[rexxx0486]

Hi Guys,
As some of you may know I am a Subaru Dealer in North NJ. Quite few people asked if I could answer car buying questions for them so I thought I would put together a thread to help you guys out! Let me know what questions you may have. Lets keep this civil please and please no thread jacking, if you have advice for folks make your own thread, I dont want to be associated with other people's mis-information. So... Go ahead ask away!

 

[BigDaddyRex]

I would think, considering the regular debate on this forum and others, that your insight on modifications and their impact on warranty would be much appreciated. Does a stage 1 ECU tune (AP or the like) matter? Do dealerships bother checking if the ECU has been flashed? How are modded cars looked at from a service perspective? Has your dealership denied any claims based on mods?

Any insight on the issue would be widely appreciated.

 

[xFalleNx]

Why is it that most dealerships look down on younger people (under 25) trying to buy instead of treating us like regular customers? It has always bothered me any time I walk into a dealership.

Back story: I was treated like utter trash by 5 local dealerships before finally buying my car from one an hour and a half away.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[rexxx0486]

good question bigdaddyrex. This one really depends. Some dealers are way more mod friendly than others. My dealership has a lot of young guys with modded cars so we tend to be cooler about mods than most. It also has a lot to do with your relationship with the dealer. If you are a regular customer and make a point of being nice to the guys you work with at the dealer, and have a good relationship with the dealer in general you will get preferential treatment in many ways including warranty issues. Bring your service writer dunkin donuts once and watch your bills shrink at the service counter Most people act like dicks at the dealership so we do appreciate the nice ones. If your mod directly caused the problem there is no way they can overlook it though, like we have had kids start car fires with improperly installed neon light kits and such and there is no way we can look the other way on something like that. In general, nitrous, turbo upgrades, any internals are all going to void the warranty. Thats not to say we wont look the other way if you bring it in for a window regulator and you have a big ass front mount intercooler, they will fix the window and ignore the mods. Cobb AP and some bolt ons would not bother us but if you develop an issue caused by those parts we can't cover it. We don't check if the ecu has been flashed unless there is a reason to at my dealer but I can't speak for others. Can't you just divorce those cobb tuners quickly anyway though?

 

[rexxx0486]

XFallenX, Salesmen are not on salary so they are only paid when they sell a car. When dealing with the under 25 age group you have maybe a 5% chance of selling them a car, vs like 30%+ for a customer in their 30s or older who wants an outback. It comes down to them not wanting to waste their time and lose money by being with you when they could be missing another sale. Although you are part of the 5% who actually buys a wrx, I can assure you for every one of you there are a zillion kids who think the dealership is six flags and just want to test drive an sti. If you are young but seriously interested my advice is to go with your mom/dad and let the sales guy know up front that yes you are a young guy but you are serious and are willing to buy a car right now if you get the treatment and the price you deserve (and do your homework and know what you want and what you want to pay for it too, don't just bs the guy he will know) Don't sit there and tell him that you're also looking at the speed 3, the camaro, the genesis coupe, the mustang, the g37 and the blah blah blah. You're just telling the salesman his 5% chance of selling you the car isn now a 1% chance if you're lucky. I'm not trying to make excuses for bad salespeople, I am always courteous young wrx customers and treat them as one car guy to another, but that is why it happens.

 

[BigDaddyRex]

Thanks for the thorough response.

Can't you just divorce those cobb tuners quickly anyway though?

Once the map is applied you can disconnect the AP and leave things as you set them. You can reflash the original map before going to the dealer if you want. From what I've read, though, it is still possible to see (on the service end) if the ECU has been flashed (though I guess a battery disconnect could also read the same).

I'm content with the Stage 1 level I'm at, but down the road, as in post-warranty, I'll likely go Stage 2. Though I may cave before then ...

 

[Mikie13]

Cool thread idea.

We don't have too much dealer input around here since a member by the name of GraysonSubaru stopped posting a few years ago.

I always figured that about the sales people. Its crappy that it comes down to that, but it's true. I lucked out at Coleman Subaru in Ewing, NJ when I was 24. I came in looking at an STI Limited and the salesman (older guy, about 60yrs old) and the 30-something year old Sales Manager were nothing but incredibly nice to me. Certainly made for a great first car buying experience.

What dealership are you at if you don't mind me asking? I also had a great test-drive experience at Wayne Subaru in Wayne, NJ. More great people up there. That was what convinced me to buy an STI. It's just unfortunate I was only up visiting the area that weekend and only stopped in to look, otherwise I would have bought from Wayne.

 

[EJ257]

XFallenX, Salesmen are not on salary so they are only paid when they sell a car. When dealing with the under 25 age group you have maybe a 5% chance of selling them a car, vs like 30%+ for a customer in their 30s or older who wants an outback. It comes down to them not wanting to waste their time and lose money by being with you when they could be missing another sale. Although you are part of the 5% who actually buys a wrx, I can assure you for every one of you there are a zillion kids who think the dealership is six flags and just want to test drive an sti. If you are young but seriously interested my advice is to go with your mom/dad and let the sales guy know up front that yes you are a young guy but you are serious and are willing to buy a car right now if you get the treatment and the price you deserve (and do your homework and know what you want and what you want to pay for it too, don't just bs the guy he will know) Don't sit there and tell him that you're also looking at the speed 3, the camaro, the genesis coupe, the mustang, the g37 and the blah blah blah. You're just telling the salesman his 5% chance of selling you the car isn now a 1% chance if you're lucky. I'm not trying to make excuses for bad salespeople, I am always courteous young wrx customers and treat them as one car guy to another, but that is why it happens.

I bought my STI @ 20. The salesman at the Subaru dealership I went to basically told me to take a hike :shrug:

I bought the one from my cousin @ a Nissan dealership

 

[rexxx0486]

Yeah it sucks, I remember being treated like garbage at dealerships when I was younger too. When I was 22 I wanted a neon srt-4 (looking back on it Im glad I didn't get that car!) I drove in with my 99 civic Si so I figured they would at least give me the time of day but nope, not at all... I had one salesman tell me "you flat out have no business with this car", and another guy at another dealer tell me to come back Wednesday and he'd take me for a test drive. When I got there on the following Wednesday I was told it was his day off! I am reluctant to say what dealer I work at because I've already had a ClubWRX member find out where I work and call my store n my day off and buy a WRX from another salesman here for the same price I gave him! So I do all the work and offer the great price and get screwed over because he couldn't wait 12 hours to factory order a car from me. But anyone can PM me and I will give you my contact info at work.

Cool thread idea.

We don't have too much dealer input around here since a member by the name of GraysonSubaru stopped posting a few years ago.

I always figured that about the sales people. Its crappy that it comes down to that, but it's true. I lucked out at Coleman Subaru in Ewing, NJ when I was 24. I came in looking at an STI Limited and the salesman (older guy, about 60yrs old) and the 30-something year old Sales Manager were nothing but incredibly nice to me. Certainly made for a great first car buying experience.

What dealership are you at if you don't mind me asking? I also had a great test-drive experience at Wayne Subaru in Wayne, NJ. More great people up there. That was what convinced me to buy an STI. It's just unfortunate I was only up visiting the area that weekend and only stopped in to look, otherwise I would have bought from Wayne.

 

[Mikie13]

^^^ Well that's pretty crappy of that member! I don't condone that!

Perhaps I'll shoot ya a PM

 

[rexxx0486]

yeah it comes with the job I guess... LMK if you need anything dude.

 

[rexxx0486]

come on nobody wants to know why we all wear plaid suits and pinky rings??

 

[drgonzo80]

Great thread idea - thanks for posting. I was wondering if you could provide a little insight on Subaru's distribution process for factory-ordered WRXs. I'm leaning towards ordering as I've been looking for a '12 the past couple of months and have found that they're pretty rare in the southeast, and almost non-existant at dealerships in my area.

Anyway, I was talking to a dealer recently, and he mentioned that ordering certain colors (like Lightning Red) usually resulted in a long wait for delivery. He mentioned that the factory in Japan simply manufactures a bunch of cars and puts them on a boat, and the cars are then distributed based on pending customer orders and dealership needs. Do you have any further insight/amendments to how this process works? Do some colors typically arrive faster than others, or is delivery speed based on what the factory is cranking out when the order is placed? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I'm curious as to how this works.

 

[rexxx0486]

drgonzo80, Yes that is pretty much the way it works. NOW BE PATIENT!!!! There is nothing the dealer can do to speed these orders up and there is no way to give you a tracking number or tell you where the car is or how much longer it will be. We have the best cars in the business and the worst ordering system in the business here at Subaru. Just a side note, why doesn't anyone order lightning red? One day I bet they are going to be the most sought after of all WRX's cause they are like non-existant...seems like 90% of everyone orders swp or dgr.

 

[rexxx0486]

I'm really surprised there was such little interest in this thread!

 

[Mikie13]

I'm really surprised there was such little interest in this thread!

I don't think that there's little interest...I think things will come up as time goes on...not everyone has questions just off the top of their head.

Well here's something for you though...And I think the answer is pretty obvious...but is your dealer opposed to just doing labor for parts that I would provide? For example...I compiled rotors and pads that I wanted on my car, yet my local dealer wouldn't do it because they didn't source the parts. Obviously it's a liability issue, but if the parts are as good as OEM or better, and I don't have any kind of outstanding warranty, what's the big deal? And if it were really a matter of them covering their asses, why couldn't I just sign a waiver?

 

[rexxx0486]

I don't think that there's little interest...I think things will come up as time goes on...not everyone has questions just off the top of their head.

Well here's something for you though...And I think the answer is pretty obvious...but is your dealer opposed to just doing labor for parts that I would provide? For example...I compiled rotors and pads that I wanted on my car, yet my local dealer wouldn't do it because they didn't source the parts. Obviously it's a liability issue, but if the parts are as good as OEM or better, and I don't have any kind of outstanding warranty, what's the big deal? And if it were really a matter of them covering their asses, why couldn't I just sign a waiver?

Well at my dealership we would be happy to install whatever you wanted us to unless it was a safety issue, like we would not remove your airbags for weight reduction or install something illegal on the car, but almost anything you wanted we would install for normal labor rate.

 

[rage-wrx]

or install something illegal on the car

What is considered illegal?In the state of NY for example any aftermarket part is considered illegal.

 

[tke467]

I have a question. I have been wanting a WRX for some time and looks like i am getting close to pulling the trigger. When i started looking about a year ago before teh disaster, most dealers had two to 15 wrx /sti on the lot. Even as recent as two months ago dealers had several on the lot. Now none of the dealers here in colorado have any on the lot. Even during the disaster some dealers had some to offer. Do you know why this is? are they just prepairing for the new model? is there a problem with production or the 2012 cars?

 

[Dramlin]

I have a question. I have been wanting a WRX for some time and looks like i am getting close to pulling the trigger. When i started looking about a year ago before teh disaster, most dealers had two to 15 wrx /sti on the lot. Even as recent as two months ago dealers had several on the lot. Now none of the dealers here in colorado have any on the lot. Even during the disaster some dealers had some to offer. Do you know why this is? are they just prepairing for the new model? is there a problem with production or the 2012 cars?

My question is related, and if true may answer tke467's question.

I noticed the same thing in my state. When I went in to order my STI 2 weeks ago the salesman said that the reason for the lack of cars was due to Subaru's efforts to produce less WRX's and STI's this model year. He went on to state that Subaru would only produce 8,000 WRX's and 3,000 STI's for this model year, as these cars get less MPG's than the other Subaru models. By producing less of these cars Subaru can improve the overall fleet MPG economy for the model year (which in some way benefits them.. how im not sure). Due to this the 2012 MY models are going to be the rarest WRX/STI's yet.

By chance do you happen to know if there is any truth to that?