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Comments
My major groan about the CD/Radio in general is that the display is just too dim in bright light.
It's okay on a cloudy day, passable on a sunny day unless the sun's shining on the display - in that case its invisible.
The system sounds great and it seems like these items wouldn't be rocket science to address.
Larry
So your outside temp guage, 2nd sun glass holder, and 6 other things are on your car in part because the Subaru Crew lobbied for and got them.
Owners of 2008 Forester will thank us when they move the cruise on switch to the same stalk as the set/accel buttons.
Check out the Meet the Members thread, or join our chat tonight, we have big news related to this later today, as a matter of fact.
-juice
Glad I could set you straight on all this, Juice.
But seriously, some news later today may change people's minds about this very topic. You'll understand by tomorrow, just trust me on this one.
-juice
And just wait, after they promised the 3rd, we'll start asking for #4!
-juice
"We at SoA continue to be the ones to catch in sunglass holders per passenger. While some may laugh at this position, I say look at minivans. Who needs 11 cupholders for something that can hold only 7 people. We are upping the stake by putting 13 sunglass holders in a 5 passenger vehicle. In addition we are changing our motto to "Driven by really cool people wearing sunglasses and having extras in storage."
And speaking of sunglass holders... I'd be happy with just one if it was big enough to hold my Oakleys. As it stands now, the current ones are only useful for holding the garage door remote.
(Of course both these subjects belong in the Suggestions for Subaru Topic)
-Frank P.
But it is a lot of discussion about something that can't be fixed on current cars - yes, maybe in the future. The same comments and descriptions of how cruise control works on other cars was repeated dozens of times - once or twice would seem to be enough.
As to mileage, a lot of posters complain about their mileage and many of them seem to "baby" the car. So I merely stated this is how I drive and the mileage I get. I did NOT specifically say that anyone's driving habits were wrong.
If one wants to operate their car at low rpm, that is their option - but then it seem that one shouldn't complain about the mileage if one doesn't operate the engine in it's design power band.
Ifdal: Yes, this is very true - all the systems on modern cars are designed to operate within certain parameters. If you get a car in which the majority of them operate say on the low side by 5%, it is going to effect how the car performs - yet the car will pass all the diagnostic tests. I use to race an Alfa in SCCA 25 years ago and all of us always "blueprinted" our engines - it made an amazing difference in response and smoothness.
And lastly, as Ballistic keeps saying, everyone is entitled to his opinions.
Tahoe Charlie
One purpose of open forums is to promote and encourage open exchange of ideas on a variety of topics. Gratuitous "wasted bandwidth" and "dead horse" comments are hostile to that purpose.
Re the complaints about the CD player- are you saying that you can't skip tracks or just not FF & RR within a track?
-Frank P.
Actually, that was exactly my point. The difference is that you're approaching it from a educating the reader perspective while I was endeavoring to point out that as a matter of common courtesy, writers too need to keep that in mind.
As to your other remarks... I think it best not to respond.
-Frank P.
Larry
-Frank P.
swamp-
seven for the drinks,
the other four for cups to hold.... ;-)
-Dave
Which writers - the many who participate in a particular thread, or the few who proclaim it to be a pointless waste of bandwidth?
For the record, there were roughly 40 messages spread across 3 days that in some fashion referred to the cruise control - not 80, as alleged. Exaggeration is another hostile and unhelpful tactic.
More significantly, there were no fewer than 18 individuals who joined in the CC conversation with one view or another. Yet, we are chastized with dismissive "wasted bandwidth" comments when one (or perhaps even many) members deem the topic to be pointless because the aspect of the car can't be changed. Does that mean every questionable design aspect of a car that can't be corrected is off limits to criticism?
Ridiculous.
Let's cruise on please.
Steve, Host
I wish I had good news on the air flow, but I think you're out of luck on this one. My Outback vents work the same way as you describe. My wife always turns the center vents away from her because of that. The side vents in the Outback can be closed and do stop all air flow. From the car manual, that air flow appears to be by design.
WRT foot heating, I haven't owned a car yet which had even air distribution over the feet. The foot vent stops at the transmission tunnel so normally heats the driver's right foot more than the left.
I'll second what others have said wrt bandwidth. If we don't speak up with what we want, we can't complain when features we want are not made available in future releases.
Just call me Bandwidth Happy :-)
MikeF
-Ian
Feel free to come to the Crew chat tonight and talk about revving your engine though!
Link is on the left and the chat starts in ~3 hours.
Steve, Host
Rats. Thanks to the sleep disorder, this is a big deal for me. Although each of the Forester midlevel dash outlets has a shutoff, the two at the extreme outer ends of the dashtop do not. They seem to blow heated air no matter what mode is selected, which bounces off the door windows and goes straight to my face. At a minimum, I'll have to jury-rig coverplates to block that flow. I may also have to push something long and thin out to the base of the windshield to block heated air from the main defroster vents. Except when I actually need defrosting, I don't want any heat coming from anywhere except the footwells.
My last 3 cars had the capability to supply heated air to feet and legs, while simultaneously supplying unheated air to the face from the midlevel vents. I'm going to miss that.
WRT foot heating, I haven't owned a car yet which had even air distribution over the feet. The foot vent stops at the transmission tunnel so normally heats the driver's right foot more than the left.
I haven't crawled down into the footwells yet to see whether any of the outlets are adjustable, but as it stands, the heat distribution down there is more uneven on the XT than I'm accustomed to.
I'll second what others have said wrt bandwidth. If we don't speak up with what we want, we can't complain when features we want are not made available in future releases.
Agreed - and thanks.
Maybe we should all try to use more titles to our posts, then just skip those about CC or whatever.
Any how, the big news is Bob Holland and I were invited to the Detroit show, as Subaru's guests. We will go on Jan 6-8, it only opens to the public on the 10th. We can take pics, even, and we'll have meetings with Subaru about their products to give them feedback.
I told ya they listen. :-)
-juice
PS - have 3500 miles on the car and average 21 MPG in mixed driving.
Larry
"... Screw the new filter on carefully, avoiding cross-threading. On turbocharged engines, it may be necessary to fill the filter with clean engine oil prior to installation. Check engine manufacturer's recommendations....."
BTW - Purolator crosses the PL14612 / L14612 for the XT.
Larry
Priming is probably a good idea in any case, but how would the presence or absence of a turbocharger determine whether or not the filter should be primed? It's not as if the turbocharger is going to be instantly spooled up to high RPM (thus demanding abundant lubrication) within those first few seconds after the engine is restarted following the oilchange. There surely would be enough residual oil in the turbo bearing to meet its low-load low-RPM startup requirements until the oil pressure rises to normal levels.
I always primed any vertical filter I could as long as getting it back in the engine didn't require an undue amount of gymnastics.
Larry
About 250 miles, 72 MPH, cruse on, no air....25.5 mpg.
Maybe the XT's that are getting poor mpg are faster. Just a thought.
paddy
Westland, MI
I,therefore, have even less to complain about than I thought I did - although yesterday some cretin managed to ding my rear driver's side door and chip the paint. Whoever did it should feel very lucky I didn't see them do it. (that's hardly SOA's fault, though.)
Now Ambassadors Juice & Bob there is work to too be done. Do I see a Moonroof with a MT in my future? That was the biggest trade off I had to make on my recent purchase of XT MT.
I am sure your wish list is already starting to grow so I thought i would get my .02 in early.
Again congrats on your invite and as one famous person once said "enjoy the ride"
Don
Bob
you have get leather seats and A/T also. It's all part of the Premium Package.
DaveM
Reading the dipstick is difficult on Subarus. Simply keep trying -- you should be able to get a reading where the oil creates a nice straight line across the dipstick. In many cases, one side will be higher than the other and be smeared across the dipstick. I use the lower of the two readings.
Ken
Exact same engine + more weight = (pick one):
1. More performance
2. Less performance
I'll go with choice 2.
Yes, the XT is damn fast, It blows off BMW 330's, Boxster's, TT's, RX-8's and just about anything else with 4 or 6 cylinders. And of course it's 2 to 5 seconds FASTER then just about any other SUV to 60 and the 1/4.
Check out the Nov C&D test of 300 hp SUV's. The fastest (Infiniti FX45) does 0-60 in 6.4 sec and the 1/4 in 15.0. And it was the CHEAPEST of the four at $52,670!! The Porsche Cayenne S only did 7.3 sec and 15.4 - of course it weights almost twice as much as an XT. Note that the 600 mile test trip avg for these SUV's ranged between 13 mpg and 17 mpg!
The XT is the performance bargain of the year!! Plus you get to haul 4 people and their stuff!!
BTW some misguided person (pc for idiot) with a Ford Lighting pickup in Reno the other day wanted to drag me at a stop light, needless to say, he didn't have a chance.
Tahoe Charlie
Also they have shown how to read the level on Subarus correctly. The best result you can get on a warm engine, IMHO. Turn off it, wait 10 minutes, take out a stick, clean by a rag. Now wait a bit, then dip and see.
Reading the dipstick is more difficult on a cold engine, one side usually is higher than the other, as Ken said.
Hope it helps.
They talk about the "small performance car" segment in general - it's where all the young enthusiasts are going.
It's a pretty good article about this segment of the market.
Tahoe Charlie
TC: and most importantly, the latch anchors in the STi are easier to reach than those in the EVO! :-)
-juice
-juice
I'll be watching with great interest for your suggestion, because I sure haven't found the trick yet. My only recourse so far (haven't done it yet, but will) is to get a long thin thingamajig (like you put on the floor next to a drafty door) to drape over the defroster vents at the base of the windshield, plus two squarish flexible covers that will stay in place atop the two far-left far-right dashtop defroster outlets directed at the side glass. One way or another, I have to stop heated air from emerging from these outlets (except, of course, when fogged glass requires it). It simply doesn't work for me to drive a car with heated air blowing at my face.
Ballistic is also right about his Cruise control observations, case closed.
Thanks for that, but I recognize others have a different view. It seems to me that the best approach would be to (1) relocate the master on-off switch so it's more readily accessible, and (2) design it so that it can meet the opposite preferences of both groups.