Originally Posted by 02BlackWRX

Originally Posted by Yin

its funny... because the point of him starting this thread was to perhaps improve poor business. i think its doing THE EXACT OPPOSITE. i was even scared to go there for the ESX event, let alone go shopping for a car. ****, i might stop by just to see what these yahoo's are all about.

LOL

Originally Posted by zumnwrx

kanye is a homo... im VERY disappointed with his new cd, i swear thats the best song on the cd and even then i could only listen to it about 4 times befor i was over it

sorry kanye but your beats suck, some of your ryms are dope but the beats kill it
edgar, <-- awaits dres new cd

Originally Posted by GotBoost?

Hey Brian...its Ted...I spoke with you at the ESX event a few weeks back....I am planning on getting my car to you soon for the work we had talked about.....I have decided that I am gonna give you guys another chance (for the recalls). But honestly....I am very nervous about leaving my car there....and I have decided that I do NOT want to be without my car while it goes to the body shop, I have lived with those scratches for awhile now...and can continue to do so. So anyways...when would be a good time to bring it in? The recalls shouldn't take more than about 15mins to fix.....so I'll just wait for my baby.

-Ted

Originally Posted by willow

I guess I shouldn't buy Forester XT there...

Originally Posted by AntiochCali

Diablo Mazda Subaru, where I buy my oil filters from also does this. I think that is also the way Livermore Subaru does it.

Originally Posted by iBlueVirus

Wed 5/18/2005 (So I guess it's still the same... )

Cut from a friend of mine’s blog who went to buy a Subaru RS wagon last night from Steven’s Creek… A little long, but interesting, and crazy.

I've thought a lot about last night. How could I not? It was surreal, and without a doubt the single worst car shopping experience Jake, Rus, or I have ever been through. It started with innocent, honest expectation of buying a new car, and almost ended in a trip to the hospital or the police station.

The warning signs should have come early. We shopped at Stevens Creek Subaru, in San Jose. Follow that link, I'll wait. Out of the first five Google hits, four are warnings not to do business there. Checking Google first should probably be a standard procedure for any car dealership from now on. Make a note of it.

We arrived at around 7:30. I'd test driven an automatic transmission RS 2.5 on Sunday and worked with a salesman we'll call Bob, but he wasn't in, so we met with a different salesman who I also won't name here. Let's call him Jim. Jim let me test drive a standard transmission RS 2.5, which went pretty well. He seemed quiet and wheezy during the drive, and sweat a lot, but I won't hold that against him. When we got back to the dealership, we were ready to do business.

I should describe how Jake does this. He buys cars for all of his friends, he's a wizard. He has a spreadsheet and print-outs of the Consumer Reports price guide for whatever car he wants to help you buy, along with a script of how the negotiations will go. In my case, he also had a print-out of every Subaru Impreza for sale within 100 miles. He usually calls ahead to find out what interest rate can be expected, then fills in his worksheet. He likes to start with offering 2% profit to the dealership, including the holdback, and work up from there if he absolutely has to. Usually there's an hour of back-and-forth number scrawling until the sales manager gets called into the room and approves a final figure. When you're waving around a sheet that has itemized every price, tax, fee, and location for every Impreza within driving distance, in explicit detail, it's really hard to argue with. He's done this lots, he knows what he's doing, and he always gets his price.

So, he pulled out his laptop and we got to work. Negotiations were hard, harder than usual. Jim wasn't giving any ground, and kept spending precious minutes in the sales manager office (probably talking about sports, not the car). Eventually, we budged, causing Jake no end of grief, and offered over 4% profit. We made it clear what interest rate we were expecting, the one Jake had called and been offered over the phone. They accepted, I initialed the offer. This was around 9:00.

Then we had to wait to see the finance manager. And wait. And wait some more. The finance manager was busy with another couple, and stayed busy until around 9:40 or so. We eventually did get to see him. I was feeling triumphant because I'd just gotten my car, and Jake was feeling a little beat because he'd just conceded way more profit than he likes to (he's a trooper). I'm not sure what Rus was feeling; probably gross, because he'd run to Arby's to get us drinks.

I knew something was wrong right away. The finance guy (let's call him Frank) was wasted, he looked exhausted. We asked him some simple question about some form and he sighed heavily and said "I don't know. I didn't read it," and without skipping a beat handed me my Saturn title to sign over. I didn't sign, of course, because I noticed that he'd written down a monthly payment on a little piece of paper that wasn't just wrong, but astronomically wrong. More than $50 a month more than what we'd agreed to with the salesman, so I asked him to go over all the numbers. By this point we were just ready to walk, but we tried to figure out what the hell was up. All his numbers were wrong, nothing was what we'd agreed to. The interest rate was totally different, the final sale price was different, the number of months was different, everything.

Frank was not apologetic. Instead, he seemed genuinely uninterested in anything other than getting us to sign and walk out of his office. He sighed and rolled his eyes, but he didn't hear a word we said. He did a lot of hand waving, and got pretty surly fast. Mind you, by this time we were getting pretty surly too. He wouldn't budge on the figures, even after calling in the Sales Manager (I'm running out of names, but let's call him Bubba. We'll meet Bubba again later). Finally, we just snapped and said "Forget it, we're out of here".

We walked out of his office and into Bubba's front office, where the last of the sales crew were hanging out. It was 10:00 by this point, everyone wanted to go home. We were all pretty pissed, and Jake (very calmly but very assertively) tried to explain exactly why we were pissed, and why we were leaving. (Hint: It's because we were being ****ing lied to!)

Bubba did nothing but give us grief from the start. He was immediately combative. After a few minutes of vaguely heated but not nasty things said back and forth, we asked for my Saturn keys back. The deal was off, we were walking, they can't have my trade-in.

Hold on, because this is where it gets good.

Bubba refused. He stood there, and said nothing. He actually looked around with his hands up, mockingly, saying "Well I don't see any keys here".

Jake, bless him, did not quite lose it. But his eyes burned with righteous fire. He stood his ground, and in a very firm and increasingly nasty voice said "Well find them."

Bubba, the dumb bastard, snarled "You don't tell me what to do."

Oh, really?

Things escalated from there. There were more heated words exchanged, just a back and forth of "Find the keys, NOW" and "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, I'LL FIND THEM WHEN YOU LEAVE". Eventually, we stormed out of the office, and Jake slammed the door a little hard. I'm not kidding when I say a little. It was a slam, but barely.

Bubba ****ing freaked. He shouted "HEY! YOU DO NOT DESTROY MY PROPERTY!" and lept out from behind the counter. He followed us onto the showroom floor and got immediately into Jake's face, inches from him, screaming. He threatened to call the police, to which Jake responded "Do it, so I can report my friend's car stolen".

Rus and I intervened at this point, saying reassuring things like "Hey hey hey, none of this now, we don't want any trouble, we all just want to get out of here." To everyone's credit, things did calm down for a bit. Jake firmly but persistently said "Find those keys" while we stepped outside.

The calm lasted about five seconds, until Bubba almost literally pushed us out the door and again said "You do NOT tell me what to do!".

I think the final straw was Jake screaming "WE'RE WAITING ON YOU, SIR!" just as we'd gotten outside the dealership, into the cool night air.

Bubba decided at that moment to start taking off his jaket, and threw open the door, lunging toward Jake. The rest of the sales staff bodily grabbed Bubba and dragged him back inside, out of sight. He was literally ready to attack Jake and start a fist fight.

We stood around, fuming (literally), furious, adrenaline pumping. Eventually, my Saturn miraculously appeared in the driveway (minus the registration, but I don't need that anymore now do I?), and we sped home. I did not see Bubba again, but for those few moments I was pretty convinced we were all going to end up in Jail. I'm not sure what I would have done if Bubba had really jumped Jake. Would I have fought back with him? I hope so!

I think it probably goes without saying that I would never do business of any kind with Stevens Creek Subaru. It probably also goes without saying that several very well worded and poisonous letters are on their way to the Better Business Bureau, Stevens Creek Subaru, and Subaru of America.

I should add as a final note that Carlsen Subaru in Redwood City had us in and out in about an hour, with no fuss, and an incredibly polite finance guy. What a difference a few miles makes.

So, that was my Monday night. How was yours?

Originally Posted by Roo

Speaking from experience (I work at Marin Subaru in the PARTS DEPT.), I can say THIS IS THE WAY IT IS ALWAYS DONE. When you get a Fumoto valve, then I'll explain WHY it's done this way.

Originally Posted by Roo

Speaking from experience (I work at Marin Subaru in the PARTS DEPT.), I can say THIS IS THE WAY IT IS ALWAYS DONE. When you get a Fumoto valve, then I'll explain WHY it's done this way.

Originally Posted by yayitzian

subaru of riverside in socal has always thrown in the crush washer for me for free, and it has been under 9 bucks.

Originally Posted by Akira-R

After being charged 16.00 for a filter and 2.50 for a crush washer at diablo subaru (this was after my bad experiences w/stevens creek, so I wouldn't go there for anything) I found a few places online that sell them for ~$6 for the filter washer combo. *sti/wrx filter*

--reid