[Aredubjay]

My first experience with the dealership here in Evansville, was just prior to the "4,600.00 Tranny Debacle." I had ordered my parts from Subaruparts.com (T-belt, Cam and Crank Seals, Valve Cover Gaskets, Water pump.). I went to the dealership and asked if there was anyone there who knew the SVX. They first said, oh, our Subaru tech is at lunch, but, our Service Manager knows it. I asked to meet him. A likeable guy who said he knew the SVX inside and out. He convinced me. I asked if he had a problem with me bringing my own parts. He said, "what kind of parts." I told him "Genuine Subaru Parts." He said, "no problem." I described the work I wanted done and asked if I'd be in and out the same day, or if I'd have to make arrangements for transportation. He told me, "we'll have it ready the same afternoon." I asked him about changing the water pump, he informed me it was just a few bolts, a simple change, once the other stuff was off. All was cool. I set an appointment, dropped the car off, took their shuttle to work. They sent the shuttle afte me in the afternoon and I went to the service desk. "Oh, Mr. Johnson, your car isn't ready -- won't be ready until tomorrow. Can we give you a ride somewhere?" When I suggested they take me home (40 miles, one way) they balked and offered to call a rental car company for me.

To make a long story short (well, shorter), I wound up having to rent a car for five days as they kept putting off the work. After the five days, I went to pick up the car. They had done all the work except for one VC gasket. They said they'd install it if they had one more day, but, said the one they hadn't replaced wasn't leaking, so, I told them that would be okay, I wanted my car. Upon checkout, I happened to mention "they told me I'd be in and out in a day and here it is 5 days later. They offered to "split" the rental car -- I took 'em up on it. I had my car back. Next day at work, I pulled into the parking lot and smoke was pouring from under the hood. Back to the dealership I go. Somehow a tranny filter hose had gone bad (in the five days I had left the car there), and they discovered a tranny mount was bad. Two days to order in the mount, hose was in stock. This time I was lucky enough to be able to use the company van (can you say "road wagon?") to transport myself the 80 mile round trip for the two days. Meanwhile, at the end of the two days, they call -- "Your car is ready." They send the shuttle, I go in to the service desk, "We tried to get you before you left, I was mistaken, your car is not ready. It'll be ready tomorrow." At this point, it was clear that I was unhappy. I went silent (that's the tipoff -- I'm never silent). The shuttle took me back the office (after dropping off three other customers) and I was able to take the company van home once more. The car WAS ready the next day, but, I was not a happy camper after all the inconvenience.

A couple of weeks later, when the tranny went down, I RELUCTANTLY took it back to the dealer (most of you know the story).

Okay -- I said all of that to say this: Upon first meeting Steve Wasion (wasions), who uses the same dealership and has nothing but good to say about them, he said that they (he and the tech) had conversation about me. That the tech had said that I had come in with "no confidence, with my own parts, most of which didn't need replacing." If he'd bothered to ask, I could have told him that I had bought the car with 109K miles on it, knew nothing of the service history, knew I had a cam seal leak and would rather spend the money and take the opportunity to start "afresh" with my service history than to have a cam seal changed and have something else die down the road. As for the parts -- I would have paid 30% more for the parts at their dealership and as long as they were genuine Subaru parts, they shouldn't have a gripe. As it was, I wound up dropping over a thousand dollars in labor (plus the cost of hose and tranny mount).

My take on the deal is, it's your car, your money and "flack" should not be an option.

Sorry for the long post. The "flack" line just caused me to have to vent, since it brought back such "icky" memories -- oh, not the least of which, right after they quoted me the $4,600.00 for the tranny, one of our members here, that works for SIA found a bill from the dealership I went to (although he's in Lafayette), in the glove box of an SVX (I forget the circumstance of why he was in posession of the SVX), for a transmission replacement for that car. Price, $2,300.00.