I was looking through the various newsgroups concerning Subaru vehicles and came across a post from snipped-for-privacy@vermontel.com who also had problems with Subaru of Claremont so I thought I would add my experience as well.
My story is as follows. Recently I went to the Subaru of Claremont dealership and received a written quote on a trade for a new vehicle. Not knowing for sure if this quote was a fair price or not, I went to another dealership to see what they would offer. They said they could not offer a better deal so I returned to Claremont to accept their offer. When I arrived less than three hours after receiving their written quote, the sales manager said that particular vehicle was no longer available. Since there were several other standard models in stock identical in price and configuration to the one I had selected earlier, I said I would take another vehicle. He said the there were no others available "exactly like that one" as that particular vehicle was offered to me as a "loss leader" and that it was the only loss leader they were going to offer at that price. I then asked what constituted whether a particular vehicle was offered as a loss leader or not. His response was that it was strictly at the "dealer's discretion". The bottom line is that they were not going to honor their written quote and I was going to have to renegotiate and settle on a higher price if I wanted a vehicle - or go back to the second dealer.
Needless to say, since there was no mention that it had been a "special quote" that expired on leaving the premises, or that the vehicle that was originally offered was different from any other vehicle with the same configuration and price, I didn't feel they deserved my business at any price higher than quoted price. As a result, I returned to the second dealership and in talking with them I learned that Subaru of Claremont was probably engaging in what is known in the industry as "low balling". My understanding is that this is where the dealer offers a low price he has no intention of honoring when he knows you are shopping around so you will return to the dealership and he will have another opportunity to negotiate. They even issue a written quote on a standard quote form with the dealership letterhead but are very careful that it is not signed and I did not pick up on that.
This is my personal experience only but they definitely engaged in deceptive pricing with me in this instance as far as I am concerned. I also wonder that if they are this devious during the initial negotiations, how will they treat customers in the service area after the sale when you might have to take their word on what they find wrong under the hood? I will personally avoid them like the plague.