Automobile Magazine published my letter re: the BRZ buying experience!

[PMok]

Back in July I sent off an email to Automobile magazine, one of the car mags I subscribe to and read fairly diligently. I kind of forgot about it until today... when I was reading the latest (Nov 2012) issue and started to read a familiar bit of writing... I suddenly realized it was my writing!

I was pretty pleased to see they had published nearly the whole thing, with very little editing... it came out to nearly half a page full of text! I am pretty stoked about that. Even more so because it seems to have inspired or at least coincided with the column that Ezra Dyer wrote for this issue -- also about the sleazy tactics that dealers employ on unsuspecting buyers.

Here is the full text of the email I sent them:

As a sports car enthusiast and fan of small, lightweight vehicles, it's been great to see widespread positive coverage of the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ in your magazine and others as well. As you mentioned in your New Cars 2013 feature, they are meant to be a "low-cost, lightweight sports car". But as I began my pursuit of the Subaru BRZ by calling and contacting various Subaru dealerships in Northern California where I live, it seemed that the low-cost aspect of the car is being undermined by the incredibly greedy and sometimes ridiculously sleazy actions of the individual dealerships. Some of them are asking for as much as $5000 over MSRP, as "market value adjustments". And to add insult to injury, some of them add questionable options and accessories and price them at a point where you would have to be a moron or incredibly wealthy to be willing to pay their exorbitant markups. I attach a photo found on the internet, documenting one such dealership's attempt to gouge its customers: $7685 in addons and markups to drive what was originally a $27,000 car into the $35,000 range. Maybe that kind of thing is normal in the Porsche dealerships, but we're talking about a 2.0 liter Subaru here.

Now I realize that to some degree it's all about supply and demand, and dealerships are free to ask for whatever they think their customers are willing to pay. I witnessed similar markups and gouging when I bought my 2000 MR2 Spyder back when those first came out. Don't think that the Scion dealerships, with their "Pure Price" so-called no-haggling policy are any different. Several of the Scion dealerships I visited are adding ludicrously priced add-ons to pad their profits, like $700 window tint or woefully ugly $2000 chrome wheels. But surely the bigwigs at Toyota/Scion and Subaru have to realize that they are letting their dealers undermine their own marketing efforts here. You can't in good conscience be touting your new vehicle as the return of affordable, fun-to-drive sports cars, and then sit by silently as your dealerships extort their customers like this. I know from various media coverage that Subaru/Toyota plan to produce as many of these little cars as they can sell, and most likely in a year or two from now there will be tons of these cars sitting on the dealership lots, available for much less than MSRP. Thankfully there are still some dealerships I have talked to who are doing the right thing, right now, and offering the limited allocations they expect to receive at MSRP or less. In fact after searching and contacting numerous dealers throughout California, I finally decided to place my order and bring my business to a Subaru dealer in Colorado, who will let me order the car with only the options and accessories I want, and in fact are giving me a price so low that it is still more cost-effective to order from them and have the car trucked back to CA for me than to purchase it in CA.

To seasoned car guys/gals and purveyors of limited-edition or limited-production vehicles perhaps none of this is any news and I have no doubt that car dealerships have, and will continue to engage in this kind of behavior whenever a new, or rare vehicle hits the showroom floors. But I hope that letters like mine, and perhaps the occasional coverage or discussion by magazines like yours, will bring some exposure to what is almost universally agreed upon is part of the seamy underside of the automotive world -- the actual car buying experience. Perhaps you've done it in the past, but you could and should do a piece on buying a car and all the various tactics, shenanigans and practices that happen at a typical dealership -- in sales, finance, and even in the service departments. I still look forward to purchasing and driving my BRZ soon, but the whole overall purchasing experience will probably be tainted to some degree by the ordeal I and many of my fellow BRZ enthusiasts had to go through to get there. Subaru of America, are you listening?

the Editor's response at the end of my letter: "You might want to check out this month's Dyer Consequences on page 28. -- Ed."

I love Ezra Dyer's writing as well and feel pretty honored, that perhaps I inspired him to write this month's column. Or at least we are on the same brain wavelength... :happy0180:

[PMok]

Wow, it's pretty interesting to see what they edited out. Here is the same text, with text colored red being what they took out, and green what they added/changed. they also rephrased or rearranged some of my text which I don't mind at all.

As a sports car enthusiast and fan of small, lightweight vehicles, it's been great I've been happy to see widespread, positive coverage of the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ in your magazine and others as well. As you mentioned in your the New Cars 2013 feature, they are meant to be a "low-cost, lightweight sports cars". But as I began my pursuit of the Subaru BRZ by calling and contacting various Subaru dealerships in Northern California where I live, it seemed that the low-cost aspect of the car is being undermined by the incredibly greedy and sometimes ridiculously sleazy actions of the individual dealerships. Some of them are asking for as much as $5000 over MSRP, as "market value adjustments". And To add insult to injury, some of them add questionable options and accessories and price them the BRZ at a point where you would have to be a moron or incredibly wealthy to be willing to pay their exorbitant markups. I attach a photo found on the internet, documenting one such dealership's attempt to gouge its customers: One dealership had $7685 in addons and markups to drive driving what was originally a $27,000 car into the $35,000 range. Maybe that kind of thing is might be normal in the Porsche dealerships, but we're talking about a 2.0 liter Subaru here.

Don't think that the Scion dealerships, with their "Pure Price" so-called no-haggling policy are any different. Several of the Scion dealerships I visited are adding ludicrously priced add-ons to pad their profits, like $700 window tint or woefully ugly $2000 chrome wheels.

Now I realize that to some degree it's all about supply and demand, and dealerships are free to ask for whatever they think their customers are willing to pay. I witnessed similar markups and gouging when I bought my 2000 MR2 Spyder back when those it first came out.

But Surely the bigwigs at Toyota/Scion and Subaru have to realize that they are letting their dealers undermine their own marketing efforts here. You can't in good conscience be touting tout your new vehicle as the return of the affordable, fun-to-drive sports cars, and then sit by silently as your dealerships extort their your customers like this. I know from various media coverage that Subaru/Toyota plan to produce as many of these little cars as they can sell, and Most likely in a year or two from now there will be tons many of these cars sitting on the dealership lots, available for much less than MSRP. Thankfully there are still some dealerships I have talked to who are doing the right thing, right now, and offering the limited allocations they expect to receive at MSRP or less. In fact after searching and contacting numerous dealers throughout California, I finally decided to place my order and bring my do business to with a Subaru dealer in Colorado, who will let me order the car with only the options and accessories I want. and in fact They are are giving me a price so low that it is still more cost-effective to order from them and have the car trucked back to CA for me than to purchase it in CA.

Perhaps none of this is any news to seasoned car guys/gals and purveyors of limited-edition or limited-production vehicles, and I have no doubt that car dealerships have, and will continue to engage in this kind of behavior whenever a new, or rare vehicle hits the showroom floors. But I hope that letters like mine, and perhaps the occasional coverage or discussion by magazines like yours, will bring some exposure to what is almost universally agreed upon is to be part of the seamy underside of the automotive world: the actual car buying experience. Perhaps you've done it in the past, but you could and should do a piece on buying a car and all the various tactics, shenanigans and practices that happen at a typical dealership -- in sales, finance, and even in the service departments. I still look forward to purchasing and driving my BRZ soon, but the whole overall purchasing experience probably will be tainted to some degree by the ordeal I and many of my fellow BRZ enthusiasts had to go through to get there. Subaru of America, are you listening?

Overall I am very happy they published my message with fairly minimal editing. Another reason to love Automobile magazine!

[TheRipler]

Congrats, look forward to seeing the article.

The editing takes me back to grammar class, and getting a paper returned covered in red pen like a river of blood.

[Extreme86]

@PMok, you nailed it. Thanks for sharing your perspectives as they mirror similar buying experiences many of us have had. Kudos to Automobile magazine for recognizing a well written piece of correspondence and a legitimate consumer issue. Subaru’s allocation method and pre-order process is woefully inadequate. While I appreciate the attention and concern their customer service reps display when contacted, it’s obvious Subaru has a total lack of comprehension that there are still some waiting buyers from last March who have put money down at dealers who have already exceeded their allocation count. They have VON#s but, Subaru reps don’t see them in their system because they are not “active allocations” in the dealer’s order pipeline. Apparently, first come, first served has no meaning. Geographical demand based on regional economics is a foreign concept. Instead, cars were divvied out based on prior WRX sales we are told. Yeah, it does come down to supply and demand but, we’ve all seen stories how some people don’t have to wait very long based on their location. Many BRZ owners like me found a car cross country, booked a flight and drove it home to break in the engine! While that was a mini-vacation/fun drive for me, I learned the dealership owner I purchased the car from was not happy with the fact his staff sold a BRZ that would be taken out of his local sales area. Come on, Subaru. Wake up. Put an end to this mafia like sales process you’ve got going out here with these “market adjustment” practices. I filled out a favorable dealer survey but, if I had the opportunity to do one at the corporate vehicle distribution level…all zeros from me. I’m telling people who admire my BRZ to forget about getting one anytime soon, they’d be better off shopping for an FR-S! Is this the attitude Subaru wants from a first time Subaru Buyer? Maybe they’ll start running ads to advertise BRZs based on the amount of people they have on the waiting lists!

[a.beck]

It's almost funny, but here in Australia we have sort of the opposite problem. Toyota's system is opaque and convoluted, while ordering a BRZ is incredibly straightforward.

[Turbowned]

Read your letter the other day when it came in the mail - congrats!

[jeebus]

Nice job and congrats! I especially like seeing how they edited it.

[ESC POD]

Originally Posted by PMok

Back in July I sent off an email to Automobile magazine, one of the car mags I subscribe to and read fairly diligently. I kind of forgot about it until today... when I was reading the latest (Nov 2012) issue and started to read a familiar bit of writing... I suddenly realized it was my writing!

I was pretty pleased to see they had published nearly the whole thing, with very little editing... it came out to nearly half a page full of text! I am pretty stoked about that. Even more so because it seems to have inspired or at least coincided with the column that Ezra Dyer wrote for this issue -- also about the sleazy tactics that dealers employ on unsuspecting buyers.

Here is the full text of the email I sent them:

As a sports car enthusiast and fan of small, lightweight vehicles, it's been great to see widespread positive coverage of the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ in your magazine and others as well. As you mentioned in your New Cars 2013 feature, they are meant to be a "low-cost, lightweight sports car". But as I began my pursuit of the Subaru BRZ by calling and contacting various Subaru dealerships in Northern California where I live, it seemed that the low-cost aspect of the car is being undermined by the incredibly greedy and sometimes ridiculously sleazy actions of the individual dealerships. Some of them are asking for as much as $5000 over MSRP, as "market value adjustments". And to add insult to injury, some of them add questionable options and accessories and price them at a point where you would have to be a moron or incredibly wealthy to be willing to pay their exorbitant markups. I attach a photo found on the internet, documenting one such dealership's attempt to gouge its customers: $7685 in addons and markups to drive what was originally a $27,000 car into the $35,000 range. Maybe that kind of thing is normal in the Porsche dealerships, but we're talking about a 2.0 liter Subaru here.

Now I realize that to some degree it's all about supply and demand, and dealerships are free to ask for whatever they think their customers are willing to pay. I witnessed similar markups and gouging when I bought my 2000 MR2 Spyder back when those first came out. Don't think that the Scion dealerships, with their "Pure Price" so-called no-haggling policy are any different. Several of the Scion dealerships I visited are adding ludicrously priced add-ons to pad their profits, like $700 window tint or woefully ugly $2000 chrome wheels. But surely the bigwigs at Toyota/Scion and Subaru have to realize that they are letting their dealers undermine their own marketing efforts here. You can't in good conscience be touting your new vehicle as the return of affordable, fun-to-drive sports cars, and then sit by silently as your dealerships extort their customers like this. I know from various media coverage that Subaru/Toyota plan to produce as many of these little cars as they can sell, and most likely in a year or two from now there will be tons of these cars sitting on the dealership lots, available for much less than MSRP. Thankfully there are still some dealerships I have talked to who are doing the right thing, right now, and offering the limited allocations they expect to receive at MSRP or less. In fact after searching and contacting numerous dealers throughout California, I finally decided to place my order and bring my business to a Subaru dealer in Colorado, who will let me order the car with only the options and accessories I want, and in fact are giving me a price so low that it is still more cost-effective to order from them and have the car trucked back to CA for me than to purchase it in CA.

To seasoned car guys/gals and purveyors of limited-edition or limited-production vehicles perhaps none of this is any news and I have no doubt that car dealerships have, and will continue to engage in this kind of behavior whenever a new, or rare vehicle hits the showroom floors. But I hope that letters like mine, and perhaps the occasional coverage or discussion by magazines like yours, will bring some exposure to what is almost universally agreed upon is part of the seamy underside of the automotive world -- the actual car buying experience. Perhaps you've done it in the past, but you could and should do a piece on buying a car and all the various tactics, shenanigans and practices that happen at a typical dealership -- in sales, finance, and even in the service departments. I still look forward to purchasing and driving my BRZ soon, but the whole overall purchasing experience will probably be tainted to some degree by the ordeal I and many of my fellow BRZ enthusiasts had to go through to get there. Subaru of America, are you listening?

the Editor's response at the end of my letter: "You might want to check out this month's Dyer Consequences on page 28. -- Ed."

I love Ezra Dyer's writing as well and feel pretty honored, that perhaps I inspired him to write this month's column. Or at least we are on the same brain wavelength... :happy0180:

That's Awesome!! I was just reading that article yesterday!! No joke!!! I also read that ridiculous bash on the BRZ by the guy that wrote in about how his HHR SS and Saturn Sky Redline were better Sports Cars???? That article irritated the shit out of me...Yours was very well put!!

Congrats!!

[GNS]

Well written, thanks for taking the time to write something and send it off to a magazine. I think it is a statement in itself that you got your car for less money from a dealer in Colorado than in your home state. It's like driving to the next town to buy a pair of shoes and still end up spending less for everything, gas included.

[PMok]

Originally Posted by Extreme86

[MENTION=9501]Subaru’s allocation method and pre-order process is woefully inadequate. While I appreciate the attention and concern their customer service reps display when contacted, it’s obvious Subaru has a total lack of comprehension that there are still some waiting buyers from last March who have put money down at dealers who have already exceeded their allocation count. They have VON#s but, Subaru reps don’t see them in their system because they are not “active allocations” in the dealer’s order pipeline. Apparently, first come, first served has no meaning.

You raise a very good point, one that I didn't really touch on in my letter. My gripe was mostly with how dealerships have been dealing with the situation and their onerous markups. Subaru's allocation system and failure to deliver cars to their most patient and loyal customers (the ones who pre-ordered right at the start) is a whole other can of worms worthy of another letter... perhaps you can write to Automobile in response to mine and add your thoughts? their address is: letters @ automobilemag . com

[86BRZ]

Good job Pmok! Thank you for doing this for us. The whole Subaru order system is useless. Why the deposit is refundable in some dealer some is not? Some is $1000 and some is $250. Nothing more frustrated than seeing an ad show up in autotrader but the dealer is not calling me, because sell with a mark up has more profit than filling a guy on the waiting list! Congrats again for being a great citizen to bring this up.

[einzlr]

guess it's time to delurk OP I read read your letter just a few days ago in Automobile. Well done and congrats on getting published! The dealer situation is reminiscent of when the Mini came out 10+ years ago. For the first several *years* it was in high demand with the dealers at the long end of the lever by a large margin, adding huge markups and taking bribes.

[PMok]

for posterity, I snapped a photo of my letter that got published.



(click to see large version of the image)

[Turbowned]

I noticed my letter in Car and Driver got edited significantly, too.