Subaru Quality and Service

[Johnb]

I found it interesting that people are having a whinge about Subaru. I would say it is more to do with individuals related to your experience than the company.

Rattles are the least of my worries. I had one on delivery and it was fixed immediately.

Let me tell you my experience.

I live in the ACT where there are 2 Subaru dealers. When I was in the market for a new car in June 07 the STI dealer wouldn't even let people take the showroom liberty STI for a drive. It seems that they had a few joy riders who just wanted to take the cars for a thrashing and scare the stuffing out of the sales staff. I took one of the specBs for a drive, thought it a good car and far better a balanced package than other "executive" performance sedans.

In my case after I drove a gt specB I just had to try the sti. I flew down to Melbourne and test drove the sti down there. The dealer wasn't willing to negotiate and I would have to pay for all accessories.

By chance I went to the second subbie dealer in Canberra (not an sti dealer) and they had a black sti and let me take it for a spin. Told them that I wanted one but preferred a silver manual sedan.

The dealer rang around and transported a silver sti to Canberra and my car was delivered in just over a week - the delay was me getting to the dealer to pick it up. They also threw in a few extras at no cost and I had 6 months of the happiest motoring I've had since I parted with my cosworth escort in the early eighties.

The only incident was when I drove to Melbourne in August, for a work thing, to put a few more kms on the motor and loosen it up a bit more. I left my car on the Sunday night with the parking guy at one of Melbourne's better hotels and picked it up on the Wednesday. I just jumped in and started driving north. As I drove out of Melbourne the car just didn't feel right and I could have sworn I had more fuel in the car. At the next service centre I got out, refuelled and checked the tyre pressures. It was then I noticed that 3 of the sti enkeis had been damaged. When I got back in I checked the sat nav and found the car had done almost 200kms while in the parking station and had a recorded top speed of 215kph. I also noticed that my odometer had been flipped to the B reading and when flipped back to A the car was showing a fuel consumption of 27.6 L/100km. I normally average about 12.4.

When I got back to Canberra I booked it into Subaru for an inspection and a 4 wheel alignment. I paid for the alignment and they didn't charge me for the inspection.

In January 08 I arrived at the dealers in a cloud of smoke with a small crack in the high pressure oil line to the turbo (it had been a patch of hot weather here in Canberra with +38 degree days). After examination Subaru asked if they could send my engine to Japan for further testing as this was an unusual problem - I had several conversations with one of the company's techs over the phone and it appears to be fatigue crack that develops due to a combination of high pressure, higher than normal temperature and vibration - Subaru now have a fix for it.

Subaru said that they would fit a new sti motor and supplied a 07 liberty sti for me to drive around in while we waited for the new motor. Prior to this I had a brand new Outback to drive around in.

I picked up the car with replacement motor and took off with my beauty back in hand. Five and a half days later while driving along Canberra's most deserted road the engine internals let go and I was not a very happy chappy. After waiting 3 hours for a tow truck I deposited the car next to the dealer's driveway. While waiting for the tow truck I had left a very emotional message on Subaru's 1800 number voice mail.

Next day the dealer rang me before 8:30am saying that they had a call from Subaru Australia and noticed the car out front. I explained what had happened and told them I'd be over at lunch time to drop the keys in. When I got to the dealers there was a replacement sti waiting for me to drive away in.

Subaru offered me the option of take the black sti I was driving or wait for mine to be repaired. I liked the car so much I was prepared to wait.

It seems that Subaru subsequently flew engineers out from Japan to examine the car and engine. The engine was replaced and subjected to 1500km of testing before being handed back. The problem was a combination of metal waste not being cleaned from the oil channels to the crank bearing and a milling problem in the factory.

Since getting the car back we've done a further trouble free 10,000km and its coming up for its next service.

The engine was just one of those things. And Subaru took very good care of me. As for value for money, I don't think you can go past one of these little babies. Great amount of space, very good performance for a road car. The handling and brake are unbeatable for an out of the box road car.

When I read the result of the Biggest bang for buck last year with the SS in 1st place I just laughed. The subbie will brake hard all day while the SS will give up the ghost after a few hard breaks. You have to spend real serious money to get better brakes.

This is my first subbie and it won't be my last.

To get better I would have to spend some serious money on a Porsche or a BMW M series or maybe an Audi RS4 (but I don't think the rear of the BMW grips as well as the motor writers say). Imagine what other possibilities you could have with the money you save. Hmm, a weekend tarmac racer for instance to undertake the occassional hill climb or a short holiday in Tasmania in April/May.

What improvement would I like Subaru to make to their STI Liberty road car. Well I'd like the 221 kw motor from the WRX STI dumped straight into the Liberty STI. Slightly wider wheels and tyres. Magnetic bilstein shock absorber system for variable rides settings (to amke my wife happier). And slightly lower gearing on 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gears or a different diff ratio. The change in gearing from 2nd to 3rd is too wide a spread. 2nd gear is often too low a gear coming out of slower corners and you are too high in the rev range and 3rd gear in the same corner is too low in the rev range and you have to wait for the revs to pick up before accelarating quickly again. This was really noticable at wakefield at a corporate track day.

[GhettoGX]

yeah i have heard other similar stories of Dealers bending over backwards...

They did alot of rmuckin around to get me into my Subbie last week

Im curious...Did u go back to the hotel and proceed to knock every valet onto their asses?

cos i can tell u...i would have...

cos its obvious they went runnin, Ferris Beullers Day Off style

also little tip...take photos of your cars odometer wen ur leaving it with ppl like that.

[Kevlar GT]

Good read. I also live in Canberra and have experienced both dealers and the dealer mentioned but not mentioned (Non-STi) is fantastic. The guys in the service area have been there a long time and they know their stuff and most of all after you have been there they tend to remember you and treat you like a valued customer.

I had issues with the fitting of a clutch in my old Liberty RS and they worked hard to get the thing in and sorted and also had no issue in supplying me a car to get around in whilst the problem was addressed.

One of the funniest things was that an old family friend that is a mechanic there got back from his annual leave and had it fixed up in about an hour. Just one of those things.

Kev

[gtspec]

nice write up Johnb

im also curious.. please tell me you went back to the hotel and get some compensation..

i had something like this happen to my previous BMW e46 shape.. i dropped it off at one of syds upper class hotels only to come back and and the valet couldnt put the 5 spd manual car into gear.. i was waiting about 30mins before they told me.. Seems like someone took the car out for a joy ride, as the e46 model was only just released.. and my car was dropped on 20in chromes, fully sick hehe..

in the end, after months of arguing, as they tried to blame me saying i must of caused it initially.. i finally got paid out the $3000 to repair the box..

will NEVER go back to valet parking.. u dont know what idiot your handing your keys over to

[Johnb]

I didn't knock anyone on their arse, I wrote a very polite letter and when I got their "we take no responsibility" letter I rang the Managing Director's Assistant who arranged all their corporate events. I explained my situation, said the response was unsatisfactory and explained all the business we put through the hotel and that we would be ceasing business with them and transfering it elsewhere. We weren't their biggest client but I did get a follow up call from their MD who I'd met a couple of times. I explained that they had fired off a no responsibility letter without even looking at my corporate profile - let's just say that less than $3k of rims was less than 1% of the business they lost. That was my satisfaction.

[Arith]

Go JohnB! That's showing them! I love it when the little guy wins for once.

[jp928]

Seems if you have Serious issues you are OK, or maybe your ACT dealer is much better than average. Complain about something more mundane, you are sh!t out of luck - 08 GtB wagon new in march:-

1. seats too hard - should have tested it better; how do you get a test drive long enough to assess that ? MUCH harder than Outback seats.
2. headrests angle uncomfortable (hits me in back of head continually)- tough- Franks Eng will mod for $66 each.
3. speedo reads 6% high (compared to ECU output) - not legally allowed to alter unless>9% out - complete BS!!!!
4. sms msg to add fuel treatment at ~6k - didnt give me any.
5. anytime you do ANYTHING with audio system, cd player settings default back to std - tough.
6. gave me a fuel treatment in Outback with a loose lid which spilled on seat and soaked in, wondered why I got annoyed, must have been my fault.
7. had hesitation issues in Outback, blamed it on my driving. Corrected by insulating knock sensor for a while.
8. interior light non-existent in front seat unless you turn front map lights on - tough, thats the price of a sunroof.

Must be mad - buying a second one?
jp

[sheppo9]

What happened with the wheels?

[SMI77]

2. headrests angle uncomfortable (hits me in back of head continually)- tough- Franks Eng will mod for $66 each.

Does anybody know anyone who can fix this problem in Brisbane?

[jp928]

Update - just had first service. All complaints listed above came back as expected with 'within Subaru std'. Only $211 all up. They didnt give me with new car, or this service, the usual fuel treatment stuff, nor did they put it in the tank. I queried this, and was told that Orix (lessor) dont approve it as inside the service......have queried them with why and what will happen if I get adverse affects from not using it. Nuts.

Sorry, cant help with a headrest starightener in Brissy.

jp 08 gtb wagon