A Friendly Mechanic
I finally sucked it up and took my car to the dealership to have some ongoing problems looked at. I always tried to take my car to other places instead of the dealership, partly because it was so far away when I used to live in Bloomfield and partly because I am cheap (blame my upbringing if you must).
Well, as it turns out, the ongoing cooling systems issues were due to a leaking headgasket that needed to be replaced. This is not a cheap repair since it takes a significant amount of time for a mechanic to get to the engine.
Amazingly, there was an extended warranty that covered this part because of the known problem with the headgasket on my particular car. If I had known about this sooner, I could have saved about $500 in expenses at other places chasing this problem. I never was notified since there was no recall on the part.
The ~$3k repair was covered by my warranty, so I did not have to pay a dime. Furthermore, since Subaru was covering the labor costs, they recommended that I replace the timing belt and water pump. These are two repairs typically required after ~70k miles. Even though I was ~15k miles away from that, they were offering to do the repairs for $350 instead of the normal cost of $1k.
Then, to top things off, they knocked 10% off the cost as part of their toys for tots program. Although they completely forgot to ask me to bring in a toy when I picked up my car, they gave me the discount anyway.
Moral of the story? Get your car serviced at the dealership. They may charge a little more than the Midas or Jiffy Lube around the corner, but they know the inside of your car much better than anyone else and they have an incentive to provide excellent service (get you to buy another car from their dealership).
Too bad I have no plans to buy another Subaru, but I am grateful for their service and will continue to take my car there for work until I part with my car.
Well, as it turns out, the ongoing cooling systems issues were due to a leaking headgasket that needed to be replaced. This is not a cheap repair since it takes a significant amount of time for a mechanic to get to the engine.
Amazingly, there was an extended warranty that covered this part because of the known problem with the headgasket on my particular car. If I had known about this sooner, I could have saved about $500 in expenses at other places chasing this problem. I never was notified since there was no recall on the part.
The ~$3k repair was covered by my warranty, so I did not have to pay a dime. Furthermore, since Subaru was covering the labor costs, they recommended that I replace the timing belt and water pump. These are two repairs typically required after ~70k miles. Even though I was ~15k miles away from that, they were offering to do the repairs for $350 instead of the normal cost of $1k.
Then, to top things off, they knocked 10% off the cost as part of their toys for tots program. Although they completely forgot to ask me to bring in a toy when I picked up my car, they gave me the discount anyway.
Moral of the story? Get your car serviced at the dealership. They may charge a little more than the Midas or Jiffy Lube around the corner, but they know the inside of your car much better than anyone else and they have an incentive to provide excellent service (get you to buy another car from their dealership).
Too bad I have no plans to buy another Subaru, but I am grateful for their service and will continue to take my car there for work until I part with my car.
posted by GaryGinew at 9:07 PM
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