Subaru XT Turbo Forester

njswamplands

finally had a series of trips that required interstate travel only. got 22 mpg. mpg on mixed driving seems to have settled around 18 mpg but drops to 15 mpg if i want to have fun. looking forward to the first snow in my first subie. > 2250 miles, no problems.

joyridea4

Jack,thanks for the info!
Don

cptplt

ok so here's exactly what it says in my paperwork for my 02 WRX, the wording is exactly the same for the paperwork on my 98 Legacy's but the time period was 60 days back then!

If this Agreement is cancelled within 90 days after purchase and you have not filed a claim, you will receive a full refund. If this Agreement is cancelled (a) after the first 90 days of purchase or (b) during the first 90 days after purchase and a claim has been filed, then, in either case, the pro rata refund will be calculated based on the greater of the days in force or the miles driven compared to the total time or mileage of your Agreement period, less a $25.00 service charge. The selling Subaru dealer will pay the required refund to you.

tornbetween

After listening to what all of you had say, I decided to buy an XT AT the end of August. Went with cloth and an after market sunroof (wanted to be able to vent the roof not just open it). The dealer had it put in while we were on vacation, and also arranged for my 1990 Toyota Corolla Wagon to be picked up for donation. The price was $24,600 with the dimming mirror and a cargo tray as extras. Also $950 extra for the moonroof and $595 for Autobahnd Roadblock.

Brought home my silver XT just after Labor Day and have been busy driving it since. She already has a name (I've never named a car before). Her first weekend was in the Berkshire Mountains (hills)in western Mass. and she did great. We were even welcomed to the Subaru Turbo club by a 20 something in a WRX (very cool).

With 1500 miles on the car, gas mileage has averaged 21.3 with 50/50 highway/town, and 19.5 just in town(as per EPA).

I'm overall really pleased with almost everything about the car - handling, seat comfort, acceleration, etc. There are however a few more minor annoyances -

   - I'm having a hard time seeing the radio stations;

   - The after market moonroof is great except that in the 30 - 40 mph range it vibrates when open all the way;

   - When I'm driving on the highway and get in the left lane to pass, other cars don't seem to realize just how fast I can go in a very short period of time. They seem to think they can pull in front of me just as I'm accelerating. Does anyone else have this problem (or is it just that I'm a middle aged woman in a non-threatening looking vehicle)?.

Anyway, I'm hoping to have a lot of good years in this cars - and hopefully a bit better mileage.

I keep wanting to run into a twin. Saw a silver XT on Route 3N in MA after work. Does anyone drive that way?

lfdal

tornbetween - ditto on the brightness of the radio display in bright light. It really could stand to be brighter.

My experience on Rt128 is that people really don't expect rapid acceleration out of a Subaru that doesn't say WRX.

I'm averaging 17-18 mpg in stop and go and 22-23 on the highway @ 1500 miles.

Can't help with the twin - Rose (my XT) is Cayenne red.

Larry

akasrp

http://www.nasva.go.jp/assess/html2003e/14.html

-srp

joyridea4

Tornbetween-The symptoms you decribe with vibrating of the moonroof is common with moonroofs. Every moonroof I have had did this at lower speeds. Try opening the roof only 3/4 of the way until you get up to highway speed then open it all the way. In most cases this will relieve this wind buffeting noise.
I have never tried a moonroof roof wind reflector. This is supposed to also help reduce wind noise.
Now if the moonroof is actually vibrating then that is a different story.
Don

tmstevie

- I'm having a hard time seeing the radio stations;

Here's a possibility: Be sure your headlights are off in the daytime. Because they automatically turn off w/the car, I found myself forgetting about them the night before a day trip, and subsequently couldn't see the radio display the next day. Once the headlights were off, no problems whatsoever.
BTW I have a silver XT MT- almost a twin.

lfdal

Mine is very dim in daylight, even with the headlights off - invisible with them on, but pressing-holding the ON/OFF button does return them to very dim. Wonder if different people's eyes respond differently to that color?

Anyone else think its dim in the bright light? Wondering if I should have the dealer look at it next time it goes in - maybe its adjustable?

Larry

pleiad7

I've noticed this in my XT also - the brightness of the radio display dims significantly when turning on the headlights - WTH??? I actually disabled the DRL's on mine in an effort to optimize the display readout at all times, although they’re probably running on fairly low current anyway. Does the "bright" button on the climate controls do anything to adjust the display brightness? I couldn't really see a notable difference.

As far as mileage goes, I seem to be averaging 22.5 mpg on 80% in-town, 20% highway driving in my AT XT (675 miles on the odo). This puzzles me - I was expecting slightly worse mileage than most 5spds, not better! I'm not complaining though ;-)

srp, you scared me for a second – it sounded like you had crashed yours already!

ballistic

This puzzles me - I was expecting slightly worse mileage than most 5spds,

I forgot which, but one of the EPA ratings (city/highway) is better for the XT automatic than for the 5-speed. )-;

lfdal

It should dim when the headlights go on, but by pressing and holding the on/off button for a second or two it should switch the brightness back to where it was. Which is still too dim for me.

I'm between 16 & 18 with 90% stop and go, 22-23 on the highway with my automatic.

Larry

kens

Is the moonroof buffeting occuring when just the moonroof is open with all other windows closed? If so, that's normal fluid dynamics in play. The airflow above the open moonroof creates a vacuum drawing air from inside the cabin. However, since there are no open windows in the cabin, the pressure drops and causes the flow to cease momentarily -- hence the buffeting. To remedy, just open a window to allow airflow into and out of the cabin.

The radio display dimming with the headlights on makes sense to me. Since you would turn the headlights on when it's dark , you don't want the radio display to be distracting in a dark cabin. Either that or Subaru put in a too-small a pulley on the XT. ;-)

Ken

once_for_all

the sales manager actually laughed at me when I asked him about it. "Its just like car insurance," says he, "you don't get anything back whether you use it or not." This was a Subaru Gold Plus plan.

John

pleiad7

Makes me wonder whether a sales manager would even know the ins and outs of the extended warranty. Personally, I'd give more credence to this reply if it came from the F&I manager.

Better yet, maybe this issue should be presented to SoA directly since there is so much conflicting information at this point.

ateixeira

Someone mentioned the Korean's warranty, and NO, it is not fully transferable. If you sell the car, the buyer gets the 5/60 warranty only, the 10/100 is void.

It was the same with Isuzu's and VW's 100k mile warranties when they had them. Only Suzuki's 7/100 is fully transferable.

Extended warranties, however, generally are fully transferable, a major (re)selling point.

225/60 tires will probably fit, though it's a very, very tight fit. It could rub in some situations if the wheel offset isn't far out enough. Also, make sure all 4 tires are the same size, and remember your spare cannot go too far since the sizes will mismatch.

Those crash test results look pretty good, the regular Forester does well so no reason to expect the XT to do any different.

-juice

ballistic

...an XT is apt to be going a lot faster at impact...

ateixeira

LOL, but I hope not.

-juice

chassol

Just got our insurance renewal and man it's gone up again. We have a Subaru 2002 VDC Sedan and 2004 Forester Auto XT.

Every 6 months Forester went from $472.20 to $513.30 and the VDC went from $467.10 to $509.20.
No tickets No accidents NO NOTHING (except 2 windshields replaced on the VDC over the last 6 months due to road debris, i.e. stones, which is not suppose to count).

However new wrinkle in policy is if you want OEM parts used for repairs and not other or used you have to pay and additional comp premium of 8% and additional collision premium of 6%. For VDC that's $5.38 and $12.08 and for XT $4.85 and $11.80 every 6 months. Standard $50m - $100m policy. So total is $1,056.61 every 6 months.

Just received letter in mail from Liberty Mutual (Subaru envelope) to check coverage costs. Amazingly they include OEM parts in the premiums they quote. Did not have time to check, but will do so.

Have advised my Nationwide agent that if another increase comes in the next 6 month billing I will be shopping new insurance (been with them for over 25 years). Also they now use credit report as part of risk assessment and we are in the 700's, so shouldn't be any problem there.

Also it appears, but I have not yet verified with the agent, that rental cars are no longer covered if you car is not disabled. In other words, if you fly somewhere and get a rental car it no longer appears to be covered, but I will verify and report back after I talk with my agent.

WOW......... Jacksonville is starting to get like Miami (In more ways than this too).

ateixeira

I got a quote from Liberty Mutual, but mine was higher than what I was paying.

I went through Costco's Executive member program and got great rates. Time to shop around? I hate it when the price creeps up like that.

-juice

pleiad7

We have Liberty Mutual (Subaru group savings) coverage on our cars; they gave me a really competitive rate on my MY00 Outback Sport. The XT is costing us about a third more than the OBS - ouch! I do like their OEM parts policy though, and the fact that they're fairly easy to deal with. Hopefully people are not going to start wrecking their XT's and driving up rates in the way it happened with the WRX... I was hoping to avoid that scenario with the Forester.

once_for_all

doing some serious shopping right now for our Mazda MPV 2002 and the Forester XS 2003. I have been with State Farm but unfortunately, incrementalism over the last 10 years has surpassed all their loyalty and superior driver discounts. Am finding for the Forester: Liberty Mutual is $801, State Farm $840, Allstate $840, MetLife $932. For the Mazda, Liberty is $669, State Farm $748, Allstate $690, Metlife $554.

Liberty Mutual looks best so far. What surprises is the Mazda MPV insurance ranges from $554 to $748. I can get a single vehicle policy for the Mazda with MetLife for less than a multi-vehicle discount on the others.

I quizzed MetLife on their Forester cost, they said they had it at a "16" compared to "8" for the Mazda in terms of collision repair costs.

John

ateixeira

Metlife's MPV rates are the lowest, Forester's are the highest. Odd.

As they say, YMMV.

-juice

chassol

Still working with my agent. I have received 5 different billing notices so far and my due date has been extended twice for a total of 11 days. Seems they can't figure out how much they want to charge me. Wonder if their billing is in-house or contracted out??? Should have final answer by Friday - Stay tuned this should be interesting..........

raybear

The Sales Manager was right, it is just like insurance, but you can cancel the policy and get a refund on the unused portion.

iluvsubaru2

I used one of these on my 2000 Forester as added protection against ice "rocks" lurking under soft snow on city streets. I realize that's not exactly "off-road" protection but winter has funny ways of making otherwise tame streets into rocky roads.

I thought I'd get a protector for my 2004 Forester too, but after looking at the rear differential it seems to be better protected now (vs MY 2000).

If that's correct, I'm wondering if the protector adds much protection. In the past I had my doubts if ice alone could do much to the differential but didn't want to find out the hard way. I'd welcome any coments or suggestions.

Thanks,
Jake

stever

The "2004" has been dropped from the title so the discussion will show up in the list next to the other Subaru SUV discussions for those who don't get here by the make/model index.

Carry on.

Steve, Host

iggso

I have read that the 5 speed 0-60 time was 5.3 seconds. Hard to believe? Has any one confirmed this, or have taken their XT's to the drag strip to get 1/2 times?

Also I have not seen any Automatics acceleration performance numbers.

Does any one know or have tested the 0-60 or the 1/4 times?

ugly1

From what I've read here I guess I'm going to wait 'till next year. I'd love to see about six more colors added (or at least fix the black) and although I crave speed an optional rear end would be nice. Having to part with the TT also makes it a difficult decision but I do need something more practical. Looking forward to next year.

p0926

If this Agreement is cancelled within 90 days after purchase and you have not filed a claim, you will receive a full refund. If this Agreement is cancelled (a) after the first 90 days of purchase or (b) during the first 90 days after purchase and a claim has been filed, then, in either case, the pro rata refund will be calculated based on the greater of the days in force or the miles driven compared to the total time or mileage of your Agreement period, less a $25.00 service charge. The selling Subaru dealer will pay the required refund to you.

So that's where the confusion came from. Subaru is only going to give a full refund if you cancel within 90 days of purchase and you haven't used it. That makes a lot more sense.

-Frank P.

p0926

Igor- I think it was Car & Driver that obtained the 5.3 sec 0-60 time. The other reviews I've seen didn't come close to that.

John- Six more color choices? Don't hold you breath. Maybe one or two but even that's iffy.

What exactly do you mean by "an optional rear end"?

-Frank P.

lfdal

Subaru will also give you 10 extra months albeit indirectly, to make up your mind. If you use their 10 pay plan they auto-bill your credit card for 10 months with no interest or handling charges. Add the 90 days onto that and you essentially get 13 months.

I turned the contract in on my last Forester at 12 months and got 100% back.

Seems like a safe bet you won't use it anytime during the first 3/36 bumper to bumper part.

Larry

corkfish

There's a guy on another forum that starts with the letter "N" who has time slips of his XT. He was running consistent low 14's with his best something like 14.18. They won't let me post the link here.

ugly1

Was just joking about the six colors. You're right, we would be lucky to get two more. On the rear end I was meaning a choice of rear end gears like all the American trucks & SUV's offer. A good spread like 3:20,3:50,3:70 & 4 plus. Unless I'm mistaken, I've never seen rear end options on non-American vehicles as a standard practice. I wonder why that is? Shouldn't it be choice, choice & choice?

kens

On the 'other' forums there is a thread going on showing Cobb tuning's dyno results of a Forester XT. They're also showing 235-240HP, similar to what Vishnu tuning measured.

Ken

p0926

John- Nope, I don't recall ever seeing different rear axle ratios offered on anything other than full-size pickups. Does any SUV come with that option?

-Frank P.

corkfish

I believe Jeep offers an optional rear end. They charge extra for the higher gearing

02wrxwagoneer1

We had our 2002 WRX wagon, a 1996 TransAm, and 1994 GMC truck with State Farm at an annual premium of ~$2000.
Liberty Mutual quoted us at $1238/yr!! This is with the Subaru preferred offering. Can't beat that with two sticks.

ateixeira

Jake: measure the clearance to the rear diffy. The front cross member is lower.

Still, I got one for my '98.

240HP: told you so. I called it first, I believe I said 240-260 at the time. Now 2 tuner dynos confirm it. :-)

-juice

p0926

Okay then, so why on earth would any manufacturer under-report the HP rating for a high-performance engine?

-Frank P.

once_for_all

I can suggest a couple: 1) lower insurance rates; and 2) it does not attract the tuner crowd. IMO, the tuner crowd would probably reduce sales for the Forester, let them stay with the WRX.

Frank, there were some that specifically said that a warranty refund was a distinct possibility within so many days after the end of it, providing it was never used. I have to think that they were either misled, misinformed, or that they have some other non-SOA warranty that allows a refund.

John

ateixeira

Under-rate it to attract a different, more mature crowd than the WRX. Also, so it doeasn't cannibalize WRX sales.

Too late, the tuners let the cat out of the bag.

-juice

corkfish

Under rating HP was very common in the 60's. With all the political correctness and concern about gas mileage, Subaru opted to avoid attracting attention. I believe there are no other SUV's in it's weight class that has anything near that kind of horsepower. Very good idea to be quiet about it.

ateixeira

They matched the class leaders, Jeep and Nissan.

-juice

ugly1

Jeep definetly is one. I chose two American and two non-American products at random. Explorer and Trailblazer offer optional rear ends while 4-Runner and Land Rovers don't. I'm begining to think this is an American thing.

subewannabe

I' ve been scanning these boards and juice, indeed , called the understated numbers - he wins.....a BP credit card so he can buy premium gas?
Given the release delays, I am running out of reasons to hold out until the Legacy GT release next summer/ fall...the Forester XT covers the bases: dog-friendly cargo area, roof rack, the 2 lane passing I need in the
 mountains. Clearly not the looker the new Legacy wagon is, but I'm pretty ugly , myself ( reminds me of a Joe Cocker song!)

Mark

wrxsoon1

Juice definitely called that. Just took him one drive and he picked that number. Juice you've got one helluvan accurate butt dyno! I'm running out of reasons to wait for that Legacy as well. Though I don't think the Forester is ugly and I don't know you Mark so no comment.

-Ian

iluvsubaru2

Juice,
I got a differential protector at the dealer, with my name on it. Haven't made up my mind if I put it on my 2004. Last time around I figured better safe than sorry. But now, I wonder.

If a protector is useful to shield a differential from icebergs why hasn't SOA made it standard for USA and Canada (I know, they made splashguards an option in MY 2004, but owners immediately see what no splashguards mean, whereas the need for shields on a rear differential is by no means obvious)?

I saw "Titanic" again last weekend. I'd hoped my post would have evoked at least one report of ice damage to a rear differential. Moving objects that strike ice are seldom the better for it. But maybe the Forester is "Unsinkable", or, maybe, we've all been using rear differential protectors.
 
Appreciate your input,
Jake
PS: Since taking delivery of my 2004 XS/AT, I've been living in 3rd gear ("turbo lite"). I call it "Normally Aspirated Remorse" and I have a feeling lasts until you buy an XT:-)

ateixeira

OK stop, my head is swelling! ;-)

Given Titanic is fresh in your mind, the piece of mind alone is worth the low price.

-juice

ace1000

A letter to the editor in the latest issue of Car and Driver asks how an XT with only 210 horsepower can do 0 to 30 in only 1.3 seconds. After explaining how it popped the clutch at 4500 rpm, C/D responded:

"Nevertheless, we're all thinking the Subie was running a little hotter than 210 - Ed."