Frederick Subaru

I believe that the employees at Subaru Frederick do mean well. The fact that they screwed up with my service is not what upset me. It is the fact that when I became upset, the front desk service people became defensive and made the situation worse. I left with my issue barely resolved.
It is ok to make mistakes. George apologized but I think he felt guilty. He did not need to. All in all, these people do good work.

Went for routine maintenance today, it couldn’t have been a better experience, as long as Grant is selling cars and Ashley is in service, I’ll be a life long customer,

We bought a new Forester from Walter about 6 months ago. I really appreciate his expertise and not pressuring us. We looked at two other dealers who pressured us and chose Frederick because of Walter.

I wanted to thank this dealer for their excellent customer service! Both George and Ashley are awesome! They both did a great job in getting my BRZ looked at and did a great job in following up with me. I had a terrible experience with another Subaru dealer and the Frederick Subaru really hit a home run with me! Thanks for actually taking the time to examine the problem and analyze the issue. I would recommend this dealer time and time again! 5 Star customer service from George and Ashley! Grant in sales in awesome as well! Thanks again!

I bought our car from this dealership based on my past experience with their service department many years ago.
I made it clear to our dealer Mark Goldenthal, that I was looking at Subaru cars there instead of the dealership that was much closer to us, based on my past experience with them and my Subaru years ago, and how helpful their service department was to me at the time.
I will go over why they made such a big impression on me then, how this deal went, and give you some general tips for buying cars.
In the past:
Years ago, I had a Subaru Impreza RS. I did all my own mechanical work. I don’t mean just oil changes. I mean when it was time to replace the timing belt at 105,000 miles, I did that.
When I went to buy the timing belt, and the Subaru technical manual, I had questions for the technicians on some of the specifics of the install.
To my surprise, he was very helpful, and even took me in the back to show me in his manual, a particular issue.
When I came across an issue I didn’t feel like fixing myself (back passenger wheel bearing) I took my car in there for non warranty work to get it worked on, and even though I didn’t buy my car there, the service writer gave me a loaner car no problem.
Not a free enterprise rental. A free loaner car from their fleet.
That is more than the actual dealer I bought the car at was willing to do…
Those two issue went over real big with me!
I promised myself then that when I bought another Subaru, that I would try to buy it at that dealership!
About this Deal:
We bought a 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek. Did I get the best price on it?
Probably not, but I went as far as I felt like arguing, and was satisfied with what we paid.
Our salesman Mark Goldenthal was very straight forward, nice, and helpful to us.
There were no surprises in this sale
He didn’t play any BS head games with us. The deal went as smooth as it should. It need not be a painful experience to buy a car, and this wasn’t
In this deal, He gave me a price. I told him I wasn’t willing to pay the price he offered, but was willing to pay X for it before taxes and tags, He took it back to the finance guy, He brought back another number. I said I would be willing to adjust the number to X. He went to the finance guy and came back with a number I was willing to pay.
Once we settled on a price, I asked him if Subaru had any special rates (they didn’t).
I told him if they could give us the rate of X, which I made it clear I could get at my bank, I would buy the car that day.
They got us the rate we wanted.
The Issue we did have:
With the deal done, we get home and find out he gave us the wrong spare set of keys. I had him FedEx us the correct set, and in the FedEx envelope with our proper keys, there was a prepaid envelope to send back the other set.
An issue that was dealt with rather painlessly.
The dealership didn’t loose a star, because I liked the way this issue was dealt with.
To make it clear, Frederick Subaru did none of the tactics I list below, with the exception of the «invoice price».
Tips:
TIP 1. I don’t know if this dealership does this, but most do…
If you ask for financing from the dealership, they will say you are approved for a certain rate, when in fact, you could probably get a better rate from your bank.
Say you can get a 2 percent rate from your bank. They might tell you that you are approved for a 4 percent loan.
In this scenario they get a kick back from the bank. They might say they aren’t but I have had experience with this, and checked into this. It is true.
Sometime they will give you a seemingly good deal on the price of the car thinking they can make it up in the finance rate.
If you don’t go with their financing, the deal will dry up.
Before you go in, know what rates you can get from your banks before being offered dealer financing.
Tip 2. The «invoice» doesn’t mean jack!
Decide what the price is you want to pay beforehand, and if they can’t offer you it, no matter what the «invoice» says, go elsewhere…
The invoice is just a piece of paper.
I can make a piece of paper that says «invoice» on it also. Next time I buy a car, maybe I’ll bring one with me.
Tip 3. If your salesman tries to give you some crap about not making commission, because they are known to give people the best deals, go somewhere else.
Tip 4. If your dealer indignantly says something like «we gotta eat», RUN!
Tip 5. «No haggle dealerships just mean you will pay more for your car.
To Summarize:
In general, always expect to have games played with you, and be mentally armed and ready.
Now as I said, Mark didn’t play any games with us. Both he and I knew our parts in the sales game. Both of us knew each of us knew our parts.
We had an honest exchange, which is something I really appreciate!
I liked him, and have nothing but positive experiences with this dealership!
Mark