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Comments
At least thats the way my 03 Forester reacts.
Ron W.
The Forester roughly dips, hops, bounces, sharply pivots laterally, squeeks and rattles while being driven at typical road speeds (30 to 40 MPH) over potholes, sunken and raised patches, sunken and raised sewer covers, etc. I travel on busy urban streets, some of which show no visible signs of original pavement. The entire streets are patchwork. Creeping along creates risks associated with the ire of other drivers.
On "steep, rutted dirt roads", the vehicle is generally driven much more slowly and the ruts are continuous and caused by wear and tear of previous vehicles. Any depressions in the road are larger than potholes and are more 'bowl' like. Over these types of conditions, the ride height and AWD are beneficial and the slower speeds result in less rigorous tossing and bouncing. In wet and muddy conditions over steep dirt roads in mountainous terrain, I have experienced no uncontrolled wheel spin.
Trailer hitch: Go to etrailer.com and look up hitches for the 09 Forester. Curt makes a great product; powder coated, lifetime warranty,
hitch and receiver hitch for $129.00. Free shipping on any order over $150.00.
Thanks for all the replies about the suspension. When gas shot up I sold my Ridgeline and bought a Prius. Only time I like the Prius is when I drive past a gas station. Rest of the time it's a pain. Ridgeline is rock solid and unflappable on uneven pavement. You pay for that luxury ride at the gas pump. I was hoping to find something between a Ridgeline and a Prius thinking the Forester might just do it.
There have been a few reviews commenting on the lack of damping in the '09 Forester rear suspension.
Re: wind noise. I had no wind noise whatso ever when there was something on the crossbars. However, without something on the bars, and going fast, there was some wind noise. I just took 'em off and threw in back.
Re: accessory rack. Thule notes on their website that their equipment is rated for higher weight limit than the Subaru stuff. The Thule rep who I called and spoke to said the same thing, noting specific limits of the various equipment.
The Thule bars readily handle the canoes (I have a few). I also have two different width bars depending upon what I will be carrying, and how many canoes at a time.
When looking for cars that could handle canoes, I found a place called the Rack Attack which mount roof racks on your vehicle. They will do whatever they need to to put on a reliable system, sometimes mixing purchased equipment and that which they make themselves. Perhaps there is something near you like this company.
Warranty Issues:
I've only had it 2 weeks, so this is all I have found so far.
1. The rear seat recline button fell out. (My local dealer has ordered another...hopefully that will be the fix. I did not push this button before buying, only the one on the other side...lesson learned, Push every button.
2. Dash rattle, passenger side - didn't hear it until I got it on the dirt roads. A few others have noted this, so I'm hoping it is a quick fix.
Hops: Noticed when test driving on big city hiway. There were not cracks in this hiway but "swells". Haven't felt it since...not sure if it would be a problem???
Regrets: The only real regret I have is that Subaru made this vehicle so dang tall.
It sounds crazy, but I'd read elsewhere that for some reason '09 Subaru Forester rails won't mount to a '09 Forester X roof....that all you can get is the weak looking, loud, fixed position, aluminum tube crossbars. (which have their own posts that mount to 4 fixed spots on the roof) 2. True or false?
I'd much rather go with the above mentioned Subaru rail and Thule or Yakama crossbar route than the fixed position aluminum tube route which offers no aftermarket thingies to attach toys with.
Thanks for the great responses.
I have the Forester X, but it is the premium model, which came with the rails. The car is the same, so I don't see why the rails wouldn't be able to be mounted to them. You'll just have to do some research to be able to mount them.
Another option to consider, if you can't get the Subaru rails is to have a rack company install rails for you that you can get your Yak/thule "foot" to attach to. There is probalby another edmonds forum to talk about just racks...?
Seems like making it less tall would pretty much make it an Outback.
To go back into either sport "mode" or use sport shift, and you are in Drive, move the gearshift lever from right to left.
Not really, the Outback is 10 or 12 inches longer. I certainly didn't want something that big. The old forester is taller than the Outback, and would not have been too tall.
PS You should try loading a Thule box on top of a 3/4 ton Yukon XL. After that, the Forester will seem stumpy.
My first impression was the seats were way more comfortable in the '09 than the '08 which I had been planning to buy because of the deals. The 09 won me over overall. I just need a 6+ footer around to help load it each time.
Thanks all.
height - One of the things my wife and I like about the 09 is the increased height. We like the added visibility as long as it doesn't compromise the handling. We don't put stuff on top of our Foresters, but I can sympathize. My Tundra is a lot taller than my last truck and even though I am 6'3" I can't even clean the middle of the rear window. I bought a RubberMaid folding 2-step stool which I keep handy. It is light enough and small enough that I just bring it with me when I need to be taller.
moonroof - On all the Foresters we have owned we never open the moonroof all the way. We open the shade all the way then open the roof to the rear stop. We figure that the engineer put it there for a reason. We HAVE had the middle seatbelt rattle mentioned.
hopping - The only time I have noticed any of our Foresters hopping was when one got delivered with the shipping tire pressure of 44 psi. Since it was not the first one it was very noticeable that something was different. It is extremely likely that any test drives on vehicles will have the higher pressure, so that should be checked if it hops.
I changed the oil again last week and pulled off the original painted-on crush washer. I lucked out and it peeled off easily with a fingernail. There was no leakage between oil changes, which was amazing given the sight of the second crush washer bent over the original crush washer. Thanks again for the 'heads up.'
The prospect of removing snow from the roof of the '09 is a concern, since I also cannot reach the roof and have not yet washed it. I guess that I am most concerned about gobs of icy snow falling onto and breaking the wipers [particularly the rear wiper], as well as sliding onto the windshield and blocking my view while underway.
I have over 4,800 miles on the '09 and would have hit 5k this weekend had the weather been better.
In our state you can get ticketed for not removing the snow from the roof of the vehicle because of the problems it can cause for those behind you. I don't know anyone that has actually gotten a ticket but I have been behind many that should have. I think it is a $50 fine.
I use one of those snow brushes where the head is perpendicular to the handle, about 2' long. The back side of the brush is a squeegee, or at least a rubber plow. It is kind of like a little push broom, and I use the rubber part on any glass, including the moonroof. I can clean everything off the car from one side using that. I just push everything on the roof to the passenger side and over the rail. The hood and windshield are a piece of cake, as is the rear window. The passenger side is along the side-end of my driveway so the snow ends up on the grass. I only have to walk around to the other side if there is a bunch of stuff on the passenger side windows. There usually isn't, but that is probably because I got the side window visors.
Waxing the roof makes it easier to remove the snow too.
-mike
Though our Forester was actually delivered aired down properly. Dealers usually forget that.
Glad to hear someone got 33.4 mpg, sweet! :shades:
So far our mileage has ranged from a low of 21 mpg to a high of 34.5mpg, though the latter was on a pure highway stretch, and just one trip, not a whole tank.
It's nice to know that breaking 30 is very possible, though.
For reference, the 1998 model that I owned, 5 speed manual, had a range of 17mpg (while towing, 20.4 mpg while not towing) up to a peak of 30.4 mpg, so this 2009 is better even with the handicap of the 4 speed automatic trans.
On top of that, we have the 175hp PZEV model.
But if I had to guess you will probably lose about $1500-$2000 a year with average mileage and wear and tear.
Have other Subie XT owners seen this kind of depreciation? Or is somebody being wildly optimistic here? :surprise:
By comparison, the '04 Malibu Maxx I owned plummeted in value, loosing over 2/3 of its value in only 4 years. :sick:
There were cases, back in 07, when the 08 Impreza came out, where people were getting same-as-new prices for year-old Foresters and Outback Sports. Perhaps Subaru doesn't realize how much dealers discount them, or its a national program so they have to average high prices (Alaska) with low ones (here in DC/MD), but we all benefit.
ALG gives the old Forester 4 stars, and the new one would do as well or better. Lease residuals for a 45k mile, 3 year lease is an impressive 59%, FWIW.
I've found this to be the case also to stop the "boom" effect, which is prevalent with the roof all the way open over about 35 mph. When only open up to the auto stop (which is still pretty far back), I get no "boom" even at highway speeds, and the wind noise in general is not terrible, in fact less than in my old CRV with a regular sized moonroof. The pop-up wind deflector on the Forester is pretty sizable, and as bigfrank points out I'm sure they tested it to find out how far back the roof could go so that the deflector would still get the wind up above it.
Would you help me with what brand(s) you recommend?
That is a good suggestion on the step stool...
Found one. When folded, you don't really have to lift the bikes at all. Very convenient. And as you can see, you can open the hatch even with the bikes still mounted.
FYI - this was the OE bike rack that Subaru sold back in 1998.
That's great! Don't even have to lift the bikes at all. Gotta love that! :shades:
I'll have to put it on my wish list.
Now to find a rear canoe mount...perhaps with a lift... :surprise: After all, my solo canoe is only 12 feet long...
Actually it's still a lot calmer than my Miata, by far. I can't leave candy wrappers in the Miata because they fly out of the car. Even papers do.
What are your experiences with extended warranties? Was it worth the extra cost? Does the warranty really cover a lot or are there many exemptions?
* Get a factory-backed warranty. I had a third-party warranty once that came from a top-rated company -- and that company's reinsurer went bankrupt. $800 gone.
* Get a long-term warranty. I had a 7-year/85K-mile warranty on a mini-van that I paid $1,100 for, with a $100 deductible. Even though it was (and is) a good vehicle, I did get my money's worth out of the warranty by the time we hit that many miles. A shorter warranty is likely to run out before you would need to use it.
* What they cover -- read the fine print. They differ. For my Chrysler, I got the top-tier warranty -- again, I figured I'd be more likely to actually use it if it covered more stuff.
* I had an extended warranty on another van, which I sold while it still had plenty left. The folks I sold it to got to make good use of the warranty when they needed major repairs on an extended road trip. They were most grateful. The warranty helped me get a good resale price, too.
* You can buy a Subaru warranty so long as the vehicle is still under its 3-year/36K-mile factory warranty, so you have time to think about it.
* I've got my Chase Subaru card, and if down the road I've got some Subaru bucks that are about to expire, I might use them on a warranty.
* Then again, I might not.
Swing hinge sounds great! I'll have to check out prices. In the meantime, I still do have my hatch mount and have never had any concern about it breaking the window (per earlier post) as long as there is tension on the lower bar so it can't bounce around.