Switching from Honda to Subaru

Thanks, Dean. I've had no idea of that flat Boxer engine design. After your post I googled it up and indeed it uses the same cylinder arraingement as the BMW motorcycles do which is a big selling point for me.

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My Honda's belt needs to be replaced at 90K miles intervals.

The oil filter is at the bottom, so how easy is it to get to it without lifting the car?

Reply to
Cameo
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It's close enough to the front bumper that I can reach mine with the car on the ground. It's a 99 Impreza. We have a ready supply of 4' long 4x4s at work. I use four of them when changing oil in my company pickup. Ford 150 with a V8. I put two in front of each front tire and drive the pickup on them. One 4x4 on top of the other. I get a hinge effect by overlapping them instead of putting one directly over the other. I just read that Subie is coming out with another version of the engine during this model year.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

I find it very useful to be able to use engine break on a long down hill instead of burning the brake pads. Are these Subaru A/T-s capable of using engine brake in such scenarios?

Another thing I keep forgetting to ask: do people still need a set of winter tires with these AWD cars or all-weather type tires will do pretty well even in winter?

Reply to
Cameo

Reply to
Big Jim

Engine braking can be done. It's not as good as a manual, but it's good enough. The CVT has paddle shifters on the steering wheel. When you start going down a hill, you downshift to a "virtual" gear of your choice. As long as you don't hit the gas, the car stays in that gear for the duration of the hill. Once you hit the gas, the car returns to automatic mode within a second or two. That's mostly what I use the paddle shifters for.

When I bought my first subaru, I quickly found out that you don't need winter tires to get going. However, I strongly recommend all 4 tires to get stopped! If you are like me, you will get your speed up in the snow because it is so much fun. Now you need to stop.

Reply to
Chicobiker

Foresters have gotten so big, I think you could fit a few elk in there as well. My cousin was visiting last weekend and showed up with his 2010 forester. Parked it behind my sons 2001 Forester. Almost looked like it was twice the size.

Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

I was told on my '89 EA82 that 50,000 miles is the cut off.

Reply to
Hachiroku

Sure is a slick looking car. They need to make one with the VTECH so you don't have to cringe (it's only 122HP)

However, my '85 Corolla GTS (Hachiroku) was only rated at 112, and I didn't have to cringe!!!

Reply to
Hachiroku

I used to be able to fit 2 deer and gear in my OBS, but I seem to be taking more gear now, so the deer come home on the roof rack.

David

Reply to
David R. Birch

Since my wife's '99 has yet to reach even half of that distance, I had the belt changed about three years ago, at the prescribed time interval -- 110 months (9 years 2 months) from purchase.

Reply to
John Varela

I completely missed that the timing belt change was also based on time. That better be on my list fairly soon.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

You Bambi-killer!

Reply to
Cameo

Find Bambi Meets Godzilla here ...

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SD

Reply to
Stewart DIBBS

Yes. And...?

Do you also believe "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella" are nonfiction?

David

Reply to
David R. Birch

I'm worse -- I'm a Bambi-eater. My father was a hunter (most men I knew in Texas where I grew up were hunters), and most red meat I ate at home before I was seven or eight was venison. Somehow I never connected that and Bambi, although I saw Bambi in the theater I believe the year that it came out.

I rather doubt that Cameo meant that comment as anything but a joke. I live in the same area he does, and hunting is common here. However, for the record.... Deer unfortunately overbreed without predators, so I've never thought that hunting them was bad. It's necessary unless you also make sure that other predators (like wolves) are present to keep the herd sizes down. Hunting carelessly and causing unnecessary suffering

*are* bad, which is why responsible hunters practice their skills and don't hunt at times of year when they are likely to kill a doe with babies.
Reply to
Catherine Jefferson

What seems to have escaped everybody else. ;-)

Reply to
Cameo

ROFL! The thing to remember is that "hunting" and a few related things like "fur" are instinctively questionable among most people in certain parts of the United States, Europe, and (I strongly suspect) Asia. This isn't because of any clear understanding of what hunting involves, or clear thought about it. It's the barrage of propaganda that demonizes it through catch phrases and mental images *without* any clear thought or analysis.

Somebody (I believe Soviet KGB founder Felix Dzherzhinsky) said that if you tell a lie enough times, people will come to believe that it is true. That's true even when what you are saying isn't necessarily a lie, nd disapproval of hunting is not a lie; it's an opinion. The practice of simply repeating an assertion rather than actually arguing for the assertion is a basic tool of propaganda because so many people let the weight of what they hear, rather than the value of what they hear, carry the day in their brains. :/

Reply to
Catherine Jefferson

Interesting, because I have never heard of a belt change being based on time, only on mileage.

Reply to
Hachiroku

I dunno. Bambi always tasted fine to me...

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Reply to
Hachiroku

My favorite movie!!!

Reply to
Hachiroku

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