I bought a new 2024 Subaru Outback from here, because there was finally a dealership in my area…read morethat could service my car. The purchasing experience was fine. But today I went in for an oil change and left feeling totally scammed.
When I approached the advisor, he said, "we think your car is out of alignment." I said, "How in the world could you know that? You haven't even looked at it yet!" He said, "we have speed bumps with sensors as you're coming in to the service bay. It says it's slightly out of alignment."
I said, "REALLY? I actually couldn't decide which bay to come in to so I ran over them at an angle."
Slowly, I might add.
He basically said they'd check it and if it didn't need an alignment they wouldn't do one. I said, "Well, can you come talk to me and show me the numbers?" He said, "No, we only have one machine, and if we stop and talk to people it holds up everyone else. We'll give you a before and after so you can see there's no funny business. If it does need one, it'll be $170."
I stood there, totally feeling like I was being upsold, but finally said, "Okay." He was pressuring me to make a decision right then and sign the authorization form.
Interestingly enough, on the final invoice it said, "Customer states perform 4 wheel alignment." No, I NEVER said that. I reluctantly signed something saying they could do it if it really needed it because he said they couldn't stop for three minutes and come show me the numbers. I was sitting there, a 90 second walk from the diagnostic area, waiting.
Upon further research when I got home, I learned that the detection systems, "Hunter Quick Check Drive" (or perhaps knockoff from a competitor) are explicitly marketed to dealerships as a profit tool. Hunter's own marketing states, "wheel alignment is the most profitable dealership service" and pitches the system as a way to "gain profits and revenue" by scanning every car that comes in. Their website says, "Don't lose out on hidden alignment opportunities!" Does that mean City Limits got it solely for that purpose? I have no idea.
Can the dealership claim that what they did was above board? Of course they can. And they will. But I definitely felt strong-armed into signing off on something I wasn't convinced I needed. My bad for caving.
To get some perspective I talked to another service advisor from a different team, and he explained that two of the numbers were consistent with a real, but extremely trivial deviation -- the kind that's genuinely plausible from an off-angle pass over a sensor pad, and also the kind that most shops would consider a rounding-error fail rather than a "you need this now" issue. Those two numbers "failed" by nearly the SMALLEST measurable margin.
There was one other number that was more significantly "off," and he said that probably couldn't have been skewed by the uneven pass over their laser speed bump. However, even that number wasn't in any way dangerous, and the abnormal wear pattern on a tire would take thousands of miles to show, not hundreds. In other words, it probably needed to be aligned at some point, but it definitely wasn't urgent.
Know how long it took that guy to explain all this to me? About 45 seconds. And if I had known what he told me, I would've skipped the alignment for now.
But City Limits opted not to tell me any of that. They pressured me and made a sale.
Beware of this tactic and don't let them scam you. Take your car somewhere else to be evaluated if they tell you that you need an alignment before they've even laid eyes on it.
Shame on you, City Limits Subaru. These "profits" aren't worth it if you gain them by withholding information from your customers and pressuring them into services they could easily put off for a time. Today certainly destroyed my faith in you.
