Country of origin

Can I make a polite request........

Could posters please state, at the BEGINNING of their posts, which country they are from.

It's obvious that the majority of posters are from USA.... but I find it exceedingly annoying that you all seem to believe that EVERYONE else is also from USA.

I am from Australia, and I have seen posts here from UK and other countries. But it can be extremely hard on occasions to keep track of the information - especially regarding pricing, warranty details, location of manufacturers, Octane ratings, etc, etc - with different people from different countries all talking about their own countries.

For example, ALL Subarus sold in Australia are manufactured in Japan. So when Australian readers are researching these forums for info and help prior to buying an Aussie Subaru..... reading all these horror stories about bad wheel bearings and assorted other problems does nothing to persuade them to purchase a Subaru. But the fact is, most of the posters complaining about such problems are from US, where the vehicles are manufactured in US... obviously from defective materials.... or perhaps defective labourers !!! Japanese built vehicles don't seem to have these issues.

A simple AU, or US, or UK or whatever, perhaps in the subject or header, so that we dont get so confused???

Just a thought. What do others think???

Cheers Spinifex

91 Liberty (Australian Legacy) RS Turbo AWD Manual 2.0 T 85 Leone FWD 1.8 NA 01 Liberty AWD 2.0 NA

I agree completely. Especially the stupid comments about buying 04, 05 Model year cars etc. Subaru changes its model year from August production, which applies here too, yet the US seems to want to get 05 MY in the middle of

2004. Fellow Melbourne Suby owner.

Sounds like a good idea to me too.

Jeff.

1998 Liberty RX Bilstein

Sounds good on the surface, but I think it would be impossible for people to do that. Like when writing a technical NG (Mozilla, etc.) to start by stating your OS and Moz version number. Many people can't even remember to bottom post, AND to quote. And getting them to be polite to strangers is another matter.

I think it would be an uphill battle, even if an important one.

Users could put it in their sig files, but then there are always occasional newcomers that don't know the convention.

Don

Onya Spinifex

From Aus

Reading this newsgroup does give the impression that Subarau US is building a different vehicle from Subaru Japan. I'm now on subie No.3

- none have given any problem and I've never heard of any local Subaru owner, and I know quite a few, having any problems. My conclusion is that Subaru US must have major management and/or labour problems. US buyers don't seem to be getting value for money. Lets hope that Subaru US doen't try and sell its lemons in Aus when the FTA is signed off by our Government.

GB

I think it's unneccesary, and I won't be doing it. Since you asked...

- Greg Reed

I agree. Besides you can tell where I'm from by my accent ;) Frank

I agree that country of origin is useful info...

Laughing...Virginia, USA, here...

I have a question about your comment re: the model year...I bought my

**2003** Forester > I agree completely. Especially the stupid comments about buying 04, 05 Model

There has been plenty of discussion in here before about model years, etc.

North America gets models 6 months after they are offered in the Japanese market. For the first 6 months of production in Japan right drive cars are produced. Then they add production of left drive vehicles. A 2000 Impreza in Japan (and the other right drive countries), is considered a 2001 in the US. Imprezas, WRXs, and Forresters, and the Saabaru or Saab 9-2 (An Impreza rebadge that is manufactured exclusivly for Sabb, a subsidiary of General Motors, who owns 20% non-voting stock in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. The parent company of Subaru.) are shipped to the US from Japan. These vehicles are all built on the same frame. Some US only options, are then installed in port, such as sound systems, seats, alarm systems, etc.

The Baja, Legacy (Liberty in some parts of the world), and Outback are produced for North America and some other regions at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc.

Likewise these vehicles share the same frame. SIA will also be producing the new Subaru 7 passenger vehcile, which is also getting rebadged for Saab. Having been a long time Subaru owner, I've owned, priced, and driven vehicles made at both locations. Generally the paint seems better on the cars made at SIA than the paint on models shipped over from Japan, but that may be due to them being shipped over. Also, the majority of parts for US manufactured Subaru's are imported from Japan. I about 95% of the parts are imported from Japan. In the US, the car manufacturer is required to list the percentage of foreign and domestic parts in a vehicle.

One thing that varies between dealerships is the level of service you get, and response from Subaru. In my case, since I'm in the US, Subaru is Subaru of America, Inc. which was founded in 1968, and is now a wholly-owned subsidary of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. Even though it's owned by them, they have to follow the laws of whatever country their in.

That is what some people found so shocking about the scandal at Mitsubishi (I believe it was Mitsubishi) a year or so ago, when it was discovered that they had covered up defect data regarding several models to the Japanese people. Records in that case showed that those problems had been acknowledged and dealt with in other countries, but no in the Japanese market.

Ignignokt wrote:

Since when did Subaru build in the U.S.?

The Outback was *invented* for the US...

florian

florian..... I didnt know that.... thanx for the heads-up....

however, as mentioned before.... there don't seem to be too many non-US posters having engineering / mechanical problems with their Japanese manufactured vehicles

sp> >

Ah, so if we see a post inquiring about eng/mech problems, we can safely assume it's a US poster ;-)

I have a problem with the nut on the steering wheel. ;-)

Don Idaho, USA Username munged by FixNews

I am from the USA. I believe that EVERYONE else who writes in english is from the USA. Australia is just another US owned province right? Just like Canada. Sydney/LAX was only 7500 miles and 13 hours by air the last time I visited. It takes me 13 hours to drive to Canada from here. Same difference if your forget about the 4 hours it takes me to get to LA through DIA..

Exactly! Its only cars put together over here that have any problems whatsoever. Its because our country sucks, our workers suck, our usenet posters suck, our factories are crap and our car buyers are morons.

Cars fall apart here because our country is such a shithole. Our foreign policy is causing some real gaps in quality.

Who doesn't get confused? You don't matter to me. Do what the rest of us do, and figure it out on your own, or ask for clarification. You might or might not get it. Nobody is posting for you.

I think all the female posters should post a picture of themselves with short shorts and tanktop and supply me with there phone number.

What do others think of that?

nate

I made that same observation sometime ago and was attacked for not treating my fellow countrymen fairly, blah blah blah. I guess its ok to make that observation if you don't live in the U.S.? ;-)

What I think is that everyone posting from Australia should put a cute ascii art kangaroo at the beginning of their post (:

Or maybe,GPS coordinate in the signature line

Yeah I always wondered that myself............ I always got the impression it was an Aussie design as they had an Aussie advertising it........... Still, it really looks like a cool car. I didn't know it was a Subaru the first time I saw one several years ago.