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Subaru Forester (up to 2005)
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Comments
Anyone who knows me would agree that I'm seriously deficient in the self-control arena. Nevertheless, in one instant on November 26, 1986, I went from smoker to nonsmoker when I saw my two-year-old daughter begin to imitate me. I loved her far more than I loved tobacco. End of story.
Powerful and uncontrollable addiction? Hogwash. People who smoke and blame it on unbreakable addiction lie to themselves and everyone who listens, every single day. They love it, just as I did - they simply refuse to take personal responsibility for doing what they love. Then, when things turn out badly, they want a bailout at someone else's expense.
Don't ever put me on a jury where a smoker seeks beaucoup bucks from tobacco companies.
-mike
Cheers
Pat
-The Mudge
http://www.edmunds.com/incentives/RebateController?step=1&set- zip=28604&tid=edmunds.n.incentivesindex.incentives.1.1.*
Yikes!!!! How big is the Forester's gas tank? I know it holds at least 15.2 gal cause that's what I just put in! I only drove 20 miles with the low fuel light on which use to mean a 14 gal fill-up. So either the light comes on later in the new model or the XT was burning a prodigious amount of gas (or both). No doubt I'm going to have to modify my refueling habits as even I don't like pushing the envelope that far. Also, someone a while back asked how far down the gas gauge needle goes. Well I can now say with certainty that it goes much further below the E than it goes above the F. There was at least an 1/8 inch gap between the needle and the bottom of the line marking empty with the low fuel light coming on right about when the needle reaches the empty mark.
-Frank P.
P.S. I checked and the 03-04 Forester holds 15.9 gallons. I thought the previous model only held 15.2 gallons but I could be mistaken. So, I had over half a gallon left... what was I worrying about? :-)
I miss the incredibly accurate distance-to-empty display on our Grand Caravan. When that thing said you had 2 miles left, you could confidently drive two full miles with no sweaty armpits. But when when it displayed zero, there'd better be a gas station within coasting distance, because brother, you're bone dry. Truly amazing. The computer in our newer '97 Concorde is nowhere near as reliable.
About 12 years after I quit, we traveled to Buffalo to cheer for our daughter in a national swim championship. While there, we went to Canadian Niagra. Smoke shops there sell genuine Havanas. Hever having had that pleasure, I bought and smoked one. My wife went nuts, totally convinced that I'd be "hooked" right back onto the hyperaddictive smoking treadmill. Nonsense. One sublime cigar, and nothing since.
-Frank P.
Greg
-mike
Me, too. 'Course, by then it had been 12 years since I smoked anything, so the smoke from a burning candle probably would have done it for me.
Wonder why it is that cigars and pipes don't seem to be addictive?
Well, as you've seen, I think the alleged addictiveness of cigarettes is almost entirely urban legend. That said, few cigar or pipe smokers use anywhere near as much tobacco as your average cig smoker.
With respect to smokes, I quit once for 6 years for professional reasons & missed it every day. When this line of work ended I went back because I enjoy it...'nough said except I haven't smoked in my new XT yet.
I thoroughly enjoy a good cigar but I, as well as other true cigar smokers, don't inhale as with cigarettes - there's sufficient taste. Good cigars can get quite expensive. Pipes are too messy for me.
By the way, I smoke a pipe (1) only between June 15 and August 15 and (2) only on the porch of my summer home. I never miss it otherwise--anywhere, anytime. I wonder why that is.
However, thanks to another poster who referred me to Subaru of Gwinnett, I was able to share Rishi's info and get closer to the great $100 deductible pricing on a 6 year/100K mile warranty that he was given.
The pricing on the 6 year/100K mile $100 deductible ext. warranty from Gwinnett is $1150 -- about 25% savings off the MSRP from the Subaru Added Security Gold Plus plan brochure.
SO -- DECENT DEAL OR NO? Considering I don't have AAA on the car, I don't think that's a bad deal for the Gold Plus plan at $100 deductible.
PLEASE CHIME IN! I have to buy TOMORROW!
Thanks,
burnsmr4
-Frank P.
I admire and respect honesty and integrity above just about all else. IMO, people who claim that they don't actually enjoy smoking, cannot stop, and continue doing so only because they're helplessly 'addicted' flunk the honesty test. When, despite decades of widespread awareness of the health risks, they then sue tobacco companies for damages, they go clear off-scale. If I had a relationship with an attorney who took one of those obnoxious cases, I would sever it.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled Forester programming...got the cold - now need the snow for more XT testing, alone...
-Frank P.
P.S. I warned you 1/4 tank guys not to read my post. Now you'll be having nightmares :-)
Rishi gave me excellent information, and I am grateful for it. I only wish I'd had more time (and miles before 36K) that I could drive around this week and make arrangements with an Illinois dealership.
In this regard, I'm doing a combo -- combining Rishi's great pricing information with a recommendation about the Gwinnett dealership. A dobule-whammy!
burnsmr4
In areas with wide ambient temperature swings, condensation build-up within the tank can pose a problem or from service station storage tanks.
-mike
I'm in the dark as well on the Subie pump layout.
Mike?
-mike
Yeah -- I know -- sounds like I'm trying to get talked out of buying it. I don't know. Just don't like NOT having the 3rd year of my 3 year/36K mile warranty (since I'm at 36K miles BEFORE 2 years of ownership are complete).
Thanks,
burnsmr4
I have a 2002 Subaru Forester, 15k miles. Last week I left a drive through to find the brakes would not release. Changed gears, reverse, no change. Hand brake was not on. Had to rev to 3500-4000 rpm to do 25 mph. Went a half mile and parked. Burning smell. Spit on all four discs. All four boiled spit. All four brakes were clearly always on. Went shopping for 30 minutes. On restart, no problem. Subaru kept for a week and could find nothing except that the hand brake had been left on in the past causing some wear of the shoes (rear drums, not discs).
The dealer says they have done all they can and factory agrees. They didn't consider replacing the ABS controls. This whole thing worries me. What if it happens again when I'm doing 65 mph?
Has anyone else experienced this? My barber says his brother-in-law had a Dodge Decota that locked up all four brakes at 50 mph. Did the same for the dealer. The fix was to disconnect the ABS. Swell !!!
Our 2002 Subaru Forester has, for the third winter, exhibited a strange characteristic on slippery roads. Sometimes, when slippage occurs, a very load bang is heard from the rear wheel(s).
Three times to the dealer I was told it was nothing to be concerned with. 40 years of engineering design tells me different. The forth time and with another problem, they contacted Subaru engineering and were sent a new transmission control module, redesigned to produce a MORE GENTLE SHIFTING. Hmmm. Two years down the road, they have a fix for a problem that wasn't there. I wonder how many other owners have noticed this?
My concern has been that something in the drivetrain would be overstressed and fail after my warrantee period.
a. Risk aversion
b. Make & model reliability scores
c. Ability to absorb the cost of sudden repairs
So... if you'll sleep better at night knowing you're covered by a warranty, go ahead and get it. If you don't mind self-insuring and can financially handle a potential future repair without losing any sleep, skip the extended warranty.
Just my .02
-Frank P.
I had a Cuban while shuttling my Outback home through BC. I think the additive qualities includes the ritual and hand movement almost as much as the drug part, whether it's a Camel, pipe or cigar. Coffee's an easier ritual and mostly cheaper.
What else - oh yeah, sometimes designs are a bit moronic because they have a better cost benefit ratio than the over-built version. From the manufacturer's standpoint that is.
Steve, Host
If you drive gently, you'll never notice it. If you floor the gas on a slippery surface you'll hear/feel a loud bang. The effect is somewhere in between the two extremes if you drive normally.
The first time I noticed this was when playing with my wagon in a snowy parking lot.
Craig
On the same day that I quit smoking 17 years ago, I also quit drinking coffee and almost entirely stopped drinking alcohol. These three substances are so tightly intertwined that it's much more difficult to stop smoking while continuing the other two. I still sip two or three half-glasses of wine per year, but that's about it.
If you're seeking a consensus to guide you, it's unlikely you'll find one. Some people here (including several surprising ones) swear by their extended warranties. Others, including me, wouldn't buy one at half the going rate. I have a high level of risk tolerance, and I willingly self-insure for ordinary risks and losses that wouldn't put me into a financial crisis.
For all categories of insurance, it is a truism that in the aggregate, insurance purchasers always pay more than they ever receive back from the insurers - else insurers would go out of business willy-nilly. Extended warranties are among the highest-profit sectors of the entire insurance business. Buying insurance just to cover outlays of a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars never, in my opinion, makes sense - the purchasers are unarguably increasing the profits of the insurers. Why do that? Obviously, some insurance buyers collect more than they pay. Most collect less. Which category do you think you'll be in?
I buy, and I recommend others buy, insurance only to protect against genuinely catastrophic events that might have the potential to wipe me out or at least severely impair my liquidity. House fires. Loss of life or limb. Liability. Catastrophic major medical. That sort of thing. Auto repairs, up to and including replacing an entire engine or a transmission sometime after the mfr warranty expires, don't come anywhere close to that level of threat.
Unless I'm mistaken, quite a few of the expensive items you listed are nowhere required in the Subaru owner's manual schedule of items to service at 30,000 miles. If it were me, I'd direct the dealer to give me a quote to perform those services - and only those services. I also would get a second quote from a good local independent Subaru/import car mechanic.
Also, doesn't Edmunds have a link that provides a close estimate of the entire cost to service various vehicles at various mileage intervals? You might check that to see what Edmunds estimates your 30K mile service ought to cost. I don't think it will come anywhere even distantly close to $1,200.
I think you should be able to accomplish a complete 30,000 mile service for $400 to $600 max.
John
-Frank P.
Trying to maintain 20 mph on a steep upgrade caused repeated bangs.
For what ever reason, Subaru engineering came up with a fix to the transmission control unit to make a less agressive shift (their info).
I never had another vehicle make that type of loud noise under the same conditions in 40 years of driving. I would hate to have something in the drive train fracture due to the sudden impact.
Hey my guesstimate was spot on! Maybe I should go by a lottery ticket ;-)
-Frank P.
I don't think the transmission has anything to do with it, so I'm guessing they were way off on that one.....
There are certain quirks associated with AWD, and this is one of them in Subarus. I know it sounds bad, but I think it's just a matter of the driveline flexing against slack in the bushings and mounts.
Again, this should only happen when the front wheels slip suddenly. If it happens any other time, then you should worry!
Craig
That's right. Go by one. That's much better than to go buy one.