I had my new WRX with 1300 miles throw a CEL. Code scanner says P0390 & P0391. I’m concerned. It’s brand new, I broke it in according to the manual. I take good care of it.
I take the car to Adventure Subaru in Mentor , OH. I speak with a service adviser, REDACTED. It’s been there since Friday. I FB message him today to ask the status of my car. He tells me he needs to have a tech take my car home overnight for testing and that it is ok with Subaru and my warranty. I get a call an hour later from him stating that he hit a deer. As far as I know he is not a mechanic, just a service rep. Why is he driving my car?
Then I go to the dealer and talk to the GM, Scott . He says that MY insurance will need to handle the claim as it was a deer strike.
I go around back of the dealer to take pictures of my car and I notice that it is in an uncontrolled parking lot and unlocked. The front end is heavily damaged as shown in the video. Then I notice there are college books on the passenger side floorboard. It seems my car became the service advisor’s commuter toy. I have admissions from the service adviser and the management that he was on his way to class when he crashed my car.
I was at first promised to be put in a new car, but the owner is now stonewalling and saying they “might” be able to help me with a trade in. I feel like if I don’t get my story out they are going to get away with screwing me.
Im always so worried when i have to go on a test drive with a customer car that something out of my control might happen to it.
But if you dont go on a test drive I hate when its not 100% resolved and the customer ends up coming back.
Originally Posted by rDigitalWe have the new car on order. They’re doing a VIN swap on my loan, so it is at no additional cost to me. They will be reimbursing us for a new car seat. The STI short throw shifter is being installed as an option which I am paying for out of my own pocket. Evan Fineberg offered to pay for it but I told him I don’t want his money. Thomas Doll, CEO of Subaru made this right.
I hear ya. The dealership is trying to do the right thing, legally. It does not look good PR wise, but they are following the proper steps, probably advised to them by their insurance company. When something like this happens, the insurance company really has more say in the matter than the client, being that they will have to pay the claim. They might want to settle with this kid or threaten to take him to court to call his bluff.
It seems to me that this kid decided to take it online and make a big stink before actually trying to work with the dealership to get it taken care of. As soon as they told him to contact his insurance, he panicked and ran online to tell everyone. Seems to be the big trend these days…
While he wasn’t talking any trash about the dealer, just giving his side of the story, (so he said) I still think he played his ace in the hole waaay too soon. Doing so caused a backlash of negativity from the dealership and was the big reason a resolution was not reached sooner IMHO.
Oh, the armchair lawyers/shit talkers/random stupid people making threats against a dealer on behalf of this guy is ridiculous. So much asshattery in that thread on NASIOC.
While he may be getting a new car out of this situation, he probably will never go back to that dealer and they may not want him back. They will pay what they have to and resolve the problem, but they aren’t doing him any favors after that.
I know I had a similar situation when I bought a car through West Herr. In fact, I did make a thread on here about it too. I gave the dealer a chance to make it right, when they did not, I contacted the owner of West Herr. 2 hours later my problem was resolved. I didn’t need a lawyer, I didn’t need the media. I just needed to have the balls to stand up for myself and respectfully ask the appropriate person to take care of a problem, who surprisingly, agreed with me on the subject.
I would imagine the dealer will repair the damaged car out of pocket and sell it again with a clean car fax. The damage is not that bad from the one picture. A couple grand and they are back in business. bad situation but if I were the car owner I would not want a repaired car I bought a new one not a damaged one.
In the original post he said “I was at first promised to be put in a new car, but the owner is now stonewalling and saying they “might” be able to help me with a trade in. I feel like if I don’t get my story out they are going to get away with screwing me.”
At least from what’s posted here, it seems like he was working with them and didn’t go public until it looked like they were trying to screw him. I don’t really see the issue with that.
If I was going to take legal advice from a group of guys on a forum, they certainly wouldn’t be driving Subarus.
Updated - - -
AKA - Someone (probably his sales person/the sales manager) said they would get a new car and someone higher up who can actually make a decision, decided to not over promise anything and mentioned a trade in. Just a little “covering of their ass”, which isn’t an issue. Kid definitely should have worked the chain of command at the dealership first.
As a technician who has had to drive customer vehicles overnight for diagnostic purposes before… this is my nightmare.
I kinda laugh when people with a lower end model act so possessively about it and don’t trust a technician to drive it. Keep in mind, its their job to drive cars just like yours (and probably nicer than yours) every day, year round. I never beat on customer vehicles simply because they’re not mine to thrash. That being said, who knows the maturity level of the employee that was driving the car when it struck the deer. And along with that, anyone that has hit a deer knows it usually happens when you least expect it - not always related to poor driving decisions.
I’ve been on a road test in a customer’s C63 and had a kid in a Mustang try to get me to race him from the stop lights we lined up at. Couldn’t make a better career ending move in my opinion. Hell, if you’re that worried about your baby being driven hard get a dash cam installed before bringing it in for service. I don’t exactly enjoy knowing my every move is recorded, but it gives me peace of mind knowing any driving situation caught on camera while I’m behind the wheel is just part of my job and the servicing procedures justify anything a customer might see as inappropriate. For example: full throttle acceleration to check for worn driveline components, or a panic stop to ensure if a braking component were to fail it’s while the car is in for servicing as opposed to when it could cause an accident.
Good to see Subaru is replacing the vehicle for him, shame he had to go and tarnish the dealer’s reputation before exhausting all possible options for compensation.
