Van Bortel Subaru of Victor

My second "new, new" vehicle ever, and my second Fuji heavy industries American made vehicle. Here are some things I learned in my recent car buying journey: I'm not one of these people driving around in an extension of my ego and I inherited my father's perspective on depreciating assets later in life. Plus, someone (and I'm saying who) insisted on living at the top of Walton's mountain in New Jersey so an advanced AWD system is a must. Not afterthought AWD, actual AWD. Nobody is better at that than Subaru. I had been driving another luxury brand sedan for last six years. I’ve had three of these in my life and while they were great drives, they all seemed to start falling apart at about 38 months. Thankfully, that is usually around the time my lease ended. Also, for the money, the quality isn't there. Subaru doesn't load up the cars with tons of tech that's antiquated the moment you drive it off the lot either. For that reason, I chose the option of not having navigation in my car as well. I test drove sedans at twice the price point of this car. Without getting into it, this car held and I felt the road better. It was tight and overtaking speed, responsiveness and control were better from the bigger motor Legacy. Car buying has advanced since the days of the greased up sales man on a power play. Well, not completely. Time honored tactics like the "fear of loss" trick, “quick roll up" and choreographed finance guy discussions are transparent and nauseating to me and yet they still exist. I used a third party site to make the connection to dealers and the barrage of emails I got was unholy. Thankfully, I set up an email account that I can now delete just for this task. Of the two dozen or so contacts I made, only not one actually responded to my simple request: I want this vehicle with these accessories. So simple. So easy. So hard to get anyone to return your calls. Next to impossible to get what you want since the overwhelming majority of the dealer’s I spoke to only wanted to sell me what was on the lot. The Legacy’s recent design updates put it in demand and there’s a wait. And certain dealers would have you believe what you want is impossible in order to sell you what’s on hand. In the end, I sent Karl Lindemuth a note on Facebook. He responded immediately and found me what I wanted at a competitive price. Sold. Done. Offered to pick me up at the airport and take me to the dealership to pick up the car since Van Bortel is nearly 400 miles from my home. Thanks Karl! Thanks Van Bortel! Thanks Subaru!