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kcram - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
-Ty
My Sport Premium ended up being a PZEV. Sales guy didn't know there was going to be a switch at the time I picked mine so he just wrote "Fed" on the sales slip.
Noise was hard to say to. My daughter had her Ipod using the bluetooth connection and blasting some tunes on the way home.
It's exceeded expectations in all areas--comfort, handling, quietness, build. The conversion to the red dash illuminations at night is a bit eerie, but very effective. I like it.
If I keep it at 55-60 on the highway, and between 1700-1900 rpm, I can easily keep the instantaneous gas mileage between 35-42 mpg. I expect that I will see mid-30 mpg's right away.
John (CVT, 5 door).
i would assume that mine should be here any day. mine is estimated as 6th of April at the dealer, but i think at the port (see my previous post about the other date listed) on the 29th. where is your dealer? mine is redwood city, so let's hope ours came in on the same ship and mine gets to my dealer soon!
thanks for sharing.
Another nice surprise, the key fob/key is all in one. Very effective. And the rear hatch does not have a mechanical latch, it is an electro-mechanical affair.
The heated seats are NICE....the heat covers more territory than the '03 Forester ones...plus, the AC does not automatically come on with the defrost (gas saving feature?).
Was telling the dealer that this new Impreza hatch is about $1000 less than the '03 XS Forester I bought, and it is way better in terms of all the important areas. Kudos to Subaru for holding the line on pricing, and making it better at the same time.
John
sounds like my car, assuming they were on the same ship, should be here any day now, and maybe before the friday target. we'll see.
Rear hatch release is nice.
All in one key fob is one less thing dangling on my knee.
Heated seats are way faster to warm.
Compared to my 2001 Outback wagon, I saved roughly $2k and other than the rear cargo, the Impreza is the same size or bigger!
I haven't driven at night yet, but looking forward to seeing the red glow.
--Jay (Impreza Sport Prem. CVT)
First number 2012 Impreza
Second number 2001 Outback
front leg room_ 43.5 vs 43.3
rear leg room__ 35.4 vs 34.3
front hip room_ 52.2 vs 51.3
Rear hip room_ 53.1 vs 51.9
Wheel base___ 104.1 vs 104.3
Weight______ ~3000 vs ~3450
Obviously the Impreza looses about 15 inches of cargo length, but other than that, the Impreza is bigger except in the weight and overall length which is hatchback vs wagon.
Both of these vehicals have grown over the years.
--Jay
The Impreza though is lower to the ground, and overal height a couple inches lower vs the early Forester.
John
As long as you have power, I agree that it is nice. Otherwise, it can be a real pain to access tools, jumper cables, etc., in their most likely of locations.
How does the hatch close? Easily? I find that I have to slam the hatch on my Forester more often than not in order to get it to close securely. And, of course, that leads to other fitment issues as time goes on, such as loose trim, rattles, and the like.
The hatch opens and can be lifted with one finger. Its only slightly more difficult to close from fully lifted. No more than two fingers to latch it closed. So yes very easy.
My old outback required lubercation to the release lever/handle often otherwise it stuck in the open possition and required a good bang to close. Once lubed it closes fairly easy. That's why I like the new what appears weather proof release on the Impreza.
2012 Impreza vs BWM 3 for the finals.... votes are almost tied.
I have been primarily a Honda person and this is my first Subaru. I am impressed with how solid the car feels and the low NVH level. I am still on my first tank of gas and am averaging 21 mpg in mixed driving over the first 100 miles but I observed hitting in the high 30's and low 40's when going 60 mph so I am hopeful of higher averages. It handles well and is very comfortable. The Bluetooth phone connection is confusing and unnecessarily complex. The setup in my wife's 2012 Hyundai Accent is very simple and user friendly.
Has anyone replaced the rear hatch light with a brighter led? Saw a Youtube video of someone that replaced theirs and the difference in illumination is quite dramatic. If anyone knows the part number, manufacturer, and where to buy, please pass it on.
To answer someone's question, the rear hatch requires a "medium" slam to close. The door open light on the display has come on a couple of times because I didn't close it hard enough. So far, I am really enjoying driving the car.
two companies have a led strip that simply attached to this piece and you loosen the side to run the wiring down to a direct connect to the light on the side....again a change in the 12 HB puts a side airbag on that side panel now.....Im not one for loosening panels when it involves a airbag......so I too am looking for another way to add additional lighting to the hatch...
also found a kit to replace the lower rear bumper reflectors with working LEDs...that can be connected to the brake or turn signals or rear lights for constant on.....Im connecting it to the brake lights......its $50 plus shipping and direct replacement for the reflectors with easy installation.... if interested let me know and will send you link for it
Has anyone else that recently took delivery have this happen? I read here after April 1st they'd be all PZEV, but I assumed it would be new orders. I was told mine was at port on March 27th, with delivery April 9th... so I'm curious if mine will be PZEV or not. (not that I mind)
Led hatch light
What's going on? I almost want to say it reminds me of behavior when the A/C is on (like a compressor kicking in), but the A/C is definitely not on. And I never noticed it until this past week.
The only unusual/new thing that the car has been through before I started noticing this, was being stuck in an excessively long, dead-stop traffic jam for about 10 minutes.
Or is this something normal that's related to the idle-stop feature on the new Imprezas?
i'm so glad to have had this community to lean on the past several weeks thinking about the car, ordering it, patiently (or impatiently!) waiting for it to arrive, to today: picking it up. i'm sure i'll have more review comments in the days/weeks ahead, but this is first a Thank you post.
in the end, i paid $600 below invoice without any hassle or haggling which i thought was a very fair deal and i didn't try to milk out the last bit of profit from the dealer. this was the most painless new car purchase i have ever had in the negotiating price department.
what made it better today was that when i decided i wanted to buy side moldings and the homelink mirror, the dealer happily sold them to be at cost (below invoice, so i am trusting they really were at cost) for me to self install. (they wanted $100 each for installation and so i said no thank you...hopefully, the mirror will be as easy to install as the insructions seem to suggest...my only concern is figuring out how to gently remove the new mirror since the instructions/diagram are a little confusing to me at this moment, but hopefully it will become clear once i try -- anyone install their own homelink mirror?)
even the financing (paid cash) and hard sell for warranty and maintenance plans were quick and short. we were in and out of there, with the "car demonstration" in under an hour. kudos to Carlsen Subaru in Redwood City (SF Bay Area) -- highly recommended (at least for purchase). any bay area folks recommend certain dealers for service? i anticipate doing simple stuff like oil changes myself, but will have to think about where i do the major maintenance stuff (30 or 60, etc.)
also, following up on shipping times...when i ordered the car 23 days ago, i was told to expect 8-12 weeks to be on the safe side, but 1 week in, was told that the date jumped to April 6th because they found a match for the car i requested (no options at all...maybe that helps?). and today i got it...so very quick compared to expectation, but as you probably have seen, even then, i was anxious to get the car as early as possible.
anyway, thanks for the great posts and sharing of info. it's been great being here and i'll continue to lurk, read, and maybe occasionally post.
i drove the car to work half freeway/half in town and the mileage is averaging 31.5 so far...not bad
I got mine at invoice through the Costco program but am getting rebates of $500 from Costco (Cash Card) and $$250 from Subaru for attending the LA Auto Show (the rebate actually expired but Subaru Customer Care extended the offer because it was a factory order). I decided to finance through Subaru (I was preapproved by my credit union at 2.99%) because Subaru Finance offered 0.9% interest for 48 months. My dealer also included 2 years free maintenance.
I ordered mine with the popular equipment pkg (homelink mirror, rubber mats, cargo tray, rear bumper applique), aero mud guards, body side molding, and side sill plates. Am looking to add window tint (35%) and swap out the rear hatch light if I can ever find the right one (thanks, xwesx).
I am not yet getting great gas mileage (only 21.5 mpg according to the car's computer) but the instantaneous mileage hits in the low 40 range when cruising at about 60 mph so still I have some hope.
how do you like the homelink mirror? i only caved on that after finally getting around to helping my wife program hers on her prius so she can avoid having remotes for both our community and garage.
i was looking over the installation instructions and it seems to suggest that there will be a little wire showing* to allow for flexibility when the mirror is moved. do you see that with your unit?
* http://techinfo.subaru.com/proxy/66206/pdf/066206-h501sfj100.pdf (see item 13 for those curious)
sounds like you got a really good deal, too. it's interesting that you had to wait 10 weeks for yours. i guess the Sports may be in even greater demand? i think i really lucked out. my dealer said so...he says only about 1 in 10 cars does he find what happened to me: they get a match and the delivery estimate is a lot shorter than the typical 8-12 week time frame. (it was 6-8, but recently he said they are seeing 8-10, so they say 8-12 to be safe and not annoy customers by being overly optimistic).
Aside: he also said that when you get an "estimated delivery date" it's usually pretty conservative. he said rarely is that day exceeded. i guess SOA would rather you be happily surprised than be given overly optimistic information...
enjoy your car!
My dealer said that one of the things that can influence availability is whether you get a car with factory or port-installed accessories. The way I understand it is that the accessories that can simply be tacked on without taking anything apart are generally port-installed, while others that require disassembly to install are factory-installed.
With mine, I got it with nothing but the "rugged package," and all those items (mud deflectors, wheel-arch moldings, side molding, cross bars, rear bumper protector, etc) are port-installed.
it has shown and continues to show 240 miles of driving range remaining. that is very far off since the tank is supposed to full (or nearly so...all bars showing and the dealer was supposed to fill it to full) and i'm getting 32+ mpg average so far on the first 30 miles or so.
i remember someone saying that a glitch occurred for them where the tank didn't show full when they had bought gas with the accessory switch on. i wonder if something like that happened here. but for me, it doesn't correct itself after shutting of the car and restarting. we'll see what happens in the days ahead, and this is not something i'll look at regularly, but stil...it's definitely not doing what it is supposed to do.
one oddity i ran across today. they had to drill holes in the front bumper to match the standard spacing for the license plate and holder. what are the two bigger holes for? Europe? Japan?
weird that the holes weren't where i would have thought they would have been...
i was originally told 6-8 weeks when i ordered it. in early march, i was told sometime in april. around 20 march, i was told delivery would be by 4 april. on 30 march, i was told the car arrived and i arranged to pick it up the next day.
i like how the bluetooth syncs with my iphone to play my music and pandora radio. the music info is blank on the radio display, however. is there any way to display it?
my average speed is 13 mph and my mpg is 21.5 in the 120 miles i've driven. the fuel gauge shows 3/4 full and 280 mile range remaining. my wife is averaging 34 mpg with an average speed of 27 mph on her accent.
mirror: good to know. i would have thought they could could have had the wire completely hidden in s sleeve beween the headliner and the mirror rather than have the wire be visible.
delivery: sounds very much like my experience! we both were pretty fortunate to encounter such a quick turnaround.
bluetooth: i haven't explored it much so i can't answer your queestion about music info for pandora (it does show info when it is using the native iphone music data). i have an old ipod i'd like to dedicate to the car (although i'm realizing i need to set up playlists because scrolling through 1000 albums albums is a bit much! i wish there was a way to "page up/down" as well as moving through an individual page of selections); i actually have run into the "problem" reported previously with it automatically starting to play music via BT (i also have an iphone) if that source is selected.
i think my average speed is in the 20's and current mileage is 32.3 mpg according to the computer. i'll do a real calculation of it when i buy gas.
enjoy your car and i hope your mileage creeps up! (i've been driving mine fairly gingerly (although trying to vary RPMs and speeds). maybe my mileage is high because in waiting for this to arrive, i've been very conscious of fuel saving techniques driving my wife's Prius. (i've been able to average 50-51 overall when i've driven her 2007 model)
regarding the homelink mirror, the electrical wire is housed in a plastic sleeve coming off the headliner to near the mirror. the sleeve is mounted on the windshield. there is about 3 inches of exposed wire coming off the sleeve near the mirror.
when i select cd/aux, it also automatically starts playing a tune from my iphone.
homelink: yes, that's what the instructions indicate. i'll need to look at my wife's prius, but i don't think hers has a wire showing...the wire feeds through the center of the mirror itself instead of "peeling off to the side" and needing slack to account for movement.
cd/aux: yes, that's what i encounter. it's not really a "problem" (that's why i quoted it) as long as you don't leave it on BT and forget about that as it might drain the iphone's battery unexpectedly. i actually hope to disable the audio portion of the BT and keep the phone part alive although i dont' anticipate using the BT much at all since i'm one of those people who refuses to talk on the phone while driving.
You have to buy the $$$$ Sti version of the WRX in order to get the DCCD system.
Why, whats with that..?
5spd = VC (Continuous)
CVT = clutch plates (Active)
So, here's what doesn't make sense: First, if your oil light came on, I would expect ~two quarts low. You check the oil level and it shows on the lower mark, or ~ one quart low. If the dipstick was correct, the oil light should not have come on unless the oil pressure was low, which it would not have been by quantity alone.
Next, you add a quart (assuming that would take you to full), drive it, and the light stays on. You check the oil, and it shows at the same level (or possibly even lower). Okay, so now what? If the car was ~two low to start with versus the dipstick level of one quart, it would either be one quart low now or full. Either way, the light should go off (within a few seconds of starting the engine).
Then, you add yet another quart, which should, again, take you to full.... now you're OVER the full mark, and the light still doesn't go off almost immediately? Something's wrong with the oil pressure or the sending unit.
The very first thing I would do is drain the oil into an empty container to determine just how much is in the engine. If your oil is over-full, that's the surest way of blowing your front main and camshaft seals, and/or your valve cover gaskets. You shouldn't drain any more than 3.5 to 4 quarts out of the pan.
Next, hook an actual pressure gauge up to the sending unit to monitor (should be easily accessible on the front of the block near the center, but I don't know if they moved the location on the FB blocks), or use a scan tool that has the ability to do that. You'll need to know what the normal range for that car is, though.
Actually, this a new car, so perhaps these suggestions are better made to your service department than to you directly.
This is for the premium level audio system or what the mannual refers to as Type B.
i guess they don't want to make multiple model bumpers for different markets...although if they can do different climate systems and "information systems," why not?
(still wishing he had the Canadian info system although i'm guessing they pay for it in the car cost...)