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Subie/VW thoughts?

Carl Kuck

Ambassador of Stoke
Skier
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Posts
739
Location
Del Mar
Love the color cbk. Which trim and engine is this?
It's a Premium with the 2.5L 4-banger.

And I ran another calculation last night, should be able to easily get 250+ CDs on the memory stick!
 

Carl Kuck

Ambassador of Stoke
Skier
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Posts
739
Location
Del Mar
Dark Blue Pearl or Twilight Blue? Pics on their website don't do justice.
I think it's Twilight Blue Metallic.

I just got back from a trip to New Mexico for Thanksgiving with the relatives, 1400 miles including about 30 miles of driving around town, 29.8 MPG round-trip, with 31.2 on the return leg (more downhill than up...) Yep, may not be the fanciest car around but it got the job done. The seats were comfortable enough, no complaints there, we used the seat heaters when it was in the 20s one morning. We actually did the trip straight through in both directions, with relatively quick pit stops, nice to have over 400 miles on a tank available, as well as burning regular (87 octane) vs premium (91 octane, used to be 93, but I live in Krazyfornia)?

Things I really like about the car:
  • Gas mileage
  • Range per tankful
  • Plugging in my memory stick with almost my entire CD collection on it! (But I'm wondering if getting an iPod Nano would be a good way to add play lists, etc.)
  • Visibility seems good out the car, which is nice on driving / skiing vacations through the southwest
  • The back seats recline! Who knew?
  • You can pop-down the seat back on each side with a lever in the cargo compartment on each side. Handy for loading skis!
  • Freakin' awesome cargo room !!! (Well, for Cheryl and I anyway...)
  • It's got two USB ports in the front of the center console along with an Aux jack? (audio out maybe?)
  • It's got a "lighter" port in the front of the console and another one in the lift-up part of the console
Things I don't like about the car:
  • Cloth seats are a drag when the humidity is low and you get static zapped when getting out of the car.
  • It's noisy when getting started up from a stop but seems OK at highway speeds.
  • I think the tires suck. (Will probably get Yokohama tires when these go).
  • There are no enclosed storage compartments in the very back (my old ones had this)
  • There is very little room under the lid you lift up to get to the donut spare, my old ones could hold some heavy duty rope, jumper cables, etc.
Things I don't know about yet:
  • The utility of the racks. They're swung back by default which is supposed to help with MPG if you don't use them (I don't or haven't in a very long time...)
  • How it will do in the snow, potentially having to drive hundreds of miles on I-15 in Utah when coming/going to the timeshare in Park City...

Both of my previous Subies were doing over 20K miles a year (mostly commuting to work, unfortunately), but I'm thinking based on experience that 150K - 160K miles is about the upper limit before The Troubles set in. And in 8 years, seriously, who knows what will happen with automotive technology?
 

LiquidFeet

instructor
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,697
Location
New England
Just bought a Subie Forester 2015 with 17,000 miles on it today.
Traded in a 2007 Forester with 167,000 miles. The Troubles had definitely set in.
 
Thread Starter
TS
tch

tch

What do I know; I'm just some guy on the internet.
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,542
Location
New England
Another mpg report from the VW 4Motion: 4300 miles back and forth to Key West, with several zig-zags. 35.5 mpg. Seats were comfortable, lots of room for two with a fair bit of stuff. The car doesn't inspire love like my GTI...but it's a really, really nice appliance.
 

Snowfan

aka Eric Nelson
Skier
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Posts
1,459
Location
Here and there.

Old video wherein he mentions Forester having conventional auto trans. Wanted to point that out as it now has CVT.
 

jzmtl

Intermidiot
Skier
Joined
Apr 25, 2017
Posts
323
Location
Montreal

Old video wherein he mentions Forester having conventional auto trans. Wanted to point that out as it now has CVT.

I would liked if they tested scenario where only one rear tire is on the ground, that would be a very demanding test since the center clutch pack will have to transfer enough power to the rear axle plus the brake traction control would need to be able to transfer enough to one tire. But I suppose that's too much to handle for the low tier system in most Subarus so they skipped it.
 

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