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Re: 2015 Outback thoughts vs XV vs Forester Posted by Snowmobile [Email]  (#686)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Snowmobile) on Sun, 15 Feb 2015 18:31:54
In Reply to: Re: 2015 Outback thoughts vs XV vs Forester, dtechakacheaptech, Sun, 15 Feb 2015 11:06:17 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I'm probably one of the posters dtech is referring to. I'm not sure that sales numbers necessarily correlate with better vehicles, but one might hope so. Certainly they are very popular here. They are good snow cars. I would definitely drive them and compare, but also cross shop with other brands. If you test drive the Forester, make sure you do some serpentine turns - some here say they have improved this one dramatically in 2014 and the last one I drove was a 2009 (iirc), but it's dynamics were *awful*. My wife agreed. It was not subtle. A whole new level of bad for me. Too tall a vehicle on a smallish car platform. Even though the new one looks almost identical from the outside, they may have improved this from the inside. One can hope! The less tall Subies I've driven handled better.
Most of my friends drive Subarus. When their Subaru dies (dead transmission, blown HG which is "too costly to repair" due to the engine topology, etc)... they just swing by the dealer and buy another without even trying any other brands. This says a couple things: 1) Subaru buyers become part of a lemming cult... but SAAB drivers could be accused of this to some degree also (I would argue that in just about every respect SAABs are better every day cars, but I suppose that's just my opinion). 2) There must be something good about Subarus that keep them coming back. I think it's partly AWD paranoia/propaganda, but there are some merits to that, especially if you live in a rural snowbelt locale.
I will say, that my Subie owning friends agree with me on the Forester handling (theirs were ~2012 model years) being poo. Again pre-2014, so maybe it's all different now. One family chose Forester over Outback (that is the extent of their cross shopping!) on the basis of better driver legroom in the forester from the more upright position. I have never found Subaru seating comfortable for more than an hour or 2 (even in the Forester), but again maybe they have changed that. If you can rent one for a long drive, that would be valuable. I put over 3000 miles in various Subarus, so I'm not dissing them over a short test drive.
The crosstrek is actually interesting to me, and one of my friends bought a hybrid crosstrek. Have not had a chance to drive it yet. I think that vehicle with a turbo would be quite interesting... not sure if that is an option, but I can't see it being a hard customization - all the parts must port right over from a WRX/STI, right?
Coming from SAAB, depending on your price range and biases/interests, I would cross shop Volvo, BMW X1/X3, Audi, in addition to some of the other SUV suggestions (Rav4/CRV, Escape, Jeep, Encore - HA!, etc)... Subies around here are priced pretty high - certainly a well equipped Forester or Outback (leather, better engines, etc) was priced about the same as a discounted SAAB back when there were SAABs to buy. Lease rates were similar also. That may not be the same in your neck of the woods. They sell like hotcakes here and are rarely discounted at all! I wonder what SAAB sales might have been if 10% of the larger Subie owners cross shopped eg a 9-3X...
All I'm saying, is I seriously cross shopped them, and was disappointed, and bought another SAAB. Maybe times have changed, and I would certainly give them another try, but definitely cross shop thoroughly, and if you can rent a car for a long trip, you will learn much more about the ins and outs before buying.
, Sat, 21 Feb 2015 07:00:19
, Fri, 20 Feb 2015 10:32:25, Fri, 20 Feb 2015 20:12:10, Fri, 20 Feb 2015 08:44:52, Sat, 21 Feb 2015 09:44:01, Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:42:12, Mon, 16 Feb 2015 06:00:48, Sun, 15 Feb 2015 14:41:39, Tue, 17 Feb 2015 06:58:33, Tue, 17 Feb 2015 09:20:06, Sun, 15 Feb 2015 18:31:54 <-- Viewing This Message
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