I bought two subis. 1999 and 2005 outbacks. both brand new from dealers.
the 1999 got wrecked at 85,000 miles, by a mechanic who replaced the timing belt without the necessary application when reinstalling the tensioner after repairing leaking cam seals. not only did it cost me a lot of money, TWICE, but it left the car leaking antifreeze when he replaced all of the valves the second time around but it left the car sounding like a truck. I had to get a mechanic to repair the damage after the second attempt by the original mechanic and the judge threw me out of court. said it was an old car. the noises and the leaks remain.
the 2005 hit an abutment in ft. lauderdale, and bent a trailing arm which attaches to the axle and a knuckle, along with the wheel and, of course, blew the tire. the selling dealer, when i complained about leaning tp the right, said he could not fix it because he was new in the biz! the dealers and distributors, for the most part are atrocious. they have lied to me several times. one, in pompano beach, florida, when i complained that the car leaned to the right, actually told me that ALL AWD cars lean to the right. right! also, the telephone receptionist was super nasty and insulting to me. the distributor in feasterville, pa LIED to me that the part was on the truck for today's delivery. they told me that for 7 days! finally, they admittied that they could not find the part. Another dealer told me that he could get 5 of 'em in one day but it was too late and i limped the car back to florida where it now sits like a sick dog.
the dealer in Ft. Myers has such a bad rep that i dare not go there. one customer told me that he had his subi there for almost a MONTH waiting for "delivery" of a new alternator. he finally called subaru and they told him they could give him as many as he wanted right away. When he arranged for the dilivery the Ft. Myers dealer charged him $1,000.00 for the unit, installed.
Now, I'm no mechanic but I know about alternators and they are not very expensive. Not only that but I have installed several of them over the course of my 69 years and it's not very hard.
My gavel finally came down when I contacted subaru by email. They responded in a rather untimely fashion and never addressed the issue but talked about a 2004 warantee, completely side stepping the real problem which was with their dealers and their distributors.
Let the buyer be aware.
ps...please see my other posting re electric if you are a techie.
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