3

Sup Matt. I'm getting a quote on an Xpel Clear bra, you got me all paranoid. I'll let you know what he comes back with.

I'm in talks with lamin-x...

[BR33Z3]

Originally Posted by 2pt5RS

I'm in talks with lamin-x...

Let me know what you come up with, I got a quote for $1200 for Xpel. It's full coverage though. Entire hood, fender, bumpers, headlights, mirrors, a-pillar, and partial roof.

[Dave-ROR]

For the SE there's a short list here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7526

[FoolCyclist]

FL - Jacksonville - Orange Park - Sales, no experience with service yet.

Sales: Josh Strickland
Service: N/A
Story: I have been in the process of moving to Jacksonville and decided I would get the car in FL. I started by just sending Josh an email and then dealing with him over the phone. From the very start he put in writing that price would be MSRP. He constantly kept me in the loop about whatever progress he had heard. My car came in 3 days earlier than expected (May 28th), however I am out of state for another week. Josh took my car, filled it up, had the service inspection done, then parked it in the showroom and locked it up. Since I am still waiting until next week to pick up the car, Josh got the financial department to see what kind of deals then can get me on financing and he is going to compare them to other banks in the area to get me the best deal.

Its been nothing like some of the horror stories I have heard.

[Admiral Ballsy]

IN - Indianapolis - Tom Wood Subaru
Sales: Keith Graul
Service: N/A
Story: First experience with Subaru specifically, and with ordering a non-domestic car in general. I was 'hooked up' with Keith through their web inquiry system, and he's perfect for my personality and temperament. Really low-key guy (drives an STi), knowledgable about product but not pushy. I ordered in July, he told me flat-out that I'd probably be looking at February or March (turned out to be early January).

Price was MSRP. Easy transaction, only real demerit I'd say was a really hard sell on extended warrenty/paint protection/et al by the finance guy. Who also was a nice, low-key guy, but it was a hard sell nonetheless.

[Deslock]

Thread updated for Admiral Ballsy's post. I also noticed a few older reports (from FoolCyclist and Trikle) that I'd previously listed, but had forgotten to thank (along with Tbxgz's suggestion to sticky this, which I think is a good idea).

[norsamerican]

TX - Houston - Gillman Subaru North
Sales: Brenda (cant remember last name)
Service: Jeremiah
Story: Brenda worked with my wife while i was deployed and purchased the car for MSRP after a customer returned it after purchasing it the night before. Jeremiah informed me that a car was on lot in WRB color and i purchased it with no hidden fees. 2013 Limited with customer add-ons.

[Squishy]

NH - Keene - Subaru of Keene - sales

Sales: Scott Peabody, Mark Carey
Service: N/A
Story: They worked to get me a BRZ Limited 6MT at $500 over invoice back in September when msrp + was still very common. They did not have the initial color in stock but traded with another dealer to get an acceptable color. They picked me up at the airport and drove me to the dealership to finish the paperwork. Straight up most pleasant experience I have had buying a car in a long time. I drove my car back to Katy, TX with everything signed and no hidden fees or problems with the car. Honest to the end, and I even got a call near the end of my trip to make sure I was alright since they knew where I lived.

[gily25]

[CT] - [Torrington] - [Center Subaru] - [both]

Sales: Joe Kolosky
Service: 2 counter people (one man, one woman) and a tech all pleasant and knowledgeble
Story: Joe knew a lot about the BRZ and he was excited to talk about new things he learned about it during my first oil change/WQC39 visit. Made an appointment for the oil change and got the recall noticel in the meantime, when I came in they told me (before I had a chance to pull the letter from my pocket) that they were ready to do the recall and had already done the one in the showroom. The car came back to me in the same condition (no joy rides, no excess mileage, no scratches, etc.) I had left it. I waited for the car and listened/observed other owners (not BRZs) drop off talk to the service department and even those with older Foresters were treated well.

[ron wright]

OR, Portland, Gladstone Toyota/Scion, Sales and Service

Pricing was Scion simple MSRP. There were no hassles, or pressure to buy extras. Things were offered of course, but a polite no thanks was all that was need to end the discussion. The car was delivered a couple weeks later than initially promised, but they let us know the new schedule as soon as they found out. Our salesman, Moe, went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that they didn't mount the front plate bracket per my request. Service since purchase has been fast, thorough, and courteous.

[ManOfStiehl]

WI - Madison - Don Miller Subaru West - Sales

Sales: Eric Orvold
Service: N/A, but it took an afternoon to get an OBD-II reading to let me know my gas cap wasn't screwed on tight enough a month after sale. That was frustrating.
Story: Was the first to order, got a call when a demo car was in town and got a chance to see and drive before official release. Worked out a great deal with Eric and sales manager, I highly recommend Don Miller Subaru and have sent many folks their way. Excellent sales staff across the board, good Wisconsin folk.

[go2brz]

TX - Killeen - Cleo Bay Subaru - Jon Locklin

Back in August, I started calling all the Subaru dealers within a 250 mile range of Dallas, becasue all the dealers in the DFW metroplex wanted 3-5K over list just to pre-order a car. I found this dealer and got a commitment to take an order for a car at MSRP. Then the local dealer where my other car is serviced changed their mind and offered me the same deal (the only one in DFW who was willing - Bob Moore Subaru) so I put my deposit down with the local dealer. Then a month later I got a call from Jon at Cleo Bay to tell me that the exact model and color of car that I had asked to pre-order was available from them immediately as the person who had put a deposit down in June backed out just a few days before they got word the car was on it's way. They could have tried to squeeze out as much profit as possible, but instead gave me a call even before the car arrived at their dealer to offer it to me at MSRP. I was shocked, but of course told him that he could consider the car sold as I had already secured financing. The car never even went on their website and they did not call anyone else to try and get the highest price. Actually someone else from the Austin area called the dealer and asked if they had any BRZ's coming, and instead of telling them yes they took their phone number, then called me and asked if I would give a totally refundable deposit for them to hold the car until the next Monday as I could not break a previous committment on that Saturday. I gladly gave them the 500.00 deposit and showed up on that Monday (late October) to pick up the car. Also they did not try to hold me up by trying to sell accessories to me, but rather just agreed that it would be best if I obtained them and had them installed by my local dealer. In the nasty world of car sales, you don't get much better honesty and straight dealing than that. And he even followed up a month later just to make sure I was happy with the sale, with no other motive. Great dealer! And my local dealer is also very honest and dependable.

[Khazzy]

Edwards Subaru Hyundai Mitsubishi in Council Bluffs Iowa.

I am not going to write a whole lot. Basically this was my first "new" car buying experience. The people there are amazing and made life so easy when it came down to buying my BRZ. I think they were more excited to get another one to sell than I was getting the car. Either way I could not have wanted anything better in a car sale. I was given the absolute best in communication, even while I was deployed. I was getting updates and when I asked for updates, I had them within hours. Amazing sales team and my sales rep was amazing as well. Would definitely buy from again! Although I do not see myself getting a new car for quite awhile.

[VoiD]

MA Patrick Subaru
Tri Le
out of state purchase, everything went smooth over email. He even picked us up at the airport when we went to pick up the car.

[reeves]

Capitaland Subaru, NY
Mike - Sales

Out of state purchase, bought at MSRP + 1 dealer installed package. Kept me up to date on everything, and made the paperwork/delivery for the car go smooth. Mike was helpful and great to deal with.

They have a couple of BRZs on their lot right now at good prices too.

[DNAPoPo]

CO - Auroura - ShortlineSubaru - Sales

Sales: Marcus Moore
Service: N/A
Story: Marcus picked me up at the airport, and gave me a phenomenal price on my limited brz + 1b package + chrome fuel door, roughly $1100 under invoice.

[raptor87]

Originally Posted by VoiD

MA Patrick Subaru
Tri Le
out of state purchase, everything went smooth over email. He even picked us up at the airport when we went to pick up the car.

+1 for Tri drove up from Jersey to pick mine up the whole experience was really smooth.

[whaap]

Arizona, Sierra Vista, Sierra Toyota, Sales. They're about 100 miles s.e. of Tucson. Pretty much a small town dealership. Very honest and easy to deal with. If and when I decide to trade for a 2014 (provided there are some changes I hope for) I'll be contacting them first because of the pleasant experience.

[ap5512]

VA - Stohlman Subaru

Sales - This isn't my first purchase from Stohlman. I've bought a Mitsu from them before and another friend has bought a VW and Mitsubishi from them also. They aren't the pushy salesman from mine and my friend's experience. They do a lot of follow up calls after you buy the car and service. I tend not to do service at dealerships since they charge way more for a simple service like oil changes. I did get a TSB done there and the overall experience was positive although their techs were not THAT well versed with this car. Anyhow, the sales experience was A+.

[Sac-BRZ]

Baldwin Subaru in Covington..

They always had a bad rap, but guess they changed things around. Buying from them was the easiest car purchase I made(and I bought a lot). No up charge on car, great staff. Plus the majority of them are enthusiast themselves. How many dealers hand you a COBB, Enkei, Perrin & other mfg brochures and tell ya if you need any mods let us know, we match price and install..

[t0mmyd]

Originally Posted by Trikle

CA - San Jose - Capitol Subaru

Sales: Jamie Cassady
Service: [name or N/A]
Story:

Put a 500 dollar deposit down about 2 months ago over the phone, was put on a wait list. Emailed last week to ask when the first ones were coming in so I could see them in person. Emailed me while they were still being unloaded off of the truck with a cell phone pic of them being unloaded...Quite cool of him.

Worked out all the details via email, loan approved via email and everything. I have crappy credit but great income and Jamie and Mike (finance) worked something out with their bank and got my a great APR. All via EMAIL! Which is awesome since i work all day and have no car at the moment. Pick up my BRZ on Thursday.

Highly recommend this Dealer, they are slated for 35 total this year.

Jamie just emailed me saying that my brz just got off the truck. I'll be coming to pick it up pretty soon. So far, hes been very helpful.

Is there anything to know or keep in mind when picking up my brz?