I hate minivans ...

[Accumulator]

Originally Posted by TortoiseAWD

D'oh! I remember you had a WRX, what was the other Sube?

First Subie was a '95 or '96 Outback, forget which year. Short version: defective clutch/pressure plate, had to toe the clutch pedal up to engage. They said "there's no problem" until it got so bad it wasn't drivable, then they said it's the return spring, I said nope. Drove it like this for a very long time while they [messed] around. Finally just told them to replace the parts I said, that I'd pay if I was wrong (they still resisted, saying they'd never worked on a manual Outback with clutch issues before!). I wasn't wrong- they were all "gee, look at the defective parts.." Shortly thereafter I got an intermittent CEL and they couldn't figure that out either. Then it started eating batteries...enough was enough.

[TortoiseAWD]

Originally Posted by Accumulator

First Subie was a '95 or '96 Outback, forget which year. Short version: defective clutch/pressure plate, had to toe the clutch pedal up to engage. They said "there's no problem" until it got so bad it wasn't drivable, then they said it's the return spring, I said nope. Drove it like this for a very long time while they [messed] around. Finally just told them to replace the parts I said, that I'd pay if I was wrong (they still resisted, saying they'd never worked on a manual Outback with clutch issues before!). I wasn't wrong- they were all "gee, look at the defective parts.." Shortly thereafter I got an intermittent CEL and they couldn't figure that out either. Then it started eating batteries...enough was enough.

Yep, sounds like a competent dealership would have made your first experience a heckuva lot better.

I've been exceedingly fortunate with my WRX; I've only had to go to the dealer for a couple of recall issues, and other than that, I've been trouble-free (knock wood).

Tort

[Accumulator]

Tort- Heh heh, see why we're not shopping Subarus these days

We never did have some of the recalls done on our WRX because the dealers just couldn't seem to get their acts together. The whole thing was just unacceptable, at least after the treatment I've come to expect from the other shops/dealers.

I ended up having a talk with the owner's son when we bought the MPV as it was from one of the dealers who'd [messed] around with the WRX. They also handle Porsche/Audi and I explained why they lost my business to Stoddard (the S8 was parked outside). When they realized all the $ their service dept. had lost them they were pretty about it. No problems so far ..

I'm pretty confident that you're Subie experience will be just as swell as everyone else's is.