Lynnes Subaru — Restaurant in Bloomfield

I debated posting this for some time, but a recent incident has resulted in me writing this review. It's long and has backstory, but stick around.

I purchased a vehicle from this dealership at the beginning of the summer and I'll be honest - if I could have done it all over, I would have chosen a different dealership. SO. MANY. RED. FLAGS.

Red Flag 1 - I had confirmed (several times with a "main office" rep) the car I wanted to view a few days prior to my appointment and had that reserved. I go there and it was sold to another customer an hour prior to my arrival.

Fine. I saw another vehicle in the same model. It was nice but it had some minor dents and scratches I was promised to by my sales rep would be removed by the time I came back again to pick it up, if I wanted it. I had someone else with me, who can attest to these promises made.

Red Flag 2 - I expected the sales rep who is no longer there, Alan, to be extremely pushy with me because you know, stereotypical sales rep interacting with a female presenting individual. What I did not expect was to be talked down to, belittled and gaslit over the phone when he called the next day asking when I could come in to complete the sale despite my telling him precisely when I could come in (the following day from the initial visit, not the next day). I had slept on it and was having second thoughts about the vehicle and the dealership overall. I was not getting a good "vibe" from the atmosphere, and I have been to a lot of dealerships in the last ~20 years of my life with people or for myself and this was the first time I did not have a good vibe. I expressed that I needed more time to think and procure insurance and what not and he called me hostile when really he was projecting how he was behaving toward me. When I wasn't going to fall for his manipulation tactic, I tried to call off the sale completely, and said I would be back the next day for the deposit I had left, and he got even more enraged. Unable to deal with petulant adult children with emotional regulation issues, I told him he needed to check himself before he lost his sale, he got reported to his general manager, and I reported the entire dealership itself for deceptive business practices for the selling the vehicle I reserved to look at and lying about it. That shut him up but good.

Day of Sale: Things go fairly smoothly with Finance guy John B. No real issues or complaints there. Thanks John.

Red Flag 3 - Remember those minor dents and scratches that Alan PROMISED were going to get taken care of? Yeah, you probably saw that coming. Total and COMPLETE lie. I have to get those taken out and fixed myself. It wouldn't be a huge issue if you didn't lie, man.

Red Flag 4 - Having owned this car for a few months, I haven't had any issues. I knew I was due for an oil change, but I wanted to have the oil change and service history that they had -- something I was never given from Alan that he said I could get. No biggie. I email simply because it's off hours and I have his email. Bounces back. Strange, but he's still on the website (he's since been removed indicating he no longer works tehre, I realize it takes a few days to update, I work in web dev. I get it.) So I chat with an agent on the website because it's again, off hours, and I am given the claim that I will be given what I would like to know from the service department. Not believing them, I call the dealership in the morning and leave a message. No response (this was several weeks ago).

Now, I'm not an idiot, I still got my oil changed by my own mechanic and I won't be going back here again. You're probably wondering why I purchased the vehicle in spite of or despite those red flags? When you're in a pinch, chronically ill/disabled, you make silly mistakes. Hope someone can learn from mine.

If I could recommend a specific individual though it'd be John B. from finance. John, you gotta find somewhere else that's less shady to work at. A different Subaru location or something. But Lynnes Subaru?

0/10 do not recommend to ANYONE...

After having terrible experiences being gaslit and lied to at two other Subaru Dealerships (see other reviews) trying to buy a CPO Forester, we were expecting the same here and to be honest...it was the same.

The sales rep, Juan Romero (who I believe is no longer there), showed us the car, it had scratches and scuffs that we were told is normal (not normal). As I looked more around the car he asked my wife, "Is he always like this?" and then proceeded to compliment me on my shirt to distract me from looking more thoroughly at the vehicle. This was the best looking 2021 Forester we had seen yet so we were on board to take it. We were also excited because the Lynnes' website said they had a dealership discount of $4k of the vehicle.

When we sat down to look at the numbers, he told us we could opt in for the Glass Etching antitheft feature that he guaranteed would make our car insurance cheaper. I called my insurance right then and directly in front of him they told me it would not change my car insurance premiums. So, we said no to that after being lied to.

Next he brought out the paper work with the numbers and there was a $3,000 Dealership Fee. We asked what that was and Juan told us it was a normal processing fee that all dealerships charge. I went out to our car and grabbed the paperwork from the dealership we had been at two days previous (that we walked away from) where there was no "dealership fee". He said, "Oh, you've done this before, huh?" We said we weren't going to pay the fake dealership fee, which was basically their way to add back the money that was the "dealership discount" on their website. He went to talk to the finance guy. Came back and said, "No dealership fee but we are adding the Glass Etching." We said we didn't want the glass etching. He said, "We it's already activated it so you have to take it." We said no we are not paying for something that 5 minutes ago you said was an option. He went back to the finance guy and came back, sat down and said, "It's off. Are you happy now?" Like somehow he was doing us a favor for not charging us for a thing we never wanted.

He sat down and slammed the drawer on his desk so hard that it caused our sleeping dog to wake up and bark several times.

Finally, we said we wanted to be sure that our second key fob would be prepared for us (as listed on the Subaru of America website - every CPO car comes with two key fobs free of charge). He said, "Ok, I'll ask the service department how much that will cost." To which we pointed out the policy on the Subaru site. He said, "Oh, I didn't know that. That's news to me, thanks for teaching me something." Again, another blatant lie.

As we finally closed out the paperwork, he told us that our first oil change would be covered by Lynnes Subaru and after that we could take our car to any dealership to be serviced. This was a nice addition but, since we live in Brooklyn which is an hour away, I wasn't sure if we would utilize it.

Spring forward 8 months to today where I drove an hour and showed up to my scheduled appointment for service/oil change and was told that the oil change was not covered. When I mentioned Juan had told us it was I was asked, "Do you have paperwork to prove that?" I, of course, did not. Juan never gave it to us.

All in all, don't trust anything they say as fact and make sure you get anything that they tell you in writing.

Miserable experience. They will take advantage of you at every turn. We love our car but will never...

Copy of complaint to BBB:

Interaction was on February 8, 2013. No money was paid. Business advertises a certified pre owned (CPO) vehicle with VIN 4S4BTAPC8M3107464 for $30822. After spending a couple hours checking things out, when we sat to discuss price, they wanted to add $2690 in fees that they claimed were required by Subaru and the dealership for certification ($1295) and reconditioning ($1395). Their explanation of the fees didn't make any sense, as they noted some of the same things under the certification fee as they did under the reconditioning fee. I noted the vehicle was advertised as CPO at the price of $30822, not as a non-CPO vehicle at $30822 with the option to certify by paying extra. The salesperson said that price was meant to get people in the door. I believe this is considered false advertising even if there might be small print somewhere noting that there may be additional fees. These additions were equal to a nearly 9% up charge to the advertised price before accounting for the standard additional costs of document fees, sales tax, and registration fees. Also, the salesperson let slip that the car hadn't actually been certified yet, as it's still being used as a loaner vehicle and needs to be run through the certification process once the customer currently using it returns it. It was also a bit concerning to hear the car was advertised as passing the inspection when the inspection hadn't yet been done. After leaving Lynnes Subaru, I communicated with another Subaru dealership nearby to check if this was a standard fee charged by Subaru, and the salesperson at the other dealership explained there are no fees to certify a vehicle. However, it seems this is common practice at Lynnes Subaru, to advertise a low price and then add fake fees once a person goes into the dealership. I'm hoping someone can investigate them for false advertising and hopefully stop the practice and maybe even impose some penalties.

Notes:

After thinking about things, even if the dealership offered me the car at the advertised price, I would not buy from them. This practice really shows how they deal with customers. They're a place I wouldn't trust with an important purchase like this.

You can see how the car is advertised in the attached screenshots. However, the out-the-door price they tried to charge was the following: $30822 for the vehicle, $799 for the doc fee, $2273.64 for taxes, $300 for registration, $8.15 for CVR (to print temporary plates), $1295 for policy certification (supposedly required by Subaru to certify), & $1395 for reconditioning (supposedly required by dealerships to certify). This equaled an out-the-door price of $36,892.79 for a vehicle advertised at $30822. Without negotiating on the advertised price, the out-the-door price, which should include only the sale price + doc fees + taxes + registration, should've been around $33,900, give or take a few bucks. That's a final price difference of around $3000.

I strongly suggest you check Yelp reviews & BBB ratings for other dealerships in the area and drive a little further if needed to deal with a...