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Subaru Crew Cafe

17119 messages,  Last post on May 23, 2013 at 9:51 AM

You are in the Subaru Crew Forum.

What is this discussion about? Subaru

Your Community Leaders are ateixeira and rsholland.

This is the place for Crew members to kick back, relax, and talk about...whatever!

Messages Page 1703 of 1713

#17014 of 17119 Re: Tire Cost [ateixeira] by xwesx

Feb 20, 2013 (10:25 am)

Replying to: ateixeira (Feb 20, 2013 9:13 am)
It may have prevented the curb rash I got with the old tires.
 
Well, better driving will prevent that, too. Bwahahahahahahaha; sorry, I just had to say that!

#17015 of 17119 Re: Tire Cost [xwesx] by ateixeira

Feb 20, 2013 (10:36 am)

Replying to: xwesx (Feb 20, 2013 10:25 am)
I was forced towards a curb by a person who drifted in to my lane. Jerk didn't even stop to see if I was OK.
 
I thought I had a flat so I had to stop.
 
Happens a lot but this was the only time I hit a curb.

#17016 of 17119 Re: Tire Cost [ateixeira] by xwesx

Feb 20, 2013 (10:50 am)

Replying to: ateixeira (Feb 20, 2013 10:36 am)
Oh, way to turn it around on me! Sheesh, now I feel bad about even saying that.

#17017 of 17119 Re: Tire Cost [xwesx] by ateixeira

Feb 20, 2013 (11:23 am)

Replying to: xwesx (Feb 20, 2013 10:50 am)
It's a teeny little car, not hard to place in any parking spot. I usually have several feet to spare on all sides.

#17018 of 17119 2014 Subaru XT Forester quick notes by kurtamaxxxguy

Mar 23, 2013 (7:54 am)

When it arrived at my local dealership I took a test drive and ended up taking it home. '14 version's possibly the best car Subaru has built, outside of the BRZ, and is _major_ change from the previous generation. Is solid: going over speed bumps that rattled and pogoed the '09 XT's rear don't phase the 14. Quieter: low freq road and a little wind noise; CVT doesn't whine and engine buzz's muted. Goes around corners with little lean, tending towards understeer. Fuel economy for 100 mile mixed mode trip was 28.5 mpg, and the car's not broken in yet. Heavy steel skid plate up front and plastic "trays" line the car's bottom. Bigger inside: more footroom than the larger Audi Allroad and BMW X3. Nicer finish to dash and doors. Seats kinda hard but seat heaters easy to reach now. Many, many electronic display modes give you all sorts of info about the XT (turbo speed, throttle opening, oil pressure, oil temperature, and others to choose from). Navigation system is not quite as bad as reviewers make it, but is complex and takes getting used to: there is a 1/2" thick instruction manual dedicated to it. X_Mode's interesting as car takes a couple seconds to "get ready" in that mode; will be handy should we get spring ice.
 
My white tourer was built in 2/13 (they got here fast) so wasn't first off the line as was my '09 XT. Seems very well assembled - everything lines up and so far only minor soft rattle or two under the dash.

#17019 of 17119 Re: 2014 Subaru XT Forester quick notes [kurtamaxxxguy] by rsholland

Mar 23, 2013 (1:09 pm)

Replying to: kurtamaxxxguy (Mar 23, 2013 7:54 am)
Congrats! You must be the first here to own one!
 
I too recently took a test drive of an XT w/Eyesight, and was very impressed.
 
My only complaints are that the seat has little if any side bolstering, not good for a car with sporting pretensions. I also think the rear camera is too small. Why they didn't integrate it into the navigation screen is a mystery. Must have been a cost issue, as this same nav unit is used on the BRZ and Impreza, neither of which currently offer a rear camera. The 6.1" navigation screen is also small, especially when you consider the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport has an 8" screen.
 
Other than that, it appears to be a great car.
 
Side note: I'm very wary of critics of factory in-dash navigation units, especially when comes to Subaru. Just like comments on Subaru styling, the automatic knee-jerk response is that it's bad, without really learning how the unit works. Having said that, I do think the screen is too small, as I mentioned above.
 
Bob

#17020 of 17119 Re: 2014 Subaru XT Forester quick notes [rsholland] by kurtamaxxxguy

Mar 23, 2013 (6:37 pm)

Replying to: rsholland (Mar 23, 2013 1:09 pm)
Yes, Bob, the front seats are kinda shy on bolstering and feel rather hard. Hopefully they will soften up a little in time.
 
The day/night mirror has a faint rectangular cutout that suggests it might have been designed to accommodate a rear vision display, but it would have been smaller than the current display screen. And yes, it was probably easier to connect the camera to a new display than reworking the nav unit to do the job.
 
I certainly don't miss the booming/bouncing the older XT did when going over speed bumps. The '14 is much better damped.

#17021 of 17119 drive experience by kurtamaxxxguy

Mar 23, 2013 (6:39 pm)

BTW my sales rep told me Subaru plans to have a presentation in Seattle very soon for industry folks and sales reps to drive the foresters. Who might a lowly customer contact to see if he might attend (providing he pays his own way to get there)?

#17022 of 17119 Re: 2014 Subaru XT Forester quick notes [kurtamaxxxguy] by rsholland

Mar 23, 2013 (7:19 pm)

Replying to: kurtamaxxxguy (Mar 23, 2013 6:37 pm)
Did you get Eyesight? I really like that feature. Hope it trickles down to lesser trim levels.
 
I also noticed that when you put the SI-Drive in Sport # mode, the gear indicator changes to gear numbers (1-8). As the vehicle's speed changes, so do the numbers. Pretty cool.
 
Bob

#17023 of 17119 Re: 2014 Subaru XT Forester quick notes [rsholland] by kurtamaxxxguy

Mar 24, 2013 (9:56 am)

Replying to: rsholland (Mar 23, 2013 7:19 pm)
Neither Eyesight, HID nor Keyless start are on my XT. Eyesight was intriguing but seems wise to give Subaru another couple of years refining it. Also, didn't want to wait 3 months for another Satin White Pearl XT to show up (out of the roughly 200 foresters moving into inventory in Portland, there was only __one__ satin white peral XT).
 
Paddle shifters are very nice and make it easy to control engine braking when on hills.
 
Wrt 3 drive modes, I mode's relaxed, Sport mode's more responsive and keeps revs a bit higher, S/I mode somewhat hair trigger and offering more ratios to paddle.
 
Supposedly this turbo engine has good torque from 2000 RPM up: can't verify yet as vehicle's nowhere near broken in. It's nice to see Subaru getting away from the old "on off" switch engines (they may be fun on the track but are a lurch-y pain in city driving).

Messages Page 1703 of 1713

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