Serra Subaru of Traverse City - Service Center

I had a good experience purchasing a Subaru for my daughter from this dealership in the past. However, when my 3 mo old Outback(purchased elsewhere) refused to start in a spectacular display of blinki daughter from this dealership in the past. However, when my 3 mo old Outback(purchased elsewhere) refused to start in a spectacular display of blinking dash lights , bells and whistles, Subaru towed it to this, the closest dealership.I was immediately told it sounding like a dead battery. When I asked how that could happen in a new car, I was told that I must have left a door or the rear hatch ajar. I was later told that I left the dome light on, interesting that I've never touched the dome light and no one has ridden in the back seat. Also everyone enters and exits our home through tha attached garage and would have noted a light left on. Overall I felt like I was treated in a very condescending manner, "just another dumb old lady", and I still don't feel satisfied with the explanation given me; perhaps due to the manner in which it was given. When I had my Volvo serviced by the previous owners of this dealership, the service was more respectful. Generally a worker drove the repaired car to me instead of having the keys handed over and told that "the car's out back". I will look for an ongoing service relationship elsewhere. More

Tim Sato was fantastic! I had a brake light burn out on the way to Traverse City for vacation. He was the service advisor who worked with me to get the light fixed and an oil change. He ran the diagnostics the way to Traverse City for vacation. He was the service advisor who worked with me to get the light fixed and an oil change. He ran the diagnostics on my car and determined I needed new tires. He was extremely flexible and worked with me around our vacation plans to get the car in and get the new tires put on the car. The price for the tires even was less than he originally quoted. He was pleasant to work with the entire time and straight forward. I would send folks to work with Tim anytime! More

Love my Subaru, but the dealership falls short. I recently worked with three departments within the dealership to repair what they agreed was shoddy workmanship. I called the Service Department 4 t I recently worked with three departments within the dealership to repair what they agreed was shoddy workmanship. I called the Service Department 4 times and could not speak to a real person, and they did not return my call as the recording said they would do. The next morning I tried again, and I finally got a real person, and was told that I needed to contact the Body Shop Manager. The Body Shop Manager did return my call late that afternoon. The manager told me that they honor their work if it is due to shoddy workmanship. After the manager looked at the vehicle, he agreed that it did appear shoddy, and he would get me a quote for repairs at their cost. As I was waiting in the Service Department, I observed two Serra employees upset and verbally snipping at each other, which confirmed to me that the department did have issues. I was not contacted by Serra with a quote for a couple days and drove to another Subaru dealership to get a quote from them, and after they looked at it, they commented that whoever did the original work did not do a good job. On the third day, I called the Serra bodyshop manager and he gave me a verbal quote. That quote from Serra at their cost was just about double the cost of the quote from the second dealership. I told the manager about the second quote and expressed my concern with the big difference in my cost, and that they were not honoring their original shoddy work. I was told that because I bought the vehicle used from them, that I was not the person that they would honor the shoddy work from. The manager said he would have to take it up to his bosses to see what they would approve. At the end of one week, I was not called back, and I contacted the salesman that sold the Outback to me. I reminded the salesman about selling me the vehicle, and about his assurances of the quality workmanship that their dealership made, and that I paid full market price based on those assurances. He agreed that I should be the person that they honor the repairs for, and that he would take it up to dealership directors. After a couple days he called me back and said the directors will not honor any repairs, because Serra bought this dealership a couple years ago, and they will not honor work done before that. I did take my Subaru Outback to the second dealership and had the repairs made. They showed me a piece of metal that they removed that was there from the first repair, and said the original repair was bad and it appeared that they did it as cheaply as possible. More