They Didn’t Do It Right and Weren’t Nice About It
I brought my car to this dealership for a simple oil change. The car was returned to me with the oil overfilled by half a quart.
Because of my concern that this amount of excess oil could damage the car, I phoned the Subaru manufacturer’s 800 number to get their advice. The manufacturer’s technician told me that this amount of excess oil “could cause problems” and advised me to drain the excess oil. Excess oil in this amount can cause the oil to foam, exposing engine parts to excess heat and damage. It can also ruin the catalytic converter and cause the engine to pollute.
I had to bring my car back to Rancho Grande Motors TWO MORE TIMES to have the excess oil drained. (The first time I brought it back the oil was again overfilled by half a quart!)
These were bad experiences because the service writer was, at times, uncommunicative and clearly angry. He told me I was “making too big a deal” of this and accused me of checking the oil improperly by replacing the dipstick in the backwards position. (In fact, when the dealer returned the car to me it was THEY who had replaced the dipstick in the backwards position!).
Sometime later, when I called the same service writer to ask a question and get a price on another service, he never returned my call. It took another call to the Subaru 800 number, who then contacted the dealership. Only then did a manager finally return my call.
In all, I was seriously inconvenienced by this poor service. I was made to feel that I was creating a problem, when, in fact, the dealer had twice performed a service improperly, resulting in a condition that could have damaged my car.
My advice to other Subaru owners is to find a local shop you can trust. For repairs, ask the shop to use Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts. I found such a shop, and on my last visit they performed my oil change properly. I intend to use them for all my future Subaru service.
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