Forrester

What do you think of the new XT forrester thinking of getting one any comments please.T.R.

Reply to
T.R.
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Reply to
David

I have an '05 XT here, 30,000 miles and no problems. The Turbo is excellent as long as you can keep from punching it, as the gas mileage goes down the tubes if you routinely accellerate aggressively. Especially painful with Super unleaded at $3.11/gallon as it was this morning, but still a lot of fun. (the XT requires super unleaded fuel). Having driven the XT, I wouldn't want to go to the NA engine. Otherwise, it's a dream for passing as ir accellerates flawlessly. The first time I drove it up to northern Nevada for vacation, I was on a 2 lane road in the boonies CA-120.. I swung out to pass someone doing about 45, and when I looked down at the speedo, I was doing 85. No hesitation, just pure accelleration. Handling is great, and though I have only been in snow once, I had no problems. I drive up to higher elevations up to 7800', (starting at about 2000') frequently with 3 adult passengers and backpacks, and no pinging or incessant downshifting like some other small SUV's I have been in. I have had the car as high as 11,000' in the White Mountains and the turbo breathes just fine.

My ONLY complaint is that the design of the dash cluster is such that when it's really bright outside, the recessed gauges don't get enough light to be able to read with a quick glance. I test drove it on an overcast day. The extreme bright sun here in the southern Nevada constricts your eyes, and they can't react fast enough to be able to read the dark gauges. Had they used black on white backgrounds, or electroluminescents it would be perfect.

Reply to
QX

I wonder if some tint film might help. It's not uncommon around here to have almost every vehicle tinted. I do feel extremely heavy tint could be a safety issue at night (and a legal issue in some states) - but it makes a VAST difference in how quickly and how well the A/C cools the interior in summer. Might help with the gauge visibility issue you mention.

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

The problem is when you are looking out the windshield, the sun intensity is incredible. Even with sunglasses, the pupils constrict. An acquaintance has an 04X and complains of the exact same problem with guage visibility. I have even tried turning the headlights on to get the dash lights on and adjusted to max brightness, but it only helps a little. My wife's car is a Dodge Caravan, and I have no problems with her car, as the instrument panel is shaded, but not recessed, and it gets enough ambient light to make it visible. Tinting was one of the first things I did after I got the car. Lighter (legal) on the driver & Passenger windows, 1 step darker on the rears (so as not to destroy night vision) and sunroof. It DID make a difference as to cooling, and how much solar heat is radiated into the vehicle as you are riding in it.

BTW, I specified a "ceramic" film due to signal strength issues I read about pertaining to metallic films & the Subaru "in-wondow" antennas. Whether or not the signal degradation issue is for real, I am very happy with the ceramic film.

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specifically, the "Pinnacle Series". No scratches, purpling, or bubbling after 3 years of use.

Reply to
QX

Glad to hear about the film - hopefully my Huper Optik will perform as well - pricey but worth it based on last summer!

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

That bad, eh ?

/me wanders off to tank up at a UK petrol station for > $7 a gallon :(

Reply to
Phil

But the price of crude oil is pretty much the same on the international market. The rest is governmental taxes & fees.

Reply to
QX

All these examples do NOT imply that gasoline is cheap; it just illustrates how outrageous some prices are.... You will be really shocked by the last one!!!! (At least, I was...)

Compared with Gasoline...... Think a gallon of gas is expensive?

This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.

Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ... $10.32 per gallon

Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ..........$9.52 per gallon

Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 .... $10.17 per gallon

Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 . $10.00 per gallon

Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 . $33.60 per gallon

Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 ... $178.13 per gallon

Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .. $123.20 per gallon

Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ....... . $25.42 per gallon

Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 .....$84.48 per gallon

And this is the REAL KICKER...

Evian water 9 oz $1.49..........$21.19 per gallon!

$21.19 for WATER

and the buyers don't even know the source.

(Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)

Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?

So they have you hooked for the ink.

Someone calculated the cost of the ink at................

you won't believe it...................

but it is true.........................

$5,200 a gal. (five thousand two hundred dollars)

So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!!!!!

Reply to
QX

The funny bit about it is that the cost of energy is about the same wherever you go in the first world.

More expensive fuel correlates with lower consumption - in the end you pay about the same. The difference lies in the lower energy usage and the fact there's abundant tax money avalaible for stuff like health care.

cu .\\arc

Reply to
Marc Gerges

Me eyes popped out of their sockets my first trip to Scotland and I did the mental gymnastics to compute the equivalent cost of a gallon of dead dinosaur juice.

We get all hung up on fuel costs. I did for a while when I recently purchased my '06 Legacy GT (a premium burner) but I quickly came to the conclusion that the depreciation costs of owning a new car swamp out fuel cost differential between premium and regular. So I was worried about the wrong part of the dollar equation, so I bought the turbo version and learned to love premium gas.

To illustrate:

I average about 8,000 mi per year, my fuel spreadsheet indicates I burned 380 gallons of premium fuel at an average of 3.06 per gallon for a total of US$1137. Now if I got the N/A version, I'd get ~20% better mileage and burn low octane. So, this would mean my fuel costs would be over 304 gallons at say 2.75 per gallon, which works out to a fuel savings of US$300. First year depreciation on a Legacy GT is about US$3,000 give or take a couple Ben Franklins.

So, what does this have to do with a Forester (yes there is only one 'r' in Forester)?

I traded in our '04 Forester XS-Premium for a new '07 Forester XT Limited in November on a trade-in deal that Subaru was running last year.

We've driven our Foresters all over the west coast and have loved both of them. I really like the XT up in the mountains especially in the snow. The turbo helps keep sea-level pressure all the way up the side of the big rocks to go play in the snow. The price you pay is lower mileage and burning premium gas.

Reply to
Scott Nevin

On Apr 10, 12:38 pm, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (Marc Gerges) wrote: r energy usage and

Not to mention the bar bills of the junior members of the royal family.

Reply to
isquat

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