I purchased a 2010 Forester 2.5X Limited yesterday (auto tranny, spark silver paint, black leather interior). What a sweet ride! I have spent about the past 3 months test driving a bunch of different 4WD/AWD vehicles in the foot of snow here in Ohio and nothing compared to the AWD system on Subaru. After seeing what these things are capable of, I was sold. I like the fact that the AWD system is much more proactive than the "real time" 4WD systems on other products. In addition, the configuration of the AWD system appears to be much more efficient and simpler than a traditional 4WD with a separate transfer case.
Things I like on the car:
*AWD system
*Cushy heated seats with lumbar on driver
*Flip-open cupholders hidden in middle of rear seats
*Solid, tight feeling when driving
*Black plastic cladding on the outside of the door sills. Every previous car I had also got lots of dings in that area of the paint due to road debris.
*Humongous moonroof
*The spare tire is actually inside vehicle (not on the back door).
*Unlike many of the new CUVs, SUVs out there, the rear top of the Forester is not aggresively tapered down. We travel with a dog a lot (a BOXER nonetheless) and the cage wouldn't fit in other vehicles we checked out.
*Large, open engine bay is easy to work on and all fluids are easy to get to.
*There's a dipstick for the front differential. Cool -I've never seen that before.
Things I would change in the future if I was Subaru (all minor):
*Include lumbar on the front passenger seat
*There is no way to hold up the back cover that goes over the storage and spare tire under the cargo area. Put a clip on the underside of the cover and utilize the jack handle to hold up the cover. I may work something up for this.
*Integrate bluetooth button into the steering wheel.
*Replace the timing belt with a chain on the 2.5L engine
Questions -I will search the forum for answers
*The manual says the sparkplugs for the 2.5L nonturbo need to be replaced every 30K miles. Is that right? I'm surprised it doesn't have platinum or irridium plugs. How easy is it to change the plugs? It looks a little tight in there.
*What's the interval to change the front/rear diff. fluids?
*How accurate is the TPMS system? I've seen other cars where a tire has to be 10 PSI low before it will trigger the light on. I would assume the Subaru one is more accurate because if one tire is grossly underinflated with a smaller diameter, it could mess up the AWD system.
I off to inhale some new car smile! :icon_razz:
Things I like on the car:
*AWD system
*Cushy heated seats with lumbar on driver
*Flip-open cupholders hidden in middle of rear seats
*Solid, tight feeling when driving
*Black plastic cladding on the outside of the door sills. Every previous car I had also got lots of dings in that area of the paint due to road debris.
*Humongous moonroof
*The spare tire is actually inside vehicle (not on the back door).
*Unlike many of the new CUVs, SUVs out there, the rear top of the Forester is not aggresively tapered down. We travel with a dog a lot (a BOXER nonetheless) and the cage wouldn't fit in other vehicles we checked out.
*Large, open engine bay is easy to work on and all fluids are easy to get to.
*There's a dipstick for the front differential. Cool -I've never seen that before.
Things I would change in the future if I was Subaru (all minor):
*Include lumbar on the front passenger seat
*There is no way to hold up the back cover that goes over the storage and spare tire under the cargo area. Put a clip on the underside of the cover and utilize the jack handle to hold up the cover. I may work something up for this.
*Integrate bluetooth button into the steering wheel.
*Replace the timing belt with a chain on the 2.5L engine
Questions -I will search the forum for answers
*The manual says the sparkplugs for the 2.5L nonturbo need to be replaced every 30K miles. Is that right? I'm surprised it doesn't have platinum or irridium plugs. How easy is it to change the plugs? It looks a little tight in there.
*What's the interval to change the front/rear diff. fluids?
*How accurate is the TPMS system? I've seen other cars where a tire has to be 10 PSI low before it will trigger the light on. I would assume the Subaru one is more accurate because if one tire is grossly underinflated with a smaller diameter, it could mess up the AWD system.
I off to inhale some new car smile! :icon_razz: