I know this isn't a specific dealership post per se, however since I bought my car from Tor when he was at Timmons after which he moved to Renick Subaru, I don't know what else to do. Regardless, I think someone who has built such a great reputation in the Southern California area deserves to have his own thread.

When I finally decided to get my RS after about a year of careful researching, I asked the kind folks on the i-club and was urged to go to Timmons and talk to Tor. When I got there with my folks I had already test driven different RS at numerous dealerships yet Tor insisted that I go for another ride and just handed me the keys. I was a little stunned that he trusted me so much to take the car out for a spin alone. At any rate, upon my return we discussed the price and without any pressure what-so-ever, Tor simply told me his invoice (which I already knew) and then added a little profit which we agreed was fair and viola! I finally had an RS of my very own! :)


Haig

Tor is great. I was really "turned off" by another local Subie dealer for numerous reasons that I won't get into here. I posted a "who to go to" thread and found out about Tor Johnson at Renick Subaru. Right from the start the whole experience was great. Not only did they work with me and give me a fantastic deal, they even let me borrow, not rent, a car when we ran out of time to finish the deal because of my work schedule. And the rest of the dealership is great, very friendly and not even a hint of "sales pressure" in any way. If your in the market for a Subaru, go see Tor at Renick, you will be glad you did!:D

How much did you get your WRX for out the door when dealing w/ TOR??
I am already planning on seeing him soon.

I'm not sure if it is a good idea to post "out the door" prices on the net, I will just say that I shopped around and the deal I got was by far better than anywhere else that I shopped. And it was without having to "haggle" at all. :p

I agree, it's not cool to give away pricing info like that. And I'll second the pleasant feeling I got when I didn't have to haggle for the price. Suffice it to say though that I thought it was a great price, and I'm a real cheap SOB! :D j/k...about the cheap part...well maybe a little...ok alot! :D

Haig

BTW, make sure you tell him that you're part of the i-club! :)

Got my WRX about 3 weeks after I post this, and I was really satisfied by how soft spoken and right to the point Tor Johnson was. It took me only 15 minutes to get my WRX, and it was at a good price too.
Im not sure about the service, but I have yet to test it.
Anyone here been to service at Renick Subaru, CA?

I'm invovled with their service dept. right now and when I'm done with them I will let you know how it goes. And I would just like to say that I agree with your comments about Tor 100% :p

hehehee, ya, tor is really cool.
Please post me on how your service went man!! I really want to change my oil after 1000 miles, so if you can reply post back I really appreciate it.

Guys, I just got my WRX from Tor Johnson, and honestly... it was the best car buying experience I've had, by far. He is straight to the point, very sincere, and most of all... extremely fair with the pricing. I came to him w/ my parents, expecting to hear the same old BS: "You have to buy this car for 2000 MSRP..." Tor didn't waste our time, and if you mention the I-Club, he'll treat you even better.
If you live in Southern California, go to Renick Subaru and save a lot of time, seriously. The one thing that annoys me the most is going to different dealerships and coming back angry and empty-handed. If you come to Tor, you'll be happy.

Justin
Rowland heights , CA

I agree. Buying my car from Tor was by far the best experience I've had at a dealership yet.

So can anyone vouch for their service department? My first 3,000 miles are coming up...

Tor rocks. I bought my car from him 3,000miles away, over the phone, car sight unseen. He took care of everything, including shipping and all that crazy stuff. Easily the best car buying experience my family and I have ever experienced. He's incredibily knowledgable about cars, not just Subarus. When I buy my STi, guess who i'm gonna call?

Don

Well, as you can tell from my last post on the subject, it has been a while. I am still waiting for some issues to be resolved. Tor seems to be the only one that is realy on top of things....... but he is NOT the service dept. I feel bad having to talk to him about service issues. So, as of right now I am very disapointed with the service dept. but lets see if they can get things together over the next week. I must say this is taking a lot of patience though.:(

I would still recomend buying a Suby at Renick! Tor is great! You couldn't ask for a better buying experience.:)

Ok, the WRX is back in the service dept at Renick as of yesterday, tues. Sept. 25, so lets see how it goes and if they can get everything right this time. I will say this, they did give me a rental car again so it would seem that they are doing everything they can to have a happy custamer. And the service writer, Steve, seems to be doing everything he can to get me all takin' care of. I am supposed to have the car back on Friday, so lets see what happens.;)

I'm new to this........and am looking into getting a wrx this nov.
is the renick dealer you guys are referring too the on on euclid, the one that's paired w/a cadillac dealer? is that the one that tor is at?

another question, what options do you guys recommend getting and which you found was worthless. i'm not counting the useless undercoating and pinstriping crap you find at the dealers, hehe.

thanx, any advice would be appreciated

They bought the Huntington Beach Subaru dealership. As far as options are concerned, I only went with the stuff I wanted from thew factory like the wing and sequrity system package. Pretty much everything else is available on the after market.

Armrest Extension and Security Upgrade

Hey, I went for a test drive yesterday in Long Beach. My wife and I test drove a silver WRX. Needless to say, we really enjoyed driving it, although it needs more low end torque:devil: I was wondering what kind of price did you all get?
Did many one get at least $1200.00 off msrp?
Thanks, Jay

YES:D :lol:

Anyone with real prices?

It's not right for us to give you the exact prices that we paid, its not fair to Tor and Renick Subaru. In any case, Tor will be very fair and honest with you

as for options, I just got the spoiler. I didn't feel like I needed anything else.

Ok. Everything has been dealt with on my WRX, with the exception of one noise and it is something that will be taking care of but it is being a real Booger to find. All in all I have to say that the service dept. at Renick has been great. Every issue was taking care of with out any hassle. Some times it takes a while to get parts but that is out of there hands. Because of the nature of the parts needed for my car, they all had to be special ordered. So in closing to this issue.......... Go to Renick with your service issues and they will take care of you!:D

:cool: Plug
Renick is the place to go if your anywhere near or in southern California. I've been to other Subaru dealerships here in the OC area, they didn't even come close in to the service and deal that I recieved at Renick.
Check them out, ask for Tor Johnson.;)

Has anyone here ever bought from Renick or Irvine Subaru in Orange County? I'm getting ready to buy a WRX wagon and am trying to decide where to go. If so what did you pay over invoice?
Thanks for any help.

The person I dealt with was Tor Johnson, before he went to Renick. There was no game playing, just a straight forward deal. His price was $300 below Costco or Price Line's best deal and even a greater amount to the next closest dealer.

Two people I work with asked me where/who I dealt with on my car and after they went to see him they both went home with new WRX's.

When it comes time for a new toy, Tor is the person I will go to see no matter where he is.

hey check out page 3, under "So Cal dealers" that guy did his homework, it might help you.......I bought mine in April 2002 and paid msrp. Only deal at the time because they were markin' em up 1000 over msrp. (saved that grand from buyin' at Irvine when Tor Johnson was there.
dave

Originally posted by Subdav
I bought mine in April 2002 and paid msrp.

April 2002? You meant 2001 right?

John

I bought my wrx in october from Tor @ Renick. I had a great all around experience there. Everything was up front w/no haggling. I got a price that I was happy with at that time. I have dealt with Brett in the parts dept. @ Renick also. He's also a great guy to deal with. I've had all positive experiences at Renick.

;)

sup folks. i just purchased a 2002 white wrx sedan from Tor at Renick. He's really a top-notch guy and treated us (me and my mom) with a lot of respect and friendliness. Very fair deal, totally happy with my purchase. That's why I'm here to relay the info (as if it hasn't been done enough already) and to reccommend Tor and Renick to anyone looking to buy a subaru. the car makes me giddy like a lil' school girl! peace.:D

I agree. I have not bought a car from him but have met and talked with him multiple times while at Renick. He is a very good guy to buy a car from. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him!

i bought my car from Tor just about a month back now.. super nice guy.. beat all of the competitor's prices and that made me very happy. :)

Just writing in to let you all know I had a pretty good experience at Renick Subaru in Fullerton. Dealt with Mark mostly who seemed like a really good guy. Totally the best dealership experience I've ever had. I'm not sure if it's just Renick or Subaru dealerships in general but this was a much better dealership experience then any other I've had before. He gave me a good deal on an '03 WRX right away without me having to haggle much at all, and it only 9 miles on the odometer. Also he set me up with a free oil change since I had to wait a couple days for the car to be ready since it had just arrived and wasn't fully prepped yet.

Anyways, I totally recommend Renick Subaru.

Extra info since I already have it typed up:

The car itself came with a short-throw shifter and spoiler and I got it
for 23,705 (the options and destination charge included)

I also got the 395 dollar 5/60 warantee wrap and it came out to 25,985
with tax. Then another 200 for license and the total came out to exactly
$26,190.63 with the 2 options and the slightly extended warantee.

The price I paid was 500 over invoice, which is about the best I think you
can get at this time for an 03, but if I would have got an 02 he woulda dropped it another $1000 or so, but I wanted an 03 just for peace of mind with tranny problems and it "sounds" newer and im dumb :)

JimDab,

Did you get your WRX in August?

dan

I also bought my car from Renick Subaru. Excellent service and very helpful staff. Today I brought my car in to change the exhaust system. A few days ago, I talked with Bret Middleton (he was visiting Vivid Racing), the owner of MRT regarding his Turbo back and up-pipe system. In short, he sold me on the product. He told me to call Pam to set up the appointment and have Ed to do the work.

When I got there the exhaust system had to cool off so I inquired about a rental car. The guy told me that he had only Saturn's for rent:mad: . So I went outside and told Christina (service advisor), 'no way, I'd pay 100.00 to drive a Subaru.' Just then another 'employee' overheard my comment and said, 'you can drive my Baja. Dude, my eyes lit up! I was so stoked! He handed me the keys and said, keep her safe. I then asked, 'your name sir?' He then responded, James Renick. Yup, the owners brother. He let me drive the dealership demo.

A few hours later I returned with the Baja, totally shocked how good it ran and how great the service was from a few days ago to finish.

In summary:

MRT
Got a chance to talk 3 times with Bret Middleton. I tried to suck as much knowledge as I could. He even gave me his global cell phone no. if I had any further questions! He called me back on his phone from the airport before boarding a plane to LA to visit Renick Subaru.

Renick Subaru
Pam (Parts Queen)
Ed (Merlin the Mechanic)
Christina (Awesome Service Advisor)
James Renick (Co-Owner of Renick Subaru)

My car runs better than ever. It is good to own a product that has so much professional support.

Kudos to Renick Subaru!!!!!!

Nate

:)

i have always had a great experience with renick and isr. great dealership. i got my 2002 WRX in may for 22,500 w/o tax and license.

I am a proud new owner of a 2003 WRX in Sedona Red. After doing some research for the past couple of months, I was told that I would get the best deals from either Tor at Renick in Fullerton, or Desiree in Irvine. Since Fullerton was the next closest to me (Sierra Subaru was the closest, service sucked), I decided to stop there first.

Let's just say that I ended up not needing to head over to Irvine. Our saleslady Karen was very nice and helpful and walked us through the whole process. She introduced me to Tor who told me he would give me a good deal. And that he did. He even gave me the 18" Anthracite OZ P1's at cost that were already on the car. And to top it off, he hooked me up with discounted front and rear struts and sways whenever I could scrounge up some more money.

Big thumbs up to Karen, Tor and Renick Subaru. Highly recommended.

Glad you got yourself a nice car! Yes, Tor and Renick are great salespeople. :)

Again, congrats and enjoy!

Congrats! on a good buy!
Renick is super sweet and very friendly.

Did a little bit of haggling for the car, but got it for a pretty good price. Desiree at Irvine was good too! I made a request online and she called the very next day!

I must agree tho...Sierra sucked when I was looking for the REX when it first came out. Wouldn't even give me the time of day.

I just thought I would let you guys know that Tor (and I) are not at Renick any more. The dealership has been taken over by
X- Ford guys that know nothing about Subarus. As of right now he is in nagotiations with a few dealers. I will let you guys know where he ends up going to .



Sean

I love that little shop they have. Just love it.

Rich

Oh crap.
There goes the service....:confused:

OK guys Tor is now at South Coast Subaru. Call him if you need help with any thing.

714-689-2103

Now that Tor is gone, is Fullerton Renick Subaru mod friendly?

i think Renick is stupid! i went there and asked about the greddy kit for my 02 RS and they said they had 2 different kind, one for the wrx and one for my car. they said that the wrx body is different from my RS! freakin queers. the one for the RS is like 100 bucks more too. they kno nothing.

They replaced my 2 front struts and got rid of my suspension creak. Many thanks to Christine also for having a checkup call.

2 thumbs up.

ISn't it Christina?

Renick Subaru has been good to me. I would recomend them to anybody!:) They also have a full line of aftermarket products in stock w/ exceptional prices!
Go to "www.Renickmotorsports.com" to see SOME of what they have, or call them toll free at 1-888-923-8201.

Will.

Just drove my new 05 WRX home from the dealership. If your in the so cal area you have to give Deanna Frame a call at Renick Subaru in fullerton. She matched my lowest internet quote with no problems. I was in and out in less than 2 hours top!! Make Renick your last stop!!. Looking for a Sti? They have those too. How about white with gold rims? Silver? :)

The dealership is also mod friendly since they sell many aftermarket brands in the parts dept. When you drive up into the service bay there is a banner promoting...."Performance Ecutek tuning available..ask your service advisor"...How can you go wrong with that??!!

:banana: :banana:

sorry but i didn't have anywhere near the same experience at renick. My story is here: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7733740#post7733740

First of all, this is kind of in response to another thread on this forum, but i didn't want to hijack the whole thread...
do NOT deal with DAVID MCWHERTER. Deanna is nice (in more ways than one , but the rest of the sales force is awful.

My friend went to renick saturday to buy an sti. david quickly came up with some numbers. 13000 trade in value for his 02 wrx w/ 76k mi (we thought wow, that's a good trade-in), and offered a wrb 05 sti for *supposedly* $50 below invoice.
-so my friend fills out credit app, and he says ok, you're all set for 4.9% for 63 months at 659.xx per month, w/ $500 down.
-my friend wanted to take off the wheels, strut brace, and speakers before trading in, so he asked if we could do that. david said, "no problem. just come in tomorrow morning, and we'll have the paperwork and the car ready. i'll just write OK on this sheet that shows all the numbers so we don't make mistakes tomorrow."
-so we call up saturday morning, around 10:30, and talk to deanna: "hey can we speed up the process a bit because my friend has to go to a wedding, and I myself have an appointment at 2pm in Pomona.:
-Deana: "no problem. we'll get the paperwork ready and the car detailed, you should be out of here in less than one hour."
-We show up at 11:30. We notice the car is not ready, it's still on the lot w/ the window sticker etc. David says, "we have a problem, because we couldn't get approval from subaru, based on your credit. The one bureau we pulled last night showed only one late payment on your past auto loan, but the other bureaus we pulled today show six late payments. We are also trying to figure out why Subaru is deviating from their written terms of financing. We have put in a call to a supervisor to clarify it."
-We tell him ok, we can wait, but only till about 12:30, because we have to go to our prior engagements. We leave the dealer and get something to eat. We return by 1pm.
-Deanna tells us that the finance manager is working on the deal, and he's put a call in to the supervisor at home .. She asks us to wait in the customer waiting lounge. So we start watching TV, i think it was on E!
-Finance manager comes to where we're seated, watching tv.. He says, "we're waiting to hear back from the supervisor. We reached him at home, and he has my cell phone number and he's going to call me back, It shouldn't be more than an hour, so just sit tight."
-He comes back about 15 minutes later, about 1:20, and says, "i'm still waiting to hear back." and then he proceeds to change the tv channel we were watching to the angels game, "this is for the pennant." How rude of him to change the show that we were obviously watching.
-We decide that we will leave at 1:30 if we hear nothing further. Deanna tried to tell us the deal was very close, but we left after giving david a cell phone number to reach us with any news.

My friend ended up buying the car from Irvine Subaru. Desi said that Renick never tried to get approval from subaru/chase. They were apparently trying to get approval from some credit union. David never called back... My guess is that he overstated the deal and didn't know how to rescind his offer from friday night. But if you made a mistake, just say so, and let us know he can't offer the same deal, we could just move on. Instead of wasting our saturday morning, and making my friend miss a wedding he was invited to.

-naren (YMMV)

Yeah they suck. At one point, Greg the guy I dealt with, just sat there staring into a single point and said he didn't know what else to say. This is because I pointed out all his lies like saying they had a white wrx; but didn't have it; had it but it's on hold by FIVE other people; wait not on hold it's wanted by many other people; wait in fact he was talking about a blue one the entire time. I wasted so much time negociated for nothing.

yeah i wasn't happy w/renick either. also bought my suby at irvine.

Renick Sales People Dont Know What They Are Talking About. And They Are Flaming Looking. Service Dept Is Cool Though. Talk To Christina For Service.

I called Greg Cook @ Renick and told him I wanted to buy a RS. Told him the color I wanted but he didn't have it in stock, but told me that he could get the car in one hour. Then he told me that he would call me back. He never did. I called him again and I played phone tag with him over the weekend. Finally, I went to Exclusively Subaru and got everything I wanted and was out in two hours.

Well, I would not buy any Subaru at Renick. When I bought my car at Renick, I hoped that they would service the car right. Their service sucked, and they even BS me when I needed warranty work. So long Renick, from now on is Irvine Subaru buy or service.

I just picked up a new 05 XT from Mitch and had a great experience. test drove all the cars i wanted last Saturday. They didnt have the color i wanted, but within two days i got the car i wanted at the price i really wanted.
in and out within an hour and a half.

Tom

I am planning on getting an STi in the next coming weeks. I went to Renick because it is by my work and met Mitch. He seems to know his stuff. He actually mentioned he posted here (forgot to ask for his name). He owns an STi and mentioned I should get as many quotes as possible with all the options I wanted them bring them to him and let me him make a deal. Aside from Bob has anyone else had a good experience at Renick?

Thanks!

I've also had good luck over at Renick. I dealt with Deanna over the internet exchanging pricing until I was ready. I took the lowest quote I had and she matched it. Paying cash probably helped my cause since I did not have to deal with the finance guys. However....

McWharter tried to get an additional 275 dollars from me but since I had everything in writing he had no choice but change the numbers in the computer. Stand firm on the numbers and look them straight in the eye. and don't be afraid to walk out and go to another dealer.

I agree talk to Christina in service. She knows what's going on.

I had a really good experience at Renick. I picked up a 05 R.S. for a great price (they lost money). Mitch is the man to talk to if you're there for an impreza, really friendly guy. The guy knows his stuff. I've had the car for 2 days and im loving it!

Yes, talk to Mitch...only Mitch. Bought a WRX off him a while ago. On a side note, he does not have an STi...but his WRX might be faster than one. The service people were really cool to me when I had a concern.

He did the same thing to me. What's the purpose of being a car salesman when you can't follow back your customers?

I called Greg Cook @ Renick and told him I wanted to buy a RS. Told him the color I wanted but he didn't have it in stock, but told me that he could get the car in one hour. Then he told me that he would call me back. He never did. I called him again and I played phone tag with him over the weekend. Finally, I went to Exclusively Subaru and got everything I wanted and was out in two hours.

So here's the deal: Sometime around Sept/Oct of last year, Renick was having things on ebay for auction. One of the products were APEX (not to be confused with APex'i) coilovers. I had seen them in person once when I was around there, and they looked like a good buy. So my father bidded on them (since I was studying abroad in Europe and didn't have access to a computer all the time) and we won them. So my father picked them up and left them for me to come back in Jan of this year.

So I finally got the chance to install them about a month ago, and guess what? THEY DON'T FIT! The rear caps that go onto the coilovers themselves don't fit flush and therefore, they cannot be properly threaded into the rear top mounts/hats.

I called Renick and spoke with Brett, and he said the reason they were on Ebay was that they don't deal with APEX anymore, and couldn't be contacted. He didn't offer to help other than that. I asked him if some rear camber plates might work, and he said they might, but didn't offer to help my situation since the product is essentially "faulty." So I decided to do some research about other members on here that might have had the same problem, and I found some people having the same problems. APEX listed no such coilovers for a WRX and only ones for the CG8's with the same product # as the ones I bought. Here's the thread:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170832&highlight=apex+coilovers

So yeah, I don't know what to do, but it sucks as the customer. I guess I gotta try to contact a company based in Europe... which is unlikely to go well.

So did renick falsly advertise teh GC8 coilovers as wrx?

I guess so. According to APEX and their website, they don't sell the "racing" coilover brand anymore... so I think I might be screwed out someway, somehow. The same part number of the coilovers I have are the same as the CG8's. That would explain why the rears don't fit at all.

If it is for the GC8 they can be made to fit ur car. Just change the tophats(its either rear or front) 2 out of the 4 should fit flush right now, just search around. i forgot because I got my coilovers awhile ago and stopped looking. If renick specifically stated that it fits ur WRX in the auction then it is their fault(false advertising) if they said there might be fitment problems or something like that in the ad then they don't owe you anything.

A buddy of mine (HighSpeedRacerX) purchased the same Apex coilovers that Renick was clearing out on ebay, for his 03 wrx. He did not mention any proplems with the install. Send him a PM for more details.

So here's the deal: Sometime around Sept/Oct of last year, Renick was having things on ebay for auction. One of the products were APEX (not to be confused with APex'i) coilovers. I had seen them in person once when I was around there, and they looked like a good buy. So my father bidded on them (since I was studying abroad in Europe and didn't have access to a computer all the time) and we won them. So my father picked them up and left them for me to come back in Jan of this year.

So I finally got the chance to install them about a month ago, and guess what? THEY DON'T FIT! The rear caps that go onto the coilovers themselves don't fit flush and therefore, they cannot be properly threaded into the rear top mounts/hats.

I called Renick and spoke with Brett, and he said the reason they were on Ebay was that they don't deal with APEX anymore, and couldn't be contacted. He didn't offer to help other than that. I asked him if some rear camber plates might work, and he said they might, but didn't offer to help my situation since the product is essentially "faulty." So I decided to do some research about other members on here that might have had the same problem, and I found some people having the same problems. APEX listed no such coilovers for a WRX and only ones for the CG8's with the same product # as the ones I bought. Here's the thread:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170832&highlight=apex+coilovers

So yeah, I don't know what to do, but it sucks as the customer. I guess I gotta try to contact a company based in Europe... which is unlikely to go well.

You can find a GD rear camber plate. That might help

I spoke with Renick again this week and they said some of the people that they sold the coilovers to did complain of the same problem. Brett at Renick said that he did not know if rear camber plates would work. He's trying to get some of those top adaptors from another coilover manufacturer I believe. We'll see how things go.

Well, Renick is at it again giving me the run-around. Now, Brett is saying that he wants me to cut the bottom part of my group n strut mounts so that they coilovers will fit properly, and he wanted me to do it myself or go to a machine shop and get it done. I guess he "gave up" searching for some other adaptor tops from other manf. Anyways, that's wrong because I shouldn't have to go through all the trouble to get something done that wasn't my fault. Shady business yo!

i think you should take them to small claims court. if they don't offer to refund your money. might be worth it. i'm sure you spent a lot of money. or maybe even file a claim through ebay/paypal?

At least you got your parts.

I ordered some badges from them and almost 3 months later they still hadn't shipped them. My order just said "PENDING." Went to cancel three times and each time they said, "Oh, those will be here later this week." Never showed.


C'mon guys...at least have the courtesy to list on your site if something isn't in stock.
:furious: