Rave: Carter Subaru

[k]

This is an addendum to my previous rant about Car Pros. I finally made a car purchase and bought a Subaru at Carter in Ballard. They were fantastic! Treated me like a human being. No pressure. Genuinely nice people. They mentioned that they have quite a few customers from West Seattle and I can vouch for that. Sometimes I think Subaru is the unofficial car of WS! I highly recommend them and can’t say enough about the service!

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[christopherboffoli]

k: I’d second that. A couple of years ago when I bought my car I was shocked at the cheesy, 1970’s sales tactics employed at some of the local VW dealerships. University played the ridiculous game in which the salesman would repeatedly have to “go get approval from his sales manager.” And then Chapin’s took the cake when they found the one car in the region with all of the options on my list (as well as the specific color) and basically held it hostage. Their salesman actually told me they were going to put a hold on the car and that if I didn’t buy it from them I’d have to wait months until another vehicle with the same options would be available. Never before had I had so much trouble spending money!

Ultimately I ended up going to Carter and they were fantastic: Straight shooters, honest, no bull, square deal people. And their service department has been just as professional. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. I’d definitely buy another car from Carter.

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[swimcat]

I bought my Subaru at Chaplin’s and had no problems with them except when they tried to upsell me the extended warranties. I got an absolute steal on my car from them and the only negotiating I did was getting online bids from other dealers and then Chaplin’s matched the lowest price since they had the exact car I wanted. It was totally easy, and this was only the second car I’d bought.

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[cjboffoli]

I actually filed an AG complaint after my experience at Chaplin’s. The owner followed up with me by phone and couldn’t have been nicer or more apologetic. He told me my experience was an isolated case that he would be dealing with the employee involved. I accepted his apology and took him at his word. But afterwards a friend who works at Microsoft was in the market for a VW and told me that when he did his research that the Microsoft employee forums were filled with critical stories about dealings with Chalpin’s. He ended up going to Carter too and had the same experience I had.

Sounds like you were skillful or lucky enough to avoid trouble swimcat! ;-)

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[Keith]

You know what I love about Carter? (Hint: it’s not their prices.) It’s those two guys (both from West Seattle) who drive the service shuttles. I could ride around all day just shootin the s**t with them.

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[christopherboffoli]

Keith: YES! Nate lives in my hood and is a very cool guy. Big Mustang fan.

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[CMP]

I bought my car at Chaplin’s Subaru and had no problems as well. And they offered me a decent price on my trade-in, which made me super happy, given that it needed some work.

I do bring my car to Carter Subaru for service and am always amazed that it takes an hour to do an oil change. The last time I brought it in I had the first appointment of the day at 7:00 and they didn’t finish with my car until 8:15. I swear they forgot about it until I returned from my run. Nice. I’ll still keep going there since they have the best service deals for Subaru dealers and the people working there are nice.

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[dhg]

I bought a Subaru Outback from Carter a few years ago. On the very first drive home with it, I found myself at Morgan Junction in the left turn lane with 2 other Outbacks. One was the same color. So, yes, the unofficial car of WS. I just had my VW repaired there today. I brought them the brake pads (they were HAWKS) and their attitude to using foreign parts was sweet. The service guy asked me to let him know what I think of the brakes.

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