Might be time to change the car blues

Gentlemen,

Can anybody give me some info on Subaru Forrester's, I'm looking to buy one, I would love a Freelander series 2 but my wife's health means she cant get in one because they are to high for her, the Subaru is a large estate 4 x 4 with very good towing capabilities, they do seem to hold their price but I would like to know about reliability please.

Thanks,

Martin P

It has increased ground clearance Martin so may be just has high as others getting in and out. They are made for 4x4 type use. I haven't seen a single one in B'ham. They are more popular in Scotland. An Outback might be a better option which is more of an estate. They tend to call these cross overs and most manufacturers make one. They have the same transmission etc but tend to be generally lower.

I think it's called an Outback and the Mitsubishi one an Outlander.

The company has a good reputation for reliability and I would hope they have retained the same level on the newer cars. They come with a 3 year warrantee bumper to bumper and 5 years on the transmission. I'm told that they hold their price well compared with others but haven't checked. I haven't run a 4x4 for a long time but all of the Japanese ones did hold their price very well. The cross over types are probably more popular now.

John

-

John,

I picked the Forrester because my hobby involves taking several Lister petrol engines to Steam/vintage rally's and the car has a towing rating of 1700 kgs and the 4 x 4 gives me better control on wet muddy fields as I rally around twenty weekends it would earn its keep, regarding my wife she cant get into a Freelander as the seat is a couple of inches to high and cant get on the seat where as dimensionally the Subaru is a lot lower. Not sure if to go petrol or diesel yet.

Reliability is the thing I want most and as you've said it is good.

Thanks,

Martin P

The subaru 4x4 estates have long had an excellent reputation for reliability and off-road performance. That's why so many farmers used to drive them (and Toyota pickups) instead of 'sports utility vehicles'.

Way back I used to get ocassional use of a 4x4 Fiat Panda, sounds like a joke, but it wasn't! I wasn't supposed to use it off road

Neil

.

I had one of those for a while ... Fantastic little car

MichaelG.

My friend who was a massive car geek loved the fiat panda 4x4.

I never believed him that it was a collectors car when he bought it for £800 put another 20k or so on the clock and sold it for £1100, almost instantly after it went up for auction.

We had some good fun with that car.

Just doesn't really fit with the "image" most people have of what constitutes a classic car does it? Guess the assumptions betray the truth occasionally. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 30/06/2016 22:49:00

I didn't say the reliability is good Martin. I said I hoped that it was still as good as their long term reputation suggests. I had no problems at all with an Impreza I had some years ago and that is a pretty extreme car. Personally I feel that warantees are a good idea these days on all cars just in case.

What I found towing caravans is that the fuel consumption with diesels is a lot better than petrol. I initially towed with an old petrol Shogun, then with a 3L Trooper and lastly with a 4.2L Land Cruiser diesel - cheaper mpg than either of the others and a tonne plus caravan on the back was hardly noticeable. Bit of an exaggeration but not much. The Trooper for instance would return circa 30 mpg with a fair amount of motorway driving but dropped to around 12 with a caravan on the back. I also towed with a diesel Xantia and that gave decent figures with a caravan on the back. Diesels have changed a lot since then but I suspect this aspect is much the same. The catch with diesels is the particulate filter. If some one just drives every day in crawling traffic and the car never gets a decent run even for a short period they can act up and can also be pretty expensive to replace wiping out the fuel savings. I've never had the slightest problem with them and don't know anyone that has but it seems some do have a problem. A Saab dealer once said that given my usual driving style he doubted if I ever would. I'd guess just like cats on petrol engines a bit of excess fuel going down the exhaust now and again helps within limits. In fact on petrol engines the engine management system do that on purpose at times usually when starting. I generally don't go anywhere near max revs on a diesel but do let them rev from time to time. I know of an MOT tester that reckons this is a good idea too. On the X-type for instance I would get up to motorway speeds rapidly in 4th. Once there go straight into 6th and that sort of thing. At 30mph and variable slope and traffic on the X type I would stay in 4th and leave 5th for 40 limits. This depends on the gearing and engine management really but they represent revs where the turbo is doing it's job. I don't think it's a good idea to run diesels at revs where it's not really contributing at all.

John

-

Out of interest the Forester was priced based on circa $1.45 to the £. There may be around an 8% price increase. The Yen has gone up too as the market has decided it's a better place to put it's money. Annoying the Japanese as they wanted to keep it down.

When I saw the Brexit view of the NHS out of the EU and even the fact that the name Brexit had been created plus various people repeating the mantra to all of the possible problems once out of the EU it helped me to make my mind up about a change of car.

Sorry Niel but it really did.

Anyway - it comes with an owner manual that's around 1" thick so plenty of reading to do. Touch screens sound great but offer lots of things which of course are duplicated on the steering wheel. Plenty of switches. I couldn't guess how to use the cruise control on the way home. It has a turn it on button that is used first. For the radio I am hoping that the voice control can cope with my accent. It'll hook that up to the phone as well but mobiles aren't something I make that much use of. Going on Magic and excellent sound system too. Magic generally plays my style of music.

John

-

Edited By Ajohnw on 30/06/2016 23:48:16

Hi Martin,

Would think twice about a freelander, reliability could be a problem, maybe they have cured this with the mark,2.

would check on the web in the land rover forums, including the U S ones, seen quotes for ten to fifteen dollars to rebuild engines in discovery to make it reliable over 100k milage,

best of luck Neville

I looked at a number or reviews Martin. Some mention excessive body roll which is something of a joke. I'd say that from driving 3 different ones including the 2013 model. This is a pretty fair review but ratings ??? It's a Suburu, in any case these don't really look any different to the "competition" if that is what some of them can really be called.

**LINK**

The description of the manual gear change is a lot better than other reviews as well. Having got used to the much wider gate on the x-type it will take me a little while to get used to that. I've been there before in several cars made by rather sporty car manufacturers.

All I would say about the interior and controls etc is that they are unusual. Not sure if dated is the right word - different would be better. I'm not that keen on piano black plastic etc anyway.

There have been one or two updates since 2013. Mine is the version form apr 2016. I need to get my tape measure out. Using the Parker figures it's roughly 200mm shorter and narrower than the X-Type which leaves me wonder why my wife thought it must be wider from sitting in it. My feelings too.

To save people wondering and sitting on the edge of their seats in anticipation LOL I just used the tape roughly. The Parker figures look to be correct. Glad of that as I do a fair amount of narrow lane driving.

John

-

John,

Thank you, from your experiences and what I've read means I will soon be looking for a good low mileage Forrester.

Martin P

There are a whole range of them on their used car search Martin all sorts of mileages and ages. I struck lucky in some ways as I was offered a deal I couldn't really refuse and as a result spent around 2k more than intended. The 2k is why I mentioned "in some ways."

For petrol heads I did drive the 2l petrol auto. The dealer tried to kid me into believing it was a diesel. Unlike the review I didn't notice anything at all noise wise. Kick down is swift and if the pedal is pressed hard down it will go up to max revs. All seemed pretty normal when I eased off after doing that. Driven normally the gear changes were completely un noticeable - as would be expected from an infinitely variable drive. They have used it on the petrol engines for some time but only recently offered it on the diesel. They also fit it to the high powered engine so I suspect it just has to be pretty robust.

I aught to be on commission. it's all odd really as I had looked at all sorts. Not too happy about what I found and then remembered driving a Forester circa 15 years ago, maybe more and thought that might work out so went and took a look. I thought they might be way to quick a car for sane use as per the one I had driven so was pleased to see that they had mellowed. They still do offer a quick on though.

John

-

Edited By Ajohnw on 01/07/2016 19:55:53

John,

Speed is not an issue with me, I'm getting my kicks currently with a 2004 1.2 Corsa type C SXi that I bought for £500 last August with only 37000 on the clock and full service history from my Daughters Father in Law, his last year of driving it he managed a massive 800 miles in a year, never known a car that is nippy and sticks to the road like glue, my wife accused me of being a 62 year old boy racer. Shame it cant tow 1.5 tons of engines and trailer

Martin P

I have some real consumption figures now. I tend to press on and don't hang around but do generally come close to obeying speed limits.

Worst maybe 1/2 mile there and back from cold 18mpg. It was raining and didn't want to get wet going to the local shops.

Parcel to the post office from cold. Cica 2miles each way. 25 going and 34 coming back, as it had warmed up a bit I suspect.

25 miles, motor way mostly with a 50 limit for 10 or so miles and around 12 miles of fairly clear A road. 52mpg.

Normal motor way driving 45 mpg.

Pembrokeshire narrow twisty hilly B roads usually 10 mile or so trips 45 mpg from cold. The gear ratio's are unusual for me. Probably done because of the high towing limit. There is a change gear now indicator that works pretty well really. If I disregarded it and drove hard that dropped to 38. It's actually an aid to getting used to the gear ratios and runs a little differently when the engine is cold. There is no temperature gauge just a light. Blue when cold and I expect red if over heated.

The A40 from Haverford West to the M50 is a very varied road. 52mpg even in a hurry. The M50 and M5 after that dropped it to 48. Speed in the outer lane of the M5 are always mmm "highish."

It keeps several tallies of mpg. Current trip since the engine was started gtill it's turned off. Last time the tank was topped up and also the odo based one. I'm assuming they are accurate but the trip to Pembrokeshire definitely used less diesel than the X-Type. Noticeably so. Much better consumption in the lanes in particular and on other parts of the trip.

The change gear thingy is interesting. While overtaking I noticed it didn't say change up when it usually would but did eventually as the revs went up. I also have the impression that it allows more revs at lower throttle setting before the blue light goes out and then changes. Maybe to warm the engine up more quickly. It has the usual problem that it doesn't know that it's about to go up a hill and does like to keep the revs down. I've not really noticed any turbo lag yet. I suspect it uses pretty sophisticated engine management.

Handling I suspect is Wrx like. Likes been driven hard but it really is best to get used to the car before even thinking about that aspect. Cornered easily I can feel how the rear end is tracking. A bit of gas and it feels a lot lot better. Jason probably knows what I mean. At cornering speeds that many wouldn't use a wrx feels like it's on rails especially when there is some power going down. Foresters may be similar.

I might have to continue fitting Yokoharma tyres. Their 4x4 tyres were cheap and brilliant but I suspect that they aren't cheap any more.

John

-

Edited By Ajohnw on 30/07/2016 21:07:06

John,

It was if you were describing my new 1600cc Renault Trafic, on a decent run, 150 miles or more, I can easily get 49 mpg running at 65 - 70 mph. I also drive using the little arrow to change up or down particularly when towing a loaded trailer.

Martin P

Whilst the forum is on the car subject I have a problem that someone might know the answer to.

I have a renault Kangoo van--12 plate

It went for a service( non Renault same garage I have used for 35 years) & was reported as having a rear broken spring

The garage fitted an OEM manufactured pair of springs & when I drove the vehicle there was a lot of rattling as though something had not been tightened up. I returned to the garage & they re fitted the old broken springs & the rattling stopped

It seems that all the non Renault spring makers have extra turns in the ends of the springs & they rub together. The garage tried a couple of regular suppliers with the same problem

So they went to Renault & they just say they are on back order & have no springs in stock with no delivery date for spares. So now I am stuck. My son needs the van to tow his boat to an event in September ( he kips in the back) but I do not want to fit noisy springs

Anyone had the same problem & have they solved it please

Another car issue:-

As the owner of a VW with the EA 189 Diesel Engine, I find that almost one year after the emmissions scandal broke there still does not seem to be a "fix".

I've received two letters from VW and one from the Dealership, all reassuring me that it is being dealt with, although I must admit that as so much time has passed I am losing both patience and hope.

The Americans seem to be getting compensation and South Korea have apparently banned some VW sales plus imposing a large fine on VW. The UK Government appears to be doing nothing about this matter (no surprise there).

I have seen "Class Action Lawyers" advertising, anyone else on here owning an affected vehicle with ideas on this?

Edited By V8Eng on 02/08/2016 13:00:49

Im a bit confused - you say that the broken springs were replaced by OEM springs, so they should be spot on?

How come refitting the broken springs cured the rattle, did you see the "broken" springs?

Ian S C

No because the other manufacturers have extra windings in the ends of the springs