Going into 1st gear had VERY HIGH FREQUENCY GRINDING even with the clutch fully engaged - took it to the dealer who said he felt the vibration too, but before they could tear apart the transmission, the District Dealer had to feel - and he only comes in once a week. Took it back and the District guy still didn't feel it. The Dealer guy said keep driving it until it breaks down and THEN they could open the transmission.
Took it over to a FORD dealer and traded it in for a new Ranger. Subaru must have paid somebody off to get "Car of the Year" two years back for this POS. Subaru ain't what it used to be.
Good luck with your Ford, whiner. I'm sure you'll have plenty of chats with their district reps...talk about a POS, Ford never was what it's marketing dept. gets people to believe it is......
Any car maker can have problems. It is how it is handled that matters the most. My 2000 Ford Ranger has not had any problems at all, other than having its Firestone tires replaced. I would be a little upset if service personnel had identified a problem and a manager wouldn't approve fixing it while it was already in the shop.
I am currently considering a Subaru WRX STi, but all of the 2004's will probably be sold before I can get enough money together. The dealer told me they are limiting production to only 3000 cars, so I will probably miss out on getting one this year.
I don't think it is a good idea to so severely limit production, because I may find something else to spend my money on between now and next year. I don't really need a car, but these cars are really kind of special because of the power and AWD.
If you have something which is a noise or a subtle thing, you really ought to be in the car with the tech to show them what they are looking for - I would have made a point to be there when the district guy showed up. They have had a large problem with people modding the car for more power, drag racing (with poorly executed, high stress launches), grenading their transmission, then claiming it was a defect and demanding that Subaru repair it - now an SoA rep must see the car before most transmission work can be done.
Also - just because the owner thinks there is a problem, doesn't mean that the noise isn't normal - maybe the guy didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but because it was your car, you are a bit more hypersensitive about things like that (I know I am).
So - you are saying that because there was a "very high frequency grinding" which the district guy didn't think was out of the ordinary the first time he looked, something which hasn't even been confirmed to be a problem with the transmission yet, you dumped the car for a Ford? Are you insane? If you didn't like the car, and a small truck was more inline with what you needed, that's one thing - but a noise means the Subaru is crap? What would they have had to do, say "we hear it too, we don't know what it is, but since it bugs you, we have ordered up a new transmission and will change yours out just for piece of mind" - that's not going to happen. You have a
5yr/60k mile warranty on the transmission, why worry about a little noise now?
Good luck with your Ford - in my experience with Fords (which has given me the "never again" mindset) the old sayings are all true (fix or repair daily, found on road dead, etc.)
I just traded my 1998 6cyl Mustang in for a 2K4 Outback Sport (I pick it up monday..)
It has 110K miles on it and has NEVER been in the shop for anything except for oil changes and body damage from being hit by careless drivers. Honestly I wouldn't be getting rid of it if I didn't want something a little more practical.
Fords are defintiely not as bad as that age old reputation started by some other-brand-fanboys..
Here's to hoping the Outback Sport can match what the Stang did. I look forward to seeing it happen. :)
J
"David & Caroline" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
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