Hometown Subaru

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THIS IS THE MOST DISHONEST SERVICE DEPARTMENT I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED.



FYI: I've never purchased a car from them so I have no opinion from a sales point of view.



However I have taken my Subaru is two separate times for service work... BIG MISTAKE.



The first time I brought my car in was because it was overheating. After keeping the car for a week (they did supply me with a loaner which was nice), they called me up and told me, "We fixed the overheating. She's running great". They charged $650 for the repair. No less that 11 and a half hours later I found myself stranded on the side of the road with an overheated broke down car.



The following Monday I went back to them to speak to the service manager who proceeded to tell me that they had test drove it for a half hour and it was fine. I may have believed him if the service invoice they gave me didn't give him away. When I asked him why the mileage in/mileage out was the same number on my invoice after allegedly "test driving for a half hour", he replied that they don't really pay attention to that kind of stuff. So did they test it out? Who knows... Moral of this story: They do shoddy work and keep inaccurate, if not false, records. I'm out $650 and a car for a while until I can earn enough money to have it repaired by competent mechanics a few months later.



Fast Forward 4 years...



I need a state inspection sticker for the same car. It's nearly the end of the month and due to my work schedule, I have trouble getting the car to a inspection station before most places close for the day. I finally find a place that does inspections in the evenings and to my dismay it was Hometown Subaru. I figured that after 4 years of bitterly hating this company and spreading the bad word of Hometown Subaru to all my friends and neighbors, I would be an adult and give them a chance to redeem themselves. I mean, it's an inspection sticker for god sake, how can they screw this up? Right? WRONG.



I sat in the waiting area for nearly 2 hours when they finally called me up to the counter and said that they found some stuff that would prevent them from giving me the inspection sticker.



Here we go again, I thought.



I asked what exactly this stuff was and they said that my tie rods were loose and needed replaced and one of the axle boots was torn. They said they could fix the axles and tie rods and give me the inspection sticker for $345 but it would probably take a few days to get the parts in and have it all done.



(sigh)



I said, "Thanks for having me wait 2 hours. Now give me my keys back so I can leave." I took the car to another local shop the next day for a second opinion. They said that my tie rods were tight and fine and they replaced the axle and gave me an inspection sticker for $185. They had the work completed before the end of the same day to my pleasant surprise.



So there it is... Hometown Subaru screwed me out of $650 the first time and a few years later I gave them a second shot to redeem themselves with something simple and they just tried to bend me over again. Save your money and avoid this service shop like the plague. Get second opinions for any work that they say you need. This service department does dishonest, shoddy work for WAY too much money.

Going down the road near Beckley West Virginia, I broke a timing belt and bent two Valves, also damaging two guides. These guys at Hometown told me I had destroyed two heads! Instead of a valve job, Hometown told me that both heads needed to be replaced. They "just happened" to have the used heads on hand, explaining that this good luck was saving me more than a thousand dollars. They had to send the used heads out for a valve job and some machining. (Turns out they could have done this with my heads but then they would not have been able to charge me for the two heads.)



In the end they got me for $3200, the majority of which was labor, and which my home mechanic of eighteen years tells me is about twice too high--even for dealership rates. My mechanic is fixing the old heads and expects them to cost me about $400 to get them back to perfect and installed. Also, they took four days (three and a half anyway) while I sat and stewed in a local hotel. A valve job could have been done overnight.



Lesson: when being towed down the road, don't always assume you are better off with a dealer's service. Subaru must have little oversight over its dealers. I have owned Subaru's for thirty years. If they can't clean up their corrupt dealership network I will be thinking hard about purchasing another one.



Lesson 2: When being towed down the road near Beckley, WV, tell the tow truck driver to go ahead and save you some money by towing you several States away! These are very nice guys. Don't be fooled by the nice guy act, they are out to take every penny they can.