Am I just being unlucky or are all Subaru dealers generally unhelpful and dont want to sell cars?
After phoning the 3 dealers in Kent I picked the best of a bad bunch. The first 2 didnt return my phone calls and when ever I phoned them (numerous times) they were always "on the other phone".
Anyway I visted the dealer that managed to answer the phone but there were no sales staff present the day I first visited (thats 0 sales staff). Went back for a second time the following week, again no sales staff, this time he was out to lunch. I then decided to phone and book an appointment for the following week (cant go wrong now, I stupidly thought)
Arrived at the dealers today, and was given a price for my car to px (which was well below book value, and he even said it was in perfect condition!) After talking for about 35 minutes i was just about to have the test drive and he told me that they had no WRX's (estates or saloons) to test drive, they only had one WRX saloon which had been modified (ppp maybe?) he said that it was now "classed" as an I.C.G. 20 and as i was only 20 years old couldnt drive it, at this point i walked out of the showroom and sped off in my car feeling not to happy after taking the afternoon off work and booking the appointment a week in advance.
So is this normal practice for customers to not be able to test drive cars easily? Are there never any sales staff in Subaru dealers? Is it normal for a car dealership to not have a demonstrator of there best selling car?
If a UK dealer doesnt want my £20,000 looks like im going to Belgium!

Scooby Soon! (I hope, but its harder than you think!)

You should come up to the Midlands m8. Plenty of praise for the dealers here. Can personally vouch for Beechdale in Nottingham - see their ad banner on here and speak to Gavin.

Sales and Service peeps are excellent.

Also hear good things about Beechdale Derby & Heritage (Leicester)

Hope this helps - although may be too far for you travel.

BB

I had no problems test driving cars at Holdcrofts, helpful staff too.

Even blagged a cap off them despite never having made a purchase :p :D

Completely agree with BB m8. :)

I've had no probs with Beechdale. I bought my Scoob from the Derby branch who treated me very well (I should think so when I'm hadning over 20k) as the Nottm one wasn't open at the time.

I now get the Scoob serviced by Beechdale in Nottingham, Tim, the service manager there is a top bloke who is always helpful. :)

Everyone I speak to who has had any dealing with them always speaks highly of them, so get up here a get that scoob.

The Gatwick Group is the place to go.
Amazing customer service and always an STi or WRX available to test drive.
You can't go wrong.

I agree with brandy76 - Gatwick Group guys all very sociable. Two decent length test drives (WRX followed by STi for comparison). Attentive afterwards (phone call follow-ups, etc).

Go to Belgium and save your hard earned dosh,

then enjoy what you've saved... go on holiday...

buy a runabout till "it" comes...

As for Kent dealers... one around sevenoaks is pretty poor service too

I'll vouch for Beechdale in Nottingham as well. I've certainly had no problems with them in 18 months of Scooby ownership.
Forgot to say - they even brought a demonstrator out to my workplace for a test drive - and it wasn't just a quick spin round the block either. At least 45 mins, taking in a fast A-road, and bendy B-roads.

[Edited by TonyG - 9/25/2002 10:26:57 PM]

I feel the speeding off didnt help your cause :(
Most garages wont let a young driver test drive one of their cars if they do not like the look/way they are dressed etc, if you look though their eyes i think you would say the same thing.
What you need to do is check out your insurance (deffo fully comp on a new car) then find a nice dealer up north who is willing to provide you with a test drive (and possably a new car for you to take home ;))
Just remember, because your younger you have to put more effort in in some cases (you shouldnt have to but this is life :( ) so go put on smart casual dress, drop the car off round the corner, walk into the dealership and walk around until you see what you want, catch the eye of a salesperson (not being sexist here ;)) and tell them your needs.
It does work ;):D

Tony:D

At 20 years old you will not get a test drive I would guess? Too young for the Insurance sadly. You MUST agree that they are right to be cautious of a 20 year old wanting to drive one of their new Imprezas!! Can you afford the Insurance? Can you afford the car? All questions they will be asking.

Pete

I for one have some sympathy for Scooby Soon!

Why should it matter how you look! to be messed about like this by any salesperson selling any product, IMHO is not on.

Had a simillar experience before buying my Scoob when I went into a Jag dealer with jeans and T-Shirt on, the salesman kindly pointing out that "the cheapest car in here sir is 50K" not knowing that, if I wanted to, I could have bought the car - still such is life! (had no intention of buying the car, just in for a nosey).

Take advice from the other posts and find a friendly dealer, tell them your age before you go and I hope you get sorted soon.

By the way I'm 40+ and love the scoob.

Mike

STOP

Why would you want to spend all your money in rip off Britain - go speak to some of the guys on here who have imported and saved £000's. Try Chiark for starters he had his own importing website to help the likes of yourself. I can give you the E Mail address of a top rate Dutch dealer.
Now before all those pro British guys say WARRANTY WARRANY if this is important go find a friendly dealer if you must.
Wish you all the best mate.

Dave Allan

Tim Taylor

at Osbournes will sort you out mate

He regulary posts on here


Phil

First things first:
Thanks for the advice and information so far this has got to be the best forum on the web! It also seems to be a great community and although I cant spell very well I will try and join in when I can, especially (fingers crossed) when I get get the scoob.

I know that because im only 20 years some people arent always going to take me seriously, which is why whenever i go to car dealerships I dress reasonably smart - boots, trousers, shirt etc (no baseball cap, bright yellow trainers ;-) I took with me my 2 year old very clean car with very expensive private plate on it, mainly so they knew i was serious and wasnt wasting there time.
Its not just the fact that they didnt let me test drive a car (they didnt have one anyway, even though i'd booked) its the careless attitude that all the dealerships I phoned seemed to have. They dont seem to care whether you spend your money their or not, maybe they dont need to sell many cars to make money?

£20,000 is a lot of money to me and the £1600 to £2000 insurance one is'nt cheap. I would just like at least some standard of service above ****e, which is in my opinion what I have recieved so far.
Before deciding on a WRX I thought I would visit other car dealerships just to check out the competition, all were more helpful than Subaru, Lexus were very good they even offered me a test drive as soon as I walked in the showroom i also had similar good experiances at my local Mercedes dealer lots of sales staff and could test drive anything I wanted.
I didnt really speed off in a wheel spinning fashion, just a little bit quicker the normal, I was so angry at wasting 2 hours of my day I have more important things to do!

P.S.
minister of speed, ScottishMenace i may be taking your advice i have just emailed a dealer in Belgium, looks like i have to go north for the good UK dealers or south to europe (or is that east?) Thanks again for being such a friendly bunch I wont give up hope yet :-)

Mate, the two Subaru dealers in Kent I know , are pretty crap. Don't get disheartened. They have had a good run with their cars at the top of the pile in the JD Power ratings, and I fear it has ruined them. Too much praise and all that. The Sevenoaks area one are used to flash bods with money. I have bought 2 cars from them in the past, but I don't think I would do so again in a hurry. Too patronising for me. Never felt like a valued customer.

I fear the best idea would be to buy abroad aswell.

Cheers,

Rich