Hey guys, I actually decided to make this its own thread... So I was wondering if yer still around to answer some questions. Looks like I'll be coming up again soon and have some questions for the people who live in San Francisco:

-What do you do with your car? My prospective situation would involve rent along the lines of 700-850 a month and cannot afford to spend 230-250 a month for a garage to keep my car. I was thinking about using an out of town storage place and just using a battery minder to keep the battery charged and then drive it weekly. Does this seem impractical, what are your solutions?

-Are there any really good driving roads in the area? Roo I expect you to chime in on this

-Where do y'all take your cars for service. Are any of the local dealerships any good. Do you have alternate places which do feel do superior work? Have you found a place that can do the various interval services for cheaper?

-What performance shops/distributors are local to you guys. I figure the term in this situation is relative, but take it as meaning within reasonable distance. 25 miles is okay I suppose, but bordering on excessive.

thanks, more questions to come.

Alex I'd love to meet you one of these days man!

sherif

 

Carlsen Subaru in Red Wood City gets good reviews about their service department, I think they've done a good job for me.
Skyline Blvd. runs from SF south along the ridge of the costal range...well built, fairly high speed limits, and most of the roads between it and the 280 are also fun. It's my personal favorite, but I'm not really a racer or anything...
Can't help with the other questions, sorry about that...

 

I thought Carlson was bad??

 

I would _never_ have a remotely nice car in SF if I didn't have a garage. Stolen, keyed, homelessguypissedon, mirrors broken off, dents, etc. It will get destroyed in the city.

Keeping it out of town seems like a nightmare (hey I have to go take Caltrain to pick up my car). I'd sell it and get a beater that you can park anywhere...or spring for the garage.

 

Sherif,

Where in the City (what we natives call SF) do you plan on living? Depending on where you live, you can find a room within a house with parking for that price.

As far as finding parking outside of the city, it would probably be a total PITA to get there via public transportation. Your best bet would be to:

1) live in a part of town that is affordable enough to pay for parking (typically the west side of san francisco)

2) park on the street and deal with the potential of getting scratches on your bumper or dings and even people breaking into your car. If you live in the west side of town, (sunset and richmond districts) street parking is reasonable and safe.

3) sell the car and get around on public xportation

It doesn't sound like 3 is an option you'd like to pursue, though.

Driving to/from Mount Hamilton is way fun. As is the drive up in the Marin Headlands. Also, you can't forget Napa/Wine country.

As i've owned my Sube, (1 month or so) I've come to realize how blessed we are to have so many tuner shops in the bay area. They might not fit within your 25mile rule, but in the bay area, you have Vishnu tuning, MPJ performance, Gruppe-S, LIC motorsports, i-speed as far as better known shops that cater to the subaru crowd. I know there are others, I can't remember them right now. Also, I don't have any experience with these shops.

I personally have had good experience with Motorsport Techniques in Hayward, which is about 25miles from SF. There's a lot of other shops too, though.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

 

having a car in the city - wo a garage - depending on were you live, its not that bad; there are plenty of safe areas were you won't get keyed, etc - my car does get dirty tho from all the rain/fog - thats a minus of not having a garage. Like everyone else said, Carlsen is good, and shops around here are plentifull

to drive checkout pashnit.com
the city itself except for skyline/ocean doesn't have too many high speed areas.

there are lotsa pluses - nightlife and clubs are pretty good; food is great

 

Come on up, and I'll show you. I'm available all weekend. PM me for my phone number, and we'll have some fun in the rain.

 

Park in a quiet/safe neighborhood and you're good, like Forrest HIll. Park in the Sunset, it's relatively quiet but your car might get raided by the local Honda theft jerks. Park downtown or in a parking lot and expect some dents.

 

I think they're a bunch of incompetent *****. I'll summarize my experience with their service department.

A) Spun bearings on my Outback. Needed a new block. Took four months to get my car back and it had significant lot damage, lug nuts missing from my wheels, stereo stolen, etc. They did pay for a replacement sterero but would not do anything about the many dents dings and scratches. To their credit, they did an excellent job with the engine rebuild.

B) After changing my alternator they didn't tighten everything down properly so my car would just randomly not start. Took over a month and 6+ visits to get the problem resolved.

C) I had bad front CV joints, told them I had bad CV joints or something wrong with the front diff. First two or three visits they insisted there was no problem. Then they insisted the problem was with the *rear brakes* and talked me into an $800 brake job even though I knew better. Long story short I picked up the car after the brake job and it had the same problem. Took it back *again* and finally got them to replace the ****ing half shafts. Couldn't get a penny back from them for the brake job that didn't need to be done. Jerks.

I'm going to Ron Price now but they haven't done anything for me beyond the standard maintenance stuff so for all I know they're a bunch of ***** too.

Sherifx, where in SanFran will you be? Have you considered getting a place outside the city?

 

Where in SF do you plan on living? If you find a safe quiet neighborhood you won't have to worry about parking safety. It's only when you venture into other more busy parts of town will you have to worry about theft. As far as dings. I guess it can happen anywhere where you park on the street. The only thing you have to worry about in my 'hood is that it can be boring to some and your car will get filthy just sitting here with all the mist coming down from Twin Peaks

I live in 'Noe Valley' and it is extremely safe. Also street cleaning here is on Mondays for one side and Wednesdays for the other so you really only need to move your car once a week unlike some other areas. Also it's far enough out of the chaos that you don't need a street parking permit. Unfortunately I cannot actually afford to live here and I live with a roomate. But I generally have parking in front of the house. I work in 'Soma' and park where all the homeless folk like to chill. I did get my license plate stolen the first week I parked there, but after that no problems. My car has seen so many problems now, I don't care anymore. If I had a nicer car I would either take MUNI or park in the Costco garage. Also if I lived 'downtown' I would need a garage. Some people I know that live in the ghetto pay 500 for rent and 200 for a garage. Or you can live in a less convenient area where you have a garage or don't really need one. It all depends on where you work/go to school.

No matter where you choose to live. Hope you enjoy your time in the best city in the US.

John
<---- Not an expert on teh city life.

 

Potrero Hill has plenty of safe street parking. I parked my WRX outside for a year over here and the only problem I had was it getting dirty...

I take my car to Pats Garage on Harrison @ 3rd... I think their number is 777 5877. I used to take my Hondas there but stopped when I got a Subaru (they're an independent Honda Acura shop)... I ran into someone that used to work there and she was telling me that the other independent Honda/Acura shop in the city was also an Independent Subaru shop... well, they closed and referred all of their clients to Pats... including all the Subaru people so Pats started doing Subarus as well...

At any rate, they've done some services on my car and I'm happy with them. They were always really good with my Honda. And it sure beats going to Ron Price.

 

Thanks all! I'm actually going to be in town again this coming week. I'll be in on tuesday and out on friday.

As far as the big parking issue goes, I'm looking to either find a place around the Jones and Sutter area or over by Polk & Clay, or Clay and Van Ness, there abouts. So I imagine parking would be an issue... any more ideas?

sherif

 

yes, maybe consider a different part of town?

seriously though, unless you need to live in that part of the city I'd consider somewhere a little less dense. My girlfriend lives over there right now and I've been parking over there a lot lately. Street cleaning is EVERY day in that area and garages are about $275/month for a big lot (I have no idea about private garages in that area.)

 

Yeah, parking will be teh Suck for you. I'd either look for a diff. part of town, or sell the car, or learn to deal with teh Suck.