Subaru Crew - Future Models II

volkov

They are all over OLN tour de France coverage and Speed channel too.
Haven't seen the Sub Brand ads.

Nicholas

p0926

Just my two cents but if it's built on a car chassis and has sliding doors and/or pass thru access to the 2nd row it's a minivan. Everything else is a station wagon (including the Forester). Regardless of what manufacturers do to disguise their offerings, just about every "SUV" and "crossover" fits one of one of those two categories.

-Frank

locke2c

I completely agree with Frank's above definitions of minivan and wagon. Forester is definitely a tall wagon.

~c

sweet_subie

Can some techie help me understand ?
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/jedlicka.aspx?make=Subaru&m- - odel=Legacy&src=reviewers

The GT streaks to 60 mph from a standing start in 5.9 seconds. But the engine has annoying turbo lag when the gas pedal is floored. Such lag momentarily delays response in passing and merging situations. That's particularly true when the GT engine is hooked to $1,200 5-speed automatic transmission instead of to the standard, improved 5-speed manual gearbox, which should be ordered with the $339 short-throw shifter for the most efficient shifting.

sweet_subie

"The 2005 GT sedan and wagon are good enough to compete with higher-priced European sports sedans and wagons, which is something nobody was predicting a few years ago. "

qbrozen

well then you'd think my wife's Pilot is a VERY tall and VERY heavy wagon.

I actually never know what to call it, so I always refer to it as "your Pilot", rather than "your truck" or "your SUV" or whatever.

locke2c

There is definitely some turbo lag in the Legacy GT. It is minimal in comparision to many other turbocharged cars, but it exists.

I'd still give the engine 10/10 in its peer group however... without hesitation!

~c

p0926

my wife's Pilot is a VERY tall and VERY heavy wagon

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Of course most drivers of "SUVs" will get offended if you point out that they're driving a tall wagon (blow to their image ya know) so often times discretion is the better part of valor :-)

-Frank

bblacha

There is definitely some turbo lag in the Legacy GT. It is minimal in comparision to many other turbocharged cars, but it exists.

I'd still give the engine 10/10 in its peer group however... without hesitation!

Ha!

locke2c

finally!

~c

ateixeira

So I'm channel surfing and I saw the new Subaru ad on ... Spike TV? Seems odd given that Martina was used in the past, no?

Pilot feels trucky to me, of course I'm used to cars. An Explorer owner might say it's very car-like. Maybe I'm just not used to that much mass, when I drove it.

Even the Highlander felt heavy. My wife found it too big!

It'll be interesting to drive the Subie 7 seater because I have yet to be "wowed" by something of such mass.

And no, Bob, you're not getting me in a Cayenne, no matter what. ;-)

-juice

rsholland

sweet_subie

http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/163979-7368-127.html

beanboy

Scares me. Make the GT less laggy with aftermarket parts, or make the Forester XT handle better with aftermarket parts. Wish the first few gears of the GT were like the FXT...

-B

bblacha

But then fuel economy would be worse than F-XT.

Here's a perfect example of a car in need of 6-spd.

ateixeira

Drive the manual, it really doesn't need another ratio. Not at all, IMHO.

-juice

sweet_subie

http://www.moneymag.com/2004/07/26/pf/autos/iihs_rav4_legacy/inde- x.htm

sweet_subie

http://www.lafayettejc.com/news20040726/200407260local_business10- 90818660.shtml

njswamplands

atlgaxt

I thought the new Forester earned top ratings in both the front and side tests. Didn't they say it was the best small SUV ever tested? I guess it has slipped behind the RAV 4 now.

The RAV 4 doing so well and the Legacy doing poorly is not great news for Subaru because I always figured that safety was one of the factors they needed to have down pat in order to make their move to being more upscale. If they become average (or below average) in safety, Subaru loses some of its positive differentiation.

locke2c

there's no way the RAV4 would get good insurance ratings with that rear-mounted spare. time and time again those prove to inflict extreme damage on the vehicle during a rear crash-- even low-speed ones.

but that is cost of a crash vs. safety of a crash though.

~c

p0926

The Forester did have the best safety ratings in its class but I'm not sure how it compares to the RAV4.

You can be sure that Subaru will address the Legacy's side-impact rating in MY-06 (just as Toyota did: "Although it was not substantially redesigned, the 2004 Rav4 was retested because Toyota had made improvements to the vehicle's structure").

-Frank

rsholland

One of the nabisco-ites swears that in one of the new Legacy TV commercials, in the background, is a frame of a vehicle that is very "un-Subaru," as we currently know them. Could this be a *tease* of the new 7-passenger vehicle???

Bob

subearu

any still's of that ad captured? I think I've only seen that ad once but wasn't paying attention to it close enough.

-Brian

rsholland

after I posted the above.

It happens very quick, so quick that I really couldn't tell. I'll have to see it several more times before I can determine anything. I will say it didn't look like the Legacy body frame. It's a wagon of some sort, and it could be nothing more than that of the Forester. But then again...

Bob

kens

Hmmm. I'll have to see if TiVo picked it up.

Ken

bluesubie

Does anyone know where a review is? There was one recently posted that mentioned an improved interior, but I can't find it.

There's a UK expat at work that's heading back to the UK soon and will be getting a car. He's read a few negative reviews about the interior quality. Before he came here, he had an S3.

-Dennis

locke2c

well, they improved it for '05 and I think it is perfectly fine but obviously not remotely in the realm of an Audi-- nor is Subaru trying to be.

your co-worker must be fabulously well paid to afford an STi in the UK... what's he drive here, a 911?

~c

sweet_subie

http://www.nynewsday.com/business/autocorner/ny-sstom0730,0,68642- 21.story?coll=ny-weekinwheels-headlines

see subaru responded to crash test on media site

bluesubie

Well, he lives on the Upper West Side and is getting a promotion when he goes back to the UK.

The staff over there get a car lease allowance and the amount depends on your position. The more he looks at prices though, the more he is thinking something about something sensible. :-) I'm trying to push him to the new Legacy Spec B (or whatever it's called).

-Dennis

sweet_subie

Test drove a GT today, it was HOOT to drive on highway 93, touched 100. What a sight pass those BMWs & Volvos.

This Car for 2k less than MSRP is really a good deal.

The dealer confirmed that Nav is coming next year. He says 7-seater is due this Sep/OCt in MAss , what's up with this ?

rsholland

is in late September. I wonder what, if anything, new Subaru is

http://www.mondial-automobile.com/index2.htm?movie=home.swf&n- om= going to show?

Bob

subearu

"Test drove a GT today, it was HOOT to drive on highway 93, touched 100"

Not quite sure how responsible that is, I know I wouldn't be happy if the car I bought was driven at speeds close to 100 during the break-in period...

-Brian

sweet_subie

no, i checked with the salesman if it was ok
but i see your point.

locke2c

depends on the gear you were in. redlining it in 3rd is bad, yeah. 100mph isn't that fast in 5th, though.

I got into the power a bit on my Evo during the test drive-- not rev limit in any gear and not 100 mph, I think, but definitely over 80 mph.

it's perfectly fine 2500 miles later. but yeah I too understand the notion of not beating on a car you don't own and more importantly, someone else will have pay good money for.

~c

rsholland

It's a problem any time you test-drive a new car. On one hand you don't want to abuse the vehicle, yet on the other hand, you want to get a sense for what the vehicle can do. The more the vehicle is billed as a "high-performance" car, the bigger this problem becomes.

So what do you do? Rely only on published magazine reports? They will certainly give you the "numbers" but won't give you the "feeling," and besides, their take may differ from yours, as much of this is very subjective.

Frankly, I don't think a little "what'll-she-do" kind of driving is out of line. Having said that, don't overdo it, or abuse the vehicle. That I don't advocate.

Bob

rob_m

There are better ways to test out a new car.

Living north of Boston, and dealing with an extremely congested Route 93 on a daily basis, I almost have to question the sanity of anyone test driving a car at 100 mph.

Guess who else is on that road? My wife and 9 year old son. Rob M.

twrx

My present WRX had 300 miles on it when I bought it since it had been on the lot for an entire year. WRX #1 had 8 miles on it when I took deliverfy of it. I know there has been a lot of talk of hard test driven WRXs and how you did not want one with test drive miles on it. At 16,000 miles on it the engine seems OK. The one difference I noticed with this car was good gas mileage much sooner. I got over EPA estimate by 3000 on my 2003 but with my 2002 it took 3000 to get to epa estimatess. By 10,000 I had gotten up to 30 on the new one. Another observation on the 2003. The clutch is perfect (cross my fingers). Early 2003s were supposed to still be cursed wht the shuddering clutch but I have been through an entire winter with it and nno problems.

TWRX

sweet_subie

93N between Wilmington & NH is not congested on sat morning !
And the highway is a straight one.

locke2c

2003+ have the clutch force limiter, but other than that I don't know that anything is different about them.

~c

eps105

Holy cow, I can't believe I actually beat everyone to the punch!

The Car Connection just released an article with spy shots of the new 7-passenger SUV. In fact, the dateline is dated tomorrow, 8/2/04, but I just got the e-mail a few minutes ago.

SURPRISE! They're calling it the Tribeca, not the Halifax.

Here's the link...
http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=7368

It's hard to tell what it really looks like from the pix, but the article mentions that consumer feedback groups have been extremely positive with the design and versatility.

Elliot

c_hunter

I think the first few dozen 03 WRX models had the old clutch design. Anything after that got the new clutch hardware which fixed the judder problem.

Unrelated to teh judder problem, the force limiting valve was added in 03 to prevent people from dropping or sidestepping the clutch and shredding gears.

Craig

subearu

looks to be non-frameless windows...

-Brian

njswamplands

another one of those 3rd rows with passenger heads 10 inches from rear glass?

rsholland

Elliot

Great catch! You must have woken up a bit earlier than the rest of us today.

Bob

rsholland

? What did you expect Swampy? A Suburban (Subaruban?) type of rear cargo space? All the vehicles in this class are like that.

Bob

rsholland

While it's difficult to see all the details, if you enlarge the images, several things can be pointed out:

• It appears to have a built-in Class III trailer hitch. If so, that's great.

• The center part of the grille appears to be shaped more like that of the R1e.B9SC, rather than the R2/B11S; also good (I think).

• It's sitting very low to the ground which makes me wonder if it has a height-adjustable suspension of some sort?

Bob

rsholland

It looks like Subie's signature frameless windows are MIA.

Bob

rob_m

rsholland

"Tribeca," as a play on the word "tribe?" I'm wondering how Native Americans might feel, since that word is often associated with them—and that this vehicle was designed primarily as a North American product?

Judging by the tone of the article, I'm not convinced that will be the final name.

Bob