Thanks - I appreciate the objective comments.
I think what we need to do is drive the car for an extended time. The dealer has offered this. Maybe use it for half a day on the weekend and see if the seat and noise is bothersome.
^ I think this would be the best way to go about it - it won't eliminate unique-vehicle variances, but it should at least give you an idea of what to expect.
FWIW, I'm not complaining about the rattles/buzzes just to make a complaint. I'm a devoted Subaru lover. Quite frankly, unless Subaru's future products completely falls out of relevance with our purchase needs, we'll likely continue to be a Subaru family, until we're in the ground and rotting. Heck, our '09 FXT recently required a new longblock, from a failure that's suspected to be a part of the "'08 Stop-Sale" debacle...yet I remain devoted, steadfastly, to Subaru. Do I love our Subarus? Without a doubt. But as a career academic scientist, I also find it easier to dissociate my personal infatuation with our Winky (my LGT, the car that my infant daughter was brought home in - as a "car guy," this is a tremendously emotional one for me) and our Rocky (Sara's FXT, as-named by my then 3-year-old daughter, on the day we brought the vehicle home with us :smile

, to discuss their shortcomings.
The rattles are definitely there. My daily-daily driver is an '05 Legacy 2.5GT (with a 6/04 DOB, and yes, I've had her for nearly all that time [she was a dealer demo]), and we also come from an '05 WRX, which we've had, new-off-the-lot. Neither of those two vehicles were nearly as buzzy as the FXT, even after the 4-year mark (the point at which my wife's WRX went off-lease, which is why we got the FXT for her), and this is not something that I'm just now aware of simply because various reviews have said so - but is instead something both the wife and I remarked upon, from nearly our first days with this vehicle.
The '09 FXT just seems to either rattle more, or its huge interior volume just seem to pass along such resonance a bit more.
Does it bother me/us?
Not really. I come from a long line of louder cars - I've been a DSMer since my high-school days. My first real car was a '92 Eclipse GS DOHC - new off the lot - a gift from my parents to a very spoiled 16-year-old. I still have a moderately modified '95 TSi in storage...and dare I say it, the FXT feels/sounds as rattly as that aged car.
But does it bother me? Not the least bit.
Even though her FXT is "stock" and unmodified, I'm a wind-in-the-hair kind of guy, and I usually have all the windows cranked down, and that gorgeous bit of open-air moonroof all the way open towards the rear. :rock: I don't use the radio much, but the wind and road noise pretty much kills the rattles. :icon_razz:
My wifey?
Like
Hot09XT, she favors listening to radio programs when driving. Even at moderately low volumes - our toddler is currently in the stage where, as with many toddler girls, they are somewhat sensitive to louder noises, so she asks us to keep the volume down - it conceals all but the worst of the reverbs. Pair that with her frame-of-reference (as cited above), and it's easy to see why she hasn't complained, either.
We've recently logged quite some miles on the FXT, and even though these events were both longer highway jaunts, we never felt, at all, overwhelmed by NVH. I'd actually say that with the exception of wind buffeting - which is something that I'm not used to, yet, given the profiles of the vehicles we've owned, up-to-date, of which the '09 FXT is the sole exception - the FXT has been an exemplary long-distance road-trip companion.
I really feel that this concern - NVH - truly depends on your unique frame-of-reference, and what
you would consider as acceptable versus not.
Is it there?
Definitely.
But will you notice it?
That's a question that only the end-owner can say.
As a car-guy, my core belief is that no car is "perfect."
However, the FXT was - and remains - perfect for *our* unique needs, *our* unique wants. :smile: