Liberty Subaru — Local services in Libertyville

Review for Libertyville Subaru – Service Department Date of Visit: March 2023 Staff involved: Salesman named Elmer

I went in for a routine oil change and ended up in a dangerous situation. After waiting hours, I was told my car was ready and that everything looked good.

But as soon as I drove to the first stop sign just outside the lot, I realized my brakes were failing. I had to press down extremely hard and still barely slowed down—I nearly hit someone. I immediately returned to the shop within minutes and explained that something was seriously wrong. My brakes were not like this when I brought the car in.

The receptionist said that because I had “left the lot,” they would treat this as a new walk-in and that I’d have to pay for repairs. I asked to speak with a manager, but no manager was on-site that day. A salesman named Elmer came out and told me they would not be responsible for the damage because it “wasn’t fair” for me to blame them. That’s when I called the police because I didn’t know what else to do.

When the police arrived, they said it wasn’t their issue and that I’d have to resolve it with the shop. As soon as they left, Elmer became aggressive, raised his voice, saying I was making it hard for him to be nice—when in reality, I was calm and just trying to get answers about why my brakes failed right after an oil change.

I then called my dad, and one of his trusted mechanic friends came to help. The shop added some brake fluid when asked. A mechanic carefully drove my car away with emergency lights on.

My dad’s mechanic friend later told me there was an opening in the brake system that caused fluid to leak—possibly caused while the car was being lifted. That would also explain the long wait time for a simple oil change.

After the car was taken, Libertyville Subaru called and left me a message saying I “shouldn’t have driven the car back” because it wasn’t safe—yet they’re the ones who cleared it and handed me the keys.

This experience was negligent. Instead of taking accountability, they dismissed me, blamed me, and then acted aggressive when I stood up for myself. I now see others have posted similar 1-star reviews about the service department—and I understand why.

Personally I will avoid Libertyville Subaru’s service department. I will never return.

Thank you for responding, but I stand by my review. The issue wasn’t a minor inconvenience — it was a serious safety failure that occurred immediately after your team cleared my car and handed me the keys. The dismissive and aggressive way I was treated after returning with failing brakes speaks for itself. I don’t feel comfortable pursuing further communication, but I hope this review helps others make an...

Update 6/17/24

I needed to update the nightmare this has been. Last week it’s been officially what 15 weeks and still no car. Every week it’s a new story a new part they have to replace. On Friday the service manager said that the Subaru engineers didn’t know what was wrong with the car. At this point they have pulled the motor apart 3 times they have replaced so many parts. I have no words to describe how upset we are with this dealership. We took them a car that only needed a small repair and its been close to 4 months that the car bas been in their garage. They ruined my car and now all I get are promises of getting it fix. After all of this you would think the owners would at least reach out and sympathize with our situation but nothing. They president of the Buss Ford who sold me the car at least contacted us and are trying to work something out in their end. I’m not saying don’t go to this dealership but I just want to make my experience known.

I wanted to wait until I lost all hope this Saturday will be officially 11 weeks that my car has been in the service department. I took it in for a small repair that’s what I was told not my words and initially it took two weeks to get it back. They called us that the car was ready for pickup and we picked it up unfortunately we drove it for 9 miles and it broke down on us completely undrivable. We had to get a tow truck to pick us up and drop it off again at the dealership. They said that unfortunately the mechanic that worked on my car put the wrong parts in and ever since I haven’t seen my car. Every week is something different there is times when we have to call to get an update. Last week I had a conversation with the manager and it sounded like I was finally getting it back unfortunately today I got another call saying how it was still not 100% good. At this point I don’t know if I can trust the car to last a day, months or years after I get it back. The sad part about everything is that I had just bought the car I was only able to drive it for five days before I took it in to Libertyville. I don’t know who to blame for this situation the mechanic that put the wrong parts in or myself for trusting this place. The only positive note is that they were able to let me barrow a loaner since day one. Other than that I have no words that can describe the headaches we been...

Simplest new car purchase I've made. Mr. Hector was about as low key, low pressure as I've seen. Dealership didn't hesitate when I brought them the price they agreed to through "True Car" (or whatever it's called; some referral service through my spouse's work).

And once you said you were interested in a car through that referral service mentioned above, your name got farmed out to multiple local dealers, who must have called me 100xs.

Number of calls I received from this dealership? 0.

At Liberty, it basically went like this after my test drive:

Will you honor this price? Sure.

Great, I'll take the car. When do you want to pick it up?

Wed? Sure, no problem.

I arrived on Wed. The car was there and ready to go.

Between when I did the test drive and when I arrived to get the car, Mr. Hector called me 1x. And that was to confirm I was still interested in the car and was I still planning on purchasing/picking it up. I don't know that I even put a deposit or "hold" fee on the car.

I financed the car through their dealership, and maybe could have gotten a better deal on the financing rate and the 10 year warranty (which I did want). But scouring online, I got a "fair" price on both, so I'm fine with that. You want to negotiate till your blue in the face? Knock yourself out. I just want simple.

This experience in comparison to another Subaru dealership that ran my spouse through an endless back-and-forth about pricing, and dinking around with the "Let me ask my manager", and the need for "walking out" so common elsewhere. Plus, when I asked this other salesman about differences in the trim packages between the base and sport Impreza, the person I did a test drive with insisted that the motor in the sport trim was different from the base. I'm like, huh? I don't think so. But they were quite insistent that the motor was truly different in the sports package. I asked Mr. Hector at Liberty the same question, and his response was: "I don't know. Let me look"....."Nope, same motor". At least he was immediately honest with his lack of knowledge and willing to look up the answer.

These folks at Liberty made it as simple as can be. So yeah, I would certainly recommend this dealership, and Mr. Hector...