Extended trip weekend to Buffett at Star Lake

This past weekend allowed the putting on of near 900 miles on the Tribeca in the trip from Northern Virginia to the Post-Gazette Pavilion at Star Lake to see the Jimmy Buffett Bama Breeze tour concert on Saturday, June 23, 2007.

We elected to stay at a Days Inn in Washington, PA, some 20 miles south of the Pavilion. This put us coming in from a different direction than those coming in from Pittsburgh, and avoided that lump of traffic. There were essentially 6 legs on the trip: home to Altoona on Friday for 3 hours. Altoona to Washington on Saturday for 2 hrs 15 mins. Washington to the Pavilion (about a half hour), and then the reverse of those three legs on Sunday, albeit the Pavilion to Washington being just after midnight, and the other two beginning just short of noon.

And of course, there was the tailgate itself at the concert, and the two short legs fitting 6 adults into the Tribeca, and all the chairs, coolers and supplies necessary for the tailgate. With a little ingenuity in the passenger arrangement (2 + 3 + 1), that allowed just enough space to fit everything in. The outer legs featured having to fit 3 adults and a 3 year old, plus space enough for a dog cage in the rear cargo area, yet still fit luggage and some of the tailgate supplies. The Tribeca handled it well, though it would be easier on the packer if the dog did not have to be planned for, as the cage eats up about 40% of the rear cargo area.

ROOAAR is in...

Thanks to Manassas Subaru's fast filing with DMV, our custom plates arrived direct from DMV today, 20 calendar days since purchase. It has only been 9 days since I put the random-generated tags on the Tribeca, as the vehicle was out of town when I picked the tags up from the dealer on 6-8. All told, DMV had the tags delivered within two weeks of placing the tag order on June 6.

Pleasant response to a compliment

I was remiss in not following up right away with Subaru of America after we received the 2.0 version of the NAV software, so last night I sent a quick thank you via their contact form referencing the case number on the cover letter.

This morning, I received a reply thanking me for taking the time to say thank you - that they don't often see such things. To me, it was the courtesy of acknowledging receipt, even if it took me near10 days to get to it.

Taking the time to say Thank You

Today, we received a thank you card in the mail from Wolf Asser, Assistant Sales Manager of Manassas Subaru, including this snazzy business card.

The card doesn't mention it, but it is worth noting that Mr. Asser is also a professional photographer, and does weddings from time to time. Some of his work can be examined at his office at the dealership.

Service Dept - a class act

Manassas Dodge-Kia-Subaru's service department hosts monthly a welcome seminar for new vehicle owners on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Aside from handing out free oil-change coupons to the attendees, and providing refreshments as well, they draw a name of an attendee out of a hat for a 75$ gift certificate toward parts or service. (I did not get drawn, but that's ok)

The two hosts (Margaret and Kevin) had arrayed most every model they sold in their service bay entrance, which allowed the visitors the opportunity to examine closely the features under the hood of each. It also allowed the visitors to examine the service bay area, and the layout of the service department. It so happened that tonight's set of visitors were all Subaru owners. They also took the time to explain the hours and procedures, including the ability to pay via phone if one cannot make the 8pm closing time so that the vehicle might still be picked up that night. And perhaps most critical of all - that the entrance off of Commerce Court is a heck of a lot easier coming in than having to continue on 28 to Liberia and then in.

The whole evening continued our positive impressions upon the dealership, and they seem to be ready to serve in a way that Saturn never would.

Subaru of America follows through on 2.0 NAV DVD

As they had promised early last week, Subaru of America today delivered on it in the form of the updated 2.0 version of their NAV software for the Tribeca. The updated disc arrived via UPS.

The difference in the copyright dates on the two versions is two years - 2004 for 1.1 vs 2006 for 2.0. Just from a quick look, some local streets that were no longer through are corrected. It is very easy to swap out the old disc for the new disc - but one has to make sure the vehicle is at least in the accessory ignition position in order to eject the existing disc from the under the driver seat player. Aside from having to reset the clock and daylight savings time on/off, and the POI selections, all else remained in memory (the home location and preset destinations).

Again, Subaru understands customer service - and even better - they promise and follow through, something that is becoming uncommon in the auto industry these days.

Plates in in 9 calendar days

The permanent license plates are in already - at a scant 9 calendar days (or a few less). On the heels of the title number being issued by Wednesday June 6, we were notified by postcard today that the live plates (the Jamestown "America's 400th Anniversary" plate) had arrived.

At least three people, one on the Dodge side and Roger and Wolf on the Subaru side, offered to put the plates on, but, alas, I had the Saturn VUE, as the better half had the Tribeca on the road to Pennsylvania.

EDIT: 9:45 PM - as it turns out, one of the temp tags was lost in the heavy rains in PA this evening, so the permanent plates could not have come at a better time.

First commute action

Wednesday we placed the Tribeca in service for the commute to work for the first time. Traffic was poor as usual, so we hit the cutoffs over to Old Centreville Road rather than staying on 28. The Tribeca handled the speed bumps on the one section very smoothly - these speed bumps are made to practically destroy vehicles going the speed limit (25 MPH), forcing most vehicles to slow down to 5 MPH. The Tribeca handled them about 15 MPH with little effect on the ride.

Due to unexpected events, we did not get to test the Tribeca out in afternoon rush-hour traffic home. That will be for another day.

Manassas Subaru files with DMV with Lightning speed

Manassas Subaru continues to impress - today marks a week since we purchased our 2007 Tribeca. This afternoon, I went to register the vehicle with the City of Manassas Commissioner of the Revenue' s office, and pay the City Treasurer for a City decal for the remainder of 2007. When the CoR's employee entered the car into the system, the title number pulled up in the system, a scant week after the purchase. The clerk commented on the speed with which it was entered, stating that it was not the norm, and that often it takes weeks.

The City printed the title number on the decal receipt, and, as a result, we were able to purchase our Penn State plate for the new car, "ROOAAR", from the Virginia DMV well prior to receipt of the first-issue permanent plates. It may take DMV up to four weeks to get us the new plates, so we might need the regular issue plates (on the Jamestown design) for a short time, as the 30-day tags will be up in that fourth week on the new plate order.

So Kudos to the Manassas Subaru team for their flawless execution. I learned last night that a friend had looked at Subarus last September at Manassas and gave glowing reviews of the very same Roger Holt. Mr. Holt, like with us, insisted our friend take a vehicle to his wife for her to see. Although they liked the Impreza, their family situation drove them in a different direction that time, but the treatment they received guarantees that Subaru will get first look when their next need arises.

First road experience

Last weekend, Saturday June 2, 2007 and Sunday June 3, 2007, gave us the opportunity to take our Tribeca to the highway. Our travels on Saturday took us down as far as Ashland, Va., before coming back to our final destination near Beaverdam, Va. The little bit of extra driving allowed us to test the Points of Interest feature on the navigation system, assisting us in finding a grocery store in Ashland. (Ukrops) For the most part, we were dealing with known terrority, but such territory is necessary to learn the ins and outs of the system.

Where Saturday's weather was clear and calm, Sunday was rain, rain and rain some more. It started with a quick switch-out of the floor mats from the carpeted to the all-weather. Doing this in the rain without having examined them prior was not hard - each of the four mats were unique in size and shape, and removing the carpeted ones one-by-one made the match up go quickly.

The conditions also gave a good chance to drive the Tribeca in wet weather, and better yet, test out the views and clearances in such conditions. Traffic was snarled on I-95 for the trip back north to Alexandria, crashing to a halt at the Massaponax exit. We got off at US-1 decided to get out of the rain at Central Park in Fredericksburg, eventually lunching at the new Cracker Barrel at exit 130 (well, new compared to the Massaponax one at exit 126), and proceeded on Fall Hill Ave back over to US-1 for the trip north. (Fall Hill crosses over I-95 just south of the southbound visitors' center) Route 1 really wasn't all that bad, so although the Nav system kept suggesting back to I-95 at every chance, we stayed on 1 all the way up.

Sunday evening allowed us the chance to take the Tribeca on some of the back roads in southwestern Fairfax County, Va., in particular, Henderson Road on the way to Yates Ford to get back to Manassas. The handling of the Subaru engine was in stark contrast to the Honda engine in our 2004 VUE, with the Subaru being easier.

All told, we went from having 20 miles on it at the start of Saturday to almost 220 by the end of Sunday, after having driven all of four miles on Wednesday, May 30th, and none on Thursday and Friday.

Manasss Subaru - A Pleasant Experience

This was title was already posted on the main relantel.net, but it is worth mentioning it again in an update.

We dropped off our 2007 Tribeca yesterday for the additional protections to be applied, and Roger Holt and Wolf Asser again were both there, and both spent time out of their day talking to us. Mr. Asser took care of the keys and write-up, and Mr. Holt thought to check an area of previous concern (emailed on 5-30) that I had forgotten about - an item that turned out to be nothing more than adhesive from the protective coating.

2007 Subaru Tribeca

We had occaision to purchase a 2007 Subaru B9 Tribeca Limited, 7 passenger version with Navigation and rear DVD system on May 30, 2007, from Manassas Subaru. The purchase process was painless, and the crew at Manassas Subaru was top notch, going above and beyond expectations at every step.

Some prior comments on the car on the parent blog, relantel.net:

Kudos to Subaru of America
Manassas Subaru - A Pleasant Experience

Kudos to Subaru of America

Our recent purchase of a 2007 Subaru Tribeca featured version 1.1 of their navigation software. A visit to my.subaru.com this AM saw version 2.0 for sale on there, for a price of $248. I was curious how long the new version had been out, so I sent an email from their contact form online. Specifically, I wanted to know whether the 2.0 had been released before we had purchased our Tribeca on 5-30-07. The answer was yes, but that 1.1 was current when our vehicle was manufactured. I had stated I didn't feel paying $248 was right if 2.0 had already been released, and although I did not specifically request it, Subaru will be sending the 2.0 version to us free of charge. Subaru's response was lightning fast for a web form - under two hours. And in a stark contrast with Saturn, Subaru did not attempt to make excuses, they made it right. Subaru appears to understand customer service. $248 might not seem like much after purchasing a car of over $30k, but Subaru exhibited yet another reason why they are a good company to deal with. Their small act of "goodwill" will get retold as much as Saturn's failure to back their product.