Goldstien Subaru in Colonie, NY

[flutyr525]

so some know that my sister bought her 2008 legacy 3.0R limited at Goldstein last January. the car itself is fantastic (it is a subaru ). so she brought her car in for its 15k mile service/inspection and to have her car starter serviced because it wasn't working properly. she goes to pick up the car to find a massive, down to the metal, scratch in one of her doors.   i was furious but unfortunately not there to deal with it but my mother and sister dealt with it well. at first the service department tried to deny that it happened there but that was only brief. they ended up keeping the car there and after about another week, she just picked up the car after it was repaired. as much as this pissed us all off and i HATE Goldstein's service department, they fixed the scratch perfectly and comped her for all the service done on her car (oil change/inspection/etc.) so she didn't have to pay anything.

even though the end result was good, if it was up to me, goldstein would never see that car or any others but its so hard to deny that lifetime warranty they offer. well see what happens next time

[20wrx09]

today i got my oil changed and they left HUGE OILY palm prints on my hood and on the door…not cool

[Kavik]

ugh, now that one's just plain sloppy and lazy.  I'm so sick of reading all these things about them, I really don't think this place is ever going to shape up.

Maybe we should email the service manager a link to this thread 

[Photofixer]

Get that shit off your car    Capitaland has my next Subaru Purchase 

[upstate2.5i]

Capitaland has my next Subaru Purchase 

This^^^^  The service and parts dept there are AWESOME and will def be seeing me whenever I need work done or to buy parts.

[Jay9786]

I would never bring my car to any dealer for anything...if I need work done to my car I bring it to my trusted mechanic who I know will do the correct work, treat my car how I treat it and dont tell me that something needs to be fixed when it dosent. They even let me go back and walk around under the lift so I can inspect the car myself. Find a mechanic you like and forget these dealers.

[deadlydave]

not a dealer review.

Let's try to keep things on-topic.   

[Kavik]

what the hell, I'll throw in another review to keep things in line here

I need an intake manifold to tgv housing gasket....I figure there's no way even goldstein can screw this up, right?  And since they're a 2 mile drive, rather than a 20 mile drive to Capitaland, I call them up for a price.

They have 1 in stock (not one set, just one gasket) and they want $13.39 with tax.  So I tell them to hold it for me, then I'm sitting here and it' nagging at me how expensive that sounds.  I finally call Fred, he tells me that retail on that part is only $10 and change    (that's retail, before any unysoc discount)

So, to sum it up....not only does their service suck, and parts counter people are usually useless....they just tried to charge me over 20% markup above retail for that part 

[Photofixer]

WOW>..   Fred FTW

[Kavik]

yeah, Fred rocks, just wish he was closer to Albany! 

[TheBigChill]

Ya, and his speech that quickly became a pitch was awkward.

 Have been in the Goldstein "Manison" when younger, and went to High School w/ some of the Family.  Interesting group, especially the son Mark, whom @ age 19 had his own Car Audio shop.

[JayS02RS]

Yeah, Im not to fond of them right now.  using their body shop.  Tom tells me a wed-fri job to repaint doglegs and put on rock guards.  I just called and now maybe monday will be done.  Im stuck with no car.  I could have gotten loaner but he wouldn't give it to me.  I was told I have to get from capland, which they agreed to give me one, if I could find a way up.  I was not going to have danielle, coming from Saugerties, follow me to albany and then up to scotia. 

[Kavik]

Oh dear God......
I was looking for a starter nearby, no one carries it so I broke down and tried calling Goldstein just to see what they had to say

I told the guy I needed a starter for a 2003 WRX with a manual transmission.  the guy was very insistant on knowing if I had a sedan or a wagon "because the wagon had a different motor in it" 
I sort of just paused for a minute then told him it was a wagon.  After another minute of fiddling on his computer he asked me if it was a 2.5 or 2.0 liter engine "because the WRX's had both options back then" 

yeah.......................ummmmm..........
I'm gonna go look for a stock 2.5l wrx bugeye with the special station wagon edition engine.  I must have one! 

[FastfreddyRs]

DAMN, i just sold my used starter this morning, i could of helped you out. i will look and see if i have another.

BTW, part# is 23300aa4209L (no vin, no crazy wagon special edition motor) just a 2.0 with a stick.

[TheBigChill]

Oh dear God......
I was looking for a starter nearby, no one carries it so I broke down and tried calling Goldstein just to see what they had to say

I told the guy I needed a starter for a 2003 WRX with a manual transmission.  the guy was very insistant on knowing if I had a sedan or a wagon "because the wagon had a different motor in it" 
I sort of just paused for a minute then told him it was a wagon.  After another minute of fiddling on his computer he asked me if it was a 2.5 or 2.0 liter engine "because the WRX's had both options back then" 

yeah.......................ummmmm..........
I'm gonna go look for a stock 2.5l wrx bugeye with the special station wagon edition engine.  I must have one! 

 Bhahhahhha.  Obviously excluding Fred and his parts dept, I find that most parts guys are fucking clueless, regardless of Dealer, Brand, etc..  It's pathetic honestly.  Tits on a Bull.

[Kavik]

I still haven't totally narrowed it down to the starter....but I figured at 8 years old I might as well replace it along with my new battery LOL
(want to be damn sure my car starts as the weather gets colder)


I expect them to be a little dumb, especially from dealing with them in the past (this same guy even), but they're the only dealer within half an hour of me so I thought I'd see if they had it on the shelf (they didn't anyway)......but, wow, the level of intelligence just floors me every time I call them.  I wish I had gone down in person so he could've seen my face when he said that about the difference with the wagon

[sqc151]

i went there with the wifey a few months back. out of like 30 foresters. 2 were turbo. they didnt have any wrx/sti's, no turbo legacy's. and the dealers wonder why they have left overs or go out of buisness. if you dont have what the public wants, you cant stay in buisness.

[eugesubu]

I went to Goldstein to get an 11 wrx about a month ago.  The salesperson i dealt with didn't even know as much information about thecar and financing options that I did.  I will never buy a car from someone who knows less than me about the car I am buying, they are the salespeople SELLING THE CARS.  Ultimately they just took off 750 for destination in the deal, thinking they were doing me a huge favor, giving me a base rex for 25,500, claiming that was the best deal out there.  I walked out never to return.  I am disgusted with all the Subaru dealers in the area.  Seems everywhere else but the capital district there are good deals to be had on Scoobs.

[gebby1029]

From a commercial side of things, I have only had good experiences with Goldstein's parts department.  They were always the closest dealership to have the parts I needed and when they didn't have something I truly NEEDED, they had it overnighted at no charge to me.

When I have the time though, I still prefer Fred's parts department 

[EVLSMURF]

I went to Goldstein to get an 11 wrx about a month ago.  The salesperson i dealt with didn't even know as much information about thecar and financing options that I did.  I will never buy a car from someone who knows less than me about the car I am buying, they are the salespeople SELLING THE CARS.  Ultimately they just took off 750 for destination in the deal, thinking they were doing me a huge favor, giving me a base rex for 25,500, claiming that was the best deal out there.  I walked out never to return.  I am disgusted with all the Subaru dealers in the area.  Seems everywhere else but the capital district there are good deals to be had on Scoobs.

I've dealt with Goldstein in the past, but never bought from them because they never offered a good deal.  However, a couple weeks ago my girlfriend and I went to check out a '11 Legacy.  After a bit of hardball they were at least willing to go $200 under invoice.  We passed because we can get it for $1k under invoice elsewhere.  She mainly just wanted to test drive it.  We were not really interested in buying there, but I was a bit shocked they would at least go that low.

[Kavik]

From a commercial side of things, I have only had good experiences with Goldstein's parts department.  They were always the closest dealership to have the parts I needed and when they didn't have something I truly NEEDED, they had it overnighted at no charge to me.

When I have the time though, I still prefer Fred's parts department 

+1 to them being close, for that I use them in emergencies only.
but the last time couple of times I needed parts they were around 15% higher then Fred's retail prices before discount 

plus I only use them if I have a part number in hand....I've written my stories in here before of screw ups by their parts dept.  Things like how they seem to think my tranny and oil plugs both use the same size washer, and I apparently don't have a front O2 sensor on a wrx    Oh, and recently it took me almost 10 minutes on the phone to try to get the guy to figure out what I was talking about when I was looking to replace the coupler between the tmic and the throttle body