2009 Subaru Forester

pgb0517

I sent Subaru an e-mail a while back suggesting that they upgrade their trip computer to show more mileage info -- 'distance till empty,' 'time remaining till empty,' a compass (where it belongs -- not in the mirror!), and instant fuel economy. Subaru responded that they'd pass my ideas along.

But the Subaru rep also said that the low-fuel warning light comes on when there is about 2.6 gallons of gas remaining. At about 22 MPG average, that'd be 57 miles till you're out of fumes to run on. I have not tested the math on that.

The rep also said that the navigation system provides more fuel data than the standard trip computer. Wish I had known that before I opted not to get the nav. Doesn't look like the nav can be added at the dealer.

btw, I have always had prompt, courteous and intelligent replies from Subaru reps when I've sent suggestions along via the corporate Web site. I have encouraged them to improve the head restraints, cupholders and trip computer. Of course, they defend the head restraints and said they'd pass all my comments along to the right folks. But at least they replied. So anybody who has any concerns -- let Subaru know, and maybe we'll see improvements down the road.

One rep also told me that all safety concerns are summarized quarterly for the NHTSA: "Part of the regulations of car manufacturers in the US is that we all provide product information from customer contacts on a quarterly basis to NTHSA. This is one way in which car manufacturers keep NHTSA and our government in general aware of the compliments, complaints and feedback from vehicle owners. I am unable to state that any changes will come about, which I know you can understand. But, we at Subaru of America do what we can to make ourselves as well as our government aware of what our customers are providing feedback on."

He also encouraged me that customers can provide direct feedback to NHTSA at www.nhtsa.dot.gov.

rsholland

Forester/Impreza nav:

http://www.cars101.com/subaru/nav2.html

Legacy/Outback/Tribeca nav:

http://www.cars101.com/subaru/navigation.html

On the Impreza/Forester (cars 101 page) look at the picture titled "set service reminders," and you will see at the top of the screen two icons: one that shows a "fuel pump, and the other next to it showing "3 interlocked circles." I'm betting it's one of those two where that additional fuel info is located. If you go to the other link here (Legacy/Outback/Tribeca nav) you will see that image.

Bob

camrytimes2

I installed a rear bumper cover protector on my 2009 and removed it after one week. I don't think that the part looked cheap. However, unlike the older generation bumper cover protector, which appears to be relatively flat, the 2009 bumper cover protector is somewhat 'corrugated' and does not adhere as well to the bumper cover. Only a portion of the double sided tape that is affixed to the protector contacts the car's bumper cover. The left side of my carefully installed protector never seated properly and irked me. I have read a report of a factory installed bumper cover lifting already. Too bad, as I would rather have a good bumper cover protector than none at all.

nathans

the tribeca trip computer (without nav) does show distance to empty and instant fuel economy. Surely it can't be hard to get this in other models?!

pgb0517

That's my point. The raw data is all in the on-board diagnostics. A ScanGauge can pull it out, crunch the numbers and present the info. There's really no excuse for any decent car on the market not giving access to all that data, once they decide to put the trip computer in there in the first place. Boggles the mind. Then again, maybe it's not worth boggling over.

phdhusky

I havn't had any issues with my rear bumper cover that was factory installed. Will keep you posted.

jeffmc

The standard trip computers (non-nav) in my '06 Legacy & Outback each display distance to empty. They also display time, elapsed time, outside temp., instant fuel economy, overall fuel economy (for each of the 2 trip odometers). Temperature flashes at 37 (I think) and 32 degrees, elapsed time flashes each hour, distance to empty flashes when the low fuel light comes on.

I'm surprised they don't use the same trip computer in all the models simply for economy of scale.

redherring1

My bad--I thought we were talking about the "bumper corner molding protectors", not the rear bumper cover. It was the corner moldings that my salesman advised against--I have the bumper cover and have no problems with it. The bumper top will get scratched without it.

dcwestby

Indeed... When I testdrove an 09. I asked about the fuel economy meters, and the sales person said that for safety reasons [disttraction from road], they've simplified to average fuel econ.

In my opinion, thats stupid but all models now should have all the fuel econ meters.

pgb0517

OH. If we are talking about the rear bumper cover, yes, I have that. Can't imagine having any kind of SUV or minivan without one. Even so, I notice that on some Subarus, the bumper cover was bigger -- it sloped up on the ends so that all the surfaces were covered, not just the horizontal bumper surface. That's my only complaint about it so far, provided the adhesive they use survives the Texas heat.

It's the bumper corner protectors I've heard bad things about.

pgb0517

When I e-mailed Subaru about the lack of features in the trip computer, they did not say anything about driver distraction, so maybe that was just the sales guy speculating. However, given Subaru's commitment to safety, it wouldn't surprise me. But then, look at the nav system -- a driver-eyeball magnet if I ever saw one!

rsholland

Got my latest issue of Consumer Reports, and they test the new Forester XT and X models.

The XT came in first, and the X came in third, right behind the Rav4 V6.

Bob

svskyus

Funny, can't find the review on their web site. Only has First Drive test.
Bruce

rsholland

Just got in the mail today.

Bob

ateixeira

pqb: the DTE (distance to empty) feature on my van is so innaccurate that's it's useless. It's *way* too conservative. People go a hundred miles after it's "empty".

Glad to hear SoA is responsive. They were great during the ordering process to us.

Tribeca's NAV is totally different, so we shouldn't conclude anything from that. For instance it includes a backup cam that the Forester doesn't get.

FYI, when you reset the avg fuel economy I noticed that it doesn't display any number at all until you've driven at least one mile.

Glad to hear that Consumer Reports rated is tops! Very cool.

So it has won the hearts of that aussie magazine, Motor Trend, and Consumer Reports. So far. :shades:

hiiamed

I have had my new Forester for a few weeks now and after reading all your posts, I thought I would share some of my thoughts. The ipod interface is not worth the effort. When I first tried it all it did was squeal, The dealer who had never seen one, took the dash apart and found a bad connection, now it works as it should but is very hard to use. I listen to auidobooks and not being able to pause, is a pain. Most of the time now I just use the AUX jack.
I live in Las Vegas and the sunroof on my X Premium gets so hot (it was 115 today) the air has a hard time keeping up. I will tint it dark ASAP.
My girlfriend has to sit on a pillow in the passenger seat to see wear we are going.
The drivers seat is not the most comfortable, and the raising mechanism sinks on long trips. Need to crank it back up every 100 miles or so. (I am a big guy 6-3 275lbs)
That was the bad. There is lots of good as well.
The power is more than I expeced, I have a cabin in the mountians of southern Utah the road up goes over 10,000 feet this car flys up the mountian. The sport drive is great.
I took it out in the sand and water today, the all wheel drive is very good. Several miles of sand 8" to 12" deep no problom.
The room inside is wondefull for a small SUV. Me, My girl and my 95lb Lab along with all our gear and room for more.
24mpg in town So far. 26 to 29 on the highway.
And maybe most inportant its a blast to drive!
This is the first post I ever put on any forum so I hope I did it right.

redherring1

for safety reasons [disttraction from road], they've simplified to average fuel econ.

They'd probably say that's why there's no temp or oil pressure gauge either--what's next, nothing but a giant speedometer and fuel gauge? Oh, and a big bright yellow passenger airbag indicator right in the middle of the windshield?

rsholland

Yep, ya done fine. Thanks for the feedback—and great photo!

Bob

ateixeira

Beautiful! Ours is the same color, even.

I still owe you guys a pic of mine.

Our tags came in today and they are a color-matched Chesapeake Bay special tag. :shades:

kurtamaxxxguy

So far I've have had 3 surveys sent me regarding the '09 Forester (one was from JD Power, another from Strategic Vision, the third I forget).

Are others here getting as many survey requests?

The dealer (Lithia) never sent me a survey. Odd, considering how much noise they made during the sale as to its importance.

ateixeira

No, just one from the dealership group and one from Subaru.

My feedback will be very positive because they handled a special order quite well and even delivered it in less time than I expected. Plus no surprises on pricing.

samiam_68

Nice write up. Agree, after all these years, Subaru still can't make decent seats. It's a shame!

volkov

Great pic!
I'm not so big, but have never had a seat height issue. If it is falling down, it is defective - have it repaired/replaced.

merrycynic

Not exactly my guiding light, but the latest issue of Consumer Reports gushes over the new Forester.

jeffmc

That's a pretty awesome first post! Thanks for including the great photo... you should consider submitting it to Subaru's Drive magazine. Congrats on your new Forester. :shades:

kurtamaxxxguy

Though the XT CU tested only got 20 mpg overall, CU preferred it over the X because of the better seats, handling and acceleration.

CU's website is not yet updated with the '09 reports.

bigfrank3

CR online now has the new issue posted.

kurtamaxxxguy

Yes, that is true and the comparison w/ '09 Forester is there. Videos of all the vehicles in that comparison are there as well.

The CR page describing the '09 forester, however, remains a "first drive" listing, so apparently CU hasn't finished updating everything on the Forester.

ateixeira

They liked the last one, and this one mostly adds safety features like VCD and side-curtain air bags, things they value most.

So far Motor Trend put it on top in a comparo, CR rated it tops in class, and Drive (Australia) picked it as a comparo winner as well.

Note that despite it's compact dimensions, the cargo capacity of their biggest box test was actually bigger than the larger Outlander due to its space efficiency. :shades:

ateixeira

Jeff's right, go for it.

I've been in that magazine twice. :shades:

board_jay

So I've had the Forester for 2 weeks and 400 miles (just filled up!). Anyway, I was coming home from running an errand and slowed down to pull into my development which is a left turn off a main road. I had the clutch fully depressed and was coasting for about 20 feet and went to turn the wheel and it would not turn. It appears that the car lost power or something and the power steering wasn't on. I restarted it through the turn and all is good. I DID NOT stall the car - no bucking or anything. Only thing I can think of from my point if view is maybe when I started it up at the store the key was not fully in the ignition/on position and it just clicked back. I have a few other keys on the ignition chain, was thinking maybe I hit those. Anyway, just spent the last 30min trying to make it happen, trying to stall it, trying to pull on the iginition keys, doing the exact same turn and can't make it happen. Anyone else experience anything similar? Thanks,

Erik

ateixeira

It doesn't fail when you want it to, aren't things always that way?

I meant VDC in my previous post, pardon my typo.

rsholland

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=128409

djmacedonas

Yeah, which is kind of bizarre. To read the report and the ratings, you would think that they don't know that, by buying a limited, you can get all of the creature comforts of the XT in the X, except for the telescoping wheel. Braking was better on the X, which I also don't understand.

I'm really happy with my X limited. It is slooooow. I recently almost got smoked by a base rusted old civic packed with people. Still, the power delivery is fairly smooth, and it can get going quietly, and it doesn't seem to struggle too much... but when it is delivering 25 MPG in mixed driving (my commute) I really can't find much room to complain. I think the indicator is a little off, though, by maybe 1 mpg, but still the car is brand new (I'm on my second tank) and it is already doing better than my premium requiring ex Mazda MX6.

By the way, acceleration seems better at higher speeds. In other words, for passing on the highway, it's pretty peppy, unlike what the reviews are stating

volkov

by buying a limited, you can get all of the creature comforts of the XT in the X, except for the telescoping wheel.

Really? All Canadian Forester get tilt/telescope wheel, even the base X. You guys don't?

pgb0517

We get tilt, not telescope, in the LLBean/Limited.

I actually find the standard engine quite responsive around town and on the highway. No complaints, other than a bit of sluggishness in the transmission which seems to be getting better as we approach 2,000 miles on the odometer.

But dang, somebody delivered us a door ding this week. No loss of paint. Mild dent. Gonna check out one of the paintless dent removal outfits. Anybody in Austin area got a recommendation?

sgloon

"Braking was better on the X, which I also don't understand."

The X is a bit lighter than the XT. That might explain the difference in braking.

birdboy

I have noticed at speeds 45 and higher there is a bit of a shaking or vibration my driver side mirror glass. I took it in for my first oil change @2,000 miles. The technician said it was fine. I then took the service manager out for a ride and he observed the slight shaking and vibration. He stated that the pivot that moves the mirror is sensitive. i questioned why this vibration is not seen on the passengers mirror, it is the same mechanism isn't it? He stated that I adjust the drivers side more. Considering that I have not adjusted the mirror after driving it out of the show room , this is an unacceptable answer. He did say he would contact Subaru to find out if this is a known issue. Does anyone else experience this, would you kindly check and let me know. thanks in advance for your input .

phdhusky

I think at high speeds 60+ I also hear some wind noise and or vibration coming from the direction of the driver's side mirror. I also have been getting vibrations in the rear and this may be the sunroof back corner above the passenger but i'm not sure. Also when I drive with the sunshade back and the moonroof closed there is a little ticking coming from the moonroof. I don't think it's tight enough or something cause when I press on it the vibration stops. Not really worth taking to the dealer because they might cause more problems than solutions.

kurtamaxxxguy

I was curious how well the XT would retain control on wet roads under hard acceleration. So this morning I gave it several tries after a rainstorm had passed (at nearly 3K miles, XT seemed broken in enough for that sort of occasional treatment)

Other than a little tire grumbling, the XT just accelerated. No shrieks, no tire smoking wheel spin. Nice

My former FWD, front heavy Malibu Maxx loved to spin its tires like in similar situations.

ateixeira

They rave about the Forester, big time:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/past-road-test/small-suvs/videos-small-s- uvs/small-suvs-videos.htm

One thing they mention that I don't think made the print copy is that the 5 speed manual model was not only quicker, but also delivered 24mpg.

By their standards, that's pretty amazing, only hybrids do better. They got 16-22mpg for the others, including 20mpg for the Forester turbo and 22mpg for the base engine.

Of course, they may not have mentioned it in print because manuals have become increasingly rare, which is a shame!

ateixeira

Ours is silent/steady but I'll make sure to check for that next time I drive it.

rsholland

Juice, how's the moonroof when open? Is it as noisy as ours?

Bob

ateixeira

I've only been on one really long drive with it open, because it's A/C season.

For that ride, we had the kids in the back and all the windows open, so it was so loud that I really couldn't judge.

Let me know if you come down near where I live, and I'll take you out for a spin.

I need any excuse so the wife will let me drive it! The lawn is looking kinda long and I haven't mowed it, and bad boys don't get to drive the new car.

arnabc

you can't drive above 30mph with the moon roof open. the wind noise goes from loud to deafening very quickly above that. that said, i don't know why anyone would want to drive at high speeds with windows or moon roofs open anyway.

ateixeira

We did - just make sure you open the rear windows, else you get that strong buffeting effect.

I drive a Miata so comparatively it's still a lot less windy.

I recall now my wife actually said she liked the moonroof because her hair doesn't end up all messed up and frizzed out like it does when we take the Miata. We took that convertible out last night and she had to wash her hair when we got home.

No such problem in the Forester, and she drives it every single day.

sgloon

OK, I'm back from my trip so I have some mileage reports (none of this is actually on a hiway):

192 miles = 33.4 mpg (empty, mixed driving)
176 miles = 27.3 mpg (loaded inside & roof racks, some town driving, mainly open road - 60,65,70 & 75mph...mixing it up for the new engine)
158 miles = 30.3 mpg (empty - mostly open roads avg ~70mph, I'm trying to fluctuate the speed as noted. Got 36.3mpg one way, )
200 miles = 31.8 mpg (loaded inside & roof racks full, about 80 miles of dirt roads going 45mph max, about 15 miles of one lane dirt 4WD road, rest is paved curvy mtn canyon road - a bunch of stops included)

To say the least, I am very happy with the mileage I am getting! And it is suppose to get better!!! I have checked the instrument rating with calculations and it appears to be fairly accurate. I do have MT for those who have AT who might be seeing a big difference.

Of note: The dirt from the road really covers the entire car. It ends up being plastered all over the back hatch. So much so that you don't want to touch it to open it, and can't without getting pretty dirty. It was also hard to clean off, as there is a large amount of space between the seals and the "outside" of the car. I have never had a car that got so dirty from a dirt road before. Anyone know of any fixes?

The other note is that while I was in the mountains, I tried to get the fresh and cooler outside air to blow on my feet. It was sunny, so the car was starting to cook. Turns out, all I got was hot air. While dropping into the dealer today to get some warranty work set up, he said that there are only two options, the outside air runs by the heater coils, heating it up, or you have to have the A/C running. This just doesn't sound right. What a waste of energy. Has anyone had any experience with this? I have the premium which does not have the climate control system.

norcalmike1

Great gas mileage review! Thanks.
What kind of warranty issues do you have?

I'm getting ready to buy an X Limited next week. I'm almost sure the Forester I test drove "hopped" a liitle bit over a small bump in the pavement. Anybody out there experience and kind of a hop or a skip in your 2009 Forester while going over bumps?

Also, have any owners out there caught yourself saying "I sure wish I had not bought this Forester because ........................................."
Any input you may have will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Mike

hatescars

Hi all,

Questions/cautionary tale. Taylor made for you Mike.

1st 1000 miles, average 24-25 in mixed driving and 30-31 @ 65mph on HWY. Very happy.

Questions: X comes with no rack or raised rack rails. At purchase I thought, "no biggie, I'll just buy new attachments for my Yakima rack". I've since found out Yakima only makes attachments for raised roof rails that come with the higher priced '09 Foresters.

I want a system that allows for versitality...canoe, bikes, cartop cargo. Something easy on/off.

I've also read elsewhere online that the raised rails from Subaru won't mount on the X. Any truth to this conspiracy? I figured that might be my quickest fix...pony up for Subaru raised rails and then buy Yakima or Thule stuff.

I test drove an '09X that had the two fixed round aluminum tube cross bars on the roof and I didn't like it. It whistled LOUDLY and created lots of noise @ hwy speed (65-75). I would guess that the Yakima/Thule stuff wouldn't work off those tubes either. They would work for the canoe though.

Any X (base) Forester owners figure out what to do about their roof rack needs?

Also I need a recommendation for aftermarket tow package. Subi charges something like $400 for it.

Moral of the story: drop the extra 2k or whatever for the next level of vehicle and enjoy the butt warmers.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer my questions!

camrytimes2

The rear of my '09 Forester with 4,700 miles on it has hopped a few times over broken pavement. I've read reports of others experiencing the same issue. It has not happened on the highway and is a rare occurance that would not dissuade me from buying an '09. I've also crossed highway expansion joints that were on a bias and the front end provided feedback that was unlike anything that I had experienced with my many front wheel drive automobiles. I attribute the phenomenon to sensing the operation of a technologically very different [to me] vehicle and no longer notice it. My '09 has been fine, and there are many features that are stellar. The fit and finish, as well as the handling are good and remind me of the Japanese assembled Hondas that I owned before Honda ownership became a pseudo-cult in the late '80 and '90s. The only issue that I would re-think is that the ride and handling are great on well-maintained pavement, but not so wonderful on broken and neglected pavement. I drive into and out of Boston on horrendously broken and neglected pavement and the ride height and suspension provide a bouncing schoolbus experience during my commutes. Perhaps a lower, softer riding vehicle would have been a better fit for my commute, but I do not have buyer's remorse. On the other hand, I have obviously driven the car many a mile and it has been a joy to drive on appropriately maintained roads and fun to drive on steep, rutted dirt roads in Vermont.