i had good purchasing experiences at maita. so far one subaru and 2 toyotas. i have an in at the toyota dealership, so both experiences there were painless. the subaru dealership was pretty good once i got the point across that i don't play the "4-square" game.

the service department was kind of sketchy, some good service some not so good. i think a lot of that had to do with sharing service writers and facilities with the hyundai dealership. now that they're on their own, i'd hope it's improved.

to be fair, they pointed out that my front struts were blown and would replace them under warranty when i only had about 5 miles of warranty left and was modded.

 

"How much can you afford per month?"

 

yup. some beeyotch at roseville infiniti tried that when i was G shopping. she actually asked if i could afford $800 a month in a lease...

 

My family has bought 3 scoobs from Maita, but I think all the salesmen we purchased from have since moved on (But Chris is in parts now). The service department and parts department is great, mostly because I know them now and they know me, and Hardy and Chris are both club members.

If I were purchasing a car again, I'd just find the dealer with the car I wanted for the best price... Theres like 5 dealerships within a 30 minute drive of here so we have a few to choose from.

 

i hope they didn't just put it back on the lot after you played "clutch master" with it.

 

cool. just in case i get too lazy to change my oil, i can take it there without having to flykick fools from bad service. haha

 

im starting to see more and more cars Subarus from that place and i live down arden.

 

Sonicsuby,
How long ago was your service at Maita?

Paul,
Your boy returned parts and took your money. lololo

 

I personally don't have anything nice to say about Maita. I attempted to buy my STi from them when the STi's first came out, and they wouldn't budge with their $5000 markup over MSRP. I went right over to Autowest in Roseville and although they had an $8000 markup, they let go of that pretty quickly. Not to mention that the sales staff was very helpful and friendly, and also not to mention that they gave me a better fianance rate than what I got online.

As far as service goes, Maita fell short decent or courteous service. I took my STi in for a noise under the hood and hesitation under acceleration in a left turn. After having my car all day, the service advisor calls me up and being very short and somewhat rude, said that they noticed that I had an aftermarket exhaust and they refused to look at the car because that was most likely cause of the problem. There's more to the conversation, but his attitude really pissed me off.

Autowest again proved to far superior in the service area, too. I've have my car in there for 3 separate warranty repairs, also asking to look at the hesitation issue. Although they couldn't find the cause of the hesitiation, at least they gave it some effort of test driving it and running computer diagnostics to check the drive by wire system....and they never said anything about the aftermarket exhaust, other than to compliment it. The other times they fixed the other broken items (AC and each rear strut) fairly quickly. All of this was done with extremely friendly and professional service.

Also Autowest gave me a free rental car every time (probably because they were warranty repairs), and they washed my car everytime I got the car back from them to. Maita did not do neither the rental or wash my car.

I'd like to say that maybe I got luckly with decent service with Autowest, but I received the same excellent service every time I went there....so to me, that's a pattern of good service

So my vote definitely goes to Autowest for warranty service (and regular service, if you don't mind spending the extra money) Although I'd like to give Autowest all my business, I'll goto Subaru Specialists for regular service to save money (good service, too and half the price in some instances)

 

Yes, please.

 

STiPilot,
Am sorry you had all those problems. Ever since we moved out of the freaking Hyundai store, we have been very mod friendly. You want to talk about mods, you should see pj21086 car. We took care of him for all his warranty work! Paul has enough mods on his car to open up his own shop.

Dealership are Dealersip. You can't make everybody happy. One minute everybody loves you, then you get one pissed off person, who goes to the forum and flames. lololo

Look at SS Squared, we all loved him. They blows a few engine. Now they sucks and we all beat him up. Oh well

I still got free WRC Poster and Calendars. Who wants 17x8 Spec C Rims 10 spoke in Gold for $220 a piece? Fit 2005 to 2006 STI

Shameless plug

 

It would have been June of '04 I believe. Right around the same time the previous service manager stopped working there.

 

If you're talking about sales, I got mine from Subaru/Mazda of Marin (Marin County). I dealt with Eugene Tintoc. He breaks the mold of sleezy car salesman. I got an unbelievable price for a new '04 WRX with a few options, with no haggling. And he even got better financing for me than what my credit union was offering. When I got there, he gave me the keys and let a friend and I take it for a test drive. The whole process went smooth as butter.

If you're talking about maintenance, I wouldn't know. I do all of that myself.

 

Ever since our move on June 1, 2005, we do not have those people anymore. Our service manager son (15yrs old) races in the Outlaw class. So he is all for performance. I can't control the Sales Forces. There just trying to make a living. Just so you understand. For every car you sell $800 or less above invoice. You make a whole $100. Yeaahhhhhhh. Now times that by ten cars. Wow your making $1000 dolars a month. How do live off that? Yes, some sales people are *******s I will agree, but there just trying to make a living

 

Everyone is entitled to make a living. I don't even have a problem with sales people or dealerships trying to sell cars for $4000 over sticker (not $4000 above their cost). I can always shop elsewhere for price.

I was exiting the parts department at Maita two years ago and a new sales guy comments on my '02 car, "When are you gonna get a new car?" I found that somewhat insulting, especially since I bought my WRX at Maita, but I shrugged it off. I asked if they had the (then) new '04 STi in stock and he replied, "yeah, but we are charging $4000 over sticker price because we can get it." The inference was that potential STi customers were desperate and dumb enough to pay a $4000 premium and that he wasn't concerned about repeat business from a happy customer or word of mouth sales.

I don't bash dealerships but I won't recommend them if I have an unpleasant experience, either. I understand that one individual sales person does not represent the entire sales staff nor the dealership.

When I bought my WRX, they did not have the color car I wanted on the lot at Maita. I asked the sales person, Billy Cummings (long since moved on), if I could special order a car. He looked into it immediately and did the paper work. He told me up front what the dealership was making on the car and I did not try to talk them down because I appreciated their taking the trouble to special order a car for me. I bought an extended warranty, even while knowing that the warranty price was high because I knew that neither Billy nor the dealership was making much money on the sale of my car. Most dealerships will try to push the cars on the lot before ordering a car from Japan for a customer. I felt that the folks at Maita treated me very nicely and respectfully back in 2001 and I did not mind paying slightly more than a deal I might have gotten somewhere else. I did not shop around at other dealerships once Billy told me they were willing to order my car from Japan that day.

When it comes time for me to buy a new car (and it will be a Subaru), I will go back to Maita first. I'm assuming that the asshat who tried to push the STi on me is long gone by now. The way I buy cars is not to whittle the price of a car down to a penny above the dealer cost, but I look for honesty and integrity from the people I speak with. I'm not necessarily looking for the best deal, just the best buying experience. If I find that at Maita when it comes time to buy a new car, I won't speak with other dealerships after that.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush