Well, THAT took long enough

Do you remember way back in December when I said we were saying goodbye to Zipcar for a new Subaru Outback? They told us it would take 4-6 weeks to either find the one we wanted or have it made.

Like the trusting souls we are, we totally believed them and arranged for a parking spot at the 4 week point (which we pay for because parking on the street is a serious gamble with scrapes and dings and also you have to remember which day to move the car before the street cleaner comes). Around the 6 week mark the dealer told us that the car would have to be made at the factory and they had put the order in the cue and it shouldn't be much longer- 4 weeks or so.

Since we were paying for a parking spot by then, we were able to borrow a car from my in-laws, which allowed us to enroll Ranger in a program that he clearly is loving. Four weeks past. And then some more time past.  Phone calls didn't get us any clearer a timeline. Finally E gave an ultimatum: we get the car in 7 days, or we walk away.

Honestly, we both thought we would be walking away. We arranged to have another test drive of our number two pick, a GMC. You may have seen my frustrated tweets as the dream of having an Outback fizzled. (speaking of tweets- several times I specifically used @Subaru_USA's handle in tweets, and they never once even bother to tweet back, but I mentioned GMC without the @ or # and they were ON TOP OF THAT- I had a tweet from them before the day was done.)

Two days before our test drive with GMC, four before our stated deadline for Subaru, wouldn't you know a car super close to what we wanted was available. The differences between the one we wanted and the one they had were so minor it's not worth mentioning. Which makes me wonder- why hadn't they called us and notified us of there being a close match? Why did we have to make an ultimatum, why did we do all the calling, and...just...why? Subaru makes cars here in the USA. Not exactly the state next door, but close enough that if a car was made that fit so closely our choices...why didn't they call us? Surely the thing didn't suddenly materialize just as a coincidence AFTER E made his ultimatum.

Clearly Subaru doesn't put a lot into its customer service. The sales experience was nice enough, but from there on was the craps. And it's not like there wasn't another (closer) dealer we could have dealt with- there was and THEY didn't bother to ever call us back after our first inquiry into their product line. Ahem. Subaru- you might want to look into your customer interactions mmmmmmmkaaaay?

So, we got our new car today. It's lovely.