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as far as the body side moulding...not sure it will prevent ALL door dings...
Is he right or is that absurd??
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In my WRX, I've found that not turning it off, I get a really foul oder coming from the car. I think it's the brakes being applied to wheels with the least reaction, or something like that. I don't get that oder when the traction control is turned off.
I've also experienced that oder when cautiously trying to climb a roadside curb with the traction control on. Smells like an overheated clutch. As most of you know, the WRX is a 5-speed manual. Turning off the traction control eliminates that smell.
Bob
How is the ACC? Does it work as expected? Have a mind of it's own? Needs human intervention?
Kidding. Inside joke for 09 Forester owners.
I know some will want to make excuses for the bad mpg, but when the majority of owners on a forum experience the same result, that's a pretty solid data point. These are people that were already posting pre-purchase, so they didn't join to just complain about low mpg.
beleive it will increase slightly with further breakin...my 11 Outback didnt see its EPA rating till nearly 10K on the car....and with the change to summer blend fuels......Im not expecting to hit 36 but will be happy with 32-33 at this point......still no regrets in my purchase, as I was specifically looking for the AWD.......that was my selling point....
Following the tire change I drove the Michelins some 48,000 miles without a single complaint (something the OEM rubber would never in a million years have been able to do). When the time came to replace them, the only two tires on my short list were the Continental ExtremeContactDWS and the Pilot Sport A/S, unfortunately I decided to look further afield before I pulled the trigger. Why?
The Michelins had increased dramatically in price (they've since come back down a bit) to the point where they were a whopping 54% more expensive than my original set.
I had read some reviews of the Continentals which raised some concerns with sidewall stability and durability, so I found a friend with them on his car and asked if I could take it for a drive. I was less than impressed.
Enter the dark-horse candidate, the Yokohama AVID ENVigor; I couldn't find anybody who'd already sprung for these tires, but based upon the reviews I'd dug up combined with their modest cost, I decided to take a chance on them. Geez am I glad I did; the ENVigors have proven to be every bit as stable and predictable as the Pilot Sports, they have an even longer Treadwear rating (560 vs the 400 of the Michelins; NOTE: the Pilot Sport A/S has since been improved and now has a Treadwear rating of 500), so all else being equal, the Yokohamas were a smoking bargain. The thing is, "all else isn't equal". Why? My new tires are so quiet compared to the OEM and the Michelins that even now some 5,000 miles later, I'm still surprised in a daily basis how quiet my car is.
Given how impressed I've been with these new Yokohamas, I've since put them on my wife's GTI and my son's A4 Quattro. Both of those cars perform very well with the new rubber.
In the end I cannot recommend the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S enough, they're wonderful tires from the ride, handling, stability, and longevity perspectives, they're just a bit spendy and a bit noisy. So far at least, the AVID ENVigors seem to have all of the best attributes of the Pilot Sports without the two noted drawbacks.
As for the Yokohamas, it's still a bit early yet, but they have tenacious grip in the wet, and have done well on the two days for which we've had snow so far this year.
For us AWD is a nicety, not a requirement, and if Subaru was indeed overly optimistic in the MPG, I'll likely reject delivery later this month. Efficiency was a big selling point for us, and there are other options out there easily beating the EPA estimates.
I appreciate your input.
I'm pretty particular about tracking and anticipating my cars' MPG. We have a '10 Forester. it's rated 20/27. My wife gets probably an average of 22 in the cold, 24 in the warm months. I know if I take it on the road and drive 55, no stopping, I'll be around 30-32. I get 26-27 when it's in the 40s or higher and I'm driving 65+.
I'll post what I get for my Impreza when it arrives and I start putting miles on her. My commute is about 65/25 highway/city BY TIME. Now, I drive like grandpa on the highway, 55-61 generally, but I also live in a metropolitan area so there's a lot of stop and go. still, I expect I'll be hitting 36-38 in the summer months and maybe 32-34 in the winter. (I did a test in my previous car and pretty closely correlated that for ever 10 degree drop in temperature, you get 1 less MPG).
so we'll see.
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fyi, I am one of those drivers that does not do the right things to optimize mileage. Fast starts, drive in D3 at freeway speeds for passing power, etc. My 2000 Honda Accord only gives me ~22mpg, even though more than 2/3rd of my driving is highway. It is rated for 28 on the highway, 20 in the city. I really like the 2012 Impreza but do not expect to get highway mpg.
The CRV is rated for 23mpg highway (2000 model) and 27mpg highway (2008 model) for 2WD, with corresponding city mileage of 20mpg in both years. So your getting less than 16mpg is a surprise. However, you managed to get >30mpg with the Focus, so am surmising the driving style was different in some way, unless there is indeed a problem with the CRV. Any thoughts on this?
First thing I noticed is the gearshift lever is tall compared to that on the other 3 cars I mentioned, and the shift knob looks and feels cheap (easily rectified just by paying ~$100 to the dealer for a leather covered knob!). The shifter was OK--not super smooth but no issues. Clutch was smooth also, easy to modulate.
The next thing I noticed is that the engine sounded, uh, industrial. I figured that was because it was fairly cold (20 F) and would subside once the engine warmed up. Nope. It seemed much louder when accelerating than the Limited CVT I drove a few weeks ago. The salesperson said the Limited has more soundproofing than other trims. (True?) The engine was noticeably gruffer than the other 3 cars, which was surprising given one of them (Golf) has an ancient 5-cylinder. And it wasn't noise in a pleasant sense--not to my ears anyway.
On the highway, I took it up to 65 to check the RPMs--which were about 2700. Much higher than on the Mazda3 and Golf, and higher also than the Focus. Which doesn't bode well for fuel economy, or noise. Revs were lower on the Impreza CVT.
Otherwise the car drove about the same as the Limited I drove earlier. Handling was predictable, flat on turns. (It was snowing during the drive, so great conditions to test a Subaru!) Road noise and ride quality seemed about the same as the Limited (17" wheels), which surprised me a bit. I thought the Premium with 16" wheels might subdue the highway thumps a bit better. Not terrible, but the other 3 cars (especially the Focus) smoothed out the bumps better.
I re-checked the rear seat because when I tested the Limited, I found my ankles hit the driver's seat bottom too soon for comfort. I raised the driver's seat a little more this time (still in comfort zone) and that helped--I was able to slide my feet forward a bit more under the driver's seat and that made a big difference in comfort in back. I was disappointed there's no rear seat center arm rest--those are pretty common nowadays in a $20k car. But the rear seat was comfortable enough for a few hours at a time, and the driver's seat felt good also.
As for fuel economy... measured 27 mpg overall per the trip computer on the test drive, albeit a short one on urban freeways at 60-65 mph and some suburban roads. Not bad given we had several stops, it was only 20 F, and we started with a cold engine. But the CVT seemed better--measured mid-30s mpg on that in a similar trip, albeit at about 20 degrees warmer and that car was warmed up when I drove it.
Anyway, I think I'd have to go CVT on the Impreza. Which raises its cost vs. the alternatives I'm considering, and reduces the fun factor.
Just FYI, it wasn't me that posted the low CR-V numbers. I did, however, own a 2000 CR-V and drove it 90,000 miles. Great car and I crushed the EPA estimates with a real-world 25 mpg average. No special driving techniques. Just drove it everywhere and it always seemed to return the same gas mileage. Today I'd be disappointed with the mpg given the latest advancements, but back then 25 out of a sport ute was something impressive.
I'm fairly gentile with my cars 95% of the time, and the other 5% will be more spirited driving. That said, I did recently turn in a company car, a 2010 Dodge Journey, that didn't receive the same special treatment. When I first received the car I went about my typical OCD, waxing it with Klasse Sealant and being overly attentive about break-in. It didn't take long to realize is was the singularly worst car I've ever parked in my garage, and I began to hate it. So I throttled the thing for 67,000 miles. Even with taxing the motor the Journey managed to break EPA by 20%. Amazing. In that case driving habits mattered little to fuel economy.
Some thoughts - am not looking for the manual version, so cannot comment on that aspect.
As far as automatics are concerned, the Impreza is better than the Mazda Grand Touring w/ Skyactiv - I made fast starts which the Subaru handled adroitly, Mazda didn't. Haven't tested the Focus yet.
One thing that stood out for me with the Impreza was the outstanding visibility. The Mazda3 seemed to be clumsy wrt visibility to the back corners and still rated only 2stars in rear-passenger safety under side-impact.
The Focus from the outside looks better engineered wrt visibility, but Subaru has done a super job with the high-strength steel frame and has outstanding visibility. Given the crash test results are solid, that biases me towards the Impreza, hope to be able to test the Focus tomorrow.
You could do worse than look at the Australian test regime which gives 6.8 l/100km for the CVT and 7.1 l/100km for the manual with 2.0 litre engine. You will need to check the conversion to US miles per gallon, which differ from British mpg due to difference in sizes of gallons
The Australian test regime is pretty accurate and representative of what a normal driver can obtain. For example, my current Kluger (shows as 12.3 l/100km and I get between 9.5 and 14.5 l/100kmh depending on use.
However if you drive with a lead foot, that is a different story.
Cheers
Graham
I ordered a white one (can cancel) they want $21,300 out the door , seems high to me
Again mine is really a third car.....but wanted the AWD for my commute in this area....just for a quick comparisom. I have at times gotten 30 MPG on my 09 Cadillac CTS on extended hwy driving with a V6. My CTS currently has 37K on it but is RWD