2010 Subaru Forester

Did not know what a sport shift was and found this:

"Subaru's sportshift will hold whatever gear selected and will not downshift on it's own like regular A/Ts. It's mechanically the same tranny with a modified controller."

I recall in my '03 being advised not to drive long interstate miles at one steady speed during the initial break-in. Maybe this is related to what you were told.

******New Car Break-in period: 1000 miles: Drive calmly for the first 1,000 miles. Always note the blue 'cold engine' light on the dashboard- it means the engine is cold and drive accordingly. Avoid hard starts and stops. Avoid over-revving the engine, try to keep RPMs under 4000. Vary your speeds over the full range of city and highway driving Don't use cruise control much, if at all. City and freeway driving is fine because that will vary the speeds 1st oil change 4 cylinder models 7,500 miles, turbo and 6 cylinder 3 months or 3,000 miles. Note It is recommended to do the first oil change on all models at 3mos/3,000 miles. ******

I can't vouch for the accuracy or completeness of it, it came from;

Perhaps you could ask another dealership what instructions they give new owners and if they can suggest an official Subaru document online that reflects it.

Carl

My take would be this: The salesman sounds like a moron. However, would I really miss using the sport shift feature during a period when I am not supposed to be driving it in a sporty manner anyways? I'd play it on the safe side and not use it for the first thousand miles-- even though I'm 99% sure the salesman was wrong--if for no other reason than to keep myself from driving it aggressively.

Bill

I called a different dealer in the area and he told me that the "sport shifter" can be used from the get go, so as I suspected the salesman was a jerk. He also told her to turn off the tracking control when it was slippery. Guess he didn't know that's what it was for. He was an older guy, but sure didn't know the cars he was selling.

The salesman is quoted as saying it's to protect the Xmission, but perhaps he meant to say the engine, or was misquoted. Letting the automatic do the shifting for the first 1,000 miles avoids inadvertently over-revving the engine by forgetting to upshift.

I assume he meant 'traction control' and for the life of me I cannot think of one good reason to turn this off during the 'break in' period.

Dan D '99 Impreza 2.5 RS (son's) Central NJ USA

The daughter is driving along at 40 and manually downshifts to first. Revs hit redline. Car had 200 miles on it. Good?

A couple of weeks ago on CarTalk, a caller was going 60, tried to shift to neutral (because that was his driving style when approaching a stop) and overshot to reverse. Those things happen.

Safer to let the automatic handle it during break-in.

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:20:17 -0800 (PST), against all advice, something compelled Dano58 , to say:

My car (not a Subi) has an electronic stability program. Under extreme loss of traction conditions, like snow on the road, it can be helpful to turn this off because it just goes nuts trying to keep the car from spinning out. I've turned it off twice in two and a half years, probably for a total of ten minutes.

And I can't imagine what the break in period would have to do with that. I've generally been floored by the lack of general car knowledge salesmen show, let alone the lack of knowledge they have for their own product. I can see why someone working in the used market might not know all the ins and outs of the various cars on their lots on a given day, but you'd think someone selling new cars would know their product.