On 6/14/2013 11:29:40 AM windpoacher wrote:A very pleasant buying experience for both my wife and myself from Wolfe Subaru in Surrey, B.C. My first intention was to definitely buy an almost new demo vehicle from the U.S. I had done a fairly thorough internet search to gather all the information I needed to make an informed purchase for my first Subaru. As I started to crunch the options and numbers after talking to dealers from Bellingham to Seattle, I found it was difficult to make a Canadian and U.S 2014 Forester comparison because the packages were too different. Also, two very significant factors was the extra 6% duty I would have to pay because since the Forester is made in Japan, it does not fall under NAFTA like the Outback which is assembled in the U.S. Just as disappointing is that none of the 2014 Foresters in the U.S. have pedal shifters. THIS IS MAJOR. Their automatic transmissions have drive/low, while the Canadian’s (other than the base model) have drive/manual along with the pedal shifter. Buy the time you add your regular duty and fees along with Canadian taxes, the price difference was reduced to not making it worth my while. Then on re-sale, you have a steeper depreciation rate to deal with.
Being determined it was a Forester for me, I phoned several dealers within the lower mainland to get a feel for who I wanted to deal with. After the calls, including Vancouver Island, I was prepared to deal with three dealers, so started by going to the closest one, which was Wolfe Subaru. I asked for the most senior sales person (previous purchase experiences taught me this was a better way to go – just make sure you have somebody that “gets it”) and ended up with Shaunna Haidar whom I found to be very informative and best of all not pushy. She never even asked my name for follow-up. Subsequently I contacted the other two Subaru dealers, including one on the Island, and decided it was Wolfe Subaru I wanted to deal with. Shaunna wasn’t around for my second visit so I talked to Jay Shead, the sales manager. Very shortly into our conversation I came to see he wasn’t giving me a sales snow job about pricing and buying/selling details. I hate the two-way nickel and dime purchasing. I’m glad we didn’t have to get into it. Once the financial stuff was dealt with, there were no surprise costs. I was disappointed Subaru doesn’t have much of any cash incentives, but they did move a bit on pricing. I also thought they could have done better on my trade in. Shaunna continued to deal with me once the vehicle came in and explained step by step, all the features of the vehicle. The last thing she said was that if I ran into any trouble, day or night to give her a cell call and she would probably help me solve whatever my problem was sooner. Twice through various stages of the purchase, which lasted a few days, Jay asked me if everything was OK and if there was anything he could do. I am a senior citizen and was buying what might to be our last car. I have bought many cars in my days (first one was a used 1935 Chrysler) but have for the first time encountered a truly “make you feel good” car buying experience. I will write a parts and service review once that becomes necessary. Thanks Shaunna and Jay, you made my wife and I feel like family. Now I expect this Forester to live up to its reputation, especially after having recently swept the boards for safely awards.
Jerry
On 6/11/2013 4:58:04 PM subaruxv wrote:The following is my opinion only,
I purchased a Subaru about half a year ago from Stratford Subaru. I took the car in for an oil change and it cost about $100, which is $40 more than another local shop in Stratford, but I wanted to deal with our local dealer. I took the car in for the second oil change and said to the service manager, I would like to book the car in for an oil change. When we went to pick up the car, they gave us an invoice for $396. I asked how that was possible since I only asked for an oil change? They said that they went ahead and did the full 20,000km service which included changing the air filter, servicing the brakes, and rotating tires (which had only been on for a couple months as we had snow tires on all winter, which they put on). I told them I wasn't alright with this, because I didn't ask them to do anything but an oil change on the vehicle, they can't just go ahead and do $396 worth of work without asking me first. I asked the service manager to talk to the owner to see what he would do about this as the service manager professionally admitted that he should have asked before going ahead and doing all this work.
I received a call from the service manager saying that the owner said, because all the work that was done is recommended by Subaru, they can't do anything about it, and I am responsible for the invoice. The owner said that he would give me a free oil change next time, which does absolutely nothing for me right now, and I am still left with a $396 bill and know that I will never go back to Stratford Subaru again because that "free" oil change may just cost me $300
Through this whole process, the office staff was rude, and very difficult to deal with. I have never dealt with any dealership that would treat people like this, or do work without customer consent, then try to hold the customer liable even though they admitted that they should have asked before doing all this work. Overall I am very disappointed with this experience at Stratford Subaru, and will never go there again.