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Comments
-juice
tom
I did have a loaner for about 4 days last year and really liked it. It did feel big in the city, but I'm used to a Miata so even a Honda Fit would feel big to me.
How were your insurance rates affected? And what about the gas bills?"
?? Think there's a misunderstanding. I didn't buy a Tribeca, just test-drove. And I have owned Legacies and an Outback, but no Forester like you. :confuse:
As long as they keep it aluminum-intensive to keep it light, I'll be happy. "
juice, Subaru's reducing use of aluminum, unfortunately. Here's a link.
Bummer about the aluminum prices.
-juice
Bob
Hopefully get out of this biz soon
-mike
-mike
(I know the "joys" of opposite schedules first hand .. my husband works 12 hour overnight shifts ..)
-mike
Upon further investigation, I found that a TrailBlazer had hit him, and pushed him into my car. :lemon:
I'm fine, not even sore, but the rear bumper on the Miata broke right in half. It's still in place, but cracked pretty nicely.
Amazingly the Prius was fine in front, no visible damamge. The rear bumper has some dimples. The TrailBlazer also suffered worse damage, some denting.
Those Priuses are tough! :shades:
-juice
PS The guy in the Prius that got sandwiched was an attorney, too
Reminds me of a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David was crashing his Prius into some guy's Caddie....
If I get an estimate I'll share the amount here.
-juice
Surprisingly everything stayed right in place. It's just cracked in half about half way from the top, right in the middle. I'll take pics if the appraiser comes today.
-juice
Bob
bumper skin, bumper, bumper beam, primer and paint
I'll get a loaner, too.
I'm impressed with their quick service.
Here's a pic. Bumper is pushed in slightly and cracked in half, plus some paint peeling off now.
2nd pic shows the gap now that the bumper was pushed down a bit.
-juice
-mike
2 days and I do get a loaner, just gotta schedule it now.
-juice
-mike
I was hit before on the front passenger side, but not even close to the rear bumper.
Carfax was clean when I bought it, too. :mad:
Can't complain, really, the car is 13+ years old and going strong.
-juice
Cheers Pat.
Must be a bad month for 10+ year-old Japanese 2-seaters. Got my estimate for repair on my '95 del Sol, which had scrapes & scratches on four body panels plus side mirror from where a large storm window blew over onto it and shattered... $1430. :sick: Thank goodness for insurance, hmm?
And congrats!
Ken
Cheers Pat.
We looked at a Chevrolet HHR. She drove it, not me - at least this time. I did like a lot of the features of the car, and it seems like a fair bargain for the price.
We also looked at a Scion xA. She thought that was a bit small. She also looked at a Toyota Matrix. That one felt quite cramped, and I didn't like some of the layout of the controls.
We then drove to another area of town and looked at the Nissan Versa. We were both pretty impressed with that one. She also drove it. I thought it was funny that we were inside the showroom and I heard a page. It was the salesman who sold me my Subaru 6 years ago.....
It was fun .. even if I'm not the one buying ...
I personally wanted more firmness in the dampers and weight in the steering. And the lack of a fold-flat rear seat killed it for me because of how often I have to wedge cases into my car for work. But overall, it was a good package. I thought the Honda Fit drove better, but didn't feel as spacious either
lol
Brenda
One small touch I liked was a single LED on the center dome that illumated the center console.
Ken
If you like the idea of the overhead LED, stick one in your LGT wagon. I put a red overhead LED in my OB XT, which is great for seeing stuff at night without turning lights on, and the red preserves night vision. It bathes the center console in soft red and looks cool. The install is fairly easy to do and the LED is hidden under the map light lens, behind the little seatbelt status indicator (or is it passenger airbags -- can't remember). You can grab +12V in the overhead console.
My wife's TSX has a blue overhead LED, but I much prefer red.
Craig
-Frank
-mike
-juice
As for small cars...you found the Matrix cramped? We have one and find it very roomy...certainly more rear seat room than our old forester. Very reliable....100K so far and no problems at all.
Somehow, I'm not surprised you did that mod. :-)
Did you need to drill behind the status indicator? Any particular LED bulb you used?
Ken
what happened to Troopa?
Wouldn't be a problem for general lighting.
Jim
-mike
If you pop off the lens for the map light (as if you were going to replace a bulb) you will see that the smoked-black plastic lens has a beige plastic shield/pattern behind it. You can separate the shield from the lens -- they just snap together. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the shield where I wanted the LED to shine through (would be in the center, near the area behind where that status indicator protrudes down from the overhead console).
You can get power from the wires in the harness for the auto-dim mirror/compass -- blue (switched +) and black (-). These are located up behind the map light unit (so you do have to remove the entire map light for wiring access).
What I did was wire a red LED to the mirror harness, position it inside the map light unit so that the "bulb" would be poking through the hole I drilled in the shield, screw the map light unit back into place, then put the lens back on. The LED was held in place inside the map light housing with some tape.
This mod will turn the LED on whenever the ignition is on. Unfortunately there are no illumination-only power sources up in the map light area. But the LED is not noticeable during the day, and LEDs run cool and last forever so there's no real downside to having it on during the day. At night it bathes the console in soft red when the ignition is on.
One nice thing about only drilling the lens shield, and not the lens, is that the LED remains hidden and shines from behind the lens. I think this actually looks better than most other vehicles where you can see the raw LED itself poking through. In this case, you just see a diffused red dot of light shining through the existing map light lens.
I got a pack of the LEDs at the auto parts store, 3 for about $9. These came with 20" wire leads and an inline resistor. If you use raw LEDs (which would be cheaper), be sure to add a resistor to the circuit.
BTW, did you ever do that dome/map light mod I described on the LGT website? I am loving that every day (or rather night)! I still need to go back and modify my original job with some diodes to extend the functionality some.
Craig
Crash test scores were important in rankings, but the cars had to have stability control to qualify. What bothers me is that this is good press for Subaru, yet only the Tribeca really has stability control across the model line.
On the Legacy, you only get VDC with GT/Nav sedans, or the spec B. This is a small fraction of Legacy sales. No Legacy wagons get VDC at any trim level.
On the Forester, it's only available on the recently announced "sports XT" models. Which, the way it's equipped, won't likely be a high volume model. We all know it's a 9th inning effort to add glamor to the outgoing model.
You can probably extend the Legacy's award to include the Outback, which then includes the LLB and XT models with VDC. Even then, this leaves the mainstream high-volume 2.5i models without VDC.
I am sure Subaru will milk this award, and they deserve to be recognized for many aspects of safety, despite the lack of VDC across the line. But the truth is that the majority of their vehicles don't qualify for the ranking since they don't offer VDC. That's bad.
ob
Thanks for the thoughtful write up. To answer your question, no I never got around to the dome light modification. I sort of just got used to the darkness and I also just got way to busy with work and home life to do any tinkering. This LED mod seems to be a lot easier and may just do the trick!
36K on my LGT wagon now, how about your OBXT?
Ken