Lee's Summit Subaru

Before I explain my experience with Lee Summit Subaru of Kansas City let me first tell you the circumstances of our situation. A situation which we explained very clearly to the people we dealt with at the dealership. My wife is in the army and was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She had just gotten her orders and was to report to Fort Drum, NY in just under two weeks from the day we set foot in the dealership. At that point we had not decided on whether or not to buy the car in Kansas or wait until later. The Lee Summit dealership happened to have exactly the car we were looking for on the lot and offered us a reasonably good deal. We were aware that there had been a recall on the 2016 Outbacks that we were looking at but were told by the salesman that this one had not been subject to the recall. This is the series of events that followed; Literally moments after we finished signing the paperwork that gave us possession of the car the salesman came into the finance office and informed us that he had just run the VIN again and that the car was in fact due to be repaired for the recall issue. We asked how long that takes and he said that the repair takes about an hour, which would have been fine. He then says that they don’t have the parts on hand and they are waiting for a shipment any day now. We say OK, when can we have our car? Because, as we told him, we are on a somewhat tight schedule though we could wait a few days. He said he would let me know the next day. I got no call. I got no call the day after that either, so I called him and he said they still didn’t have the parts but he would let me know. I waited another day and a half and received no call. So I called but couldn’t get him on the phone so the receptionist put me through to the repair department. They told me that they had no record of my car, had no idea what I was talking about. After putting me on hold and presumably going and finding someone in sales he told me that they had parts for some cars but that we were 13th in line for the repair and they didn’t have that many parts on hand and wasn’t sure when they would get more. I waited another day and called back, this time talking to the sales manager and told him that if we didn’t have our car that we were going to have to drive the loaner to NY and possibly to WA since my wife was immediately deploying and I was going to WA for the summer. I really didn’t want to drive the loaner and deal with whatever complications that would entail. It seemed logical to me that since everyone whose car was in line for the recall also had a loaner that they would not be too put out if they bumped us up in line because of the circumstances. That didn’t happen and we ended up having to drive the loaner to NY. Eventually, and after several more phone calls that I had to make to the Sales Manager rather than him keeping us informed, our car was ready to be shipped. At this point he basically washed his hands of the situation, telling me that he had handed off the information to the shipping company and to just deal with them. The shipping company told me we would have the car in about three days which was reasonable. Three days later I hadn’t heard anything so I called and they said that they hadn’t even picked the car up yet. Once they did finally ship the car the person in charge of the company told me he had no idea where the car was or when it would be delivered and gave me the number of the driver. He also initially said that they would drop our car off one day and send a different driver to pick up the loaner. This made no sense for several reasons, but eventually they worked it out. The driver was the only person in this whole process who was remotely helpful and responsive. He said that he didn’t know why they had told me three days back then but that it would still be several days before he made it to us and that he would try to arrange his schedule to get it there quicker and keep us up to date, both of which he did and I greatly appreciated. So in all, once we finally did get our car, it had been over a month since we had purchased it. Which means that the temporary tag had expired. Which leads me to another detail: apparently we had failed to initial something on the original paperwork which was something the sales department needed. To register the car we needed the certificate of origin which the dealership didn’t have but knew we needed before we left their shop. They overnighted the paperwork to be initialed but neglected to send the certificate of origin. So that was a couple more days of waiting before we could register the car. In the meantime it was time for her to deploy and for me to drive cross country. Without plates. Thankfully the delivery driver suggested putting the dealer plates from the loaner car on until we got the official ones. Moving, preparing for deployment and buying a new car are all stressful events on their own. Doing them all at once even more so, but under normal circumstances it wouldn’t be so bad. The Lee Summit dealership made this process immeasurably more stressful, frustrating and difficult through what seems to be ineptitude at every level. This whole situation could have been avoided by simply bumping us up in line for repair. I would have had very little effect on the other customers who live in the area and had loaner cars. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am that we don’t live in that area and have to deal with them any further. We love our new car, now that we finally have it, but would never recommend anyone purchase a car from that dealership.