Lithia Subaru Service Dept.

[cody]

Lithia is the debil, true story. I had a couple terrible experiences with their service dept. myself.

[Skidogg]

I agree, not only the service department but sales is even worse. They offered me $4,000 for my super clean 03 wrx. Granted it had some miles but other than that this car was in great shape. Of course I told them no way and left. Sure enough, a few days later, one of the salesmen calls me and asks me to come back. So back I go and start the process all over again. About 20 minutes later the salesman is out on the lot showing a car to someone else. Wes, the Sales Manager, comes over to me and says that they won't be doing business with me and basically kicks me out . This would have been the third deal I made with them. I ended up going to Autowest in Sac. Without any hassle they gave $9,700 for a trade in.

[cody]

My co-worker was told by Lithia that after replacing the batteries in his key fobs for his LGT, that they'd charge him $100 to remarry them to the car.

[GusGus91]

When I went there the other day to look at a wrx they had on the lot, the asian floor manager (forgot his name) asked me if i was going to trade in my car '00 lexus rx300. I said "No, because you probably wont give me anything for it". He said to me "have you checked kbb trade in value"? I said "Yea, its $8000 in good condition". He then went back into his little office and talked to his people. He then came out and said "Ok, well if we give you "$8300 for your trade in, plus the $600 or $700 in taxes back since its payed off, can we earn your business today"?

I probably would have done it if it wasn't my mom's car, and I had the extra $6k to come up with for the other car. haha. But in my few days that I spent there the few salesmen that I talked to were pretty nice, and just seemed pretty straight up and legit. Although one guy tried to bullshit me about the car and tried to convince me that it was some super-car.

[Bajozzy]

The service deartment at Lithia is also a joke. My wife took her car in for service on Monday since her car 07 2.5i has free lifetime service which sounded like a good deal at the time. After waiting 4+ hours and then not even getting a courtesy call when it was "finished" she began the long journey home to Lake Almanor about 125 miles. At around 30 miles into the trip the car began overheating so she pulled over and called AAA and had it towed back to lithia. They told her she had a bad radiator cap and charged her 135.00 dollars. They told her it was an "unfortunate coincedence" that the car broke down immediately after being serviced by there ace mechanics.

[100_Percent_Juice]

You didn't pay for that did you?

[koobaru]

lol its funny to see everyone hate on lithia, i have to admit, working for them sucks a big one. but like it was stated before, some of the people are great. you just have to go in there knowing who you need to talk to. dont hate me for being a service tech! lol

[cody]

^I only hate you if you're the tech that re-installed my rear sway so that the ends were an inch off of the pavement.

[SoCal LS-L]

Since this thread involves Lithias Service also I thought id chime in..... dealing with Scott was ok, pretty nice guy there in service..... but when the tech inspected my timing belt, he let my power steering reservoir drain all over my timing covers.... soaking my belt and pulleys with ATF. I didnt find it until I had my SVX towed back home and went under the hood myself..... They also quoted me $1130 for a job I did myself in my parking lot in under 2 hours using a $15 pulley I bought from Sperry As a former service manager I know its 90% which tech you get..... I guess I should just be happy I got away with the $109 diag

[100_Percent_Juice]

That sucks. Welcome! Post up your SVX here!

[Bajozzy]

Originally Posted by Bajozzy

The service deartment at Lithia is also a joke. My wife took her car in for service on Monday since her car 07 2.5i has free lifetime service which sounded like a good deal at the time. After waiting 4+ hours and then not even getting a courtesy call when it was "finished" she began the long journey home to Lake Almanor about 125 miles. At around 30 miles into the trip the car began overheating so she pulled over and called AAA and had it towed back to lithia. They told her she had a bad radiator cap and charged her 135.00 dollars. They told her it was an "unfortunate coincedence" that the car broke down immediately after being serviced by there ace mechanics.

After the service center told me to pound sand, I wrote to SOA directly. They heard my story, had me fax in all my reciepts and put it under investigastion.

Yesterday I got a refund check in the mail for everything I paid the Service Center and they sent me two new Subaru Coffee mugs. SOA FTW...

I had a beef, took it to the next level and won my case. There is hope in the crazy world.

The pen is mightier than the sword

[Street Pirate]

Bajozzy
way to make the system work for you.

what was the car in the shop for in the first place? if you dont mind letting me know.

[Bajozzy]

She took it in for the normal oil change / inspection that comes with the warranty

[Street Pirate]

then I;m not quite sure why you would feel that the fact that the radiator cap failed was related?
subaru is having problems with cap failure and for the most part the radiator cap is not touched during a standard oil change, just the coolant in the overflow bottle id being addressed unless the is another concern.

[100_Percent_Juice]

Originally Posted by Street Pirate

then I;m not quite sure why you would feel that the fact that the radiator cap failed was related?
subaru is having problems with cap failure and for the most part the radiator cap is not touched during a standard oil change, just the coolant in the overflow bottle id being addressed unless the is another concern.

I have to ask, do you work for Lithia?

[Street Pirate]

yes
do I love where I work...sometimes
do I like all I work with , no
is the end result that of the tech that worked on the car, always
are there competent and those that are less so, of coarse
am I glad the situation work itself out, yes...wish it had never made it there.
do I get angry when people are taken advantage of, yes...but sadly this is the nature of this industry. is that a lame excuse. of course it is but fighting it usually has poor results.

[Bajozzy]

It was misdiagnosed as rad cap ; it was the leaking radiator they were told about, but refused to look.

[Street Pirate]

so was it repaired? was it warranty? where was it leaking? as far as I know when the cooling system is tested, as I'm sure it was ( he says sarcastically ) the leaking radiator should have been found? who figured out it was the radiator? and what do you mean they were told of it? refused to look??? does that mean the oil change was completed with eyes wide shut? if so we have many more problems on our hands.

[Kevin M]

Originally Posted by Street Pirate

so was it repaired? was it warranty? where was it leaking? as far as I know when the cooling system is tested, as I'm sure it was ( he says sarcastically ) the leaking radiator should have been found? who figured out it was the radiator? and what do you mean they were told of it? refused to look??? does that mean the oil change was completed with eyes wide shut? if so we have many more problems on our hands.

Buddy, this thread isn't a collection of people telling anecdotal stories about bad experiences they heard about at Lithia. It's numerous people who have had first-hand negative experiences there. I understand if you want to defend your employer or at least feel like you don't work for a crappy organization, but blindly naysaying and arguing with people isn't helping anyone. The sales and service department at Lithia Subaru have a bad reputation, and it's not unfounded. You can't try to re-write history but if you want to help, perhaps you can help people have more positive experiences there in the future. After all, people only really care about the service they will get next time, not what happened to others in the past.

[Bajozzy]

The car was brought in for an oil change, My wife told the service rep that the rad was leaking, he wrote about the leak on the invoice.

Wife picks up car several hours later ( for an oil change) And drives 20+ miles and the car overheats. AAA towed it back to the shop.

They say "oh what an unfortunate coincedence that your car overheated after it left our shop , but it has nothing to do with us". They checked it out again and charged 108 + the rad cap. Drove it home and the radiator blew in the driveway.

I Had it all fixed elsewhere. I complained and got the reach around. Wrote SOA and they gave me my 108 back. End of story.

I am glad that employees are on here , maybe they can pursue' the shop to be realistic, and part of the community and tuner friendly instead they gouge, and charge an ultra premium price and then f it up anyways.

[DaveWRX]

You know as a previous employer of Subaru not lithia but a much smaller one in Sonora I hear of stories all the time of customers not satisfied and services not being completed. Unfortunitly it happens no matter where u go. Service depts will do that in an attempt to possibly make more money.

And as a new resident to Reno I'm glad I can hear stories of problems at lithias service dept. (not putting them down) but most ppl these days don't have the money for service depts to make mistakes.

So my question is where do u guys prefer to take ur cars for service?

[Kevin M]

This still isn't the review for the sales department.

[WRXlerate]

Their service is horrible! I have taken my car their a handful of times to get the oil changed, 2 out of 3 times they left the steering wheel, shift knob and door handle oily. After complaining didn't do any good I gave up and started doing it myself. They did charge me $112 to program a new key for my sti, talk about ridiculously overpriced service, I think it took the tech about 25 min to do it.

[rory_a]

Originally Posted by WRXlerate

Their service is horrible! I have taken my car their a handful of times to get the oil changed, 2 out of 3 times they left the steering wheel, shift knob and door handle oily..........

Just thought I'd chime in here as my fiancee took her '10 Impreza hatch in for service, and to check a rattle at the shifter. Tech got grease/grime all over the passenger seat right next to the shifter, as well as a few spots on the driver's seat. It's the Newport Blue (I think) with beige interior - so the grease was obvious.

I took it in the next morning to get it taken care of, and Scott says "Couldn't have been us, no way".

Long story short, the tech came out, flat out said got the grease on the seats. They spot cleaned the grease, a pathetic excuse for cleaning up after themselves in my book. I raised a stink about them not using seat covers - hell Firestone does on my old POSs every time. Scott said that's a corporate Lithia decision. I called corporate, filed an official complaint about it.


Anyway, Scott's an ass, I've told him that (in front of a handful of techs that gathered around), blows smoke, and all around raises my steam like you wouldn't believe. (I think Scott was about to tell me to f off in front of the techs and a few customers, over some fricking seat covers.


Now, my fiancee drives to Carson for her warranty-covered oil changes and has lunch with her mom.

At least she got a good deal on the car.







Oh, by the way, the '08 WRX is apparently an STI without the wide body - everything is the same - suspension, engine, transmission, etc.!!!

[WRXlerate]

Oh Scott, I'd love to step on his neck