As some of you may or may not know, my scooby has been suffering flatspots, so after taking your advice and calling ACE Motorsports THREE times over a week to book it in and hearing every time "err... i'll call you back", then none of my calls are returned, i decided to book it into CVC as it's only 15 minutes from my works anyways.

Last Thursday it goes in and they tell me they can't find any flatspots, which i know very well there are!

(The flatspots happen when you literally put your foot down on the accelerator in 4th and 5th gear generally around 3-4k revs)

I explain this to them and they tell me they're unable to test the car at this speed as it's illegal. I mean come on, they're a main Subaru dealership, surely this isn't the first time they've dealt with a car with flatspots? and we all know they're performance cars and are capable of going at high speeds whether we want to track 'em or take them off road.

After much persuasion they agree to take it out again... but not until the following Wednesday (6 days later) because the mechanic that deals with "this sort of stuff" is on holiday. Ok, fair enough, keep the car because i don't want it back until these flatspots are sorted.

Wednesday arrives and this "specialist mechanic" hasn't looked at my car.
Thursday - he discovers the flatspots and doesn't know the solution.
Friday - he still doesn't know the solution and decides to take a passenger on board in the car with a laptop to find the fault... But not today, because he has the afternoon off.

A main dealership and they only have one mechanic that deals with these faults? Pathetic.

Getting a little pissed off to be honest, this is the second time it's been in there about the flatspots.

9 days without my precious Scooby and i'm going crazy hence the long *** post.

 

Good old CVC, they made my wallet four figures lighter without fixing the problem, hence why I sold the scoob, cost way too much to repair, run etc. Im feeling your pain Out of six weeks I had my car for two weeks CVC had it for the rest with the "TRYING" to sort the problem out line being used alot.

 

You're not the first and are unlikely to be the last, IMHO.

Try Powerstation instead, I go there for all my work now. It's a bit of a trek but worth the inconvenience.

 

F@ck the main dealers, this guy needs a specialist

 

I have never rated CVC. Very poor all round i think.. Before i had my scoob i was looking for some direction, not sure what i wanted and all that(research mode). I went to CVC twice. First for a test drive in there old place and all they wanted to know was did i have the money. and the second time on Hadfield rd, they never even came out of the offices even though i was there looking around for a good 15 mins.

Go to Powerstation Mate

 

If you can't make it to Powerstation, or want to stay with a main dealer - ring Keith Prices's, ask for Mike in Service Dept, explain the problem and say Gareth Everett recommended that you give him a call. Ask if Peter can take a look for you. Hope you get it sorted.

Cheers

Gareth

 

in CVC's defence, they are main dealers, not tuning specialists - their mechanics will be trained in the standard factory repairs etc... so anything that isnt really a specific fault will be hard for them to diagnose and fix.

I know some people have had bad experiences, and I agree that their sales people leave a lot to be desired ( I suppose they get a lot of tyre kickers looking at the cars though who could never afford one, so maybe this is why they can be a bit dismissive if they think you arent serious about buying ? ) but I have found them OK when they worked on my car, and they were cheaper and quicker than a lot of the independent garages I spoke to ( this was for changing the belts and oil seals, which is quite a big job ).

Just one thing that occured - are you sure these are flat spots and not just turbo lag ? putting your foot down at 3K it will take a short time for the turbo to spool up and the acceleration to kick in ? especially if you are cruising along at 3K, then accelerate rather than accelerating up through the gears.

Could be rubbish, but it does sound an odd problem to have unless there is something strange going on with your engine.

 

To be honest it could be anything. From a faulty maf, lambda, coil pack, plugs, If you've decatted it this can cause leaning out/hestition in mid range (Mine did) plus hundreds of other things that can go wrong on a 9 year old car but a main dealer should be able to find this problem with the minimum amount of fuss.

If they can't sort it vote with your feet

 

found out at the beggining that cvc are a waste of time, so i travel from bridgend and now swansea to keith price (their great) for all my service work and powerstation for anything else .

 

i have said it before and will say it again cvc aree pants wil never take my car there again !

 

Have to speak as I find and say that during the past 8 years of Subaru ownership CVC have given me great service.

Only once I took my car to KP. NEVER AGAIN, after not only messing up a new clutch installation but scratching my front bumper as well. Had to threaten with court to get them to sort it out even though they admitted liability.

Chip

 

Horses for courses.. I've had pleasure and pain from CVC.. but until my warranty runs out I've not many choices..

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Anymore info on Powerstation and Keith Price pleease?

Got the car back today, rang up this afternoon and they said "we still don't know the problem", so i demanded the car back.

Time to take it to a garage that actually knows what they're doing!

Thanks again guys much appreciated!

 

KP - 01873 811555 - I know Chip had a bad experience with KP before, but it seems that no dealer will keep all its customers happy all the time ... indeed I could pick faults in their service, but they always look after me and always get the job done - something CVC seem to have failed to do with you.

I've had 5 new scoobs from Keith Price, covered nigh on 300,000 miles and averaged 3 services a year over 9 years with them ..... if they were that bad I'd have gone elsewhere !!!

Good luck

Gareth

 

Thanks Gareth, i'll give them a call this week

 

I had a very poor experience of CVC last year just before Christmas, took the car for a basic service, it had been around the £200 quidish mark before this episode..... anyway CVC decided I have an oil leak, they dont tell me this as i am sitting waiting for the car for about two and a half hours, this is after i have been shopping in cardiff from 0800 to about 14.30 or half two

Then they tell me i have an oil leak, they cant say where from, but they have worked on my car for and extra 4 hours and then nock me down with a bill fro just short of £800, on the 17th of December...........

NEVER AGAIN

I have been to Andy at Ace Motorsport and he has been great, if a little hard to pin down at times.... he can be a victim of his own succes me thinks

To top it all, neither Andy or powerstation could see or find a leak, do you think CVC spilt some oil ?

Paul

 

I do always make a point of giving garages ( for cars or bikes ) a set maximum price that I'll let them work to without contacting me for the OK to do extra things - this way you dont get hit up with 'unforeseen' problems - if they say there is a problem you didnt know about they stop work, you go in and get them to show you the problem if necessary, then you can find out how much it will cost.

Any decent honest garage wont mind a customer doing this - the same as they wont mind you supplying the parts yourself rather than paying twice as much for them to get them in for you.

 

I'm still waiting for ACE to supply the paperwork for the work they did for me at the beginning of April! And I've found CVC sales staff to have a patronizing manner (still the same cos I popped in on Friday).