Planning on buying my first Subaru around mid to late February. Looking to buy a 2003 Outback Sport with a few options and am hoping to keep the price low (preferably as close to invoice as possible). Couple of questions for people...

1. Can anyone recommend a dealership in eastern MA that has decent service and prices? I'm closest to the Natick and Norwood dealerships, but don't mind traveling a little further if I can get the Outback Sport for invoice or close to it.

2. I've heard that supposedly all of the Subaru dealerships in New England are owned by one person. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me?

3. Anyone know why the "Popular Equipment Groups" aren't available in New England? A lot of the options I'm interested in were part of those groups. But, now it seems you can't get those groups around here, you have to order all of your options separately.

Thanks for any info anyone can provide me.

 

Thanks for the reply Cabal.

I e-mailed Subaru directly with the same questions. They replied that the reason for the lack of "popular equipment group" packages was because Subarus in New Englad are "part of an independent supplier, namely Subaru of New England". So, they must operate under different rules or something I guess.

They mentioned the same thing about Ernie Boch owning the New England Subaru dealerships as well. But they mentioned that he doesn't own "all" of the dealerships. I dunno... I just get bothered by doing business with a man who has llamas and "magical" donkeys in his commercials. lol...

I'll keep the Wilmington dealership in mind as well. I thought I heard something about a new dealership in Bourne. Has anyone done business with them yet?

What about purchasing online at sites like AutoWeb, InvoiceDealers, CarsDirect, etc... Anyone have any experience buying a Subaru in New England that way?

 

<Ben Stein voice> Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? </Ben Stein voice>

How about this then... those of you who bought your Subarus for close to invoice... How did you do it? Did you just walk into a dealership and say "Hi. I want to buy a Subaru at invoice."?

 

duno if this is too late or if u'll even b able to find wut yur looking for here but i figured every bit helps. i'm at school in PA but home is in Andover, MA north eastern MA next to lawrence. in North Andover there's IRA subaru and Toyota. my father deals in a lot of toyota cars and has had almost flawless service from them. i used to live in Wayland which is kinda near natick and is about 45 minutes from Andover, so if that's not to far give them a call and see wut they hav. good luck finding a scoob!

 

RSEnigma,

Nope, not too late yet. I'm planning on buying right around President's Day weekend. I'll add Ira Subaru to my list of dealerships to check out. So far I think I'll be checking out Ira, Planet Subaru, Patrick Subaru, Atlantic Subaru, and possibly Village Subaru too. Already checked out Norwood and they seemed decent. Checked out Natick and have written them off since I didn't care much for the attitude there.

By the way, PA's a good place to go to school. I went to Del Val College in Doylestown, PA myself.

 

yeah i love this school as far as the classes go. the party scene is a little weak but the auto classes and the hands on work r really top notch. another plus is i heard that for a senior project we can work on our own cars and the school finances a large amount of your project! cobb engine rebuild here i come!

 

Just went out to two dealerships today. Went to the Shrewsbury one and the Westboro one.

Test drove an OBS at the Shrewsbury dealer. The OBS was ok. Customer service was non-existant. Kept getting the old "I'll be with you in a minute once I'm done with this customer" line from the salesman. Sent me out on my test drive by myself since he was busy. He never even thought to just pass me off to one of the other 4 salesmen that weren't busy. Got back from the test drive and he was busy with a customer who arrived while I was on the test drive. Told me again that he'd "just be a minute". Saw a really nice 2002 Legacy GT there that I was lot more interested in than the OBS. Would have bought it on the spot if the price was right. But, after stading there for 15 minutes waiting for the salesman, I said the hell with it and with that dealer and left.

Went to the Westoboro dealership next and they were extremely helpful. Let me take a Legacy on a nice 15 minutes test drive over route 9, route 495 and some back roads. Answered all my questions. Gave me a ball-park figure of what I'd be looking at for price. And didn't try to talk me into an immediate sale since I told him I wouldn't be ready to buy for another week or two. I'm definitely sold on the Legacy now. And unless I hear from a dealer offering below invoice on one, then will probably go back there to buy.

Went to the Natick dealer about 2 weeks ago and the salesman there was overly pushy in his sales technique. All I wanted to do was ask some questions, get some prices, etc. Instead, he kept trying to talk me into buying that day even though I told him I wasn't ready to buy for a couple more weeks.

Benjamin, thanks for the offer from your dealership. I'd definitely consider your dealership as well. Unfortunately, I'm about 3 hours away from you.