Subaru

I have had Subarus since in college, and find them the best option for tough terrain and reliability. But hearing about the design and promotion of larger and larger cars, I have to choose with my conscience. The planet I love to explore in my Subaru cannot sustain these giant cars. Get real and get a clue. Bring back the Justy...or the Baja. These were cars that got the job done. I would buy a Justy in a heartbeat...mine got 39 miles per gallon. What is the matter with the world? Don't we care?

I have owned Subarus since 1972. Of course, then you had to shift into AWD. I have had a 1996, 1999, 2011, and 2017 Outbacks and a 1998 Forester. My son has had two Subarus Impreza sport, and a Forester. and my daughter has a Forester. We all feel safe in these and love the way they drive and handle. Presently my wife and I have the 2011 and 2017 models that we bought after they we turned in off lease by other owners. Both cars have been trouble free.

Well I finally got to drive my 2019 in a descent storm that came through the Sierra Mountains on Saturday the 12/7/19. We started in a downpour and ended in a downpour and snowing in between, I am talking approx 1" of rain per Hour and heavy snow going over the Echo Summit. I have been living in the snow area for about 40 years so I considered myself kind of an expert with snow driving. What I dealt with so far -- First of all the car itself handle excellent on the snow didn't even have to put Crosstrek in XMode.

I have an Outback...It is a fantastic car. Lots of room and no major blind spots. It has the power needed for highway driving and passing. A feature many miss is the luggage rack with the crossbars built right in! Helps the aerodynamics for fuel consumption which by the way is very good. It is interesting to note that the outback has more towing power than the Forester. The only dissatisfaction with Subaru is their packages - confusing and not always making sense.

This is the best car I've ever owned. Although it's an SUV, it rides very well - not hard like my Jeep Renegade did. Passengers in the back seat tell me it is very comfortable. I have the "Limited" model, so it has some great features like Subaru's Eyesight. That feature is a game-changer for driving. I will never own another vehicle without that. I feel much safer since it keeps me from drifting into another lane, can brake quickly in an urgent situation and, best of all, driving on the highway with cruise control, the system adjusts your speed so that you never creep up too close to another vehicle. It's a must have for long distance driving. I love the fact it's all wheel drive. I feel much safer driving in rain and snow. Traction is awesome.

I had to buy a new vehicle after my other paid off car was totaled by a person who ran a stop sign. I heard great things about Subaru so Just bought a 5-door Impreza with less than 15,000 miles on it. Did not notice it was a “base model” really as it had the Bluetooth and parking camera. The speedometer/tachometer cannot hardly be seen AT ALL except for a red arrow during daylight driving in sunlight. Can appear totally dark in bright sun! Very bad situation. Car does not have “auto” headlights but even turning parking or lights manually on in daytime does not help (as manual said could be done). This really is a unsafe design flaw. The higher option models have a better set up with the lights with lane assist. If you have a base model you are just stuck; cannot change the speedometer light level per the dealer. I wish I would have known this flaw before I bought this but I am happy with rest of car.

I currently own a 2015 Subaru WRX that I CANNOT DRIVE. I had an issue where the pitcher stopper mount. Literally tore itself off my firewall. I came to find out that is was a design error from manufacturing date. I called them to get this claim settled so I could go on about driving around and enjoying my vehicle. Well as of January 2020, they denied my claim stating "the air struts installed on my vehicle were determined to be the problem". Well... that's weird; I put those on 5 days prior to even going into the dealership. Well I went on about seeking ways to get this repaired until around late August of 2020 I saw a TSB posted by Subaru in 2017 showing that this repair was to be fixed under warranty no matter what.

Bought this car brand new and am meticulous about maintenance. Cvt transmission was advertised as "no maintenance". Now they say it needs to be replaced at 150,000 miles and that this is a known defect! There was a horrible whining that started very quiet on and off in 2017 and became louder this year. We drove into a city intersection to turn, and the car stalled. We were lucky that we didn't get hit by another car. We took it to the dealership as we do all recommended maintenance and something was really wrong to make it stall like that. The dealership said that it is a CVT transmission, and they are known to have this problem. Told us to call Subaru. There was an extended warranty offered in 2018, but we never were notified of that and are the original owner. If we had the notification we would have had this fixed as it occasionally made the noise but it did not repeat when at our service center.

Spent a great deal of time looking for a car. Have had Hondas and one Toyota in the past- usually bought when two years old and kept till 200,000 miles- all still running when sold and great cars. This is a new car, too many electrical gadgets and little education on how to use them. Now major replacement is needed that was not caught before the car was on the market- poor quality control. Now I know why they tried to sell me repair add on insurance and sign something about lemons- I’ll have to review that.

We purchased a 2019 Ascent and love many things about it. The one thing we DO NOT is the MPG. We have carefully monitored the MPG in all sorts of circumstances, even trying to drive at the speed limit on cruise control for several hours in 8th speed in the manual mode. That is where we got the best MPG at 19.2. At no other time have we been close to the quoted number. Our average has been 17.2 city and 18.8 highway, which are very different numbers from what the window sticker numbers showed. We have tried endlessly to work with Subaru of America and have had little to no help as they are not taking ownership of the discrepancy and they just keep trying to put it back on the dealership. Clearly this is a corporate issue as they build the vehicles and the dealership just sells them!