Are you a current Michigan-based car shopper? A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/2 for details.
Dave, I am in no-name phone territory (Sylvan Lake Phone Company - a division of Frontier Communications). We are lucky to have a dial tone most of the time. ;-)
We were paying $15/month for the extra phone line, plue $20/month for unlimited dial-up. DSL was not an option (still isn't) around here - too far away from CO. Cable was our only choice. $49/month - best money I've spent. Routinely get 2000/down, 300/up.
How's this Subie related? It lets me read the crew topics faster!
Aw shucks, I was using the wife's aunt's PC, and there was too much going on. Her grandaughter's 11th birthday, and they lit the candles shortly after my post.
On a better note, turns out one of her sons owns a used car lot in Texas, and we talked Subies for a while.
He said they are among his favorites, because mechanically they are very durable. It was interesting because he offers a warranty for every car he sells, as long as the buyer is making payments, so long-term reliability is a key for him to be able to make a profit.
All brands, he shops the auctions for good deals. He hires his own full time mechanics (two), and has a total of about 10 staff. It was an interesting conversation.
I was a bit surprised because he's in Houston, not exactly known for a large Subie population. But those are among his most profitable models, due to very low repair rates. He also mentioned the Isuzu Rodeo and Trooper, and the Nissan Altima.
I asked about Hondas and Toyotas and he said they are nice but margins are thin because he has to pay too much to acquire them.
would you mind emailing me his company name, etc., because you're right, they are more difficult to find here, and I might be looking for the right deal.
I'll get it for you. He no longer has a web site because the inventory changed too often and he doesn't need it because most customers are repeat buyers.
It's cool, if you finance a car for 3 years, he'll warranty it ($100 deductible) for those 3 years, so you only worry about the payments.
What's funny is he said 626 trannies are awful and have cost him an arm and a leg. You'll recall I mentioned how bad the CD4E tranny is on the 4 cylinder auto 626s.
On Subies he says he'll occasionally change the struts if they are older than 8 years or so, that's about it.
Even in an area with a high concentration of Subarus like Utah, finding a used one can be difficult. If you're looking for a more common L or Outback configuration, you're chances of finding a nice used one at a decent price are pretty high.
When we told a dealer we wanted a red 2000 Legacy GT Limited sedan with a standard transmission, though, he said we were nuts. We proved him wrong, but had to go to Colorado to get it.
Just got back from the dealer and yes, our Outback required the downloaded update. The rep I talked to mentioned that it doesn't require the ECM to be removed (hence my radio presets and clock settings stayed), but they just plug into the computer and download the changes. Whatever, however, if that does the trick, so be it.
Must be a placebo effect now though; I swear there's a twin turbo in there now.....
I'm actually kind of glad the ECM wasn't reset, since I actually think it's running quite well - responsive, no ping (knock on wood), and mileage is 22 for my cr*ppy city driving AND reformulated crud they serve here.
They could have 'unlocked' the hidden level, er, horsepower. LOL!
I'm glad to hear that the download went well, but you might want to wait a few thousand miles to formulate your impression if the download made a difference. Whenever the ECU is reset, the engine tends to run rich until it accumulates enough data points to begin leaning out the fuel mixture. Engines can be quite peppy, but fuel inefficient, when running rich.
it is reset as part of the update? I was just beginning to accept it as a download update, not a reset. either way, I'll hold off my opinion for a couple of gas tanks to see.
If the update involved a part of the program that reads stored data, it would make sense that the memory is cleared. One way to tell if the ECU was reset is a temporary drop in gas milage (if you were getting average milage before).
Just got back from our little trip to Wisconsin Dells. Drive consisted of 90% highway, 70+ mph, some stop-n-go construction traffic, a/c on, 3 adults, 1 child, cargo area packed, lead foot accelerated on-ramps (gotta make sure that ECM remembers me!). Did 326.7 miles on 12.205 gallons = 27 mpg. That's consistent with previous highway treks that way. Still have just over half a tank left from refueling before we left.
Aside from all that, that alignment I had done to correct the ever so minor leftness that it tended to have is now worse! Wheel needs to be held 2 degrees right to go straight, and pulls immediately left when you let go. Even on the right side of a crowned road. And there's also some virbration from the front wheels now. GRRRRRRR! I'm going to have it done properly at a Hunter place nearby and get my money back from the dealer.
I come from Gippsland, the area of Victoria, Australia between Melbourne and the state border (about 350 miles) to the East and bounded by the Great Dividing Range to the North and the Sea to the South.
Its a wet area with steep hills clad in varying forest types including dry and wet sclerophyll , sub tropical rainforests, planted eucalyptus and pine plantations.
The area is thick with the cute wildlife (wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, koalas) which you think of when you think of Australia, although a lot wetter than most people's ideas of Oz. That means that there are also some of the less cuddly forms of wildlife, including impressive leaches which are so desperate for a blood feed that they will try and suck through your boots. Even the worms are unusual with the Great Gippsland Earthworm growing to more than six feet long. At that size, you can actually hear them making progress through the soggy soil.
My family have farmed in this country since cutting out some of the first farms in the 1870's. There is a local joke that it is a drought if it has not rained today. We have lovely descriptions of my forebears carrying the mails through neck deep mud holes during the chilly winters. Must have been a rough life.
This has been the Queen's Birthday Weekend here in Victoria. Now its ludicrous enough that we even celebrate the birthday of a distant figurehead head of state, but it is not even her real birthday. But, hey, its the start of the ski season so why kick up a fuss over a good excuse for a holiday?
I thought it would be a good chance to take my English born kids and show them some of the wilder countryside. There is a lovely winding road through the top of the Strzelecki Ranges called the Grand Ridge Road where I could play with the Outback's AWD and show the kids some animals.
We spotted two Wedge Tailed Eagles, Australia's largest, soaring above us on an open stretch of road. They feed on the young of large marsupials and rabbits, frequently being accused of stealing lambs. They look magnificent though as they soar for hours on six foot wings.
When the first explorer in the area, Count Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, hacked his way through in the 1840's the jungle was so thick that he made barely one miles progress each day. He was reduced to eating Koala, an unpalatable meal as their sole diet is eucalypts and this taints their meat with its characteristic oil.
The hills are steep sided with massive Eucalyptus Regnans providing the upper canopy (The E. Regnans was the tallest tree in the world, exceeding the Californian Redwoods, but the larger specimens were felled by timber cutters in the 1890's). Below this are understories of Myrtle Beech, Acacia and tree ferns, the latter being ancient and often forty feet high. There are also creepers and lower growing plants. In denser places, the canopy is so thick as to block out the light from above. You look up at the sky but see no blue. It tends to be a place of stillness and sounds are distinctive.
One of the real treats of the forest is the rare chance to see a lyrebird. These are pheasant sized birds with a most peculiar mating ritual. The female is a boring brown bird but the male sports an elegant, finely feathered tail with two outer feathers swept into a lyre shaped (think Ancient Grecian musical instruments and you get the general picture). He shows this glorious plume off by sweeping it up and over his body, flicking it like an opera lover's fan whilst parading around a mound of leaf litter and earth he piles on the forest floor.
All the time he does this, he sings a song, unique to each male. The song is an amalgam of other birds songs and any other noises he has heard and adapted. I have heard chainsaws, steam trains and truck engines, deep in the forest. (Incidentally the steam train whistle remains in many bird's repertoire fifty years after the last steam trains were in the area, the memory of the whistle being passed down from bird song to bird song, with extraordinary clarity.). If the male turns on a particularly good performance, he attracts a female, so the pressure is on. A rendition of the male's song may run twenty minutes or more.
We got lucky and I found a likely spot just as a male launched into his song. I was able to ask my daughter how many birds she thought were singing and she counted seven different bird songs immediately.
I then lifted both kids up a ten foot bank, scrambling up after them (gee, it was easier to do that when I was a kid) and we crept through the forest to watch. We'd been there about five minutes when we at last sighted him but unfortunately he looked around and spotted us. Performance interruptus, I fear. I hope I did not queer his pitch with some desirable lady lyrebird.
It certainly gives the kids something to talk about at school. I'd guess they are the only kids in their school to see a Lyrebird in the wild and seeing/hearing the performance is even more special.
I guess I should keep this vaguely on topic. The Outback is filthy, the mud caking so thickly as to drop off in lumps. Unfortunately, I had a repeat of an earlier problem with the rear calipers partially jamming with mud and small stones. Its easily cleared by running backwards and applying the brakes but seems a design weakness.
More pleasing though was the performance in very sloppy conditions. The AWD is excellent on these sort of roads. They were certainly passable to all vehicles but the frequently unpredictable surfaces meant that I was constantly picking up unpredictable slides, even with the AWD. With unprotected drop offs of 100 feet or more into some gullies, I had no wish to test the limits and was glad to have a Subaru. Most of the dirt stuff was driven in low second or third to guarantee power for catching the slides easily.
It reads like a travelog. I especially loved the account of the lyrebird. I think this would be a great piece to send to Subaru's Drive magazine. Great job and keep em coming! Ron
What an incredible post; you rposts are always so interesting, like a window into a new world for most of us. You should write a book. I'll definitely buy it. Keep up the good work. Serge - Florida Wallaby
You should submit that post to SOA's" DRIVE magazine. I bet it would have a very good chance of being posted, as that magazine is always doing off-beat nature-oriented stories. I would also include pictures.
Any word out there what will be a new Subaru credit card program? I'm about to spend big $$$ for some furniture and on the fence whether to use MBNA card now or wait for another program...
Graham I'll be in Australia next January - near Melbourne in fact - so any time you want to post another of your delightful travelogue stories I'm listening! I just saw a picture of the lyrebird in the Australia guide book I have & it stopped me cold....what a treat for the eyes & ears that must have been!
When it gets closer to the time I may want to pick your brain a bit - I'll have about 10 days after "business" to play around - wish I could take my Subie with me!
I guess I should have mentioned that Megascolides Australis (Giant Gippsland Earthworm) is celebrated in the Karmai festival in Korumburra each year. Perhaps it hasn't made it on to the major festivals in the US calendar, but it has local significance.
OK, this thread has slowed down, so it's time for a topic-starter.
What road trips are people taking this summer? Going anywhere interesting with the Subie? Tell us all about your summer plans. Anyone taking up auto cross? Track days? Driving school?
With a kid due July 25th, we'll likely be sticking around, chilling out at the pool. How 'bout you folks?
Wisconsin Dells and sunny Florida. Just went to the Dells this past weekend and plan on going again near Labor Day. Then after that trip, we'll be heading down to Orlando. Not sure if we'll be driving or flying for that one. If we drive, it'll probably be in a (rented) mini-van though.
Only ones we're taking this summer are relatively close to home... camping on the Pend Oreille (say "ponderay") River, wife's class reunion in Baker City, Or. Going to Portland this weekend for a family funeral, and I really wanted to drive, but time constraints made flying necessary.
The Subie trails merrily along behind the motorhome on our camping trips. I may have to commute from the campground a couple days, which are really nice drives on 2-lane highways very early on a summer's morn.
Moved a ton (literally, I think) of dirt as part of a landscaping project yesterday. Going to reward myself by washing the car today. Not OCD yet, but this may be a start!
No where special...probably some trips to the West Coast (of Florida), north towards Cape Caneveral; just long weekends. We are saving the money for a big trip to Europe(UK, Italy, and Holland) next summer for Michael's Bar-Mitzvah. Speaking of Michael, they had the 6th grade awards ceremony this morning at his school; Michael got a Presidential Gold award for maintaining a 3.5 GPA or above for the year. It comes with a copy of the letter sent to his school by Bush. He also got the 99th percentile(hightest possible) in the Florida standard tests, called FCATs, for both Math and Language arts. I guess Susan and I must be doing something right. Serge - Proud Papa
Brian, Let us know when you are coming down here..perhaps we can make our way up to Orlando (3 hr ride)
I really hope to make it to South America this fall. Following the encouraging advice from Juice the Brazilian I booked a tour which goes to Brazil then Argentina then Chile then back home, 3 weeks overall. I need to start practicing my samba and tango right now. What do they dance in Chile though? I remember Juice posted the Worlds Shortest Samba Instructions, it was something like this: < > < > ... or was it:
Thanks; he REALLY wants the WRX wagon, but we'll start him with a cheaper (but safe) car and good driving lessons. We have friends that are from Brazil; this past weekend, in fact, we met them for lunch at a Brazilian restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale...I had grilled chiken with black beans and rice..mmmmmmmmm, yummy. We also went to their house New Year's Eve and he made me a caipirinha; man was that great! If you're ever in Midtown Manhattan, there was a Brazilian restaurant on 45th St. just west of 6th Ave called Cabana Carioca...great buffet. I'm going to try to get some track time or driving school this summer.
When it comes to bragging about my children, there's no way of stopping me :-)
Tanya (14): senior in high school, weighted GPA 4.25 (AP classes count as grade+1); 1560 cumulative SAT 1, 760-780 on various SAT II. She wants to go to MIT or Caltech but fat chance: hey're really leery of accepting minors these days, after many incidents and law suits. What is ok with 18yr olds, is a crime with minors, you know what I mean...
Tanya really likes everything Japanese, including Subarus and hopes to inherit my Forester when I get a new car and she gets her license.
Andrew (4): champion of his preschool class in assembling 32-piece Winnie the Pooh puzzle, can read many 3-letter words, counts to 20, does all arithmetic with numbers 0-9, wants to be a policeman or fireman. He also told me he will marry me in the future and will buy me brand new white Forester.
Comments
Steve
-mike
How's this Subie related? It lets me read the crew topics faster!
-Brian
On a better note, turns out one of her sons owns a used car lot in Texas, and we talked Subies for a while.
He said they are among his favorites, because mechanically they are very durable. It was interesting because he offers a warranty for every car he sells, as long as the buyer is making payments, so long-term reliability is a key for him to be able to make a profit.
He drives an S class.
-juice
what used ones does he sell? I thought used subies were kind of hard to find.
-Brian
I was a bit surprised because he's in Houston, not exactly known for a large Subie population. But those are among his most profitable models, due to very low repair rates. He also mentioned the Isuzu Rodeo and Trooper, and the Nissan Altima.
I asked about Hondas and Toyotas and he said they are nice but margins are thin because he has to pay too much to acquire them.
-juice
Jim
It's cool, if you finance a car for 3 years, he'll warranty it ($100 deductible) for those 3 years, so you only worry about the payments.
What's funny is he said 626 trannies are awful and have cost him an arm and a leg. You'll recall I mentioned how bad the CD4E tranny is on the 4 cylinder auto 626s.
On Subies he says he'll occasionally change the struts if they are older than 8 years or so, that's about it.
-juice
Interesting to hear about used Subarus in Texas. Actually, Cobb Tuning is outside of Dallas so they couldn't be that rare!
Ken
Jim
Ken
-juice
When we told a dealer we wanted a red 2000 Legacy GT Limited sedan with a standard transmission, though, he said we were nuts. We proved him wrong, but had to go to Colorado to get it.
Ty
Must be a placebo effect now though; I swear there's a twin turbo in there now.....
-Brian
-Dave
They could have 'unlocked' the hidden level, er, horsepower. LOL!
-Brian
I'm glad to hear that the download went well, but you might want to wait a few thousand miles to formulate your impression if the download made a difference. Whenever the ECU is reset, the engine tends to run rich until it accumulates enough data points to begin leaning out the fuel mixture. Engines can be quite peppy, but fuel inefficient, when running rich.
Ken
Brian: can I get that upgrade? ;-)
-juice
-Brian
Keep us updated on how it goes.
Ken
Aside from all that, that alignment I had done to correct the ever so minor leftness that it tended to have is now worse! Wheel needs to be held 2 degrees right to go straight, and pulls immediately left when you let go. Even on the right side of a crowned road. And there's also some virbration from the front wheels now. GRRRRRRR! I'm going to have it done properly at a Hunter place nearby and get my money back from the dealer.
-Brian
I come from Gippsland, the area of Victoria, Australia between Melbourne and the state border (about 350 miles) to the East and bounded by the Great Dividing Range to the North and the Sea to the South.
Its a wet area with steep hills clad in varying forest types including dry and wet sclerophyll , sub tropical rainforests, planted eucalyptus and pine plantations.
The area is thick with the cute wildlife (wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, koalas) which you think of when you think of Australia, although a lot wetter than most people's ideas of Oz. That means that there are also some of the less cuddly forms of wildlife, including impressive leaches which are so desperate for a blood feed that they will try and suck through your boots. Even the worms are unusual with the Great Gippsland Earthworm growing to more than six feet long. At that size, you can actually hear them making progress through the soggy soil.
My family have farmed in this country since cutting out some of the first farms in the 1870's. There is a local joke that it is a drought if it has not rained today. We have lovely descriptions of my forebears carrying the mails through neck deep mud holes during the chilly winters. Must have been a rough life.
This has been the Queen's Birthday Weekend here in Victoria. Now its ludicrous enough that we even celebrate the birthday of a distant figurehead head of state, but it is not even her real birthday. But, hey, its the start of the ski season so why kick up a fuss over a good excuse for a holiday?
I thought it would be a good chance to take my English born kids and show them some of the wilder countryside. There is a lovely winding road through the top of the Strzelecki Ranges called the Grand Ridge Road where I could play with the Outback's AWD and show the kids some animals.
We spotted two Wedge Tailed Eagles, Australia's largest, soaring above us on an open stretch of road. They feed on the young of large marsupials and rabbits, frequently being accused of stealing lambs. They look magnificent though as they soar for hours on six foot wings.
When the first explorer in the area, Count Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, hacked his way through in the 1840's the jungle was so thick that he made barely one miles progress each day. He was reduced to eating Koala, an unpalatable meal as their sole diet is eucalypts and this taints their meat with its characteristic oil.
The hills are steep sided with massive Eucalyptus Regnans providing the upper canopy (The E. Regnans was the tallest tree in the world, exceeding the Californian Redwoods, but the larger specimens were felled by timber cutters in the 1890's). Below this are understories of Myrtle Beech, Acacia and tree ferns, the latter being ancient and often forty feet high. There are also creepers and lower growing plants. In denser places, the canopy is so thick as to block out the light from above. You look up at the sky but see no blue. It tends to be a place of stillness and sounds are distinctive.
One of the real treats of the forest is the rare chance to see a lyrebird. These are pheasant sized birds with a most peculiar mating ritual. The female is a boring brown bird but the male sports an elegant, finely feathered tail with two outer feathers swept into a lyre shaped (think Ancient Grecian musical instruments and you get the general picture). He shows this glorious plume off by sweeping it up and over his body, flicking it like an opera lover's fan whilst parading around a mound of leaf litter and earth he piles on the forest floor.
All the time he does this, he sings a song, unique to each male. The song is an amalgam of other birds songs and any other noises he has heard and adapted. I have heard chainsaws, steam trains and truck engines, deep in the forest. (Incidentally the steam train whistle remains in many bird's repertoire fifty years after the last steam trains were in the area, the memory of the whistle being passed down from bird song to bird song, with extraordinary clarity.). If the male turns on a particularly good performance, he attracts a female, so the pressure is on. A rendition of the male's song may run twenty minutes or more.
We got lucky and I found a likely spot just as a male launched into his song. I was able to ask my daughter how many birds she thought were singing and she counted seven different bird songs immediately.
I then lifted both kids up a ten foot bank, scrambling up after them (gee, it was easier to do that when I was a kid) and we crept through the forest to watch. We'd been there about five minutes when we at last sighted him but unfortunately he looked around and spotted us. Performance interruptus, I fear. I hope I did not queer his pitch with some desirable lady lyrebird.
It certainly gives the kids something to talk about at school. I'd guess they are the only kids in their school to see a Lyrebird in the wild and seeing/hearing the performance is even more special.
I guess I should keep this vaguely on topic. The Outback is filthy, the mud caking so thickly as to drop off in lumps. Unfortunately, I had a repeat of an earlier problem with the rear calipers partially jamming with mud and small stones. Its easily cleared by running backwards and applying the brakes but seems a design weakness.
More pleasing though was the performance in very sloppy conditions. The AWD is excellent on these sort of roads. They were certainly passable to all vehicles but the frequently unpredictable surfaces meant that I was constantly picking up unpredictable slides, even with the AWD. With unprotected drop offs of 100 feet or more into some gullies, I had no wish to test the limits and was glad to have a Subaru. Most of the dirt stuff was driven in low second or third to guarantee power for catching the slides easily.
Quite a nice weekend.
Cheers
Graham
I think this would be a great piece to send to Subaru's Drive magazine.
Great job and keep em coming!
Ron
KarenS
Host
Owners Clubs
See why with over dozen new features the 2003 Forester continues to set the standard in the compact SUV class.
When: Thurs., June 20th
6-7pm PT/9-10pm ET
KarenS
Host
Owners Clubs
Serge - Florida Wallaby
A chat with a PR Manager? I do that every night! I should ask my wife for the inside scoop on what to ask him. ;-)
Check out Mods for the story of my lug nut blues.
-juice
Bob
Thanks, m8.
..Mike
..Mike
When it gets closer to the time I may want to pick your brain a bit - I'll have about 10 days after "business" to play around - wish I could take my Subie with me!
Jillian
I guess I should have mentioned that Megascolides Australis (Giant Gippsland Earthworm) is celebrated in the Karmai festival in Korumburra each year. Perhaps it hasn't made it on to the major festivals in the US calendar, but it has local significance.
http://www.thegreencommunity.org/giant_worms.html gives some details of the worm.
Cheers
Graham
Serge - where a 7ft gator is in our canal somewhere!
Genus: Megascolides
Species: Australis
Status: Vulnerable
Name: Dave
It's true!
-juice
tWRX
What road trips are people taking this summer? Going anywhere interesting with the Subie? Tell us all about your summer plans. Anyone taking up auto cross? Track days? Driving school?
With a kid due July 25th, we'll likely be sticking around, chilling out at the pool. How 'bout you folks?
-juice
I want to try to squeeze in at least one auto-x.
Thinking about checking info on Driving Dynamics driving school (drivingdynamics.com).
Maybe a Pine Barrens trip or two.
Hopefully take delivery on a 2003 WRX wagon. :-D
-Dennis
We'll probably go to CT but it may not be until Turkey Day.
-juice
-Dennis
-Brian
The Subie trails merrily along behind the motorhome on our camping trips. I may have to commute from the campground a couple days, which are really nice drives on 2-lane highways very early on a summer's morn.
Moved a ton (literally, I think) of dirt as part of a landscaping project yesterday. Going to reward myself by washing the car today. Not OCD yet, but this may be a start!
Cheers!
Paul
Speaking of which, updated my auto-x pages which include pics from the last NASA event and the National Tour in Rome. http://isuzu-suvs.com/autox
-mike
Speaking of Michael, they had the 6th grade awards ceremony this morning at his school; Michael got a Presidential Gold award for maintaining a 3.5 GPA or above for the year. It comes with a copy of the letter sent to his school by Bush. He also got the 99th percentile(hightest possible) in the Florida standard tests, called FCATs, for both Math and Language arts. I guess Susan and I must be doing something right.
Serge - Proud Papa
Brian, Let us know when you are coming down here..perhaps we can make our way up to Orlando (3 hr ride)
I need to start practicing my samba and tango right now. What do they dance in Chile though?
I remember Juice posted the Worlds Shortest Samba Instructions, it was something like this:
<
>
<
>
...
or was it:
<<
>>
...
?
Kate: just have a couple of caipirinhas (cachaca, lime, ice, sugar) and I think you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly!
That's hard to beat, anyone else going to exotic locales?
-juice
If you're ever in Midtown Manhattan, there was a Brazilian restaurant on 45th St. just west of 6th Ave called Cabana Carioca...great buffet.
I'm going to try to get some track time or driving school this summer.
Tanya (14): senior in high school, weighted GPA 4.25 (AP classes count as grade+1); 1560 cumulative SAT 1, 760-780 on various SAT II.
She wants to go to MIT or Caltech but fat chance: hey're really leery of accepting minors these days, after many incidents and law suits. What is ok with 18yr olds, is a crime with minors, you know what I mean...
Tanya really likes everything Japanese, including Subarus and hopes to inherit my Forester when I get a new car and she gets her license.
Andrew (4): champion of his preschool class in assembling 32-piece Winnie the Pooh puzzle, can read many 3-letter words, counts to 20, does all arithmetic with numbers 0-9, wants to be a policeman or fireman. He also told me he will marry me in the future and will buy me brand new white Forester.