Carter Subaru Ballard

Reviews 3

DA

Davey Ven

Made an Appointment December 14th 2016 for my 14 BRZ limited. Needed an oil change and to have them look at my heated passenger side mirror because it simply wasnt heating. The driver worked fine. However when I came in for my appointment the service rep asked if my mirrors had the little symbol on them to indicate they were heated. I responded with "I... I dont think so, im not sure" so he proceeded to go out and look at my mirrors, only to come back and say "you do not have heated side mirrors" While being blown away at this because Iv done extensive research with the BRZ and got the limited model because it came STANDARD with heated seat, dual climate control, push button start AND heated side mirrors.. I merely insisted that I do have heated side mirrors and that it comes standard with the limited model. While he was very insistent that i do not have them and even got another service rep to look at his computer to have them both say I do not have heated side mirrors. Well I argued and insisted over and over again that i do but during that moment i had received a text from my job asking me to come in asap due to boiler leaking so i just agreed to the oil change as I didnt want to stand around forever discussing who knows more about the car and what its supposed to have. So during my wait for the oil change, I was just infuriated about the whole thing and decided that I was going to get every piece of information about the Limited model to somehow convince this sales rep that I do have the heated side mirrors and that it came standard with the limited model. Well the website just lists 2016 and 2017 models at that point and figured he wasnt going to be happy with that. So i decided to call Subaru America and get it on record saying that "the 2014 Subaru BRZ Limited comes standard with heated side mirrors" which i did and when i returned to pick up my vehicle, I simply asked to talk to the sales rep that i spoke to when i dropped it off, I explained to him that i called Subaru America and its on record stating that my 14 Limited model comes standard with it and that I do in-fact have heated side mirrors.... only to have him get defensive about it and have him pull me over to his side of the computer to show me what he sees on the screen which just shows the addons to the car but doesnt show what comes standard on the car like the heated seats and dual climate control and etc. Instead of taking the responsibly of that just possibly he doesnt know every thing about the cars that come in to that dealership he then tried to say "it must be aftermarket" ...... like dude, seriously? how about you do what i just did and ask Subaru America.... wait, i just did it for you, yet youre insisting that im still wrong somehow........ no man, it comes standard with it which is the first sentence that i said to you. I know a lot of people are just dumb, but if i was him and the moment that customer said "Uhm. The driver side heats up beautiful and pretty fast" i would have considered the possibility that im probably wrong. Whatever. So today, 1/10/17 I had an appointment for my heated side mirror because i better get that fixed before the warranty expires in feb, next month. The guy took my keys and didnt say anything about me not having heated side mirrors. I imagine its because its notated in my file. That process went great. They fixed it within 3 hours and im back to pick up my keys and see the inspection report... only to have the nice service lady say and point out that Im due for an oil change and that my oil is low....... I just got an oil change from them 28 days prior..... if im low, they didnt put oil in my car. No the sticker on my windshield shows due (4-14-2017) so the sticker is right. I decided at that moment that i was never ever going to come back here again. Oh and btw, im not low on my oil. Im an inch 1/2 above the max fill dot after resting 10 mins and im leveled out. pretty high? maybe not dangerously but getting there. im still checking it.

AN

Anthony Beas

PROS: The difference between my experience buying a car with Carter Subaru which was great vs buying a car at other dealers in the past which were not as great came down to our sales person, Lynnette Rice. Lynnette is very patient (it was 3 months from our initial visit until the time we bought the vehicle), she is very upfront about pricing (whereas other Seattle area Subaru dealers were annoyingly not as upfront about their pricing), and she works hard to make the actual buying experience as seamless as possible. In terms of the latter, specifically, she listened to my concerns about my previous car buying experiences and what I did not want repeated, and she worked to streamline the buying process by prepping people or even cutting out people in the purchase pipeline in order to cut time as well as unnecessary haggling/gimmicks. I walked out of the dealer happy with a smile on my face, which I believe is pretty rare. CON: Importantly, if I were rating Carter Subaru based solely on my interactions with Lynnette, I would have rated my experience a 5 star. However, I am rating Carter Subaru Ballard a 4 star overall because the dealership is just too small with too few finance managers. We purchased the car on a Saturday, on my day off and the first day of my vacation, and the dealer was crowded with lots of vehicle and people traffic, which got in the way in many ways including firstly from finding parking in the dealership because the driveway was blocked with traffic (we had to circle around Ballard to find street parking) and lastly from finalizing our purchase quickly because we were in a long cue for finance. It took 3 hrs to buy our vehicle, and most of that time we were waiting to talk to the finance guy, which took only 10-15 min. Even though Lynnette had nicely prepped the finance guy about what we did and did not want, talking to the finance guy tired is never a good thing. Im sure that the entire process could have been completed in 30 min. TIP for buyer: Although I had a great experience in terms of buying the car and very highly recommend Lynnette and Carter Subaru, until Carter hires more finance staff and makes a bigger dealership, I suggest avoiding the weekend crowd and wait times by just asking Lynnette about the least busy times to finalize a purchase.

MI

Michael Villanueva

Copied and pasted from Yelp because Im L-A-Z-Y. I purchased a 2013 Subaru Crosstrek XV from Carter Subaru. My customer experience started in May of 2012 well before the first vehicles were delivered for the 2013 model year. I sent an email inquiry about availability and received and immediate response from Tony Robertson. Tony and I corresponded mostly over email and talked on the phone a few times through the summer and into fall. He always responded to my emails in a very professional and timely manner. He included as much information as possible and answered all my questions. Even phone calls were followed up with email, and all emails were very detailed allowing me to keep a record of the entire process. When the time finally arrived for me to reserve my car and go in for purchase, working with Tony in person was just as pleasant and straight forward as our email correspondence and phone conversations. On the day I purchased my vehicle, Tony helped me get a very fair dollar amount for my trade in. I was handed off to Tony Nguyen in Finance who also treated me well. I was not pressured or hard-sold on any of the insurance or warranty packages, and I was in and out of the F&I process very quickly. I had a very good experience working with the Tonys at Carter Subaru in Ballard. Ive had very poor customer experiences at dealerships before, and I can honestly recommend working with these two gentlemen at this dealership. - Tony R. responds to emails in a very timely manner - Tony R. is very detailed and is a straight shooter - Tony R. handles himself in a very professional manner and is also quite friendly - Tony N. is expeditious in his low-pressure F&I process Full Disclosure: I live in Seattle, and although I shopped other Subaru dealerships, my intent was to buy at Carter to take advantage of the Carter Advantage. That said, a bad experience would have immediately motivated me to purchase from one of the other many Subaru dealerships in the area.