Forester '06 - manual or auto?

It seems to me you are a perfect candidate for a manual.

You'll get the chance to kill yourself much sooner this way. I sense this is your unconcious desire, I mean what else can it be, if you forsee driving at 100mph speeds in a place where such driving is extremely dangerous (terrible narrow roads and no highways at all). On the other hand, a manual may give you a split-second better chance at avoiding an accident when passing.

Good luck to you, I hope you have no children so there will be no orphans left.

MN

Oooops, I take this back, didn't notice there is this 3yr old child, but then it may get killed too, ...so go figure?

MN

---snipped--

Hi:

My question to you - are you a twenty something year old who wants to exercise you legs a lot? If not, go for the auto. [80% thick stop & go traffic]

With the auto you still will have a ride that should put a grin on your face but you won't have to work at driving so much. ENJOY!

~~Phil~~

Thanks to all so far, and (at the risk of digressing) especially MN for the encouraging note. I take it you haven't driven in Poland for the last 10+ years and are therefore resorting to dated stereotypes. The road I had in mind for those speeds is two lanes both ways, not German autobahn smooth but not awful either (in any case I understand that's what Foresters were built to handle).

MN, I would refer you to some sites that counter your point about Poland not having highways, but I imagine you wouldn't bother looking at them anyway.

Again, thanks to Phil & Edward for their comments and please don't let this witty off-topic repartie stop others from giving me useful advice.

Adam

Is there any opportunity there to try both? In extremely slow crawling traffic, a high performance MT can can be annoyingly 'jerky' and require clutch feathering a lot.

In general, I'm fond of telling myself and others NOT to talk yourself out of what you want. A car is a long term commitment and you may as well drive what you enjoy.

Carl

Adam wrote:

Carl

Thanks. I don't know WHAT I want in this respect. I have always driven manual up to now but am starting to get annoyed with my right hand on the gearstick all the time.

I test drove the '05 Forester 2.0 manual today (and was amazed at the road holding) and also an Outback 3.0 Auto (and was amazed at the performance). So I think that the 06 Forester 2.5 XT auto will give me a combination of those 2 amazement factors - am I right?

Adam

A WRX estate (UK) or wagon (USA) will give you miles more of both for less!!!

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (Annabel)

Landrover 110 County Station Wagon (Tyson)

'"Say hello to my little friend"

Nige

Although this will show painfully how little research I have done - I wasn't aware the WRX had an estate version (it's just not something I would associate with an Impreza). Thanks for a good tip. However, am I correct in saying there is no automatic option on the WRX?

Why do you think people choose the Forester over the WRX estate? Or putting it another way, how are these cars positioned by Subaru?

Adam

Yeah, they do an auto, not sure about UK (if yer there) though. The WRX NEEDS a decent manual!

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (Annabel)

Landrover 110 County Station Wagon (Tyson)

'"Say hello to my little friend"

Dont get a Forrester auto when you can have this! It is also one of the best riding cars i have had, no bangs or crashes over bumps!

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (Annabel)

Landrover 110 County Station Wagon (Tyson)

'"Say hello to my little friend"

The tone of my reply was meant to make you reflect on the whole situation. I mean here you are a young fellow with a family, and seemingly wanting to reconcile your desire for owning a somewhat powerful "sporty" car and a car that could do other (family/business) duty as well. The Forester XT seems perfect; the only question being the transmission, right?

Either choice will be a compromise for sure.

Having a manual is tempting at times, I've read somewhere that injuries in cars equipped with manual transmissions tend to be more severe- no doubt a result of spirited driving. Automatics, because they tend to be a bit sluggish can also be a source of danger under certain circumstances, as you may not be able to respond as quickly as with a manual.

Seriously, if I were in a similar situation I'd give up a bit of my driver's passion and go with an automatic. I drive an Impreza coupe (here's the sporty me), auto, myself- I've gone through a sort of compromise thing myself. It isn't bad. Subaru automatic transmissions are fairly decent.

MN

Thanks Nige but MN is right in tempering my testoserone surges. 4.8 seconds is just a tiny bit faster than my synapses fire, so I probably couldn't handle that. Having said as much, how much more or less is the "nowt" you mention for the Prodrive? ;-)

MN - I'm gratified that even in this impersonal Internet age there are still reasonable people out there in the ether with whom normal discourse is possible!! Thanks for the explanatory note and advice. I think it will be the auto after all but what about this WRX option, then?

Adam

I'm a manual advocate. Hell, my forester cracks 160kph easily in fourth, haven't really pushed it past that. And that was on a winding, hilly back road about 1 and a half car lanes wide, potholes everywhere, random bumps and ruts.

Strangely enough, it felt much like it does at 120kph on a perfectly flat

Your biggest problem is the "mostly heavy traffic" bit. That's the only situation where I'll let someone get away with auto.

But if you really want to enjoy your blasts on the weekend, go manual.

-mark

PS: Max highway speed limit in Australia is 110kph. So the car is definately designed towards high-speed, couldn't hardly make it miss a beat. Just make sure the alignment's perfect, or you'll have balding front tyres on the inside edge in no time.

It's free mate, free as free can be!

You NEED 4.8 seconds, you'll never look back! you wont be able to!

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (Annabel)

Landrover 110 County Station Wagon (Tyson)

'"Say hello to my little friend"