Business ProfileforChilson Subaru

My experience with Chilson’s Subaru in Eau Claire at first was very welcoming and helpful. I purchased a vehicle that looked great, very clean and organized. As soon as I test drove the vehicle I smelled hot metal and asked “why does it smell like hot metal” the salesman response was “the vehicle just got a new radiator”. So in my case I trusted him. Paid in full. Yes, I understand the salesman does not have anything to do with the mechanics of the car, they are just trying to sell the car. But once I left that lot at Chilson’s Subaru in Eau Claire, I drove the car for no more than a week and noticed my check engine light came on, traction control wouldn’t turn off, my primary lights stayed on while the car was running and the splash plates were damaged. Two out of the three splash plates were missing, even some of the rivets to the splash plates were no where to be found leaving the wheel wells flapping in the wind. Not to mention the front bumper panel on the right side is currently being held up by zip ties. I bought the car used. But zip ties… from a dealership? How is that professional? So I called Chilson Subaru and the salesman said “you never asked if the car was in a accident” (car hit a snow bank). I’ll for sure take that, understandable. But Chilson Subaru said “we will fix it”. But never did, they only replaced the one splash plate we already had with a new one and disregarded the two main ones that were missing. When we received the receipt it had said that everything was replaced and the zip ties were taken care of, only to find out that was never done. I was then told the check engine light was from the gas cap and that it was a sensor from the cap being loose. We were also told that the traction control being on was a sensor that they bypassed and everything should be good. But since I bought the car used (paid in full) I just didn’t want to go through that experience again with taking it back in and not getting the correct work on it done. It seemed as if they didn’t care about quality just money, knowing the true condition of my car that I had just bought and paid in full. I felt as if the sales person didn’t fulfill their duty by fully disclosing all information on the car and lacked knowledge of the product they were selling me. Shortly after getting my first oil change in my ‘new to me’ car the check engine light came on. I had busy times arising with family and the holidays were approaching. My little brother flew in from Washington to Minnesota, to in which I went and picked him up (1 hour and 20 mins from where I’m located) and the car ran just fine. When I went to drop him off 2 weeks later the car started to act funny. The ride home from dropping him off the car started to lose power. Every light on that dash started to light up and flicker, turning on and off. My power started to fail, power steering started to fail. Eventually, after 15 min of the car spazzing out it finally died on interstate 93. Five o’clock in the morning, I was stranded in the dead of winter with no working car and nobody to call. First thing I had to do was call for a tow, which was 15 minutes outside of Minnesota and I had to make it back to Eau Claire. Once the tow truck arrived, the only thing for me to think was bring it back to Chilson Subaru and see what they could do. After it went through their diagnostic process it was found that the alternator went out. The front desk clerk printed me off a breakdown sheet of the part, and labor time to put in the new part. They pitched me an outrageous price, and on top of that with my previous experience of not getting anything properly fixed the first time I was not about to trust their word. It is my fault, I should have brought it in as soon as the check engine light came on but as we know with life, kids, work, family and other life duties time seems to slip away. I should’ve realized the first red flag with the hot metal smell when I took it for a test drive, but I put my faith in the knowledge of the salesmen. I can’t give it a 0 star so I’m giving it a 1 star. My experience with Chilson Subaru has been nothing but a bad experience.