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Subaru suing CA dealership for alleged false customer surveys

Whenever you buy a new car from a dealer these days or sometimes even go in for service, you can expect to fill out a customer satisfaction survey at some point down the road. The responses are actually quite important to showrooms because automakers require the businesses to keep things at a certain level or face penalties. However, a Subaru dealer allegedly found a way to game that system, at least briefly, and now the Subaru of America has filed a lawsuit in US District Court for breach of contract. South Coast Subaru in Costa Mesa, CA, reportedly falsified 224 customer satisfaction questionnaires in 2014, according to Automotive News. The scheme wasn't that hard to figure out, though. All of the faked surveys were allegedly submitted through the IP address of an Acura showroom managed by the same dealer. Under normal circumstances when someone buys a Subaru, the dealer is supposed to collect the customer's email address and submit it to the automaker. However, South Coast allegedly presented false addresses, and then managers had employees fill the forms out during lunch. Subaru claimed in the suit that by doing this the dealer harmed the company's product reputation and its goodwill among customers. "Defendants prevented Subaru from discovering the actual customer satisfaction level of Subaru retail customers at South Coast Subaru by providing sham customer surveys to [Subaru]," the complaint said, according to Automotive News. Related Video:

To the end of the world in a Subaru

On a quiet beach in southern Argentina, I stood in awe facing the Desdemona, a massive cargo ship that wrecked ashore in the mid-1980s and has remained untouched for the subsequent 30 years. In the intervening time, Desdemona was not vandalized, nobody broke her down and sold the parts for scrap, and unlike what you'd expect in the United States, no one set up shop to sell memorabilia in addition to a $5-beach entrance fee. This is only one of a thousand gorgeous vistas that make up Patagonia, the southernmost part of South America and, indeed, the end of the world. I was there to drive Subarus along dirt two-track roads and gravel highways on an epic journey from El Calafate to Ushuaia. Subaru would have you believe that this sort of rugged wilderness is the natural habitat for its cars. Whether or not that is a stretch, the Subies proved to be up to the task of trekking Patagonia. But I fully expected that from the get-go. What I didn't expect was how every part of this journey – the cars, the location, the people – would combine to form one of the greatest travel experiences of my life. View 85 Photos The end of the world. Patagonia is gorgeous, vast, brilliant. And those words don't even really do it justice. The plains, the lakes, the mountains, the forests all feel like every color is more vibrant, every detail is sharper. It's like looking at the world through an Instagram feed, and then realizing that every photo has the "no filter" hashtag. The journey started on Valentine's Day, with senior video producer Chris McGraw and I flying to Atlanta, followed by a 12-hour flight to Buenos Aires. That's where we met the rest of the group, and spent a day relaxing and exploring the Argentine streets and shops. "It's like looking at the world through an Instagram feed, and then realizing that every photo has the 'no filter' hashtag." But we still weren't at our start point. From Buenos Aires, we hopped a flight to El Calafate, about 1,500 miles southwest. It's a common entrance point to Patagonia for tourists and explorers because of its proximity to the Perito Moreno Glacier, a stunning site we visited the next day. Watch our earlier update video to see more about the glacier – an ice formation three times the size of Manhattan (and growing!). If Patagonia is on your bucket list of vacation destinations, this glacier is a mandatory stop. There's a boardwalk that runs along the lakes, leading right up to the face of the glacier.

2019 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid Drivers' Notes Review | A great, green Subaru with a price

When we had the opportunity to try the 2019 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid on the rocky, dusty trails above Santa Monica, it had us excited to try it on our crumbling Michigan roads. Luckily, the arrival of Subaru's first plug-in vehicle to the Autoblog office coincided with a powerful snowstorm followed by subzero temperatures, and then some serious freezing rain to cap off our week with it. Perfect Subaru weather. The new Crosstrek Hybrid may share a nameplate with the discontinued conventional hybrid, but this one features a plug-in hybrid powertrain borrowing technology from Toyota. It features two electric motors — one to propel the vehicle, the other acting as a starter/generator. Together with its 2.0-liter, four-cylinder boxer engine, this PHEV gets a combined 148 horsepower, and is actually a full second quicker from 0-60 than the ICE-only Crosstrek. With an 8.8-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, it offers a modest 17 miles of all-electric driving, but an overall range of 480 miles. Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore: This is a solid execution of the modern hybrid. The price is reasonable. The range (17 miles of EV travel) is usable. Go where you need to go. Charge up. You're good. It's attractive, inside and out. I love the Lagoon Blue Pearl paint. The cabin is comfortable and laid out nicely, and the blue stitching and pleasing leather elements dress things up. As expected, the Crosstrek is solid in the snow and ice. I had no trouble navigating the messy roads when much of the rest of the world was snowed in. The infotainment is smart. It's part of a $2,500 option that also adds the moonroof and heated steering wheel. It's worth it. I already like the Crosstrek. If it were my money, I'd go for hybrid variant. Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder: A night and a morning in the Crosstrek Hybrid on Michigan roads only confirms what I decided when I drove it in California two months ago: I dig this car. It's quiet, it's economical, it's capable, it's good-looking. There are only two downsides that I see. First is the cargo area behind the rear seats. It's pretty small. The battery pack raises the load floor a few inches above the bumper height. That doesn't seem like a lot, but when you realize how high it already is, taking out those few extra inches means it's not only harder to fit large items back there, it's harder to load and unload them at that height. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences.