Real world input needed

[Herb in Pa]

I'm looking for a small SUV and am really considering the Subaru Forester. It gets great reviews in all the magazines, but I was wondering if anyone here had any experiences to share..........both good and bad.

[felix]

There you go, Mike! See what you can do for this fellow. Put 1500 miles on that sucker and report the pro's and con's. ... felix

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Get a toyota pu instead.

[StarMetal]

Get a Toyota pu.

Joe

[waksupi]

Herb, I have also been considering a Subaru, for the good mileage. One of my friends at work, informs me only lesbians drive Subarus. I told him this may work out fine, as I have many lesbian tendancies, myself.
I am also looking at Toyota pickups, half heartedly. Pretty pricey, and I need to save up some more money. I'd like to be able to put at least half down.

[Herb in Pa]

I've already got a PU that I don't use. I bought a new Ranger in 01, it's got less than 10K on it.

[David R]

I am a mechanic. I can buy very few parts at NAPA for it. Most come from the dealer. (electronic stuff)

Nice built cars, small underneath (axles, Diffs...) like they are on the outside. Good for its intended purpose, but not a tractor.

David

[StarMetal]

David,

Hope you're talking about Subaru, because Toyota's are hell of a vehicle.

Jo

[David R]

Toyota = Tractor :)

[MT Gianni]

I rented one a few years ago in Hawaii. My 6'1" son was comfortable in the back seat. Plent of power for highways and crossing Oahu, and the mileage was great. My wife had her car hit by an Ins. agent a few years ago and got comped an Outback. I felt like my shoulder was right up next to the door and was not comfortable the whole time I drove it. My neighbor sold his last year and bought a toyota pick up as an in town and highway use keeping the old Ford diesel as a tow rig. He says he likes the truck bed to haul but overall misses the Forester. YMMV, Gianni.

[ebner glocken]

I've been looking at vehicles for awhile now. Looks like it'll prolly end up being a subaru. I know a few that drive them (just taxi, never pulled hard) they have had good luck and are not lesbian. They have been putting around 200k on them with no major malfunction. I really like the idea of the opposed engine.

[Ron]

Herb, get the Subaru. A friend of mine is into his second Forester and won't look at anything else. They are good value here in Oz as are Toyotas but the toys cost a fortune for replacement parts.

Ron

[BD]

I have no experience with the Forester, but I've owned a 1976 Subaru wagon followed by a 1987 GL wagon and then a 1996 Legacy wagon, which I just sold last month. They are the best vehicles in the snow. Way better on snowy roads than any of my 4x4 trucks have been. Buy a new legacy or Outback, take care of it, and you can figure on about 10 years and over 200,000 miles without any major problems if my experience is any indication. Of course your gonna need to put tires and brakes on it, a timing belt and plugs every 60,000 and a clutch every 100,000. I guess after 30 years of them I'm a believer.

BD

[redneckdan]

Up here they do okay on snowing roads uptil about 8" deep. When it gets much beyond that, I saw a lot of them stuck. I was always ridin a snowmobile so that kinda skews things, however I didn't see more than 1 or 2 full sizes get stuck. One was a suburban that was drifted over the roof and another was a bronco with a blown u-joint in the rear.

[grumpy one]

This is probably stating the obvious, but once the depth of snow exceeds the vehicle's ground clearance, you can only move forward by squashing snow, which requires low speed and a heavy vehicle. Generally passenger car based vehicles have less ground clearance and less weight than truck based vehicles (which can usually be identified by having a frame). If you need to drive through snow, figure out how deep it is going to be and measure the ground clearance of the vehicle you are considering for the job.

[BD]

I wasn't suggesting that you use them to plow the roads. The clearance thing is definately a factor in a storm. Most of the roads around us in Maine are snow and ice covered for about 6 months of the year. It's an everyday travel condition. My subarus with studded snow tires were a lot better at staying on the road overall than the trucks. There have been many times when I've had to put chains on the truck to get someplace the subaru could just drive up, or out of. And on longer higher speed trips on packed snow roads the Subarus handling and braking was really superior. I never really looked at the Forester as I believe it's built on the lighter Impreza chassis and the one my mother owned didn't seem to have any more room inside than the Legacy.
BD

[Rick Hodges]

I purchased a 2004 Subaru Forester new. It now has 61000 miles on it. Problem free. Put front brakes and 4 tires on it at 51000 miles.

This is the first vehicle that I have ever owned that exceeded the govt. fuel mileage estimate on the sticker.

Mine is a 5 speed manual transmission and it is rock solid on dirt/gravel and snow covered roads. ( in 2004 the manual trans. have a 50/50 neutral all wheel drive system while the automatics had a 80/20% front bias. I can't speak for how they handle slippery conditions but the road rallaye people prefer the 50/50.) It is limited by it's 7 1/2" +/- ground clearance.

Accelleration and braking are more than adequate for my needs. It is not a tow vehicle (limited to 2400 lbs w/manual trans). Ride quality is surprisingly good. Road and wind noise is louder than I like at 75mph+ but bearable.

Be sure to test drive the car and see if it fits your needs. It is really a very small vehicle. Nimble, agile, economical to drive. I like mine a lot but it sure won't replace my Pick Up.

Rick

[PatMarlin]

My wifes 91 Toyota 4x4 finnaly quit after about 350,000 miles. So I bought her a used 2002 extacab V6 this year and man what a nice vehicle. Power and comfort.

I think it should be good to go another 200,000 at least. It isn't quite as beefy as the 91, but it's a rolls royce compared to power and creature features.

Still got the 91, and I'm going to tear into the 22R and see what happened. Still runs but has a rattle type knock. I'm hopin' it's the timing belt and assembly. Thing climbs like a mule.