November 30, 2024, purchased a 2014 Forester with 150K miles on it that was supposedly "completely gone through" by River City Auto Sales, who purport to be Subaru certified mechanics. Car smells like wet dog, but that is what it is. After I signed the contract and ran my debit card, Chris mentioned that the one key that came with it "needed to be reprogrammed."
1. Between Christmas and New Year, dead battery. I don't know the history of this car and batteries eventually need replacement, especially when the weather starts to gets cold, and the battery that was in the car when I bought it was just barely old enough that replacement was recommended, so to be safe I got a new battery ($175). Part of having a car, inconvenient that it happened within a month of buying it. Irritating on a "new to me" car, but not their fault.
2. End of January, I take the key that "needed to be reprogrammed" in to be reprogrammed. Turns out it had a bad chip. New keys are $350 each and depending on where you buy them, there could be an additional $100 programming fee. (Funny story: By this point, I had my snow tires on. They're mounted on their own wheels, which came off an '07 Forester and don't have the TPS sensor so the TPS light is on as long as I'm running my winter tires... and the new key can't be programmed with the TSP light on.) Irksome, but not their fault. (Running total: battery + key = $525)
3. Week after Valentine's Day, the new battery is dead. A couple of jump starts, a week's worth of rides to work, two shops and a $90 diagnostic later, the issue was determined to be a corroded terminal on the positive cable. Huge PITA, but a lot of other people looked at that same cable and didn't see anything amiss. It happens. (Running total: battery + key + dx = $615)
4. Mid-May. The key won't come out of the ignition. Have it looked at, it *could* be the key I bought from the hardware store isn't talking to one of the sensors in the ignition, shifter, or plate, so I get another new Subaru branded key. (Running total: battery + key + dx + key = $965)
5. Early June. It's not the key, so we schedule shop time. Turns out to be the sensor in a plate. $600. It's a 10+ year old car, this is a known issue, and I had the bad luck to have it happen to me. Running total of things not their fault is now $1295, but...
5. While it's in the shop, given the battery and shifter issue, we run the service history and guess what? The car that was "completely gone through" by a shop with a big' ol "Subaru-certified mechanic" sign in the window is overdue on all scheduled maintenance from 90K onward. Catching that up came in at just under $2700 and we're not done yet, because while all of this is playing out, I had occasion to turn on the AC for the first time and found out that it doesn't work because the compressor's bad. (River City Auto Sales took in this car when the weather permitted testing the AC; when I bought it in November, it was cold enough that testing the AC was a moot point.) A new AC compressor and changing the serpentine belt while we're there are going to be another $2100.
I'm not mad about the nearly $1300 of things that aren't their fault, but the $4700 worth of things that should have been addressed when the car was "completely gone through" has me pretty pissed off. read more
