Woman Buys Used Subaru. Then She Realizes It Has A Secret Feature: 'It Took My Mechanic Telling Me'

Fewer things might make you feel like a real-life Batman than starting your car before you even hop in. Be it a scorching summer day or a frigid winter morning, in extreme weather, the small pleasure of hopping into an already warm or cool vehicle can’t be overstated. Remote start is one of life’s delightful luxuries.

Some of us are riding around with remote start without even knowing it.

That was the case for Olivia Saad (@oliviasaad3), who recently learned that her Subaru Outback is equipped with this feature. Then she took her new knowledge to TikTok to share with others who may be similarly unaware.

This led another woman to discover something purportedly unethical about the mechanic who worked on her vehicle for its previous owner. She posted a stitch of her discovery.

As of this writing, it has 4.1 million views.

A Simple Trick Gets An Upcharge

After seeing Saad’s post about discovering her 2015 Subaru Outback has remote start, Melissa Vazquez (@melissa.vazquez008) wondered whether her Outback does too.

In Saad’s post, she explains that in order to activate remote start, the driver just needs to press the lock button twice on the key fob, then hold it down, and the vehicle starts. As simple as that.

When Vazquez saw the trick, she was surprised. Her 2019 Subaru came with two fobs: one from the factory and an aftermarket one.

“It looks like the first owner paid extra to get a remote start on it,” she says in her post.

Vazquez then filmed herself following Saad’s instructions. Sure enough, the Outback’s lights flickered twice, then the engine turned over.

Did The Previous Owner Get Scammed?

In over 1,900 comments, users fixate on the former owner’s potential reaction to the video and the mechanic’s presumed smugness at an unnecessary “fix.”

“The previous owner watching this probably pissed,” wrote Sam|SAHM.

Amy Elizabeth added, “That mechanic was WRRONNGG for charging to [add] the extra remote start.”

This sparked a flurry of comments debating whether a mechanic should be familiar with the nuances of every car they work on. No consensus was reached, except that either the prior owner or the mechanic could’ve simply looked up whether the Outback came equipped with remote start.

Commenter Becc said she’s owned a 2019 Outback for two years and that the dealer told her it didn’t have an autostart. After seeing Vazquez’s video, she tested it out and learned it does. She said now her mom “can’t ever tell me that I’ve never learned anything of value off the internet.”

Remote Start: A Brief History

According to Carparts.com, the first US patent for a remote start on a vehicle was issued to Samuel Fried of Omaha, Nebraska, in 1963.

The first one on the market, popularized in the 1960s, is credited to Winnipeg, Canada-based company A.A. Auto Matic Products Limited. Apparently, climbing into a vehicle chilled by winter winds skidding across that icy landscape was a little too much for them to handle.

But it wasn’t until the mid-2000s that it became a more standard option for dealership vehicles. Though there are rumors that in the 1980s, “gangsters had remote starters installed in their cars to prevent them from being killed by bombs attached to ignition wiring.”

Edmunds reports that from 2008 to 2018, the technology became semi-standard, coming on 62% of vehicles sold. Today, that number is closer to 100% of new vehicles, per Edmunds. This includes many, but not all, Subarus. But, for those 2026 models that do come with remote start, it’s typically paired to a smartphone through MySubaru Connected Services. There’s also a Remote Climate Control feature on select vehicles.

Remote start has grown in popularity—because who doesn’t want to climb into a climate-controlled vehicle without waiting for it to heat up or cool down? But the feature also has benefits for a vehicle’s engine. Even letting your engine run for two minutes before driving helps the oil circulate better, which can help it last longer.

Motor1 reached out to Saad via email and TikTok direct message and to Vazquez via TikTok direct message and with a comment on the post. We’ll update this article if either replies.