[Upcountry Forester]

What took me so long to buy a Subaru?! It is by far the most common car up here. I live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and drive over the Continental Divide via an 11,306’ mountain pass on my daily commute to work. I drive in extreme winter conditions on a regular basis. Was driving my modified 2003 Nissan Frontier 4x4 which I still own. The truck with Nokian Rotiiva AT tires does okay in winter conditions, but it’s not even in the same league as the Subaru. The 2014 Forester XT is amazing in winter conditions especially with the Blizzak WS70 tires on it. The turbocharged ’14 FXT motors up the mountain pass with aplomb where the old truck struggled raucously in 3rd gear at 4,500 rpms just to maintain 5mph under the speed limit. So far I'm lovin' the new Forester.

I used this site to do a lot of research before making my purchasing decision. I appreciate all the work that’s gone into this site and the knowledgeable user community here. Thanks!

 

[FLdrummer]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Rumrunner]

welcome and enjoy! got pix?

 

[Upcountry Forester]

Here's a pic of my new Forester. Did some laps around an empty snow-covered dirt parking lot this morning to experiment with turning off VDC. Still learning to drive this car. It's so different from my old 4x4 truck.

 

[Duderotomy]

Welcome to the forum from Niagara Falls! :bacon:

 

[Upcountry Forester]

Here's what my commute to work over the Continental Divide looks like 7 months of the year. This is about as good as the conditions get. The past few days it's been snowing with 80mph wind gusts creating scary whiteouts. The Forester excels in these conditions. No buyer's remorse what so ever. Loving this car!

 

[Rumrunner]

wow, they do a nice job plowing! but 80 mph gusts? that's gotta be interesting!

 

[Upcountry Forester]

Rumrunner... Colorado Department of Transportation does a pretty good job with the plowing. It was freshly plowed this morning. It still gets pretty bad during big storms especially in the spring with the heavy wet snow.

Whiteouts are freakin' terrifying on an 11,300' mountain pass that has areas with no guardrail. All you can do is hit the brakes, come to a stop and wait until you can see again. Oh, and pray that no bonehead comes flying up from behind and hits you.

 

[Rumrunner]

yikes! :icon_eek: