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maybe they'll make one with a turbo... Posted by Snowmobile [Email]  (#686)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Snowmobile) on Tue, 9 Jul 2013 06:50:38
In Reply to: Re: what about a Subaru XV CrossTrek, Tom, Mon, 8 Jul 2013 22:13:15 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Hopefully they will make WRX CrossTrek (ie with a turbo) and then it will get more interesting.
I have only driven rental Subies so they were all automatics, and just barely predating the CVTs... none were turbos... I blamed most of the poor driving characteristics on those old automatics, which were 4 gears but geared the Asian way: waste a gear for 0-10mph to make a fairly basic engine feel fast off the line. So in Saab terms, they were 3 speeds. No better than the automatic transmissions from the c900 days, except the c900s downshifted more responsively (coupled with a flatter torque curve). Going way back about a decade, I remember driving a 260hp Outback with one of those 4 speed autoboxes: loads of power, but it easily took over 5 seconds to downshift! Fortunately newer subie automatics had a manumatic mode which was a must for highway driving. I needed to downshift almost every time I wanted to pass on the highway (at least in the legacy and forester). Real world highway fuel economy was correspondingly awful as well (low 20's, whereas I get low 30's in a 9-5 driving the same way).
So hopefully the CVTs have improved the driving and the fuel economy. Part of the fuel economy penalty is the AWD. AWD is very handy some of the time, and a bit of a fuel hog the rest of the time...
The seats in the other subies were not bad around town, but after a couple hours I found I was very stiff. I'm just not used to that with the saabs. It's good to put some serious time in cars before buying. I put over 3000 miles on each of those rentals. Good way to know the cars! I think one of the reasons for Saabs lack of business success was that few really got to experience what Saabs are really good at: driving long distances with great fun and comfort... a short test drive just doesn't demonstrate that at all!
, Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:49:20, Mon, 1 Jul 2013 02:46:25, Mon, 8 Jul 2013 07:13:50, Tue, 9 Jul 2013 06:50:38 <-- Viewing This Message
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