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Comments
Don
JP
I'm happy to hear you say that. Now if it would only get here...
Ed
My Gen III SHO was much more refined & a totally different drive than my Gen II & the Gen III was extremely reliable at 81k - most trouble free Ford I ever owned over many years (once I had the cam sprockets welded to prevent a potential failure). My son traded my former Gen II at 156k for a XT a few weeks prior to my XT purchase purchase based on my recommendation. Any of the 3 generations of SHO's were in their element at higher speeds - not necessarily from a standing start & there are ways to get them to turn. Only the M5 had the edge on a SHO (4 dr sedan) in '89.
A fellow SHO owner wrote me recently to advise that he's buying a 5-speed Limited GT wagon which fits his utility & performance needs - another convert to Subaru.
Yeah, the XT doesn't fit the performance image to some - I don't mind that...
Dropped mine off for a pressure test this morning, don't really expect them to find anything, just going to resign myself to the fact that I'd better keep a 50-50 mix of antifreeze on hand to add on a regular basis. Can't remember my last car that was a feature for.
There's enough nits that crop up with these overall - oil consumption, both of ours are averaging almost a quart every 3k, excessive in my mind. Antifreeze use, any other than due to evaporative loss is excessive to me, and I'm running a pint a month now, piston slap, which we've been spared so far, my wife's OBW "lifter" noise that my neighbor 2 houses over can hear. Just an accumulation of things that really take the gild off the lily.
Overall, I often miss my Sable, rotor sucker that it was. Oh wait, lots of Subaru owners run through rotors too....
Somehow I think the less one knows about cars, the better off you are. Ignorance can indeed be bliss.
This morning's rant brought to you via my dealer who says, "These normally smell of burning antifreeze when they get hot"
Larry
I understand your concern for oil consumption, but unfortuantely, most dealers won't entertain anything less than 1 qt/1000 miles as "serious". I think it's a good sign you're getting a pressure test.
Ken
You said: "This morning's rant brought to you via my dealer who says, "These normally smell of burning antifreeze when they get hot""
Several years ago, Toyota admitted to a problem with some gasket or seal failing on their T100 V-6 truck engines. Symptoms included a loss of coolant (which I experienced twice) and "the smell of burning anti-freeze" (which was the factor that confirmed the problem). The cure was to pull and machine the heads, polish the cylinders, replace springs and gaskets, and do a bunch of stuff that was beyond my comprehension of engine mechanics. This happened at 78,000 miles, and fortunately, didn't cost me a dime. Flash forward - in the past year, I started losing coolant again, and have had the water pump replaced twice. I also carry a 1 gallon jug of a 50-50 mixture of antifreeze and water everywhere I go. The engine has 160,000 miles on it, so this my be the end of the line.
There is a test a mechanic can perform to see if antifreeze is leaking into your cylinders, which would confirm a main gasket failure or whatever it was.
I take delivery of my 2004 Forester XT on Saturday, so I can dispense with lugging that antifreeze jug along with me!
Good luck!
- Steve
I think I have an idea what the problem is and am going to take a cut a fixing it myself over the weekend. If it works, I'll let you know.
BTW - Blackstone labs showed 0.0% antifreeze in the oil 3000 miles ago. Engine currently has 13500 on it.
Larry
i would like to know where in canada did you see the 05 XT. i am in the Greater Toronto Area.
what's the consensus here anyways? is it better to wait for the 05 XT than get the 04???
My '01 Forester with 54K miles didn't smell like antifreeze, but at one point I noticed the coolant level was down by about a quart but I didn't think too much of it since I don't check that level often enough. Then about a month or two later I noticed two drops of antifreeze under the car. I took it in to the dealer and they pressure tested it. They said it tested fine but they did some more digging and discovered that the water pump was on the fritz. They replaced the water pump which was the source of the leak, despite lacking any pressure leaks. FWIW. Maybe you can just monitor it until it shows more pronounced symptoms? Or keep taking it back to them again and again until they are sick of you.
As for the oil consumption, I also experienced what I considered high oil consumption at about a 1/2 - 1 quart per 3000 miles. But no spots on the floor. When I had it jacked up though, I noticed a drop of oil near the timing belt. That turned out to be leaking piston pin access hole covers - since the pistons only seep/leak when they are pumping, there was nothing on the garage floor. I had to take a photo of the leak to the dealer to convince them the 1 quart of oil might be a problem after all. Then by the next oil change there was a drip of oil on the garage floor - that turned out to be a leaking oil pump. I never really experienced "normal" oil consumption in the car when I didn't also suspect or have an oil leak. Can you get under the car and do a good check for oil seeping?
Elissa
my XT (3 trips from Fla to Canada) Love it--not one gripe yet..
Deadeye
I think that's better, but I'm not sure.
Nicholas
05 or 04???
Well, the dealer rebate from Subaru on an 04 XT is currently cnd$1500 for a cash sale, or 0%. Plus they will be keener to dip into their margin on an 04. So if you can find an 04 in the model/color you want, should be a good deal. 05 XTs are about $400 more expensive MSRP than 04s
There are not too many downsides to picking an 04 - the climate control may be improved for 05, nobody has answered that yet. The 05 (US model anyway) has a power driver seat, three spoke steering wheel, cabin filter and immobiliser - if any of that's important then factor that into your price. Then we have the fact that that 04 may have been manufactured over 12 months ago, and has been sitting on the lot or in a compound waiting for a buyer. Also that 04 may be a demo, or may at least have a few kms on it - and we all know what XT test drives are about:) Plus the 04 was the first model year for the XT, and hence all things being equal the 05 will have fewer bugs (though the XT has had few issues, none significant). Lastly, the 05 will be worth more at resale than the 04 if you intend to sell it early or lease.
In the US, the 04 XT was not offered in MT with leather and moonroof, but this combo is available in 05. In Canada in 04, we had the choice, so no reason there to pass up on a deal on an 04.
In summary - if you can find the model you want and save at least maybe cnd$2000 on an 04 over an 05, then I'd go for it. I'm getting an 05 as all I can find in Western Canada is white in an 04 MT PP1, and I dont want to drive a fridge. I like the new crystal gray color, so I'm getting that.
Whatever MY you decide, get an XT.
JP
i've heard that Canada won't be getting the LL Bean edition of the 05 Forester. But I have heard about the power seats.
my inclination is to wait for the '05.
Will keep the board posted.
"Details: THIS SITUATION WAS TAKEN CARE OF BY REPLACING "THE BRAINS" OF THE TRANSMISSION BUT THE IDLE SPEED HAS REMAINED BELOW 300 WITHOUT THE SERVICE LIGHT COMING ON SINCE. ONE OTHER COMMENT IS THAT THE SHIFTER DOES NOT LOCK INTO DRIVE LIKE MOST CARS IT LOCKS INTO 3RD. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE IDLE SPEED IS SUPPOSED TO BE BUT IT CAN'T BE 220. PUT BACK IN SERVICE ON DEC 8TH."
Earlier this afternoon I got a call from that dealership to confirm the details of my order, i.e., model, color and options. From this I'm inferring that they haven't even placed the order yet, and that the 4-8 week window will be from today, not from the original 7/6 date on which I placed my order.
Should I be concerned?
Ed
I got confirmation of my F-XT order the following Monday (I had placed the order on Friday) from my salesguy.
-Brian
BTW this car was ordered under the ACA VIP program. If it's the case that the order has yet to be processed, I'd expect better treatment under VIP.
Ed
-Dennis
If so, look for my laundry list of XT n00b questions in your inbox soon ;-).
Ed
It was interesting to read about coolant smellcomplaints. I complained about that last week and was told there were no leaks noted during inspection, and it may be a sealant used to seal the cover for the bottom of the engine. It smells when heated up, and is smells almost the same as anti-freeze. I have no idea if that is fact.
It sounds to me that your order is just about to get faxed over. I'm not sure if Patti can help at this point.
Ken
The dealer had better honor the trade-in value we agreed in writing upon, no matter how many more miles I put on the car in the meantime, else there will be breach of contract issues.
Ed
Never will I order a car again. The one I buy, sits in the lot, sounds perfect, has no defects, doesn't end up coming with unordered accessories 2 months later, etc., or I walk off the lot. The risk of getting something undesireable is too high.
John
John- Sounds like you had a really bad experience. However, special ordering has its place because it allows you to pick the exact model, color and options. It's rare (at least for me) to find something on the lot that perfectly matches what you want. Usually you have to compromise and take options you don't want and/or forgo ones that you do. By special ordering, you also ensure that no one else has driven your car. Finally, you should always take it for a test spin and give it a through going over before accepting it.
Elissa- Not necessarily. In one respect the dealer obviously wants to move his inventory but customer ordered cars cost him the least in overhead so he may be willing to pass on the savings.
-Frank
John
-Brian
- nothing deleted (standard moonroof, standard 7 speakers, etc)
- 3 spoke wheel
- 8 way power drivers seat
- cabin filter
- immobilizer
- 7 speed fan on climate control (HAL fix?)
- uses less fuel (12.3/9.0 l/100km city/hwy, up from 13.0/9.3 for the 5MT, someone else can do the conversion...)
We get a second extra color, Regal Blue Pearl, which is nice to have but too dark for me, still like Crystal Gray best, though it is not quite dark enough (!!).
Also our regular XS keeps the two-tone, you have to go for the XS Premium or the XT to get monotone.
JP
PS: Ed, are you ordering something special or is yours a small market? The dealers will soon be awash with FXTs, ordering not necessary more a case of putting one aside.
The Philadelphia metropolitan area - which includes SoA headquarters in Cherry Hill, NJ - is a fairly large market. I live about 35 miles NNE of Philadelphia.
There's nothing special about the car I ordered except, apparently, the color. Crystal Gray XTs seem to be a rare beast thus far. I searched dealer inventories at subaru.com last night and only found one Crystal Gray XT in all of New Jersey, Pennsylvania (east of Harrisburg) and Delaware. It's at a dealership about 25 miles from the one where I placed my order. It has all of the options I'm looking for except one (rear spoiler) and has one I'm not looking for (auto-dimming rear mirror). I don't know whether the spoiler can be a DIO rather than a PIO; if so I wonder why my dealership hasn't tried to trade for this one from the other dealership.
Ed
Of course in Canada, we get the spoiler as standard. Curiously, I am considering deleting it from our forthcoming crystal gray XT. Bit too much bling for my taste, prefer the sleeper look.
One good thing about the crystal gray, you know it is not a refitted 04:)
JP
Ed
Ready for this? This is my car. The dealer has it and is installing the rear spoiler FWIW. They are kicking in the auto-dimming rear mirror.
Turns out that the saleperson who made the deal with me has left the dealership and, in the owner's words, "we dropped the ball." So now they're picking it back up.
Ed
-Dennis
Well, without reading too much into it, I'm going to guess that the other dealership's inventory had not been updated last night. It's also possible that the car made its way from that dealership to my dealership between last night and this afternoon.
It's curious but as long as the spoiler is painted and installed properly and the rest of the dealer prep is done right, all should be well.
Ed
I have about another two months before my finances are in order. To help pass the time, I went to the dealership at lunch and sat in a non-PDI'd crystal gray 05 FXT. It's a great color for the FXT, matches the exterior trim and two tone interior really well. Other stuff I noticed - cruise control on stalk, silver rims around guages, power driver seat has huge range of adjustment (you can almost see out of the moonroof), and AWD badges eliminated. The three spoke wheel feels/looks good too. I have decided to keep the spoiler.
Champagne on a monochrome Forester looks odd in direct sunlight, kind of silvery golden greeny white. Even odder than the 04 gold.
JP