I purchased a new 2007 Subaru Forester XT in March of 2007 from another dealer. In August 2007, while taking my family on our first real family vacation, I hit a deer at a speed of around 65 MPH, on I70 just west of Vail Pass. The car was heavily damaged, and ended up being totaled. Thank God my family suffered only minor injuries. The car performed amazingly well at keeping us safe. The entire vacation ended up being in rental cars, constantly interrupted by dealing with the insurance company.

Already dealing with the frustration of working with the insurance company, we finally got into a position to look for a replacement vehicle. One we had been looking at at our previous dealer sold the day before the insurance finally offered a settlement (nearly a month after the accident), so we and the dealer tried to find an equivalent. This is a fairly rare car (Subaru Forester XT Sports 5 speed), so we felt lucky that another dealer happened to get the exact car we would have ordered.

Enter Shortline.
Apparently there is bad blood between these dealers. Shortline would not only not return calls to our dealer (who wished to trade the car, a common occurance in the industry), they wouldn't even return MY calls, asking for a price. When I called the last time, I acted as a fresh call, and asked for internet sales. I finally got an estimate from Eric, at $2500 more than my dealer was willing to sell a nearly identical car for. I told him they'd have to do much better than that. The sales manager (Steve) called me back, and pushed me for a price I was looking for. When I told him the price I'd buy the car that night for (which was only competetive with the other dealer, not lower), he started a long lecture about being entitled to a profit. I understand wanting to make a profit... but $2500 more than another dealer???. When I then inquired why they would not trade the car for a nearly identical car (same model and trim, different color and options), he again went into how they were entitled to profit, and did not have to help another dealer. Apparently our dealer sold a car to a customer after they had agreed to trade that car to Shortline. I can understand why this would upset them, but they are hurting a lot more than just the other dealer. I also can't imagine they wouldn't have done the same thing.. "Sorry Mr. Customer, but 5 minutes ago another dealer asked for this car, so you can't have it" doesn't seem like something they would have said. Then again, with as poorly as they treated me as a customer, maybe they would have.

I tried to explain our situation to the sales manager, and I informed him that to order the car (the exact one they had, that no other customer was interested in at the time), I would have to wait six weeks, and have to pay car rental for that time (over $1000). His cold blooded response was to use that as a negotiating tool to add that onto the price I requested, to show he'd be "saving" me money by charging more than the other dealer. He then try to convince me the other dealer was lying to me (which they weren't... we bought the first car from that dealer, and they were honest with us).

I understand this is business, but businesses are run by people, and people should be responsible for how they treat others during business or otherwise.

This was an absolutely HORRIBLE experience with Steve (sales manager), Eric (internet sales), and the general sales manager at Shortline Automotive. I wonder if they have trouble sleeping for trying to take advantage of people in our situation.