Financed/Sold: 2022 Outback Limited XT

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Deal is posted to SIGNED!, will add the link when it is visible here.

2022 Outback Limited XT - a proper wagon with a IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating, whose VIN proudly begins with the #4, and has plenty of room to shuttle my dog back and forth to doggy daycare.

I was eligible for VIP pricing, not through ASPCA, but that should not matter. South of LA, I found zero dealers who would honor VIP at all, but one local Subaru dealer would (in lieu of VIP) offer at MSRP with no hard-adds. It had a pre-installed KARR alarm that would be disabled, no charge, I didn’t want a car whose wiring harness was molested by a third-party, I asked about tagging an inbound to NOT get an alarm installed, they never got back to me. There is at least one dealer in the LH Marketplace offering Subarus at MSRP with a KARR Alarm (aka Blessings), which is also not a bad deal in this market, but not what I was looking for.

Subaru of Sherman Oaks was the only dealer I found who would honor VIP pricing. I did have to contact SOA and ask them to reassign and reissue my VIP certificate to their dealership - when you first generate one, Subaru suggests just choosing your local dealer since they all should offer VIP pricing (LOL). They had one in-stock in a color combo I wasn’t as hot about, they allowed me to tag this inbound, which wasn’t supposed to arrive for 2 more weeks. I’m glad it showed up on Friday, I suspect the MF and special financing rates will be higher after July 1st, but we’ll see. I can’t say enough good things about Subaru of Sherman Oaks: Sales Manager, Internet Sales Team (Carson and Tamaz), and the Finance Manager (Glen) were some of the best I’ve ever dealt with.

Monroney

  • MSRP $38,695 - full tank of gas INCLUDED (!!!)

  • Ext. Auto Dimming Mirror $282

  • Rear Bumper Cover $165

  • All-Weather Floor Liners $141

  • Rear Seat Back Protector $122

  • LED Dome Light Upgrade $50

  • Destination $1,175

  • Total $40,960.00

  • Cash Price $37,835 (before taxes and fees)

These also include Maintenance for 2 yr/24k Miles at 6k intervals, Synthetic Oil, at no charge, which was news to me.

Breaking a 7 lease streak, I financed for 72 months at 2.9% and only applied the $500 deposit toward the deal. Had a long talk with the Finance Manager: the lease residual is good (IIRC 64% at 36/10) but the MF is .0019 (4.56%).

Peace of Mind

  • Even though I don’t plan to keep this car for the entire term, I did add the 6 yr/80k Subaru Gold Plus warranty, $100 deductible, cancellable (pro-rated) or transferrable ($70) $1,295. I have terrible luck, it has a turbo and the Infotainment screen is $5,800 (part only). If the car market in 2025 is the way it is now, and I had leased this car, I would be buying-out the lease and keeping it beyond the warranty. Not a decision that’s right for everyone, I’m good with it.
  • Outside the deal, I also added the 3yr STARLINK Security Plus upgrade (middle tier) for $75

Other Costs

Buying a car more than 120 miles from home presents a few logistical challenges, all of which were easily solved with time and money:

  • Uber to train station $39.44 + 10.56 tip
  • Business Class train ticket to LA $42
  • Uber from Union Station to dealer $32.02 (after 20% discount) + $7.98 tip
  • 2 nights dog boarding (train left before they opened, I didn’t get home until after they closed) $130
  • A stop in Irvine at Stonefire Grill for salad, pizza, and breadsticks to-go $50 with tip
  • Total $312

Misc Subaru Administrivia

There are some Outback forum reports about flat spots in the pedal, which I did notice on the long drive home. Recommend calibrating the throttle response:

https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/2020-xt-throttle-response.519391/post-6232822

Pair your car with your home wifi and check for infotainment updates - I had none. After that, since the built-in navigation uses TomTom map data, there are updates for every state/country that you can download for free from within the infotainment, or it will show your license key to download those from the Internet, put them on a thumb drive, and install manually.

Order your free Subaru Badge of Ownership

https://www.badgeofownership.com/UI/dist/

There are numerous rumors about Subarus and the undesired accessories/behaviors they include. You can learn more #facts about them here

July 14 2022 Update

OEM accessories / as delivered

  • Ext. Auto Dimming Mirror
  • Rear Bumper Cover
  • All-Weather Floor Liners
  • Rear Seat Back Protector
  • LED Dome Light Upgrade - suspect it is 4000k

Added

  • Weathertech Sun shade - perfect fit

  • Diode Dynamics HP5 (92 Lumens) Warm White (3000k) LED trunk light replacement, which is much brighter. Comes in colors and twice as many lumens if your rods and cones demand more stimulation

  • iJDMTOY (2) Black Leather Extra Long Car Side Pocket Organizers, so thanks to whomever recommended those. Coming out of a 2019 XC60, the cabin storage is lacking — these help.

  • Previously I had (2) RightCars silicone license plate franes, which I liked, but decided to try the Panykoo - waiting for the hard plates to arrive

  • Ordered two intake screens from VoltScreen

  • Proclip. I tried another vent mount that would probably be great in another car, doesn’t fit. Proclip is stable/solid and I love the placement. Debated that in Volvo but ended up with passenger vent.

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  • lot of stickers arrived. Waiting for Badge of Ownership first

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This alone reinforces my desire to never move to Cali :laughing:

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I didn’t say it was a NY style pizza, and I’m not a stingy tipper. The best NY style pizza on the west coast is $28 + tax & tip.

Stonefire is its own thing but imo one of the few things that made living in OC tollerable.

Also

Absolutely nobody calls it that :tipping_hand_man:t2:

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Great to hear you found a dealer willing to sell at VIP and no add ons!! I struggled to find a Subaru dealership that would even sell at MSRP in CA and surrounding states. I looked all over.

I did come across a post from @veloist here on LeaseHackr in March and picked up one of his Outbacks at a similar discount he’s offering now: SUBARU End-of-June Push: Up to $1500 off MSRP on WRX, Outback, Ascent (NorCal) - #14 by veloist

I highly recommend it for those in the San Francisco Bay Area that can sign/drive in person that perhaps don’t have VIP.

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I did a test drive on that model and trim at that dealer, the salesman I worked with was super nice and not pushy at all.

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In this marketplace, $3,125 off sticker on a Subaru is fantastic.

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Well done; I learn a lot from your posts

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Only Subaru dealer I found in LA without mark ups or blessings. Great dealer, took a friend there but ended up in a Honda instead.

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I was about to say, “I didn’t know you lived in the LA area!”… And then I read the rest of your post. :wink:

Does the elevated ride height (vs. a regular car) make a big difference in terms of handling? An Outback would, in many ways, be a good match for me (when I’m in the market a few yrs from now). But, even though I am an unaggressive driver, I’m still bothered by excessive body roll (but actually like SOME body roll) and an under-dampened suspension. There is just SO.MUCH.GROUND.CLEARANCE. on that car.

And what would that be???

Pizzeria Bianco (not NY style) just opened here, so the pizza scene in LA has actually become really excellent over the last 5-10 yrs.

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Then definitely avoid the Forester, which sits even higher. It drives like a car to me, but mostly freeway driving yesterday. I’ll have to put it through the paces on some hills and turns and report back (I have a specific route in mind). If you don’t need a wagon, the Legacy is gorgeous (a friend has a 2015 BMW 650 and the new Legacy has the same interior imo), the Crosstrek and Impreza are smaller/more car-ish/slightly more basic.

I’ll PM you, I don’t want word getting around, and OpSec…

I was doing some Googling on VIP to try and find a dealer that would accept it, their name kept coming up. They’re mentioned in the Outback forums I linked to above, but I think I found reference to them first on another side, which I’m not finding again at the moment.

Small, family-owned dealer group ftw!

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Haha, I do, but that’s because I’m from NJ and no matter how long I’ve been here in the OC, I still am that guy from NJ.

Though that was interesting to me, growing up we all called it Cali and it was a bit of a surprised to have found out that that’s primarily an east coast thing.

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They also have a Cadillac and GMC dealer, MSRP for every car.

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As seen in the original Transformers (reboot) movie

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Isn’t LL Cool J to blame?

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Wait, was that the dealer from the movie? Didn’t even realize it. Have an order with them right now.

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I don’t think so.

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Lots of tolls, eh?

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The Toll system there is the best in the country, hands down. If you are going to have toll rolls, everyone should implement it that way.

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In all fairness, you can avoid toll roads entirely depending on where you live in OC. I have some routes that would be 1 min faster with toll, but by default I put in avoid tolls in my waze/gmaps.

There are a few places to go where you can’t really avoid the toll roads and in those cases I agree it’s implemented pretty well.

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Agreed. Coming from the land of EzPass and their regional consortium, a system where:

  • you usually have viable, non-toll options
  • you don’t NEED a transponder (but it might make life easier), forget one where you pre-load it and debit that (I still have a balance on my EZPass)
  • it scans your plates to determine who the car is registered to, and charges your card on file
  • if it doesn’t recognize you, gives you a day 7 grace period to register online and pay your toll with no added fee or penalty, otherwise it mails you a bill

Is about as good as it gets. We also have a family SunPass for when we visit Florida, does not have all the EZP regional consortium glitches I ran into over the years, but it’s not nearly as easy.

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