We had the same issue with a Honda years ago. We had to get the regional Honda folks involved. It was amazing how quickly the dealership responded when Honda America (or whatever it was called) got involved.
I agree…get in touch with Subaru America, and file complaints about both dealerships. My bet is you will get some action!
Sounds promising! Thanks
M2CK is right.
I’ve never thought that the dealer was better at diagnosing problems than I was.
Put in your subaru model and year and “noise” into google search and look at the online message boards to ascertain whether others are having this issue. Sometimes someone (or their dealer) has figured it out.
You can try the “you have to fix this” approach, but I think it works better if you do some legwork on your own.
A quick read of things suggests that recent subarus have large amounts of road and wind noise, generally speaking.
If the owner of the dealership was ignoring me, I’d park myself in the SALES dept. and not budge until I talked to him. I’d ask nicely, then I’d ask LOUDER mentioning the lack of response to my service issue.
I did that with my Honda too. I actually left it sitting in the service area…was in the way. I walked up,to,the showroom, and LOUDLY told someone what was going on. All the folks looking at cars started listening. They escorted me to a private office, where the showroom manager called service and said “the lady is here, she is angry, and she is right.”
Amazing how quickly service helped me that time.
I couldn’t wait to get rid of that car!!
I would contact Subaru of America and follow a call with a letter if necessary. And also agree you should check out lemon laws – don’t wait, there are time constraints. You can be sure the dealers know those laws and will stretch out on fixing this beyond that if possible. I had decent luck with Subaru of America in the past when something major went wrong with my car right after the warranty ended.
I don’t know either if a rattle would qualify, but I did have to toss the lemon law at Nissan years ago. My brand new Murano leaked near the front door window. It was hard to duplicate, but after a heavy rain the wet marks would be there. Took it a few times and they sealed this and that…Finally I did write a letter summarizing my visits and asking for it to be fixed or replaced under the lemon law. They kept it a few days and had some leak specialist come in. They had to take down the headliner and basically had the guy reseal everything. It turned out to be a clogged drain hose in the sunroof. Not sure if the re-sealing had helped, but I think not, hence removing the headliner and figuring it out. I did get a loaner pretty much every time as this all started withing the first month of owning the car. I told them they had it more than I did. With the correct threat, that can really be followed through they will do the job. Contacting corporate should help as well.
The clogged drain made sense in retrospect because when I got the car it looked like it had been driven through a leaf pile. There were bits of leaves in every crevice (maybe exaggerating, t was 10 years ago) but it really seemed like it ws parked under a tree that lost all its leaves, or more like parked in front of a leaf mulching machine.
Good luck.Remember, document (follow up) in writing any conversations or trips to dealership.
I had a lot of problems with a brand new Oldsmobile–my 1st new car. I took it back to the dealer when the wiper engine died in the 1st heavy rain, weeks or months after I purchased the car. They apologized profusely, gave me a nice loaner and washed the car before returning it. I believe there were a few more warranty servicing visits as well that first year. Fast forward to near the end of the first year when the transmission started acting up in the new car. I was very upset and talked about the lemon law and how I was ready to have them give me a new car. They tried to convince me that my car was now better than ever since they fixed the transmission. I told them if they were so convinced, they should give me a FREE gold warranty on the car for an extra 4 or 5 years. After some hemming & pausing, they ultimately did
Sure enough, just before the extended warranty ended, the transmission died AGAIN and they replaced it. They tried to get me to pay some cleaning/washing/servicing fee but I pointed out that the extended warranty said NO copay and refused.
I agree I’d escalate to the regional or national office. Enough is enough! Parking it in the way in the service area and complaining loudly on the sales floor is another technique, but I never used either.
^Sounds like you should have @HImom do your negotiating for you!
@HImom Glad you got it worked out! I’d be thrilled if the dealers here cared at all about customer satisfaction, but they seem surprisingly unfazed by our unhappiness. I wonder if part of it is due to the fact that Subarus are selling like hotcakes right now.
Regardless, the service manager called me this morning to tell me he was one who ordered the tech not to remove the panels and instead replace the (easier/cheaper) bracket. I was upset about this since he basically overrode the tech’s judgment. They are taking the car for a drive this afternoon to see if the bracket fixed the noise. I’m 95% sure it will not, at which point I will have Subaru of America press on them to get it fixed or get me a replacement!
We had a similar type of issue w a Range Rover. The drivers seat would randomly move all the way forward when you got in, pinning you against the steering wheel. After months, they ended up replacing the whole seat and motor. Which is what the service thought, but corporate did not want to bc it was expensive and under warranty. So the told service no.
The car was in the shop so much they ended up crediting me a car payment. Squeaky wheel…
I have to ask HImom… was that about 1985? I had a 1985 Buick that had a wiper motor die, and had some transaxle vibration issues and I traded it at a loss after less than nine months. Shortest time I’ve ever owned a car.