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Comments
Except for Australia, Japan, England, etc., unless the folks there are contortionists.
>>Except for Australia, Japan, England, etc., >>unless the folks there are contortionists.
Nope. The throttle is still activated by the right foot in all those countries. :-)
Rob.
(My XT 'should' arrive this week.)
BTW, we can get an XT with 5M and the moonroof and leather, but don't get the extra gauges or the stereo with the sub-woofer.
Except for Australia, Japan, England, etc., unless the folks there are contortionists.
The pedal layout is the same regardless of left or right hand drive.
Edit: crex beat me too it!
DaveM
This weekend, three or four dealerships in Oregon were having sales on Foresters. Anyone think it is a coincidence?
I do not think it is a bad product, just a bad economy, so I put my money where my mouth was and when one dealership offered a XT PP for about 1200 less than invoice I drove it home.
I would call this a compact utility performance vehicle. Drives great ... personally I expect the auto trans. to save me about one speeding ticket per year...
Anyway, anyone considering a Forester might want to see if their local dealerships have had similar reactions to this news. Forester sales in the U.S. declined from Sept 02 to Sept 03 and from Oct 02 to Oct 03 even though there is a new, clearly superior, model. This cannot be encouraging for Fuji, as Takagi-san's comments imply. I think they would like to avoid this in November 03 and might be willing to find significant new discounts in order to attain this goal.
-Brian
Len
-Dennis
Bob
Ken
I grew up there, so attended the show a few times. Last time was probably late 70s. I imagine the show's changed as much as the vehicles have since then.
Looking forward to your reports.
Having talked about Subaru's marketing, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings. While I enjoy having a unique vehicle, I also want the world to know what a great car this is, and while I do not want to see one at every traffic light, I do want Subaru to be a successful company.
Len: is the button still on the left side of the dash board? Or in the switch? They snuck that 2004 improvement by us, Bob.
George: ain't that the truth? It's like being a victim of your own success.
I like the uniqueness of the Forester, well, at least back in 1998! Now they are all over the place, several just in my neighborhood.
I'm happy it's been popular, but miss standing out.
-juice
Jack, I had another car with the warm air defrost all the time problem, and I wore contacts at the time.Drove me nuts! I ended up buying clear lens shooting glasses with wraparound frames.
Mark
http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4022231&sr- c=Home&pos=Edit1
Sorry if that has been mentioned before but I think its new. If anyone can find any more details on the actual results and scoring let the rest of us know!
overtime
Subaru sales figures and press releases from Reuters/MSNBC Business News pages. I figure SOA execs read those even more carefully than I can.
Thanks again to all for help, car is great!
-juice
SOA press release, Cherry Hill NJ, Nov. 2, 2003. company contact: Mike Whelan
"The Subaru Forester recorded sales of 4,250 units, a slight decline from September 2002."
SOA press release, Cherry Hill NJ, Oct. 1, 2003. no company contact listed.
About 15% are XT, so in Sept. and Oct. about 1300 XTs sold in country total.
Len
Tried an experiment on my last tank of gas. After filling it up, I drove the car very hard - all 1/2/3 shifts made above 5,000 rpm and always trying to keep the revs above 3,000 in any gear. Filled up again after 197 miles and my mpg for the tank was 20.3 mpg - not bad for really hard driving.
I will back-off and return to my mostly 3rd and 4th gear driving with lower shifts and see if the mileage returns to the previous 22/23 mpg range.
The car now has about 1,250 miles and is just a blast to drive in the mountains. The altitude seems to have no effect on the car at all. Not to make anyone jealous, but there are no traffic jams up here. Often going to Reno or Carson City one can drive 10 miles on great winding roads without catching up to another car - and then you only need a hundred yards or so to pass them. This is the most amazing thing about the car, the tremendous acceleration, just downshift, hit the gas and you are by them in the blink of an eye.
However, one problem has surfaced, the Geolander tires suck in the snow. Very easy to break them loose with all that power, so you have to go easy on the throttle when starting, shifting and turning. So it's off to CostCo after Turkey Day for a set of studded snow tires.
Tahoe Charlie
-Frank P.
Perhaps another problem may be the perception that these cars are expensive. While I think everyone reading this forum realizes that the XTs and regular Foresters are bargains considering their capabilities, most people shopping for compact SUVs are more price conscious and will settle for less. This combined with the fact that marketing has all but ceased for the regular Forester may explain this situation.
____
Frank P. - If you have an Atlanta sighting of a Gold streak (unfortunately closer to puke green in some light) shooting by, wave because it is probably either my wife or myself zipping around in our XT.
Not sure why the cool down in September and October, competition's response ?
-brianV
The Geolandars are just an average all-season tire. As a result, they perform like average all-season tires in snow (read: mediocre). I found them to be okay when the tread was relatively new. However, as with any vehicle that's heavily driven in snow, one should look into deditcated winter tires.
Ken
I'd like to see what their market share was. It's usually about 1.1%. That gives you a better gauge of how it's doing.
-juice
Matt
Glad to hear that I may not be the only one bothered by the heated upper airflow when what I want is to get heat only in the footwells. I guess I'd become so accustomed to cars with the true bi-level arrangement (heated air down low, with cooler or unheated air above) that it never even occurred to me Subaru might omit that important capability. Having bought my XT in the summer, who'd have thunk to check out the ventilation system to that level of detail?
As a minimum, the mode setting with the 'foot' symbol should not send any heated air to the various defroster outlets; that should happen only when the mode selector is moved to the defrost position. Better still, the mode that invokes airflow through both the foot vents and the midlevel dash vents should send heated air below, and unheated (cool) air out of the dash vents. Other carmakers have mastered this; why hasn't Subaru?
Grrrrrr. You guys with input to Subaru design teams: This is a significant shortcoming that needs to be addressed. I realize that folks like me with sleep disorders are in the minority, but I contend that all drivers are more alert and less likely to drowse off with cooler air up around the head. With all of Subaru's attention to safety, I'm amazed that they haven't figured this bi-level technique out by now.
there is a note in user's manual that setting temperature dial to mid between blue and red creates some temperature difference between levels. However, that's still not enough to replace real cold air form the dash. Even without the eye problems or sleeping disorders, it is a hazard on longer trips to have warm air blown into someones face. I'd too like to be warm and comfortable in Canadian winter and still have a breeze of fresh air to breath. Are we asking for too much? No, again, my other small, old, 3x cheaper car has it.
K
Thanks, I appreciate knowing that - but this is not a happy solution. If I'm driving in cool-to-cold weather that calls for running the heater, it should not be necessary to waste fuel running the A/C compressor just to supply cooler air to the face and upper body. There's a world of colder air outside the car! All that's needed is a ventilation mode that routes some of that existing colder air through the dashtop or dash-front vents without first passing it through the heater. Opening the side windows isn't a solution, either, because it's too noisy and turbulent, and lets rain in.
I've had cars that cost less than half of my XT's price that provided this important capability. I'm astonished that Subaru omitted it.
There's a minor electrical modification that you can perform so the A/C compressor only comes on when you press the A/C button.
Can't post a link though because of the rules here about competing boards. Do a search on nasioc if you're interested.
-Dennis
Appreciate the response. I've heard of that mod, but I don't think it would solve the central issue. Unless there's a way to get the Forester's system to let some unheated (cold) outside air pass around (rather than through) the heater and then go to the dash outlets, then running the A/C compressor would be the only way to get colder air from the those vents. Disabling the the compressor would merely cause that dash-vent air to be the same warm temperature as at the foot outlets, just as it now is when the mode selector is set at the 'foot' position.
The problem is that Subaru apparently hasn't made any provision at all for supplying unheated air to the dash outlets while heating the feet.
Len
I will not be a happy camper if I get down to the Subura dealer and these wheels will not fit!!
Don
I've been a long term Honda fan but in recent test drives of the Pilot and Element I felt something was missing....so I test drove an XT.
Well, I'm sold......but, I'm not a car enthusiast (meaning I don't enjoy working on cars, but I do like driving). Much of this board, and related Subie resources, are very focused on the performance aspect. I'm interested in the reliability and maintenace aspect.
I've looked at the Edmunds info and on the 'Net, but I want to hear from others who have XT's but don't ever open the hood. Is this possible? Will the turbo require more frequent trips to the shop? I'm OK with the gas requirements and tire changes, but I'm looking to avoid actual mechanic visits, as I feel that's always a rip off.
Finally, there is almost no discussion on here regarding what people are paying.....I negotiated a deal on an XT with PP and a list of extras for $27,000, which was $500 over Edmunds invoice, then I get an email from another dealer for invoice. What gives?
That's because everyone's talking about it here: Subaru Forester: Prices Paid & Buying Experience
tidester, host
Should sound more like a sustained "swish".
-Dave
Welcome, Honda convert.
I see pricing close to invoice. There are incentives in some regions, too, $750 IIRC.
-juice
I was planning on getting the rear spoiler. I know it's functionally useless but I have one on my Honda and I've always liked the way it looked. I can't find any pictures of the rear spoiler on the XT. Anyone have it? Is it dorky? (not all spoilers enhance the look). I'm not into boy racer looks so maybe I should just deal with the scoop and let it go at that.
There were some posts about rattles a few weeks ago. That would drive me CRAZY. I had one in my Honda for several months that made want to pull the dash apart (something got into a vent and eventually worked itself out). Is this part of owning an XT, or the exception to the rule?
I got the fever. I've been reading the entire board over the past week and am almost caught up!