Subaru Dealership Cannot Sell Outside 200 Miles

tr0gd0r

I sent an email inquiry to a Subaru dealership in another state and this is the response I received:

"Are you a Nevada resident? If you reside over 200 miles or more from our dealership we are unable to sell you a new Subaru. If you do contact a Subaru dealership that is 200 miles or more from you they have no incentives to sell you a new Subaru. These are requirements from Subaru of America. If you reside within the 200 mile radius please let me know. "

Does this seem normal? Why would a dealership refuse to sell me a car because I live over 200 miles away? They are the only dealership with the car I want in stock.

Let me know if anyone else has received something similar from a Subaru dealership.

cmhj2000

This is a new Subaru policy. The dealer can sell it but he'll be penalized if he sells more than 3 cars a month under the 200 mile rule, as I understand it.

isellhondas

Can your local dealer do a dealer trade to get it? Stores do this all of the time!

jmarzy

Do it all the time is a slight exaggeration. Dealer trades work something like this:

Dealer A needs a car for his client. Dealer B has the car and Dealer A calls Dealer B. Dealer B confirms that the car is still available and asks what will you give me back for the car you want? This is where negotiating comes in. It is not a simple "trade". Dealer B is not going to trade a popular model/color just because you asked them to. Dealer trades are only completed when each dealer gets a car back that they want.

So in this example if Dealer A does not have a car in stock that Dealer B has a need for, no trade will be done. Dealer A now starts the process all over again with Dealer C, Dealer D, etc.

As you can imagine dealer trades are very time consuming and for this reason dealer trades are discouraged at most stores. Not impossible just discouraged.

dacarmon

cmhj2000 said:

This is a new Subaru policy. The dealer can sell it but he'll be penalized if he sells more than 3 cars a month under the 200 mile rule, as I understand it.

Any other manufacturers have a similar policy?

isellhondas

Never heard of this policy.

A lot of stores simply won't do trades. Too many things can happen and often there is bad blood between stores in a given area. I know the store where I worked refused to do trades with several local stores.