Carter Subaru Ballard — Attraction in Seattle

I have been a very happy Carter Subaru customer since 2020. After 4 years, I decided to trade in my great, little Subaru that I purchased new at Carter Subaru, for a bigger Subaru. I brought my business to Carter Subaru again because of the wonderful purchasing experience and the hassle-free experiences related to service/maintenance visits that I have consistently had with this dealership over the last four years.

For this second purchase, at Carter Subaru, Lynnette Rice was my sales consultant. She went above and beyond in terms of customer service: friendly, very knowledgeable about all models of Subarus, patient and demonstrated that she only wants to make a sale only if the customer walks away happy and with the right car for them.

Lynette is wonderful to work with. She patiently answered all my numerous questions about the two models I was interested in, as well as the different levels of each model type. She didn't apply pushy sales tactics - she genuinely wanted me to take my time to decide what model worked best for me, which is how Carter Subaru treats their customers. By doing so, they build up a loyal customer base that will return again for their next car, as I did and will do, in the future. She also took the time to go along with me on test drives of multiple Subaru models, during which she went over new features and had me try them, even though this meant way more of her time spent in the car with me. She also worked with the dealership manager to get me the color and options that I wanted.

After I decided on the car I wanted to purchase, Lynette worked with the dealership manager, Jeff Hunter, to put the offer together. Jeff is great because he genuinely wanted to make sure I was happy with the purchase options. He made the trade-in experience go smoothly, and he was also able to get the car with the color I wanted sooner by trading with another dealership, which I really appreciate. Jeff sets the tone for the dealership: no high-pressure sales tactics; instead, the goal is to help the customer find the car that is right for them and know that this will result in repeat business because customers will remember the great experience working with them.

This great experience also applies to service appointments; they always go very smoothly for me. Jeff makes sure customers are taken care of and is dedicated to making the customer's car buying process enjoyable, stress-free, and well informed.

As a great example of this, I was having difficulty deciding between two Subaru car models, because they both have fantastic features, and I was concerned that one of the models would not fit in my smaller sized garage. Jeff and Lynette went above and beyond and offered me a test drive for the bigger model, all the way to my house, so I could see if it actually fit in my garage! And it did. They think outside of the box and proactively think of things the customer may not even have thought of to make your experience awesome. Plus, I even saw the manager, Jeff, in the dealership parking lot, helping to answer questions about cars on at least two different occasions, even taking part as a passenger during a test drive. That kind of hands down service from even the management shows the exceptional nature of the Carter Subaru dealership and the wonderful customer experience they offer.

Also, part of the paperwork process involved me meeting with Finance Manager Yeng Moua, which was also a great experience.

I have been recommending Carter Subaru as the go-to place to buy a Subaru and will continue to do so, especially after the top-notch customer service by Lynette and Jeff. And I will buy my next Subaru from Carter Subaru, too! It really is a great end-to-end experience because this dealership exceeds expectations and is the reason I am a loyal and extremely happy repeat customer. A big thank you to Carter Subaru for caring about, and making sure, their customers come first in getting a great and dependable car shopping and car maintenance experience! The folks at Carter Subaru are...

Since moving up to Seattle with my 2016 Crosstrek a little over 5 years ago I have been using Carter Subaru Ballard for routine maintenance and always had a pleasant experience. Based on the previous positive experiences with the service department, we contacted the sales department when it became time to buy a new car and were lucky enough to be paired with Tony Robertson.

Tony responded almost immediately to my request for availability on a couple of new Forester trims. Aside from prompt, Tony’s messages were informative, concise, and most saliently, genuine. This was the first car buying experience for both my fiancé and me, so a top priority was to work with somebody who is trustworthy, and Tony absolutely fit the bill. Tony provided good resources for us to compare trim levels, listened to our needs, and was honest and kind the whole time. A Subaru owner (& lover) himself, he told us the best, worst, pro and con of anything and everything we were considering. We were leaning toward the Touring trim but the car that we test drove did not match the desired interior/exterior colors, so Tony checked virtually every car in their inventory and found an exact match to our dream car.

Once we found the dream car, we knew that we had to deal with contracts, warranty, financing etc but we did not expect to have a someone as wonderful as Matt Schwenke (sp?). Matt was patient and forthcoming with information throughout the process. As first time buyers, my fiance and I went into the meeting a little uncomfortable with some jargon or details of agreement, but Matt made sure that we left with a full understanding of everything. Like Tony, Matt is an excellent communicator passing on information, resources, and personal experience (Matt just bought a similar Forester) clearly invested in us making the right decisions. Moreover, the two are naturally personable and effortlessly maintained friendly conversations during the several hour purchase and displayed an authentic interest in us as people and our overall happiness. Although I did not get the name of any other folks helping us out, I had nothing but positive interactions with everyone else in the office. They were ready to answer questions, chat about products on display, give the bathroom code, or just say hello with a smile.

The only thing that did not go smoothly on this car purchasing adventure was partially my own fault, partially bad luck, but I figure should be repeated in case others face a similar circumstance. In buying the new car, we traded two vehicles in its place. My fiancé’s car was cleared out and taken without issue. I was anticipating transferring my crossbar racks and an extended cargo roof box from my 2016 Crosstrek over to the 2025 Forester. Unfortunately, the new roof rack on the 2025 Forester is incompatible with the standard Subaru cross bars from previous years and Ballard did not have any crossbars in stock that went with the new build. Not ready to part with the cargo box, we decided to store it at our apartment until we could get the appropriate racks for the new car. Following the decision, Tony volunteered to help me take off the cargo box (which was not emptied, pretty heavy, and entirely my fault), carry it all around the dealership to keep it out of the way until I could rent a U-Haul to bring the box home. The new car was already sold, trade-ins were already accepted, Tony’s job was done and yet he waited for me to bring the truck back and helped me move the box into the U-Haul. Overall, bum luck on the rack situation so be careful when trying to swap accessories over onto the new cars (tip: they’re lighter when they’re empty too), but honestly it just provided Tony with another opportunity to impress us with his commitment to customer satisfaction. Besides this small hiccup, we could not have asked for a better car buying experience. Thank you to Tony, Matt, and Carter Subaru Ballard for a wonderful time, we will be back for the maintenance and when the time comes for another...

Carter Subaru, in my experience, is a fundamentally and systematically dishonest company. I brought my car in this week because I was having problems with the key fob/alarm that they installed. Even though I was clear that I was there for the alarm, somehow they convinced me to swap out fluids, battery, and rotate tires - which I agreed to, even though I normally have this work done a few blocks away at JE Tires. But Steve at the counter went on, and now he wanted to switch out my timing belt - before I had even given them my keys/vehicle. I told him to stop talking about the timing belt. Then he claimed that my car was leaking oil, when I know this is not true. I tell him to focus on the alarm problem.

Given these random, knee-jerk suggestions before even seeing the vehicle, it occurred to me that Steve is apparently getting some type of financial incentive, such as a commission, based off the amount of repairs/service that he was selling me. This seems pretty horrible - after all, a Subaru customer should be able to rely on a Subaru dealer as being honest, and recommend service/repairs based off what is actually needed for safety and performance, not just making things up. And yet, here was Steve firing off recommendations before he's even seen the vehicle; the only thing that apparently mattered was whether I'd agree. I told him, again, he needed to focus on the key fob/alarm.

Not sure why they couldn't get this very short list of work done the first day, but for whatever reason, they wanted the car overnight. Fine. Eventually, they finished the car the second day, and gave me an invoice where they were gouging me over $500 to replace a faulty key fob which they had installed a few years prior. They also just replaced the battery without checking if it was actually necessary (as had been agreed). I asked to speak with a manager by phone because the lobby was packed; they had people lined up right next to each other. But they wanted to have this conversation with me in the lobby despite how crowded it was. Their manager, Tammy, came out like a bulldog and immediately started talking down to me, rather loudly, as if I was the problem. Given the chaos of cramming people together like this (especially in a pandemic) some "Karen-type" woman right next to me started to engage with me and harass me that I was speaking too loudly (which, interestingly, she does by speaking even louder); I told her to not talk to me - that is all I said to this other woman. But Tammy used this as a pretext to mischaracterize the interaction, paint me in a negative light, and then kick me out - when in reality, she was the person who showed up and immediately started arguing without asking any questions and without making any attempt to understand the situation.

And then this morning I get a call from the store manager Paul, again coming in like some bulldog. Why even bother me if you're not going to listen or ask any questions?!?! Indeed, he was just repeating the same falsehoods as before (ie: that the random, loud-mouthed, intrusive "Karen-type" woman was terrified and in fear of her life). This was all a massive farce that these people used to sidestep a difficult conversation about why they were just making up dishonest/inappropriate service suggestions and then stacking numerous fees, repeatedly gouging me several hundred dollars for a chintzy little key fob, but then not even accounting for why the last fob failed so quickly - other than to disparage the components that they themselves sold and installed. It is easier for them to just lie and blame me.

This was the worst experience that I've ever had anywhere for car service, and I called the USA Subaru Corp to explain. They were amazed by my accounting of things and actually gave me a $300 coupon. They told me that I could expect different service at Walker Subaru in Renton. Indeed, they were correct. My interactions with Kim at the Walker service counter felt reasonable and truth-based. Much...