thewayne | Your opinion about a car repair oddity is sought

I need to have a component in my car replaced. It's not safety-related, and the car runs fine without it. But it needs to be done at some point, one of those nuisance things. And I can't safely do it myself.

I call the Subaru dealer in El Paso. And you'll love this: they want ME TO BUY THE PART ONLINE AND BRING IT TO THEM!

It's not an expensive part, $130-150. They emailed me the part number, and I've found three sites that claim they'll sell me the genuine Subaru OEM part.

This just rubs me wrong. Plus, you know they'd be adding 75-100% markup on the part, they're missing out on some pure profit! I'm quite capable of taking my car up to Albuquerque or Tucson or Phoenix for service if I must.

If I were asking them to install something, I could see me buying it. I could also see them asking me to provide a deposit or pay for a part in advance.

But THIS? This is really weird. I've talked to a couple of friends, and they're completely baffled.

I'm going to call a couple of other dealers and ask them for a quote for the same service and see what they say, not telling them what the El Paso dealer said. And then I'm going to call Subaru Corporate and see what THEY say! I'm not far from crossing the El Paso dealer off my list entirely for any sort of business: I'm really mad at them for never helping me with any sort of service when I needed a $2500 safety-critical part replaced.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

conuly

Has this part been hit by shortages?

From:

thewayne

I shouldn't think so. I don't think it's a high failure rate part, it's a control panel with switches, pretty unintelligent, hence its low price.

From:

conuly

Is it a pretty unintelligent part that still has a computer chip, just not a very powerful one? Or am I misreading?

From:

thewayne

It may have semiconductors in it, I don't know. I'll find out when I get it replaced and get the failed unit back. It certainly is not the cruise control proper, that's for sure!

From:

darkoshi

That does sound weird to me, for a dealership.

But when my partner had car repairs done last, I remember the dealership having to order the parts, and it taking longer because of that. Maybe by getting customers to order the part themselves, the customers have less reason to complain about how long it is taking. And the dealer isn't stuck with the part and expense if the customer decides to not get it done after all.

From:

thewayne

My Subaru has their EyeSight system, which is a visual cruise control thing with two cameras aiding lane keeping and maintaining the distance between me and the car in front of me. Awesome system. Well, one of the two cameras failed, which KO'd the whole unit, whole thing had to be replaced. Some $2500, surprisingly quick install. Weirdly, the charge to overnight ship it to Phoenix from somewhere in California was on the order 25%! For an aluminum chassis that the whole thing weighs certainly less than two pounds! They base their shipping cost on the part cost, which makes sense on like an engine or something big, but not on something that weighs nothing! I don't know what's going on here, just too strange.

From:

acelightning73

What is it part of? Sometimes there are work-arounds.

Try Rock Auto (rockauto.com) just check for OEM, but they might have it. And my husband almost completely rebuild a VW Passat he was driving; a deer ran into it and and managed to break the timing chain which destroyed the entire engine, so he bought all the parts from Rock Auto. There's also EBAY MOTORS. But I owe you a good tip for telling me to shred chicken in the mixer.

From:

thewayne

It's the cruise control controller, specifically the button for adjusting speed up and down. The spring detente for Go Faster has softened and now sometimes when you up-click instead of now having the speed set for 40, it's now set for 60! Not good! My concern with me doing the repair, and I think I'm competent enough to do it, is we're talking about an air bag in the steering wheel, and I'm hands-off when it comes to those!

From:

acelightning73

I'd look closely at how the detente works - could you glue a sliver of something onto the switch to make it work the way it's supposed to? (I hate cruise control - I only drive stick shift cars, and holding the throttle speed constant is just makes it awkward.)

I'd recommend not bothering with El Paso, if there's one in Tucson.

If you can find a dealership who has the part in stock, I don't see having another dealership mail you the thing, charging extra for shipping, instead of going to the dealership, one of the guys goes to the parts department, gets the parts guy to pull the item off the shelf, and comes out and puts it in your car.

Rock Auto is a bit less dodgy than EBay.

From:

moxie_man

I'd write-off the El Paso place based on what you've described. I've never heard of a dealership requiring a potential customer to order the part on their own for a vehicle they're supposed to be capable of servicing.

From:

thewayne

Yeah, the tilt is leaning in that direction. It just doesn't make sense! I'd like to know the reason behind this insanity.

From:

howsmyenglish

We had to have a part replaced on our car - quite crucial. Like, the car was still running, but only just and we did feel it. But our car is not the sort that you get a lot around here, so you'd really have to order the part somewhere specific. The garage guy we used to go to said he'd order it and let us know. And he never did. I mean, we called and he either wasn't answering or would say, like, of yeah, sure, I'll order it tomorrow. And we waited and waited. And he never did it. In the end, we went to another guy, someone we know is more expensive, but also more trustworthy. And the first guy just missed out. Why? I'm guessing, he had enough business as it is. Ordering the part for us would mean hassle he wasn't feeling like doing and the money he'd get in the end would not be significantly more than what he gets when he does his usual stuff. Our stuff would just mean more hassle. Maybe, your guys decided to forgo the hassle by making you go through it? Idk.

From:

thewayne

Hard to say. The thing with dealerships is that service drives A LOT of profit, it also helps to build return customers to buy cars: it builds goodwill. And they're definitely blowing it and any chance of repeat business.

From:

moonhare

It's a dealership, not a corner garage, and one would expect they would be more than capable of ordering the part. Reading all of the comments, unless you have an affinity for this place, your better choice might be to look elsewhere.

I don't drive far enough to use my cruise control often.

From:

richardf8

Is this warranty work?

From:

thewayne

Sadly, no. I'm a high miles guy, the car is entering its ninth year and I have almost 150k miles on it.

From:

richardf8

In that case, go to a mechanic who is not the dealer and see what they say. The problem with you ordering the part for the dealer is that if the thing fails, you own the warranty on the part, and they own the warranty on the labor, and the finger pointing circus can begin.

From:

thewayne

Excellent point. I don't know any mechanics locally, but I'm sure I can get a recommendation or three.

From:

disneydream06

That is just beyond bizarre and excuse my language, but F'ed Up. :o :o :o
Unless all the other Subaru deals say the same thing, I sure wouldn't do it. :o
Hugs, Jon

From:

richardf8

A thought on what's going on with the dealer:
A lot of times, parts for cars that are no longer in warranty get liquidated by dealers into the aftermarket where they are sold as old-new parts. Some dealers actually buy them up at that point to sell to enthusiasts, but otherwise they just go into the aftermarket. So for an older car, it's entirely plausible that they may not be able to get the part inside their network and they may not be allowed to order aftermarket.

Honestly, at that point there is no advantage to dealer service, and since it often comes at a premium, why bother? An independent garage will have no problem ordering the part, owning the warranty, and installing it.