New to Subaru.

wavemaker · Post by **wavemaker** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:52 pm

Gooday all. I just joined the forum. First post. I will search the forum for answers but this is a chance to correspond directly with members. We have to buy a new car, the Lexcen is falling to pieces around our ears. It's been a great car, no complaints. I drove a work "LIBERTY' a coupla weeks ago and really liked it. Posh car, I thought. So we are thinking maybe a Forester might suit us. I just bought a 5mtr fibreglass boat so will be doing a bit of towing but mainly it will be for family use, holidays etc, me my lovely and our 2 daughters. Would some of you be so kind as to give me your thoughts. I guess I will need to know about servicing fees and frequency, quirks etc. Thanks in advance for any input. Regards, James.

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:10 pm

Firstly, Welcome to this forum, and yeah Subaru are great cars if you look after them then they look after you!! Maybe Subaru Outback or Forrester would be a better for towing the boat.

Service - depends how much you want to spend and what you want to get... But I'll tell you what I do with my Liberty -
I service the engine and mechanicals myself as I do not trust mechanics due history, I use Fuchs Oil, Commodore air filter, genuine fuel & oil filter and I do oil changes every 5000kms. Timing requires changing at 100,000kms, can be done at home or mechanic. Timing Belt is approx $90 for genuine belt. Water Pump is about $67 from Subaru.

Subaru parts may be expensive but they're well made and reliable and you gotta know your way around for cheaper parts and you don't really need to replace parts unless needed.
Cheers
AP

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:20 pm

First question,.. how much will your budget allow?

2. How old are your daughters (no im not a deviate) The liberty/outback will have more room than a forester, its a bigger car. Probably more suited to a family

3. Liberty is bigger than a forester, plus can be had with a 3L engine, which might be better suited to pulling a 5m boat.

4. How much offroading to you do, this will mean the difference between a liberty or an outback or foester

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:32 pm

Suparoo wrote:First question,.. how much will your budget allow?

2. How old are your daughters (no im not a deviate) The liberty/outback will have more room than a forester, its a bigger car. Probably more suited to a family

3. Liberty is bigger than a forester, plus can be had with a 3L engine, which might be better suited to pulling a 5m boat.

4. How much offroading to you do, this will mean the difference between a liberty or an outback or foester

Yeah, Gen3 (1999-2004?) had 3.0 H6 engines same with Gen4 as well.

INEEDABEER · Post by **INEEDABEER** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:04 pm

Welcome to the forum.We look forward to seeing what you get.You might like to meet some of us from Maryborough and Hervey bay and see what we get up to.

wavemaker · Post by **wavemaker** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:15 pm

Thanks all, I shoulda given more info to start with. We will be buying/leasing through salary sacrifice, so a novated lease is what we are looking at. I don't now all the ins and outs of this yet as we only made the decision yesterday. More grunt is good and my lovely wants a manual. More room is also good, girls are 15 and 11. 15 yr old has a horse and may require towing also. Station wagon is also the go, so that leaves Liberty out I think. At this stage we don't do any off roading as such but with the right vehicle could be tempted to try. In the past, I have done all my own maintenance on the myriad cars, utes and motorcycles I have owned, so that bit does not scare me. Budget is not unlimited but enough to do what has to be done.
Ineedabeer, thanks for your reply, guess what, I need a beer. See you soon. I work in the bay. James.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:28 pm

Hey wavemaker! welcome to the world of subaru!

You've got one thing right so far... your talking to a bunch of subaru guru's...

wavemaker wrote:Station wagon is also the go, so that leaves Liberty out I think. At this stage we don't do any off roading as such but with the right vehicle could be tempted to try.

The Liberty does come in station wagon. And if you get the outback or forester I'll bet you'll be trying a mild offroad in no time.

If its a new vehicle your going for i'd probabily go for dealer servicing for the first 2 years or so then do it yourself - you've mentioned your a bit of a home mechanic...

I'd personally go for the foz, but i've never been in an outback (liked the look of them when they came out) and I don't have two daughters to accommodate...

I'd reckon the outback H6 would be best for towing, especially if your towing a horse or two... only thing is that as far as i know (AFAIK) the H6 outback only comes in auto

Take both for a test drive with the fam and see what you think of the two

Keep us posted on your thoughts/questions/decisions.

Cheers

Bennie

00outback · Post by **00outback** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:02 pm

Welcome to the forum Wavemaker,
I think the Outback might be the way for you to go
you'll have to check the towing capacity and consider how much weight you plan on towing
just to make sure the vehicle is capable of towing it.

wavemaker · Post by **wavemaker** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:06 pm

Thanks all for the replies, had the beer I needed and headed to bed.
Regards, James.

INEEDABEER · Post by **INEEDABEER** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:15 pm

wavemaker wrote:Thanks all for the replies, had the beer I needed and headed to bed.
Regards, James.

Beer is good food!:-D:-D

D3V1L · Post by **D3V1L** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:03 pm

steak and eggs in every can hahah

dave

Hamish71 · Post by **Hamish71** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:37 pm

G'Day,

If you want a "bit of poke", and a manual, and dont need dual range, I highly recommend the XT Forester. I have the luxury version (rather, my wife drives it daily), which includes leather, climate control, cruise etc, tow a bike trailer most weekends, and a car trailer once a month, with an mx5 on it. It has never missed a beat. With the turbo, (and no trailer!), it keeps me smiling when i drive it. Its very comfortable, and you will pick one up in warranty for $30k. I got mine 18 months old, 4,500km on the clock (yes, no missing zeros), for $32k private sale.

The driver in a decision between forester and outback is the rear seat space, the rear wagon space, and price. In all three, the forester is "less". It has slightly less rear leg room, slightly less room in the back storage area, and is cheaper.

Servicing is not over the top, in terms of cost, when compared to most modern cars. Keep it factory serviced in warranty period, then do what you want after. You will probably wrap it all up in your salary sacrifice anyway, and will prob find it may even be a condition of your novation.

The thing about Subies is, as can be seen by a lot of the cars here on this forum like my Brumby, they just dont die. They just keep going, and going, and going.

Oh, one more thing. This is our second XT Forester. The first one my wife hit a power pole in after only 6 weeks. Front on to a pole at about 50km hr. Walked away. Car a write off, but did everything it was supposed to do. My wife hurt her hand (she has a bad habit of leaving her hand "upside down" on the gear shift), but apart from that no injuries, brilliant.

Hamish71 · Post by **Hamish71** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:39 pm

OH, yeah, it eats dirt roads, fire trails etc, it eats bitumen and is a briliant tourer, I take it camping on the murray river on sandy tracks. It doesnt have dual range, but the only thing that stops it so far is approach/departure angles.

wavemaker · Post by **wavemaker** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:56 pm

Thanks for all your enthusiastic replies. We went and had a look at the dealers this morning and my lovely decided on the spot that she liked the Forester best. As for towing capacity, we have other options. So at 4pm this arvo we ordered a Sage Green Forester. Find out when it gets here tomorrow. The bloke from RemServ did the lot. Great service. Look forward to driving it and getting on here and learning all about Subaru. Thanks again. James.

wavemaker · Post by **wavemaker** » Fri May 02, 2008 6:01 am

Gooday all. Well she finally got here yesterday lunchtime. Late and effing filthy. I am spewing over the service from Zupps, Mt Gravatt. The Remserve people did their job very well but not Zupps. I was told last Wednesday that I would get the car on Tuesday this week. Then it was put back to Wednesday evening then early Thursday. I missed a days pay and some really valuable training at work while I waited for the car to turn up. When it got here it was covered in road grime and pollen, when I opened the drivers door the paper mats were covered in clay and some had been ground into the floor. There were scuff marks on the trim and the pedals had clay in the grooves. I went effin ballistic at the guy on the phone who had been telling me a pile of B/S for the last week. He then offered me compensation for the trouble I had had. Wait for it--------- how about a hat or a t-shirt. I nearly choked, I had to get off the phone before I started making threats to him and his wife/children/pets etc. Here are a couple of pics, I had chucked out the lumps of clay before I decided that I had better photograph it just in case.
Any way, after I had regained my composure, I took her down to the servo and got the industrial vac on the job. Then picked up my lovely and took her for a spin. She loved it. We grabbed a burger for lunch and then I went home and started to detail the vehicle. She is now shiny and new and beautiful and I am wrapped. Great car. It's going to take a bit to get used to it but time I have.

Gremlins · Post by **Gremlins** » Fri May 02, 2008 10:08 am

Hey, congratulations on the new ride. Is your vehicle a brand new Forester, as I can't make it out from the pics. Anyway delivering it in that state is absolutely shocking and the dealership should be ashamed of themselves. Anyway good to hear it all cleaned up OK and hope you're enjoying it.

wavemaker · Post by **wavemaker** » Fri May 02, 2008 11:11 am

Yeah Gremlins, brand spanker!!!!

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri May 02, 2008 4:12 pm

wavemaker wrote:Yeah Gremlins, brand spanker!!!!

Brand spanker! You defenetly wouldn't expect a bit of dirt in your car!!! Crazy. Even if it were second hand you wouldn't expect dirt in the car, maybe on the mud flaps... Thats just plain lazy of the dealership (and what was the person who delivered it thinking?).

Chuck us up some pics of the whole car, I couldn't see much of it in those pics

Bennie

INEEDABEER · Post by **INEEDABEER** » Fri May 02, 2008 5:00 pm

Hey we are going for a drive tomorrow,details are in the forum.
showthread.php?t=9754
Come on up if you like.

wavemaker · Post by **wavemaker** » Fri May 02, 2008 5:37 pm

Hi there ineedabeer. I can't make the run, we have friends from Sunny Coast coming. But I will try to get out to S.C. and say gooday. El Freddo, you are absolutely right, and they are going to wish they never heard of me. They dont call me Wavemaker because I like to sit in the bath with a toy boat. They sent the car up on a carrier and they dropped it of at this other guys place, panel beater with a tilt tray. So he delivered it after he had been delivering machinery to building sites. Absolutely no effin idea that he had done anything wrong, in fact I think he thought I should be grateful I had got it at all. I keep trying to post a pic, had no trouble this morning. I don't use Windoze I have linux as my OS. Just getting my head around the picture management tools.