Forrester

[T.R.]

What do you think of the new XT forrester thinking of getting one any
comments
please.T.R.

 

[David]

What do you think of the new XT forrester thinking of getting one any
comments
please.T.R.

Ask here:

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/

 

[QX]

What do you think of the new XT forrester thinking of getting one any
comments
please.T.R.

I have an '05 XT here, 30,000 miles and no problems.
The Turbo is excellent as long as you can keep from punching it, as
the gas mileage goes down the tubes if you routinely accellerate
aggressively. Especially painful with Super unleaded at $3.11/gallon
as it was this morning, but still a lot of fun. (the XT requires super
unleaded fuel). Having driven the XT, I wouldn't want to go to the NA
engine.
Otherwise, it's a dream for passing as ir accellerates flawlessly. The
first time I drove it up to northern Nevada for vacation, I was on a 2
lane road in the boonies CA-120.. I swung out to pass someone doing
about 45, and when I looked down at the speedo, I was doing 85. No
hesitation, just pure accelleration. Handling is great, and though I
have only been in snow once, I had no problems.
I drive up to higher elevations up to 7800', (starting at about 2000')
frequently with 3 adult passengers and backpacks, and no pinging or
incessant downshifting like some other small SUV's I have been in. I
have had the car as high as 11,000' in the White Mountains and the
turbo breathes just fine.

My ONLY complaint is that the design of the dash cluster is such that
when it's really bright outside, the recessed gauges don't get enough
light to be able to read with a quick glance. I test drove it on an
overcast day. The extreme bright sun here in the southern Nevada
constricts your eyes, and they can't react fast enough to be able to
read the dark gauges. Had they used black on white backgrounds, or
electroluminescents it would be perfect.

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

I have an '05 XT here, 30,000 miles and no problems.
The Turbo is excellent as long as you can keep from punching it, as
the gas mileage goes down the tubes if you routinely accellerate
aggressively. Especially painful with Super unleaded at $3.11/gallon
as it was this morning, but still a lot of fun. (the XT requires super
unleaded fuel). Having driven the XT, I wouldn't want to go to the NA
engine.
Otherwise, it's a dream for passing as ir accellerates flawlessly. The
first time I drove it up to northern Nevada for vacation, I was on a 2
lane road in the boonies CA-120.. I swung out to pass someone doing
about 45, and when I looked down at the speedo, I was doing 85. No
hesitation, just pure accelleration. Handling is great, and though I
have only been in snow once, I had no problems.
I drive up to higher elevations up to 7800', (starting at about 2000')
frequently with 3 adult passengers and backpacks, and no pinging or
incessant downshifting like some other small SUV's I have been in. I
have had the car as high as 11,000' in the White Mountains and the
turbo breathes just fine.

My ONLY complaint is that the design of the dash cluster is such that
when it's really bright outside, the recessed gauges don't get enough
light to be able to read with a quick glance. I test drove it on an
overcast day. The extreme bright sun here in the southern Nevada
constricts your eyes, and they can't react fast enough to be able to
read the dark gauges. Had they used black on white backgrounds, or
electroluminescents it would be perfect.

I wonder if some tint film might help. It's not uncommon around here to
have almost every vehicle tinted. I do feel extremely heavy tint could
be a safety issue at night (and a legal issue in some states) - but it
makes a VAST difference in how quickly and how well the A/C cools the
interior in summer. Might help with the gauge visibility issue you mention.

Carl

 

[QX]

I wonder if some tint film might help. It's not uncommon around here to
have almost every vehicle tinted. I do feel extremely heavy tint could
be a safety issue at night (and a legal issue in some states) - but it
makes a VAST difference in how quickly and how well the A/C cools the
interior in summer. Might help with the gauge visibility issue you mention.

Carl

The problem is when you are looking out the windshield, the sun
intensity is incredible. Even with sunglasses, the pupils constrict.
An acquaintance has an 04X and complains of the exact same problem
with guage visibility. I have even tried turning the headlights on to
get the dash lights on and adjusted to max brightness, but it only
helps a little. My wife's car is a Dodge Caravan, and I have no
problems with her car, as the instrument panel is shaded, but not
recessed, and it gets enough ambient light to make it visible.

Tinting was one of the first things I did after I got the car. Lighter
(legal) on the driver & Passenger windows, 1 step darker on the rears
(so as not to destroy night vision) and sunroof. It DID make a
difference as to cooling, and how much solar heat is radiated into the
vehicle as you are riding in it.

BTW, I specified a "ceramic" film due to signal strength issues I read
about pertaining to metallic films & the Subaru "in-wondow" antennas.
Whether or not the signal degradation issue is for real, I am very
happy with the ceramic film. www.formulaone.com specifically, the
"Pinnacle Series". No scratches, purpling, or bubbling after 3 years
of use.

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

The problem is when you are looking out the windshield, the sun
intensity is incredible. Even with sunglasses, the pupils constrict.
An acquaintance has an 04X and complains of the exact same problem
with guage visibility. I have even tried turning the headlights on to
get the dash lights on and adjusted to max brightness, but it only
helps a little. My wife's car is a Dodge Caravan, and I have no
problems with her car, as the instrument panel is shaded, but not
recessed, and it gets enough ambient light to make it visible.

Tinting was one of the first things I did after I got the car. Lighter
(legal) on the driver & Passenger windows, 1 step darker on the rears
(so as not to destroy night vision) and sunroof. It DID make a
difference as to cooling, and how much solar heat is radiated into the
vehicle as you are riding in it.

BTW, I specified a "ceramic" film due to signal strength issues I read
about pertaining to metallic films & the Subaru "in-wondow" antennas.
Whether or not the signal degradation issue is for real, I am very
happy with the ceramic film. www.formulaone.com specifically, the
"Pinnacle Series". No scratches, purpling, or bubbling after 3 years
of use.

Glad to hear about the film - hopefully my Huper Optik will perform as
well - pricey but worth it based on last summer!

Carl

 

[Phil]

Especially painful with Super unleaded at $3.11/gallon

That bad, eh ?

/me wanders off to tank up at a UK petrol station for > $7 a gallon

 

[KLS]

That bad, eh ?

/me wanders off to tank up at a UK petrol station for > $7 a gallon

<sarcasm> Yes, we're really suffering in the U.S. </sarcasm>

I'm hoping we can institute a nationwide Pigou Club:

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/pigou-club-manifesto.html

 

[QX]

That bad, eh ?

/me wanders off to tank up at a UK petrol station for > $7 a gallon

But the price of crude oil is pretty much the same on the
international market. The rest is governmental taxes & fees.

 

[QX]

All these examples do NOT imply that gasoline is cheap;
it just illustrates how outrageous some prices are....
You will be really shocked by the last one!!!!
(At least, I was...)

Compared with Gasoline......
Think a gallon of gas is expensive?

This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.

Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ... $10.32 per gallon

Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ..........$9.52 per gallon

Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 .... $10.17 per gallon

Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 . $10.00 per gallon

Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 . $33.60 per gallon

Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 ... $178.13 per gallon

Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .. $123.20 per gallon

Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ....... . $25.42 per gallon

Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 .....$84.48 per gallon


And this is the REAL KICKER...

Evian water 9 oz $1.49..........$21.19 per gallon!

$21.19 for WATER

and the buyers don't even know the source.

(Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)

Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?

So they have you hooked for the ink.

Someone calculated the cost of the ink at................

you won't believe it...................

but it is true.........................

$5,200 a gal. (five thousand two hundred dollars)

So, the next time you're at the pump,
be glad your car doesn't run on
water, Scope, or Whiteout, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil
or God forbid, Printer Ink!!!!!

 

[Marc Gerges]

But the price of crude oil is pretty much the same on the
international market. The rest is governmental taxes & fees.

The funny bit about it is that the cost of energy is about the same
wherever you go in the first world.

More expensive fuel correlates with lower consumption - in the end you
pay about the same. The difference lies in the lower energy usage and
the fact there's abundant tax money avalaible for stuff like health
care.

cu
.\\arc

 

[Scott Nevin]

That bad, eh ?

/me wanders off to tank up at a UK petrol station for > $7 a gallon

Me eyes popped out of their sockets my first trip to Scotland and I did the mental gymnastics to
compute the equivalent cost of a gallon of dead dinosaur juice.

We get all hung up on fuel costs. I did for a while when I recently purchased my '06 Legacy GT (a
premium burner) but I quickly came to the conclusion that the depreciation costs of owning a new car
swamp out fuel cost differential between premium and regular. So I was worried about the wrong part
of the dollar equation, so I bought the turbo version and learned to love premium gas.

To illustrate:

I average about 8,000 mi per year, my fuel spreadsheet indicates I burned 380 gallons of premium
fuel at an average of 3.06 per gallon for a total of US$1137. Now if I got the N/A version, I'd
get ~20% better mileage and burn low octane. So, this would mean my fuel costs would be over 304
gallons at say 2.75 per gallon, which works out to a fuel savings of US$300. First year
depreciation on a Legacy GT is about US$3,000 give or take a couple Ben Franklins.

So, what does this have to do with a Forester (yes there is only one 'r' in Forester)?

I traded in our '04 Forester XS-Premium for a new '07 Forester XT Limited in November on a trade-in
deal that Subaru was running last year.

We've driven our Foresters all over the west coast and have loved both of them. I really like the
XT up in the mountains especially in the snow. The turbo helps keep sea-level pressure all the way
up the side of the big rocks to go play in the snow. The price you pay is lower mileage and burning
premium gas.

 

[isquat]

On Apr 10, 12:38 pm, (e-mail address removed) (Marc Gerges) wrote:
r energy usage and

the fact there's abundant tax money avalaible for stuff like health
care.

Not to mention the bar bills of the junior members of the royal
family.