Carter Subaru, Seattle, WA (Joe Spitz)

[Bitumen Bullet]

Having tried to sell the 08 Outback I bought from Carter I now know the cost of the damages that came with the car. The damage they fixed at the dealership now has paint peeling, the holes in the front bumper from their shingle and the cosmetically damaged rims seem to drop the value by $1 to $2G.

So Joe was nice to deal with but maybe not quite the deal it appeared. Such is the risk of buying over the internet from a dealer thousands of miles away.

[Ford Prefect]

Purchased my '09 OBXT from David North at Carter 2 weeks ago and the experience was very positive. Got a great price on exactly the car I wanted.

Haven't yet had to deal with their service department, but so far I'm more than pleased.

[SEA_Subaru]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Purchased my '09 OBXT from David North at Carter 2 weeks ago and the experience was very positive. Got a great price on exactly the car I wanted.

Haven't yet had to deal with their service department, but so far I'm more than pleased.

I just purchased an 09 OB SE from David North at Carter today and I have to agree. The straight pricing and no BS talk (meaning running back and forth on cost) was awesome. He also helped me quite a bit on the trade in I have and everything went like clock work including their financing guy Dan Lambros. No BS and told me everything I needed with warranty or other specials that they had.

I just feel bad that it took me so long to buy a subaru from Carter, so hopefully if you are looking in the Seattle area, you head over and meet the Internet guys and Dan L from Finance.

[CarShopper]

Here's my experience:


I'll never shop Carter Subaru because they managed to talk down to me before I even stopped in.

When I input my information I put a real email but preferred not to disclose my phone number or name on their "Car Finder" feature.

It did not return search results but instead entered me into their contact database. Not a big deal until...

-----Original Message-----
From: Carter Subaru
To:
Sent: Sat, Dec 5, 2009 10:16 am
Subject: Customer Number[xxxxxxxxx] David North@Carter Subaru in Shoreline

No Name.....No Quote!

David North
Fleet/Internet Sales Manager
Carter Subaru (in Shoreline, Seattle)
425-753-9294

Mildly amused at this guy's smarmy tone, I responded:

Dumb website that signs me up for spam instead of returning search results when I input information, no business!

I figured that would be the end of it.

UNTIL...

-----Original Message-----
From: Carter Subaru
To:
Sent: Thu, Dec 10, 2009 8:55 am
Subject: Customer Number[xxxxxxxx] David North@Carter Subaru in Shoreline

Serves you right.......use your real name for real results....

I would totally have considered this dealership as a source for my next car, lack of search results notwithstanding, until the sales rep decided to lecture me about the horrible offense of not dumping all my personal information into a nameless faceless database for his sales contact convenience.

With this type of anti-customer service attitude, where the internet sales manager is put out that I didn't follow their process EXACTLY right rather than treating me politely as a potential customer I wouldn't even consider walking through the door.

[Ignatius]

Member "CarShopper" from having been in auto sales as a salesman, internet manager, and finance mananger I have to give the benefit of the doubt to Carter Subaru/David North on this one. This aspect of the business operates on the basis of quid pro quo, if you don't provide them with the information they request then they have no obligation to provide you with the information you've requested.

Furthermore to accuse them of perpetuating spam before even actually dealing with them in a legitimate fashion lends no credibility to your arguement. Also the fact that you want to alledge that other previous posters are David North or anyone else trying to hide in anonymity has no merit whatesoever. I consider this blatant flaming and baiting and this will be your only warning. I will allow your original post to remain here under the premise that I add a disclaimer in this post that I am typing and in your post. If you have any further issues or anything else you would like to discuss regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me directly via the private message system.

[CarShopper]

Originally posted by Myll�ri
Member "CarShopper" from having been in auto sales as a salesman, internet manager, and finance mananger I have to give the benefit of the doubt to Carter Subaru/David North on this one. This aspect of the business operates on the basis of quid pro quo, if you don't provide them with the information they request then they have no obligation to provide you with the information you've requested.

Furthermore to accuse them of perpetuating spam before even actually dealing with them in a legitimate fashion lends no credibility to your arguement. Also the fact that you want to alledge that other previous posters are David North or anyone else trying to hide in anonymity has no merit whatesoever. I consider this blatant flaming and baiting and this will be your only warning. I will allow your original post to remain here under the premise that I add a disclaimer in this post that I am typing and in your post. If you have any further issues or anything else you would like to discuss regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me directly via the private message system.

Heya,

Sorry, not trying to stir up trouble on a board where I'm new. The "spam" line was in my response to him so that's more a quote of myself so you can see where my response might have prompted the strength of his rebuttal. Any sales person that treats initial contact as a place for a lecture rather than an opportunity to build rapport doesn't meet my criteria as someone I'd like to deal with.

My thought about the previous poster being David North was based on a quick Google that revealed almost word for word the same post on other boards under different usernames, but mentioning different models of car that were more relevant to the thread topics on those forums. I'll edit it out. The rest is simply posting my experience and correspondence.

If you want to pull both this post and my former that's fine.

[Boxxerace]

Originally posted by CarShopper


Heya,

Sorry, not trying to stir up trouble on a board where I'm new. The "spam" line was in my response to him so that's more a quote of myself so you can see where my response might have prompted the strength of his rebuttal. Any sales person that treats initial contact as a place for a lecture rather than an opportunity to build rapport doesn't meet my criteria as someone I'd like to deal with.

My thought about the previous poster being David North was based on a quick Google that revealed almost word for word the same post on other boards under different usernames, but mentioning different models of car that were more relevant to the thread topics on those forums. I'll edit it out. The rest is simply posting my experience and correspondence.

If you want to pull both this post and my former that's fine.

I think you are well within your right to your opinion. That's this ol' Moderators position.

[Ignatius]

CarShopper, I feel the same way as Ace after having read your further elaboration. I will allow all of it to stand as it is. Just a note to any member who may read this thread, CarShopper's first post is an example of what not to do UNLESS you add in all the content he had in his second post. The better you explain yourself the less likely a stingy admin like myself will be

[2bndc]

We just bought a 2011 2.5i from Joe Spitz at Carter Subaru in Shoreline and it was as easy and painless a process as it possibly could have been. I should point out that I went into the process having done extensive research and knowing pretty much exactly what I wanted.

I saw the car on their website, sent in the automated e-mail thing, and had a reply back less than an hour later with an offer that was lower than my original one. A couple of e-mails and a phone call or two later, and we were done. I put a $500 deposit down via CC over the phone since the car wasn't due in for several weeks. Joe sent me an invoice for the car with the agreed-upon price and the amount of the deposit reflected, as well as a print-out of the window sticker.

When the car arrived, we went by the dealership a couple of days later, did the paperwork, got an overview of the car and the owner's/service manuals, and were out the door in about 90 minutes. Since we already own an 06 WRX, Joe just went over the features of the car that were unique to the Outback or different from our 06. He was pretty direct about a couple of the features of the car that he finds lacking, which was funny.

As others have said, Joe was great to work with: very personable, direct, but in no way pushy. I would definitely recommend him to anyone looking to buy a car via the internet approach. His website is pretty cool as well: www.cars101.com.