I just purchased a base 2004 WRX Wagon - Java Black - 5 Speed from Charlie Yeo at Santa Cruz Subaru today. It was definately the best car buying experience I've had. Here's a quick review of my experience

Negotiation
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I sent emails and called several dealerships in the SF bay area and all were pretty responsive (except for walnut creek). After a few rounds of phone calls and email exchanges, Santa Cruz Subaru had the best deal.

Purchasing
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The one problem I had with Santa Cruz was that they were about 50 miles from my house in the east bay. I ended up renting a one way compact car from AVIS for about $30 bucks. It's definately the best way to get to the dealership if you aren't trading in a car or don't have a friend that can take you. Charlie was nice enough to pick up my wife, my dog and me from AVIS.

We get to the dealership and there's my Wagon, washed and polished... just waiting for me :banana: It had 15 miles on it, it hasn't been test driven.

It took all of 20 minutes to purchase the car since all the price negotiation was already done. The majority of that 20 minutes was me being **** and reading every line of the contract . The finance person ( I forgot her name ) was really cool - she even let us bring our dog into her office. She was very straight forward about everything we were paying / signing for. No gimmicks, tricks, etc. And no pushy selling of extended warranties / paint protection.

Afterwards, the majority of the time spent at the dealership was Charlie pointing out the ins and out of the car. He definately knows his stuff and is extremely customer service oriented. He even got me a cool STI logo pen!

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Sorry I didn't mean to make this a commercial for SC - but seriously it was so different from how I bought cars in the past. My wife and I agreed that it was the easiest car buying experience we've had. Definately painless and we got a fun trip out to Santa Cruz with our dog and a fun drive back on highway 17 with a new WRX wagon

 

Whats the current score now?
Other Subaru dealers: 10
Santa Cruz Subaru: 134672125259389e10

If it wasn't so far away, I'd almost feel like Santa Cruz Subaru is the only way to buy a Subaru.

 

I thought santa cruz was hella far at first - but the typical 3 hours of negotiating/financing that you would normally do at a dealership can be spent at the beach and getting your odometer to 1000

 

Dear doodoobrown,

Thank you very much for all the compliments.

I am glad that your experience at Subaru of Santa Cruz was a pleasant one.

Enjoy your new rocket wagon.

Charlie Yeo
Subaru of Santa Cruz
(800) 549-8490

 

Charlie definitely rocks.

We got our Blue WRX wagon from him a couple of weeks ago and had the best possible experience (even though we showed up late in the afternoon and he was trying to close two deals at the same time).

Everything was up-front, laid out on the table and easy to understand. None of the BS games that have plagued every other car-buying experience we've had.

The STi keychain was a nice touch.

As far as I'm concerned, if you live anywhere in the bay, the drive to Santa Cruz would be well worth it if you're considering a Subaru (luckily, we're only about 1/4 mile away).

-Nick

 

750 miles to go until broken in

Thanks again charlie... expect a call from me when the new legacy comes

 

hey Charlie Yeo

good job bro!

:banana:

Gregory J. Lopez
Subaru Kaneohe
(808)235-6568
(808)235-0124 (fax)

 

doodoo... what did you pay for it?

 

Don't know if this helps you guys, but I was offered $22,250 for my wagon, no negotiation required. Sounded good to me, so that's what we took. Seems from reading responses on here that some people were able to negotiate slightly lower, but I don't feel I got ripped off by any means.

-N

 

I got it slightly lower than nikko's price - but this was a base model - no options. This was at 1.9% financing - so there was no $750 cash back.

 

Got my '04 wagon from Charlie a bit less than a year ago. Awesome experience. About to bring her down for the 15k service in a week or so!

 

I would like to thank everyone
that referred customers to me.

The Subaru community has been very kind
to our dealership and we would like to extend
a BIG THANK YOU to everyone that supported us.

Charlie Yeo
Subaru of Santa Cruz
(800) 549-8490