Did White bear subaru beat the crap out of my Mom's new 2011 WRX w/360 miles on it?

Winless, lol your sig is hilarious. Reading comprehension ftl.

You DBs are so intent on calling the whambulance that you didn't even notice that the OP stated he took it back to the dealer and asked for an explanation. After rereading the OPs posts, it seems that everything was done how it should have been. He said, they went back to the dealership and asked about it, then they were blown off. That is enough right there to convince me to never bring my car to WB Subaru. I have certain expectations of a service dept. If a customer has a complaint 360 miles after the car was purchased, it should be addressed.

Dam dude, its like he insulted you epenis and called you out for being a postwhore.

 

If you aren't in some form of journalism your talents are really being wasted. It isn't often I actually LOL when reading a forum. Thanks for the laugh. And this would be sooooo cool if it were true.

 

Agreed. And for good reason, elves are way too expensive, their hourly rate makes it untirely unfeasible to have them do this job.

What could work though is some sort of electronic control system, that's aware of all sorts of information about the engine coming from various sensors. With that data and other control inputs it could control injector duty cycle and along with known injector size, RPM and trip odometer readings it could make quite accurate calculations about fuel consumption.

It's a pity though, that nothing like that exists.

 

Next time you fill up your tank with gas. do the MPG calculations yourself and look the at the car mpg reading.... they've never lined up for me.

 

That's what it does do. If you change injectors the reading will be off by a considerable amount.

17mpg over 360miles vs. 16mpg at 375miles would mean the 15miles in between were at 6mpg (and used 2 1/4 gallons of gas). In general, most cars would use about 1/4gal per hour if left idling. So even if they left it idling for an hour, they still used up 2gal of fuel in 15miles.

It really doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that if a "sporty" car needs to be taken out on a drive for diagnostics that it would be driven hard. I would hope/expect that a tech would have more self control than that, but who knows.

And I don't think the point is that 2 gallons of gas were "wasted". It's the fact that some people may take it easy on their cars, and would expect the same when being diagnosed by the dealer. Whether or not any cars are actually driven hard at the dealer isn't known, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an explanation if you inquire about it (at the dealer).

 

Wow, A little less douchebagidness in the last couple replys. Possibly even some advice if you read between the lines.

I let my car idle last night for around 6 hours sitting in a Mcdonalds parking lot bull####ting with a friend. The needle didn't even budge. you would think that if I went through 1.5 gallons of gas it would have, especially since I was a little over half a tank and the needle seems to move fastest in the middle of the gauge. I am guessing that a car uses more like 1/8 gallon per hour idling. That isn't important though. For the sake of argument, I will use the numbers that others have given in this thread.

Lets say that the dealer idled the WRX for and hour to do diagnostics. that means that .25 gallons of fuel were used. Then the dealer took the car for a test spin for 15 miles using 1.75 gallons of fuel in the process. That is 15/1.75 = 8.57mpg. In my book, that is a beating. If the car idled for 2 hours, its 10mpg(15/1.5). Still a beating. 3 hours = 12 mpg(15/1.25). 4 hours = 15mpg(15/1). So if the tech took 3.5 to 4 hours to do diagnostics, that would be an explanation. I doubt it took that long though. Not to mention that a 15 mile test drive is a little much. That is the distance from WB Subaru to down town Minneapolis. (i checked on Google maps) Sounds more like a joy ride to me.

It is also worth mentioning that the dealer used at least 2 gallons. According to the OP, it could have been 3, which would mean the dealer would have needed to idle the car for 10-12 hours(according to your numbers) in order to have achieved a responsible 15mpg.

/thread, I win

[edit2]
Does anyone know how I can change the theme of the forum to black text on a white background?

 

Has anyone considered that the OP was worked up about the idea of his momma car being beat up and may have streched the 15 mile, 1/4 tank, mpg a little tiny bit(a little bit may go a long way in the explanation). Our 09 forester shows around 27.x mpg when the weather is nice but, when it gets cold and we start "warming it up" it now shows 23.x and we don't drive it one tiny bit different other than not towing a boat all winter.

Really, I do understand wanting everything to be peachy especially with a new car but even if the car was driven a bit hard for part of one day, it's still got a long healthy life ahead of it......It'll be fine. If you don't get what you want from the dealership let them know you will take your business elsewhere, they lose a customer and you'll get the uncertainty of how the next place will treat your car while in their care.

 

Agreed, my tribeca sees about 3 mpg less when its cold out, because it does a **** ton more sitting idle. Its all in who drives it too, I can tell my wife to "take it easy" and she can only muster 19.5 mpg, but I can get mid 20s out of it. Pushing the pedal down even a little bit can make the instant mpg go down to 6-7 mpg, hold it there (on one of those crazy things called onramps) and you are looking at much less MPG, EXPECIALLY with only 360 TOTAL miles on the car. Ever think that MAYBE the gas gauge doesnt move until ignition is re-cycled? So it took a 1/4 tank to get to white bear, THEN they drove it, losing a 1/4 tank in that process isnt really impossible, its down right factual.

 

Yeah man, if you need AMSoil hook ups there are a few people on this forum that sell it.

Well there is your problem, your a dumb fat person who has nothing better to do than sit in a fast food parking lot for 6 hours. I hope you know that the people telling you "the car will be fine" and techs have better things to do than "joy ride" know a bit more about cars than you. I mean i am sure you pick up a lot of knowledge sitting at McDonalds, sipping on diet cokes, eating Big Macs, and talking about the latest Paul Walker movie... but you aren't going to get any love on this forum.

 

This debate really doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but I thought I'd throw in a couple more comments.

I'd assume the lower mileage in the winter is due to the winter mix of gas. The gas gauge definitely does not need the ignition to be re-cycled to move (that would be very bothersome on a long trip!). I would agree that driving style can easily affect mileage, but 15 miles vs. 360 miles is only 4%. Hard to make much of a dent on overall mileage with only 4% more miles being put on (unless the mileage during that time was very low).

Assuming all of this is accurate:

• 360 miles on the car
  • Overall fuel economy of 17mpg
• 15 additional miles
  • Overall fuel economy of 16mpg

The overall mileage is a weighted average. A drop of 1mpg overall, with only 15 additional miles is fairly significant. If you do the math, there were 2 1/4 gallons of fuel used, at a rate of about 6mpg. Whether 2 gallons of gas looks like a 1/4 tank on the gauge, I don't know.

I personally think it's pretty obvious the car was driven "hard". Even with half a day of idling (which is very doubtful) I still think it was driven harder than the OP's mother drives it on a day to day basis. Whether or not that is really a bad thing is still up for debate.

"Joyrides" may not be likely, but if a tech has to go for a drive (to verify work, diagnose a problem, etc), and the car is anything that could be considered "fun", I don't really doubt that they might take it up to redline a few times. I don't think it should happen (and I'm sure it doesn't happen every time or for every tech), but I could definitely see it occurring on occasion.

 

So 15 mile road test... ABS problem... So one could assume, bear with me, tech idles car while checking code. tech takes car for a 7.5 mile test drive (3.75 miles each way there and back). Tech works on car to fix issue that might be arising. Tech than takes car for another 7.5 mile cruise (3.75 each way there and back) to make sure work is done properly and code does not come back. Car comes back and gets its complimentary wash (idling while it happens) and car is parked. Mommy comes and gets it, service writer has car brought around while they do paper work (some times being left to idle till you get in and drive away)

Nothing hear sounds out of the ordinary or worth complaining about. We as a community have already proven that the MPG gauge on the car is not NASA accurate. I guess your option is to shut up, switch dealerships or service provider, and realize that when you (OP) take mommy's car out sometime you're going to beat on it harder than WB Subaru did.

Now for my question to the OP: Does your mom think that they beat on her car? or is this you just finding something to bitch about with out being there and dealing with second hand info?

 

i just had an interesting thought...

the tech at the dealership had never driven a WRX before, so he beat the **** out of it.

WRX's are the rarest, fastest cars at a subaru dealership.


wait, those are both lies. Carry on.

 

he probably took it street racing.

 

I hear that all the techs in the White Bear Lake / Maplewood area all drive to a secret drag strip @ 11am and do pulls in the fastest cars they are working on that day. I am guessing that is what hurt his MPG.

 

When I had my rear diff replaced at White Bear I was pretty sure I had left 2 pennies and part of a french fry stuck near the seat mount. When I picked it up they were missing and the carpets were oddly cleaner than before. Theft I presume because there is no other feasible explanation for the missing property.

 

Obviously, you didn't read my last post with the mpg calculations. Let me give you the abridged version.

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