in a nutshell:

my tranny broke at 4000 miles (1st gear)

SOA denied warranty due to user abuse

I took them to small claims

I WON.

all it takes is a little effort. SOA has absolutely no right to deny warranty based on their opinion. I didnt abuse my car, therefore the transmission should be covered under warranty...now it is. the district manager attempted to submit a bulletin written for subaru techs only, he lied about the availability of such a bulletin to the public and apologized to me after the trial for everything that happened.

if anybody in this situation needs a case number for reference PM me and I will be glad to help.

 

my argument was that my car was bought with 27miles on the ODO. any number of morons could have test driven and "banged the gears" or grinded the gears, or mis-shifted. their argument was "you only have to mis-shift once to break the trans". Oh and BTW I've put 13,000 miles on the new tranny so far and no problems whatsoever. (except for the 3-5 attempts at getting it in reverse everytime)

 

I lost mine at 8,000 with no user abuse. Attempted hard time by SOA until I told them I was pre-law. And that my dad is a lawyer, and he would be giving them a call. 20 min later, your car will be done later this week. This is TWO days after I took it in complaining about 1st and Rev grinding, 2nd bein a ***** to engage (lost syncro). This was 2 weeks after they installed an ACT clutch and Fidenza flywheel. After I lost 2nd, had to start off in 3rd and drive to dealer b/c couldnt engage 1st in 5 o'clock traffic. Result heat warped flywheel friction plate ($50), and the clutch disc was a little burnt from it, so I replaced that too. A very angery time of my life. Now I am getting an STi and saying to the 5 spd.

Nick

 

if I had the cash, the STI would be in my driveway...my house has to be the damn priority. Goddamn kitchen, I could have had the rex finished by now!

 

LOL. I am goint to be poor after the STi, and w/o a radio.

Nick

 

Dude...very happy for you! Honestly!
I sit on the other end of the table. I'm a service advisor and it is a pain in the a**, because we have to follow and do what SOA tells us to do. And its kind of f'ed up when you come across a car with so little mileage on the odometer and open it up to find really that it is a factory defect, i.e. synchros, not like a broken gear or something of the sort.

Again...congrats!!!

 

The service guys were nice, the SOA guys were the difficult. It is their job to make shure the part was malfuncioning and not user abuse. They need to understand normal ware vs. user abuse. They seem to blame everything on abuse when most of the time it isnt. I will jump off of the soap box now.

Nick

 

P/m'ed you.

 

GR8-WRX-

case number SNI 03S00683 (small claims)

the damn PM would'nt work for some reason

 

I know, this is my 2nd winter with the subaru. I had my kumho 712's on it last winter and they sucked. So I put the stock wheels and tires on for this winter. Even with the 712's the subaru was easier to drive than my grand national was with good all seasons on it.

Nick

 

Do you honestly think a 30% stiffer clutch had nothing to do with increased wear on your transmission? Thanks for making SOA spend more money on unjustified warranty claims, so that they deny even more ones that are deserving. I hope it was worth it.

 

Sorry that I forgot to mention the list of times that I took the car in complaining about transmission troubles. It was in the shop two days earlier for difficulty engaging 2nd. Gears were grinding from very early on, couldnt engage 1st while moving. My new tranny dosnt have any problems. The ACT clutch was on the car for only two weeks. That would not have been enough time to break the tranny in normal driving. When the syncro went out I wasnt driving fast or anything. I was actually stuck behind an old lady. Saving over $3,000 on somthing that shouldnt have broken was worth it. I also dont beat on my car like some people do. It hasnt even been to a racetrack, scared that the tranny will break. I have a 87 Buick Grand National that runs 11's, that is my car that I run.

Nick

 

Two days before the clutch install? If so, my apolgies for the rant. However, I would still question the wisdom of installing a stiffer clutch on a car you don't claim to drive hard if it was having transmission issues.