Road noise

Very difficult to answer unless someone has managed to ride in scores of different vehicles, preferably carrying a sound meter. I'm sure even among Subaru models there will variations. From my own experience my 2018 Outback

3.6R Touring is admirably quiet. Subaru has been making incremental improvements in sound control over the last decade with more sound absorbent materials, better seals, better aerodynamic, and thicker glass. There are any number of articles searchable online about noise and various Subaru vehicles of various ages. Why not just go and take a test drive to see what _you_ think?

I had an '07 six-cylinder Accord. Engine and tire noise was minimal but wind noise at highway speed was disappointing- and about the only thing I disliked about the car. I recall Consumer Reports dinged them for that too.

My wife has a '17 Forester that's pretty quiet for an SUV. She's very happy with it.

But I don't like driving a CVT which knocked Subaru off the prospect list for my new ride. The CVT is becoming much more prevalent among many manufacturers. I'm thinking I may end up needing to back to a stick shift;-)

What don't you like about CVTs?

Patty

I like my CVT and my Forester gets much better mileage and I need less braking. Mags like "Car and Driver" don't like it perhaps because it is not made for speed demons.

I had a Ford Escape as a rental last fall. Hated the CVT. Reminded me a bit of an elastic band when you started from a stop. The engine would begin to rev and after a bit the car would start to move.

Once you were rolling, I had nothing bad to say about the CVT. But I hated it around town with all the stop and go.

I seem to recall that Subaru got good marks for their implementation of the CVT, so perhaps I'd feel more charitable towards one of their cars with that transmission. The old Imprezza just keeps trucking on, so unless I get a Subie as a rental, I'm not likely to try one out for a while yet.

I, too, was concerned about the 'rubber band' effect before I bought my Outback. I can say that, if I didn't know it was a CVT then I would have never guessed.

Mentioned that my brother bought same Forester as mine. I asked him how he liked the CVT and he did not know what I was talking about. He had worked for Chevy dealers all his life in service and sales and should know cars but this got by him, so I assume he had noticed no difference from the Outback he had traded for it.

Overall, there's less control of and feel for the machine.

No positive kick down for highway passing or if emergency acceleration is needed; no gear selection for engine braking on long, steep downhills; can't start off in second or third gear on snow/ice; and most importantly, no up shifting through gears moving off violates the natural order of things ;-)

The paddles substitute for gear selection, don't they? Especially downhill for motor brake.

Just downshift.

Ditto.

I went up to the Santa Cruz Mountains to visit friends a couple of weekends ago and put the car down into second gear on a number of occasions while coming back down out of the mountains so that I wouldn't have to use the brakes as much.

Not even if you put it in manual shifting mode? I've never gotten around to trying that, so I don't know whether it forces you to start in first gear.

You'll definitely hear it upshift if you've downshifted as you come onto the highway.

Patty

I'll take it as read that you haven't driven a new Subaru CVT then. Mine certainly suffers from none of the problems you describe except (and I haven't tried it so I won't say) for being able to start out in second. I certainly can press the X-mode button which does far more for difficult starts than second gear. The new CVT certainly does (simulated) upshifts in discreet steps and downshifts to 'passing gear' if I stomp on it and I can override the automation entirely and use the paddles if I choose to but seldom do except by way of experimentation.

A pale imitation of the real thing!

If we were talking about a hamburger instead of a car, the package label would read "genetically modified tofu and fillers with intimation flavors and artificial colors".

As Mammy said in Gone With The Wind, "It ain't fittin, it just ain't fittin."

I used to own a Porsche 944, and I certainly will never mistake the controlability of my Outback for that, but it sounds like you haven't even tried to take advantage of the shifting that is available in a CVT Subaru. In fact, it almost sounds as though you believe they can't be manually shifted. Give it a try and then let us know your thoughts.

Patty

The only Subaru in the garage is my wife's Forester- and she's not pleased when I get anywhere near its driver's seat.

If I tried to wring it out to see what it's capable of, the test drive would probably need to end at a marriage counselor's or divorce lawyer's office.

So the only CVTs you've driven were not Subarus? I guess some other manufacturers don't offer manual shifting with their automatic transmissions. Well, Subaru does, so your experience with other cars is causing you to make inaccurate assumptions about the Forester.

Patty

Sounds like me and my wife and we both have Foresters. I did let her test drive my newer one and her only comment was that she did not like it because it was bigger than hers. Said nothing about the CVT and I had mentioned before that my brother who has the same Forester as me had no comment on the CVT. He did not even take notice to it. Like Patty says, you should test drive one.

I am trying to decide which of the following 3 models should I buy soon: Impreza, Forrester or the new Crosstrek. My assigned parking garage space does not allow me bigger models.

Those are three very different cars. How do you plan to use your new car? How many people do you need room for? How much cargo room do you need?

Patty

Generally speaking its good to look at the best power to weight ratio. Cars are getting bigger while engines not necessarily more powerful, or power is not necessarily easily accessible (must rev the engine higher to reach it).

The new Impreza is the same size as the old

1990's Legacy.

Basia