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| - On Saturday, April 21 I went to look at and test drive cars. I brought my mom with me. We started out with a Mazda3 hatchback and a Mazdaspeed3 at Mazda of Bedford.
Next we went to Ganley Subaru. The experience I had there was awful. We walked in and found no main desk, so we stood there like lost puppies. Finally someone asked if we had been helped. I said no and that I would like to test drive a WRX and a regular Impreza 5-door. I was told that I was not allowed to drive the WRX unless I wanted to go over the numbers first. The man added that there were no joyrides in WRXs and they need to keep the miles low. I told him that I was not interested in a joyride, that I wanted to test drive it to see whether it's something I would consider buying. I mentioned to him that I just tested a Mazdaspeed3 that was nearly as powerful, almost as expensive, and possibly rarer. Furthermore, I had my mom with me; she wasn't there for "joyrides."
I felt judged and belittled. A joyride? You are in the business of selling cars. I fully understand the interest of keeping the mileage low and the desire to prevent those not serious, but this is not a way to treat a customer. I'm not a 16 year old kid just waltzing in for fun; I'm 26 and you have no clue what I make by looking at me. Also, I tested a WRX at a different location with my dad 6 years ago and they didn't treat us this way.
Eventually they found someone named Ken to take me out in what they claimed was their only 5-door Impreza with a manual transmission. It was a 2011 Sport model. Ken basically led me around the block. He barely discussed the car, didn't take me on the highway, didn't bother giving me a business card, and said nothing about the car afterward. The only thing he really mentioned was if I wanted something cool I should look at the used WRX STI that was sitting nearby. When I asked if I could drive that instead of the new one, so I could get a feel for it, he just told me that we would have to go over the numbers first. By now it was about 5 pm and I still wanted to look at a GTI next door. I didn't want to spend more time with the people at Ganley Subaru anyway.
I have visited 7 dealerships so far in my search; 3 have been Ganley-owned dealerships (this Subaru dealer, the VW dealer next to it, and Hyundai in Parma). The experiences at Ganley locations have easily been the worst, but the stop at Subaru was just unacceptable.
I sent this complaint to Subaru of America and to Ganley Subaru, in fact I sent it to Ganley twice. Subaru has already responded and logged the issue. Ganley Subaru has made no effort to respond, so clearly they don't care how a potential customer is treated. I have no idea how this as an appropriate way to treat a potential customer. I wouldn't return to Ganley and I wouldn't advise anyone to go there.
UPDATE: Well, this update is very delayed, I kinda forgot about it. I ended up filing a BBB complaint on this dealership back in April. Eventually someone got back to me, but it was a fairly underwhelming conversation. He told me that I should have been permitted to test a WRX and that the policy of running numbers first only applies to the WRX STI. He said I could test a WRX anytime I liked. This really didn't make me feel much better; it was a weak explanation. At this point I had already decided on a GTI out-of-state, but I wouldn't return anyway.
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