Kinda funny. My Wife went down for the Subaru offered and recommended “Get to know your car” ‘class’ with the dealership. They recommended it and gave a $25 gas card. OK. What the heck, oil change time any way.
The fellow said “Well no one has any questions about the exterior, so let’s get inside”
WRONG. My wife had a lot of questions about the exterior. For example - Tow Hooks. Front license plate bracket (which he said they would put on for free). Spare tire etc. When done, the fellow thanked my Wife because he learned a lot about the car… from my Wife.
To be fair, it is a brand new model, and we had just got done with a 4,600 mile road trip. So my Wife knew the car petty well at that point.
oh, so you two actually special ordered one. It’s weird that it wouldn’t have been shipped along with the car. I know Ford includes the front mount at no charge for cars shipped to “front plate required” states, they toss it in the trunk or the rear seat as part of the dealer PDI kit. The dealer is supposed to install it before the customer takes delivery.
If this is the large indoor dealership I’m thinking it is, that’s brand new, has cars on the rack, I know someone up there that can fix this. This place is in Oregon, right?
Might want to let the manager now that you’re still undecided about where to take the car for service/repairs in the future, but that there are other places that you could bring your business.
Or maybe they figure you live so far away, they’ve written you off on that.
AFAIK, states still waive out-of-state drivers who are not required to have a front plate in their home state. I suspect that is going to change. In the link I provided in previous post it says CO lost $23 million over 12 months on the E-470 toll due to people not having license plates on the front, and their electronic technology reliant on capturing the front plate. CO gets a lot of vacationers from other states.
Considering how much revenue is at stake, seems like all states will be requiring front and back unless they develop a more reliable technology that can capture just the back plate only. I understand some states still waive antique and certain expensive sports cars where it’s only required on the back.
Colorado Springs. About 100 miles from where we live in the central mountains. There are a LOT of Subaru’s in Colorado. If you live full time in the mountains, AWD/4WD is pretty much a necessity unless you live and work very close together. Like walking distance close.
Really, I guess when the license plate scanner was designed the states that didn’t require front plates weren’t part of the US?
Actually, they once sent me a license plate toll bill for my motorcycle on E-470, and motorcycles only have rear plates. It turns out they’d miss-read the plate, and it wasn’t my bike, but that’s irrelevant to this discussion—clearly they had a way to read the rear plate.
I’m from Kansas, a rear plate only state, and the E-470 toll cameras have never had a problem reading my plate. Heck, I got a bill from them when I was still driving with my 60-day temporary tag!
Absolutely - make a good paper (or digital) trail in case questions come up later.
Hope you win this. I’m going through something similar with my local Chevy dealership, which apparently didn’t tell the state BMV when I turned in my previous leased car, as they said they would, back in January. The BMV thinks I still have it, and recently sent me the form to renew its registration.
Gah! I was told through the FaceBook contact a manager would contact me. Instead a parts guy sent me an email basically saying I must purchase this or I can just screw the plate right to the bumper. There are a couple of dimples in the plastic covering that show where it goes (dam near need a magnifying glass to find them).
I let the service guy know my opinion. I did so nicely. Just the facts. I also told him I would post my opinion on their FaceBook page. I’ll give them a few hours. If they don’t respond, I’ll post my opinion and order the part from another Subaru dealership.
No, it isn’t that big of a deal to chase down some screws and washers. Thinking I want some rubber washers behind the plate too. I’ve got an idea of what size they should be. But really. Just include the stuff with the car. I’m required by law to have the plate.
This is really odd. My state doesn’t require a front plate, but when I ordered cars in the past I distinctly recall that among the options was a front license plate bracket which was at no charge for those states that require a front plate. Seems to me that all dealers doing business in a front plate state would automatically add the front brackets at no charge.
You’d think so wouldn’t you. After my Wife initialy talked to the fellow that sold her the car with no results, I figured it was a simple miscommunication, and then I talked to him.
Nope. Zero help. Way to lose customers (did I mention that this is a $40,000 car? I expect better from Joes Jalopies).
Idiots.
It would be the very least that Subaru could do to include the screws for mounting the required equipment. I can do this no problem. Though I don’t think I have the screws on hand. Oh, I’m sure I have some that would work, but would like to use what is recommended. Or, you know, the screws and bracket that should come with the car.
We live in snow country. Subaru’s are built and sold in snow country for snow country. I want to get this front plate fastened properly.
This is so, so stupid. Like ordering a $100 meal and being expected to bring your own salt.
I bought one Subaru at Mike Shaw in Westminster and they were excellent. They supported it through the first 45 k I had the car (I put 160 before I sold it). I bought another at Shortline and they were awful beyond belief. I think I had them service it once and will never go anywhere near that place ever again.
Did you get it at AutoNation? I think this is the closet one to Breck. I wonder if this is just an offshoot of the Stevenson brand. My wife bought her car at Planet Honda (right next door to AutoNation Subaru) and they were awful. Never going there again.
Heuberger Subaru. Colorado Springs I really don’t think I’m being unreasonable about expecting front license plate mounting hardware at no charge. I mean really, that’s an option I have to pay for?
Yeah, I can just drive some screws into the bumper, but this is not ideal.
It’s stupid but there is principle at play. I’m going to give my last email to the service department a few hours to hopefully filter up. I suspect it’s going to filter down though.
I have no other contact info other than the salesman that blew us off or their main front desk. And damit, I want this in writing.
I was curious, so I googled. Last year, the average for Subarus was about $28,000 while for the industry as a whole, it was $36,000. So your $40,000 car is above average, but not by that much. Not that excuses them ignoring you, but I wanted to put it in context.
Link just shows it’s more problematic when only one tag is read instead of two. It mentions sun glare being one of the problems. I can see on a sunny day, if you have two shots at it, coming and going, the odds are going to improve dramatically of it getting your tag. It doesn’t really elaborate too much on the reasons.