You already know my take on the subys. The outback is definitely good. I can't speak for the forester, but the outback is comfy, has a surprising amount of space, and is incredibly hard to skid. A couple of details that may affect things for you. All wheel drive means CV (constant-velocity) joints for the front wheels. These are one of the fastest wearing components, and will probably need changing every 5-8 years. Regular maintenance is a must (as with most cars). The suby is rugged, and reliable, but if you forget to look after it, it will eventually surrender. (600 km of open highway was fine with a trailer and no oil, but adding 180kg more to the trailer then heading for hilly dirt roads and it decided I was trying to kill it so it died.) The modern outback is very hard to skid, but it has one tendency that is a little unpleasant. In a hard-braking skidd it will understeer rather than oversteer. Understeer means you can't do anything. Oversteer would at least mean fast steering work on your part can maintain control. This is corrected almost completely by getting the stiffened suspension (which is a generally good idea - they have 'comfy city ride' suspension by default - but costs about $800) You can get it to lose the back end, but only by keeping the power down the whole way through the corner. As my mechanic described it, "I've had it going through corners so fast I knew I'd die if it didn't hold, but it's almost impossible to get it to break loose." Oh, one last bonus - that green fuel (the 10% CSR Ethanol stuff) gets me 5-10% better basic fuel economy, 2-3% better performance, and costs 4c/l less. It just requires a valve conditioner put through the engine every 10 refuels or so. (still cheaper, and engine treatments are generally a good idea if chosen carefully)
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Date: 2007-08-14 11:42 pm (UTC)The outback is definitely good. I can't speak for the forester, but the outback is comfy, has a surprising amount of space, and is incredibly hard to skid.
A couple of details that may affect things for you.
All wheel drive means CV (constant-velocity) joints for the front wheels. These are one of the fastest wearing components, and will probably need changing every 5-8 years.
Regular maintenance is a must (as with most cars). The suby is rugged, and reliable, but if you forget to look after it, it will eventually surrender. (600 km of open highway was fine with a trailer and no oil, but adding 180kg more to the trailer then heading for hilly dirt roads and it decided I was trying to kill it so it died.)
The modern outback is very hard to skid, but it has one tendency that is a little unpleasant. In a hard-braking skidd it will understeer rather than oversteer. Understeer means you can't do anything. Oversteer would at least mean fast steering work on your part can maintain control. This is corrected almost completely by getting the stiffened suspension (which is a generally good idea - they have 'comfy city ride' suspension by default - but costs about $800) You can get it to lose the back end, but only by keeping the power down the whole way through the corner. As my mechanic described it, "I've had it going through corners so fast I knew I'd die if it didn't hold, but it's almost impossible to get it to break loose."
Oh, one last bonus - that green fuel (the 10% CSR Ethanol stuff) gets me 5-10% better basic fuel economy, 2-3% better performance, and costs 4c/l less. It just requires a valve conditioner put through the engine every 10 refuels or so. (still cheaper, and engine treatments are generally a good idea if chosen carefully)
In all though a very good car.