Pre-Pay Your Vehicle's Maintenance

What is pre-paid maintenance? Is it worth it?

Pre-paying for your maintenance is an option you have when purchasing a vehicle. All you do is pay ahead of time and if you need any routine maintenance done on your vehicle, it's covered by us. For Subaru it is either a 3 year/36,000 mile plan that costs $995, or 3 year/45,000 miles for $1,313. Hyundai's plan is a 3 year/45,000 miles for $1199. There are a bunch of options and coverages for pre-paid maintenance, and the best way to really take a look are on the print outs we give out right here in the dealership (shown below).

Check out the pictures below by clicking on them, and if you have any further questions please leave us a comment below or visit our Subaru Finance Center here!

The 4-1-1 On Gap Protection

What is Gap Protection?

Your auto insurance and/or warranties are there when your vehicle is damaged and needs to be repaired, but what happens if you total your vehicle when you still have a loan out? Well, if you do not have Gap Insurance and your vehicle is worth less than the remaining payment you have on your loan, you’re responsible for the rest of that payment. Now if you also have a deductible, you’d owe that as well.

The face of owing $1,500 for a totaled car

Example: If your auto loan is $20,000, and after one year you still owe $15,000, but at the time you total your car, it’s only worth $14,000. Your insurance company will pay the $14,000 value of the car, minus your $500 deductible; $13,500 – and you’re responsible for the remainder of your loan, which equals $1,500.

Gap Protection pays the difference between what the car is worth verses what you owe on it (in our mock example, we would pay your insurance $1,500 for you, covering both the difference and your deductible).

How much does it cost? It costs $599 for 60 months or less, and $699 for anything over 60 months.

So why is there a “gap” anyways? The gap we’re referring to is negative equity; when your car is worth less than what you owe on it, and this can happen to many drivers for a number of reasons:

1. Taking out a loan with an extended term – even though this will mean lower payments, it also means you build equity more slowly.
2. Depreciation – meaning your car simply loses value over time.
3. Putting little or no money down – if you finance the whole cost of the vehicle you could be in the red as soon as you drive home, considering you’d have a loan for the entire worth of the car, but the car is worth less once it is considered used.
4. Borrowing more than the purchase price – meaning you financed the tax, license, registration, etc., this will put you into negative equity before you leave the lot.

What to do? As much as you can, try to close the “gap” when you make your purchase. For some people this isn’t an option though, and Gap Protection is a great thing to have. Even if you can close most of the gap, Gap Protection is a very good way to keep yourself out of debt.

If you have any more questions, please comment below and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible! And please visit the Burlington Subaru Finance Page for any further assistance 


Additional information via Nolo
Image 1 via Bangor Daily News
Image 2 via Sketch and the City 
Image 3 via Eve Sob

Auto Armor - What is it? Should I get it?

What is Auto Armor & Should I get it?

Auto Armor is basically a protection for your investment; it ensures that the environment can do as little damage as possible to your vehicle, and if it does – we’ll fix it. There are three elements to Auto Armor – interior, undercoating and paint sealer.

This is really the inside of my car after a trip to the dog park!

Interior covers spills. If anything spills on the inside of your car and it stains, we’ll replace it for free. A perk? You can’t even tell it’s there. This specific protection is only available on cloth seating surfaces on vehicles with 3,000 miles or less at application, and lasts for five years.

Undercoating protects your vehicle against salt and rust perforation and is good for for 10 years years, unlimited miles.

Paint sealer is a five-year paint protection. Should your vehicle's exterior be damaged by sun exposure, weather-induced acid rain, tree sap or bird droppings on factory-painted surfaces during the first five years from product application, your reapplication is covered. Both paint sealer and undercoating must be applied on vehicles that have 3,000 miles or less on them as well.

So most importantly, how much does it cost? And should I get it?

It costs $699 for interior, undercoating and paint sealer. As for getting it, there are two main things to think about; taking care of your vehicle (and the costs to do so) and the value of your trade in. According to our Business Manager Rich Trace, when you have two vehicles next to each other at trade-in time, one that had Auto Armor and one without, “they are night and day."

If you have any questions, please comment below and we'll be sure to get back to you as quickly as possible!

"12 Reasons Why I Love Subaru's New Fourth-Generation Forester"

I found this review on Inquirer Business called "12 Reasons Why I Love Subaru's New Fourth-Generation Forester" and of course had to share the main points! Here are the 12 reasons, and if you'd like to see the full descriptions (his have great elaborations!) read the full review here.

And after you're done reading, be sure to check out our new Subaru Forester inventory here!

1. The all-new FB20 direct injection turbocharged engine.
2. The Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive System with X-Mode.
3. The SI-Drive. (This is a driving mode software that allows the driver to pick the feel of the drive; whether it be more relaxed or more aggressive like a sports car).
4. The proportions.
5. The cabin materials and build quality.
6. The driving feel.
7. The overall package.
8. Well-supported platform.
9. The after-sale service. According to the post, "Buying a Subaru is much like joining an exclusive club built for enthusiasts who appreciate fine engineering, but have more mundane daily needs." We don't know about your daily needs - but we definitely can attest to the club-joining quality!
10. Excellent value for money.
11. Go anywhere, anytime ability.
12. The heritage.

No. 12 lends to my favorite quote of the article, "Subarus have been known to perform better, and with multiple wins in the World Rally Championship, you are buying into the engineering and knowhow that has allowed a relatively small firm to over-achieve against the might of bigger, more established, mainstream and well-funded competitors. It makes you, as an owner, proud to be driving something that traces its engineering lineage to a world champion-level machine." Well said!


Images & 12-reason list (other than comments from us) via Inquirer Business