2005 Forester

[Rick Courtright]

I admit I don't hang out at the Ford Explorer newsgroup so, please tell
me, are there NO COMPLAINTS there?

Carl,

Methinks Dr. Rasty got the ONE good unit Ford produced that year... my
sister, sister-in-law, and several other acquaintances have or have had
Explorers over the last 10 years, varying years amongst them. They have
registered NO complaints on the Internet about them. Probably cuz the
Ford dealers, where they spend SO MUCH of both their time AND money,
don't provide Internet access in the customer waiting areas. But in
defense of the Explorers, nobody I know has rolled theirs over with a
blowout. Yet...

No car's perfect. Dr. Rasty doesn't even own a Subie, so I fail to
understand what axe he has to grind here, but even if every single one
of us who posts here had ALL the problems he mentions, in the grand
scheme of things, considering even that the total number of Subies sold
is minuscule compared to Toyota Camries or Ford Explorers or other
popular makes, we'd hardly prove the marque unreliable.

Of the various people I've known personally who've had Subies, the one
who just hit 150k miles on his is the lowest mileage owner. Many
have/had over 200k, mine has 360k (that's miles, not kilometres, and,
don't forget, it blew up last week and even Dr. Rasty couldn't say
anything bad about the miles it's gone!) I think you'd be hard pressed
to find many Explorer owners with that kind of mileage. I don't think I
know anyone who could stand one that long (F-series owners being the
only Ford owners I know who stick with their vehicles until some big
numbers show on the clock. Well, if their ignition switches don't burn
them up?) So even though my inputs are strictly anecdotal, I think the
rants from a non-owner are unwarranted.

Rick

 

[Kurt C. Hack]

I would have to agree there. My father-in-law works for Ford and
insists on purchasing these things every few years. Not only does he
take an absolutely huge hit on resale, even with A-Plan discounts, he
has had to either dump money into them after the warranty expires or
spends an eternity waiting for the warranty repair to be completed.
Funny, the majority of failures reported by Fafoofnick were some of the
ones experienced in four seperate Explorers. These include paint
problems, A/C compressor failure, CEL caused by O2 sensor failures, and
finally blown engine due to oil starvation caused by bad castings.

Yes quality certainly is job 1 at Ford.

-Kurt

 

[SilverFXT]

Hello everyone-

I am contemplating buying a 2005 Forester LL Bean edition but know nothing
about Subaru other than they are AWD. Can anyone out there give me some
advice or tell me of their experience with either a Forester or Subaru in
general? I know that MSN cites engine and pollution control problems up to
2002, but I can find nother past that short of buying a copy of Lemonaid.
If you prefer to contact me via email, please write (e-mail address removed).
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Mark

Well, the Forester XT (FXT) is our 3rd Subaru. We also owned a Legacy
and a WRX STi. My wife drove the Legacy on a mail route for 10 years
and beat the crap out of it. We traded the STi in on the FXT because
my wife just didn't like the STi. I loved the STi. It was a blast to
drive. But, truthfully, it wasn't very practical.
The Forester is comfortable, smooth riding, and quiet. My wife loves
it. The only negative thing I can say about Subaru's is that the Gas
mileage stinks! We've been getting about 22 mpg. And that is 95%
highway miles. With the current cost of premium gas that hurts. But,
then again, we didn't buy the Subaru for it's great gas mileage. We
really like Subies AWD system and they have been very reliable and
cost effective for us.

 

[Edward Hayes]

My 2000 Forester S has 85,000 + trouble free miles. My none turbo car
has plenty of power for a daily driver and yields 27-28 mpg at 70 mph
on regular gas. My town driving yields about 22 mpg. A very nice ride
for the money. I did not think the AWD would be a benefit here in FL.
but what a pleasant surprise when we get one of out frequent downpours
and there's 6 inches of water to drive through.

 

[p38arover]

Well...360K out of any engine (except Cummins,Catapiller or Detroit
Diesel)
is very good, ESPECIALLY if it's turbocharged. I suspect a lot of the
failures we see in the Los ANgeles area can be attributed to the high
underhood temps experianced in Socal......

Yes, I suppose SoCal gets as hot as it does here where I live in Australia -
up to 45 deg C in summer.

But we have lots of Subarus running around and no more stopped by the side
of the road than any other make.

Ron

 

[Tom Reingold]

Yes, I suppose SoCal gets as hot as it does here where I live in Australia -
up to 45 deg C in summer.

But we have lots of Subarus running around and no more stopped by the side
of the road than any other make.

Ron

Not many places in the US get temperatures of 45C (113F). I believe
temperatures like that are rare in SoCal.

 

[mn]

Thanks everyone for your input. I decided to buy the Forester L.L.Bean and
so far I am liking it very much. I do miss my Taurus SEL, though.

Thanks again. Your experiences and advice were invaluable.

Mark

 

[Rick Courtright]

Not many places in the US get temperatures of 45C (113F). I believe
temperatures like that are rare in SoCal.

Tom,

Come on out here in mid-summer and let me show you the error of your
thinking!

I live about a half hour from Palm Springs--it will hit those temps
EVERY day for weeks, from about the first of July into mid-September.
And then we can go out to the desert where it actually gets hot... heck,
even on my back porch, at the foot of the mountains (approx 2700 ft
elevation) I'll see 110F too frequently for comfort during those same
months. Rare? I don't think so!

Now down where I think Dr. Rasty is, 100F is about all it gets. He's
much closer to the ocean.

Rick

 

[Tom Reingold]

Tom Reingold wrote:




Tom,

Come on out here in mid-summer and let me show you the error of your
thinking!

I live about a half hour from Palm Springs--it will hit those temps
EVERY day for weeks, from about the first of July into mid-September.
And then we can go out to the desert where it actually gets hot... heck,
even on my back porch, at the foot of the mountains (approx 2700 ft
elevation) I'll see 110F too frequently for comfort during those same
months. Rare? I don't think so!

Now down where I think Dr. Rasty is, 100F is about all it gets. He's
much closer to the ocean.

Rick

Wow.

 

[Kurt C. Hack]

Thanks for the update! Fafoofnick will be dissapointed, I'm sure.

-Kurt

 

[p38arover]

Thanks everyone for your input. I decided to buy the Forester L.L.Bean
and so far I am liking it very much. I do miss my Taurus SEL, though.

But you couldn't possibly miss the ugliness of a Taurus. They are so ugly
that in Australia they just didn't sell.

Ford were selling 2002 plated models in 2004. Fortunately they are pretty
rare here so we don't have to look at them very often. The Falcon is much
better looking.
http://www.ford.com.au/showroom/passenger/Passenger_Vehicles.asp

Ron

 

[Bonehenge]

Ford were selling 2002 plated models in 2004. Fortunately they are pretty
rare here so we don't have to look at them very often. The Falcon is much
better looking.
http://www.ford.com.au/showroom/passenger/Passenger_Vehicles.asp

Oz again gets a cool car not available in the US.

The Falcon looks like a Mustang hit a BMW 3 series, from the photos.

Barry

 

[Rick Courtright]

Oz again gets a cool car not available in the US.

The Falcon looks like a Mustang hit a BMW 3 series, from the photos.

Wonder how Ford's fortunes would fare if they sold that car in the US?
Pix look good...

Rick