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Comments
512s are just $49 a pop fron Vulcantire.com, add shipping and mounting and you're still well under $300.
Plus - they ought to last longer than the all terrain tires you have now. I have a set on my Miata and they grip very well.
-juice
They're good in the rain, though.
-juice
-juice
-Frank
On a FWD car, especially a powerful one, the front tires will wear much, much quicker than the rears. They're doing 100% of the acceleration, 90% of the stopping, 100% of the steering, and carrying 60% of the weight.
AWD actually evens out the burden a little so you should see more even tire wear. You should still rotate your tires regularly, of course.
-juice
Do I need to change my oil soon, my saleperson said something about an initial oil change the day I bought my XT but that was a looong day and I forgot exactly what he said. A little help please?
PS. I guess now that I've had my XT for 5 weeks, finally have an idea for improvement. On auto trans, the ride would be even smoother if it was 5 spd auto instead of 4! Oh, and the "armrest" should really be called an elbow rest, needs to move forward 2 inches!! Move the butt warmer buttons to in front of knobshift area, you know, that deadspace next to lighter outlet. That's pretty much my dream "SUV".
Just for fun, I chart my mileage. My best ever only occured after 3 years of use! And my first year average was 2mpg lower than what I'm getting now.
Basically, you don't even want to lug the engine, put a load on it below 2000 rpm. Beyond that drive smoothly and try not to waste momentum. Any time you use the brakes, think of it as lost energy.
Drive safely though!
Also, the Forester is boxy, and wind resistance increases with the square of speed. So mileage will drop the faster you go on the highway. You'll do better at 55 than you will at 65, or 65 vs. 75.
But you got a turbo, 22 mpg is already high for such a high-performance engine! Count your blessings...
-juice
Mine is a 5-speed and I have 12,000 miles on it. The MPG has been improving little by little - I started out around 20-21, now it's closer to 22 overall. Highest I ever got was 25.8, lowest was 19.5 on the initial tank from the dealer. That was the only time I ever got below 20.
-juice
25mpg on my '98 Forester L.
-juice
You guys know that at this music festival I went to, there was a bluegrass band that toured 8,000 miles filling their van with vegetable oil??! Really! Hmmm, wonder what their MPG is? Though I wouldn't try it on my turbo engine but it's great what the near future can bring! Cheers everyone!
My XT is coming up on a Year, who here (and I know I won't get an answer) takes their Subaru in for the Annual Safety Inspection, and how much does the Service Writer Smile when he tells you the Price of this hidden Maintainence requirement?
-Frank
"In furthering our continued interest in Highway Safety, SUBARU of America, Inc. Urges each SUBARU owner to have an Annual Safety Inspection made on his or her Vehicle. The Safety Inspection is to be made in addition to the reccomended periodic Maintainence Services. The safety Inspection is a Maintenance Service and is not covered under the SUBARU limited Warranties".
I have a 2 Year Pre Paid SUBARU Scheduled Maintenance Plan and the Gold Plus Service Contract and yes, the Answer is no, not covered!
Thanks
John
Well I agree that performing regular safety inspections is a smart idea and I would "urge" everyone to take that advice. HOWEVER, unless a safety inspection is "required" by your state, it's not mandatory but a recommendation only. And in any case, it's something that many people can perform themselves or have their local mechanic do. You certainly don't "have" to go to a Subaru dealer but if you choose to do so, you've no reason to complain.
-Frank
A few things:
• The new Legacy and Outback have certainly clouded the issue, no doubt about that. Trying to decide between these three is not an easy job. No wonder there are so many people here on the "fence."
• One thing they have corrected with the '05 model is that it now has a "cruise" and "(cruise) set" light on the dash which brings the Forester in line with all the other Subies.
• The other thing, it didn't seem as outlandishly fast as the last one I drove. That could because of two things: (1) I've driven several turbo Legacys and Outbacks, so some of the luster of the turbo Forester has been lost, and (2) the salesman who accompanied me was close to 400lbs., if not more.
In any case it is still a kick-butt fun car to drive. I love now having a moonroof available on the 5-speed turbo, and the leather was nice too. Now if they could only tighten up the suspension and steering just a tad...
Bob
-juice
LOL on the 400lb. salesperson.
Or, they may have tweaked the ECU programming too.
Ken
Bob
Any other 05 differences of note, besined the obvious (3 spoke steering wheel)? Have they fixed the blue flecks in the cloth interior. What about the climate control/HAL?
Figure the second year XT is a good buy, all the bugs ironed out...only problem is that there are none yet in western Canada, no brochures, no Canadian specs yet on subaru.ca. All I know is that there is a $400 price increase.
Crystal gray FXY MT by winter...JP
Bob
"Dude, I thought this car was supposed to be fast, but I can barely get it to accelerate!" LOL
-Frank
DaveM
P.S. Congrats Ed on ordering an F-XT.
-juice
I see swampy hijacked Ed's screen name again.
<<<<<
LOL
tidester, host
All '05 Foresters can tow 2400lb if you have trailer brakes, that's for both automatic and 5-speeds. '04 XT automatics are rated for 2000lb IIFC. If your trailer does not have trailer brakes, your Forester and all Subarus are only rated to tow 1000lb. Sorry, I can't answer your wiring questions.
Bob
I recently ordered a small cargo trailer that I'll be using occasionally to carry my motorcycle and sometimes cargo. I thought it would be best to order the Subaru trailer kit and had it installed by the dealer. Unfortunately, the trailer kit doesn't have any type of brake controller even though Subaru recommends trailer brakes for towed weights greater than 1000 pounds. The local trailer company where I ordered my trailer also was unsure about the wiring. I've done extensive searches on the internet for the Subaru wiring and emailed Subaru but neither were successful in locating the wiring assistance necessary to install the brake controller with existing wiring.
Has anyone else had a brake controller installed?
tidester, host
My wife has a 1996 Legacy L which I find OK for local trips, but not very peppy merging on to the highway. I have been thinking about the a Forester turbo or a Honda Accord V-6 for the past several months, and it seems that the 2004 models are bargain priced right now. For example, a NH dealer has several Forester XTs with auto, leather, and sunroof for about $24,500. I believe that the invoice on the comparable 2005 model is about $26,800. If these figures are correct, the 2004 leftovers look like a steal. My questions:
1) Have the "bugs" in the 2004 model year been bad enough to pass up a bargain price?
2) Are there significant new features on the 2005 to justify paying about $3,000 more? From what I've seen, a power driver's seat is the only new feature on the XT.
Thanks for your help!
Steve
Later and thanks for the help,
John
If it requires 15 amps it will be fine with #14 wire. If 20 amps then #12 wire. This is the same gauge used in most residential wiring. There's a chart of wire gauges vs current handling capacity that you can probably find on the web.
If its straight DC, and you don't know the amps, but do know the power required, the amps can be back calculated. The same is true if you're powering a DC>AC inverter, except you have to take into account the power loss the inverter adds to the system.
I'd be surprised if the current is as high as 15 amps. Figure that's enough to run the average side-by-side home refrigerator.
If you have any of the specifics, post them and we'll see if we can't refine the information a step or two.
HTH - at least as a starting point.
Larry
Looking hard at the '05 FX with the 30 EPA HWY rating.......and concurrently saving my Naval Reverse pay.......
any '05 FX fuel efficiency feedback avail? B, ez
I have towed, but only with my 1998 L model. It handled about 1500 lbs well. Had to slip the clutch a little more, but my clutch is still the original at 65k miles, even my brake pads are still the originals.
I got the OE hitch, which I believe has changed now, they use a different supplier. Subaru also provide a harness that plugged right into the wiring in the spare tire well (yes, that's it).
But you're right, it's just the 4 connector type. I have not tried a 7 connector harness because the trailer I borrowed (Bob's) has 4 connectors.
Braking distances took a little longer, and it acclerates from a stop like the '96 Honda CR-V I test drove - i.e. slow.
-juice
Bob
The Legacy averaged 25MPG on regular, the FXT gets about 21-22 on premium.
In hindsight, I should have waited another year or two, and got the new Outback or Legacy. But as far as overall utility, the Forester is hard to beat.
-juice
-Brian
Looking hard at the '05 FX with the 30 EPA HWY rating.......and concurrently saving my Naval Reverse pay.......
any '05 FX fuel efficiency feedback avail? B, ez