Hi, i have a wrx 78k and am about to book in my 80k service. I am keen on using a specialist but am concerned that losing my FSSH may have an impact on future resale. I know some people would value a specialist stamp more than the subaru ones, but probably for most the subaru stamp would be a better choice.

Are there "specialists" that are actually subaru approved and so can stamp with a subaru stamp?

What are others doing ?

 

No just subaru got stamps. I feel as long as you have it done properly then who cares. My friend is a subaru engineer he works on mine and its a good job every time. He know these cars and thats good for me. I have been told about doggy thing the subaru servicing do anyway not all of course but it does happen !!!! I got told by one engineer that my car has a carburetor !!!!! wtf that all about ?????

 

A proper Subaru specialist will service the car exactly in accordance with the schedules published by Subaru, and will sometimes use much higher quality consumables in the process.

For example, many will use ester based fully synthetic oils (e.g. Silkolene Pro S) which are superior to the Shell Helix that Subaru would use. Specialists often charge significantly less for labour, too.

You do loose the Subaru official service stamp, but that will mean nothing to a prospective buyer if the car has been serviced correctly and on time! An enthusiast may even prefer the service book to be littered with stamps from reputable specialists!

If you say whereabouts you're located, we'll recommend some for you!

 

At extra cost for those expensive consumables but if you ask your subaru dealer or take your own oil in, they will put it in for you otherwise you may find they shove the same 10w40 oil in your standard subaru dealer does

Tony

 

Yeah, but the cheaper labour often more than offsets that....

 

My car is booked in at my local Subaru Dealership for it's service with a 30% Discount on Labour, and 10% discount on all parts. Plus my name is down next to a WRX-S as a courtesy car while mine is with them, I could have had an STI but they sold their demonstrator and the new demo car still has the Subaru UK plates on it.

So, all in all, I'm pretty happy with my local dealership. Mind you, I've experienced utterly-sh**e dealerships as well - if my local was like that I'd probably go elsewhere!

 

thanks for your replies, im near cambridge and always go to spratton who have always been brilliant to me. Just getting a feel for the way i should go next.

 

Hi
Many years ago i was a snap on tools dealer and visited several main dealers, as a result i would always go to an aftermarket specialist, you may not get a main dealer stamp but you will get the job done which is far more important. The main dealers i went to would regularly omit parts of the service ie if the air cleaner looked ok it wouldnt get changed, in fact anything that didnt look as though it needed doing would be left, this enabled the mechanics to save the parts for their private jobs so you end up buying parts that you never receive and then get fitted to someone elses car. I am not saying all main dealers do this or are even aware that it happens. Personally i service myself and keep receipts for parts as proof, that way i know it has definitely been done. Overall my reccomendation would be to use a smaller private garage which comes with a reccomendation from others.

 

I've booked my car into the main dealer in the past only to pick it up later to be told " Sorry, we didn't have a fuel filter in stock. Can you come back next week and we'll fit it" I've never suffered such poor serive at a specialist. RE Motorsport Subaru Dealer, Subura Imports, Subaru Specialist