Subaru Dealer Technician Learning Stick Shift Damages Customer’s WRX, Lawsuit Claims

• The lawsuit alleges a young technician from the Connecticut Subaru dealership learning stick shift damaged the clutch, stalled the engine, and even bent the front license plate.
• The WRX owner further alleges the technicians took the car to a car wash despite his request not to, possibly to hide evidence of the joyride.

Learning to drive a manual transmission is undoubtedly more challenging than mastering an automatic, which explains why most people, especially in the U.S., prefer the latter. But there are definitely sometimes when it is absolutely, 100 percent the wrong time to start learning how to drive stick, including when a client has dropped off their Subaru WRX for an oil change.

The timing is so inappropriate for learning that it’s the subject of legal action in New Haven, Connecticut. Daniel Yopp Jr. has filed the suit against Dan Perkins Subaru, whose technicians allegedly took his “dream car” out for a joyride recently.

Read: Dashcam Shows Honda Service Tech Blow Through Red Light On Test Drive

The owner brought his car to the Subaru dealer to have its second oil change completed, according to the lawsuit seen by Autonews. In his legal claim, he alleges that after the maintenance task was finished, a technician took a younger employee for a drive in the car to teach them how to operate a vehicle with a manual transmission.

While it’s not clear how Yopp obtained all this information, he alleges that at one point, the younger technician asked the older one, “How long are we gonna practice for – five stalls?” They then stalled the car “multiple times, grinded the gears and burned the clutch.”

The young driver’s lack of proficiency was evident as they even managed to damage the front license plate. Despite attempts by dealer employees to rectify the situation by bending the plate back into shape in an effort to conceal the damage, their efforts were unsuccessful. This was one of the issues that alerted Yopp to the fact that something was awry with his Subaru.

In addition, the technicians also took the car to a car wash, in an attempt to hide the fact that they had taken it out for a spin. Ironically, that was another tip off for Yopp, who had asked specifically for the car not to be washed, in order to protect the paint’s ceramic coating. He claims that after its visit to the dealer, the were swirls in his car’s paint.

“The WRX was delivered to Perkins in good condition and returned damaged,” Yopp’s complaint said. “The damage occurred as a consequence of the incompetence of the technicians.”

Yopp is pursuing damages and attorney fees from the dealership for allegedly violating Connecticut’s consumer protection law, as well as for civil theft, negligence, and breach of bailment.

The Auto World