Lake Sacajawea, Longview

At noon we parked by Lake Sacajawea in Longview to eat our picnic lunch.  Nyel had a 1:30 appointment at St. John’s Hospital, just across the way.  Our plan was to sit and enjoy the squirrels and other lakeside denizens and then move our car to the hospital parking lot.  We were sure Nyel’s appointment would give us plenty of time to get to our 2:30 maintenance appointment at Bud Clary’s Subaru Dealership which is a short three-minute drive according to Google.

But, when it came time to move the car… dead battery!  Again?!  Third time in a year.  We walked to Nyel’s hospital rendezvous and decided to call Bud Clary’s afterwards and ask if someone could come and give us a jumpstart.  But, when we did that, the answer was, “No.  Call AAA.”  Say what???

Our Forester

Triple A said it would be an hour.  Bud Clary said they would cancel our appointment at 2:45. So very friendly, eh?  NOT!!  In desperation, we tried the damned car again.  Voila!  It started.  Called Triple A and cancelled and they thanked us for thinking of them!  We like Triple A.  Rolled into Clary’s at 2:29 and change.

When we said we wanted to deal with the battery problem, there was one of those peculiar shadows that crossed the eyes of the maintenance man.  He was evasive but finally said that first we’d have to make an appointment to run a diagnostics test.  Then, depending upon what they found, they could replace the battery under the warranty.  When we said we understood that Subaru Foresters had a well-documented “battery problem,” he conceded that it was true.  And this diagnostic tool was what Subaru had recently come up with to deal with it.  Yada yada yada.  We made the appointment for next week.

Lum’s Auto Dealership

Our car was ready within 45 minutes.  Plenty of time for someone to have come the five blocks to Lake Sacajawea and give us a jumpstart.  Plenty of time to be good guys.  But, apparently, it’s just not in their DNA.  We should have known when they tried the bait-and-switch routine when we bought the car a year ago.

The good news: this was the last of our pre-paid “Clary Care” oil change/tire rotation/car wash.  Except for this battery deal, we are so DONE with Bud Clary.  We will be so very happy to return to Lum’s for our maintenance needs, if they will have us.  We dealt with them for twenty years before this Subaru and always treated politely.  They went out of their way to be helpful.  They probably spoiled us.  We love Lum’s.  And we have nothing good to say about Bud Clary’s.  Period.