Why CVT's are awesome

[Garandman]

Ironically, the only major manufacturer who has not had a class action lawsuit against them over CVT's is Subaru. But they just started using them again a few years ago - give them time!

 

[ultrarunner]

In all fairness... Subaru agreed to binding arbitration when my boss said the CVT was a disaster...

By the time he received the confirmation from Subaru he had already replaced the car and donated it.

 

[Renze]

Subaru Justy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Because of the long distances, the CVT was considered unreliable, but this has not been the case in other countries"...

In other countries (Europe) a Justy or Swift CVT is driven by grannies to church on sunday and end up at the junkyard at 80.000km and 15 years due to rust issues.

This transmission is a disposable, like the car it is put in. Why on earth do Americans drive a Justy long distance, with gas and road tax a fraction of what you pay in Europe ?

 

[Garandman]

Why on earth do Americans drive a Justy.

I never figured that out, either! They were only sold 87-94. I suspect mos were sold as five speed manual.

 

[Renze]

I never figured that out, either! They were only sold 87-94. I suspect mos were sold as five speed manual.

Its either a half ton pickup, highly inefficient for commuting due to frontal area and weight, or its tinboxes even us Europeans dont want to be found dead in... is there no middle ground ?

 

[ultrarunner]

A very large segment of the population is in love with Japanese cars...

My boss's daughter was going off to college and I have yet to see many college women drive anything but a small import... at least around here.

Fuel is much cheaper here but it costs way more than it use to so the rise in prices has affected attitudes.

I took a lot of flak when I bought my 325iT BMW in Munich from my Euro colleagues... to a last one they said it was a nice car but WHY is it Gas and not Diesel...

Had to explain Diesel was not an option at the time for the American market as it was too dirty for California Emissions which gave them something to ponder.

Subaru also does a lot of marketing to the younger crowd and especially to those wanting to get off the beaten path and closer to nature...

I had narrowed the choice of RTV to Kawasaki Mule and Kubota... went with Kubota Hydro because it was far superior to hill holding on steep grades...

 

[Garandman]

//
Subaru also does a lot of marketing to the younger crowd and especially to those wanting to get off the beaten path and closer to nature...//

In the 1990s, Subaru’s unique characteristic was that the company made all-wheel-drive standard on all its cars. When Subaru marketers went searching for people willing to pay a premium for all-wheel-drive, they identified four core groups who were responsible for half of the company’s American sales: teachers and educators, healthcare professionals, IT professionals, and “rugged individualists” (outdoorsy types).

Then they discovered a 5th: lesbians.

“When we did the research, we found pockets of the country like Northampton, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon, where the head of the household would be a single person—and often a women,” says Bennett. When Subaru marketers talked to these customers, they realized these women buying Subarus were lesbian.

Subaru crafted its marketing to identify with lesbian buyers without offending the sensibilities of conservatives.

 

[Renze]

Subaru sells because of the price (justy) and because of its WRC achievements (impreza rally car)

It is too little sold to be identified with lesbians here....

 

[Garandman]

Subaru sells because of the price (justy) and because of its WRC achievements (impreza rally car)

It is too little sold to be identified with lesbians here....

The US market is far different, with European brands playing a minor role. The #1 seller is European brand is Mercedes, 13th in the market.

Subaru hasn't sold the Justy in the US for more than 20 years, and left WRC in 2008 after de emphasizing their effort when the majors engineered rule changes. They sold in the snow belt stating in the late 70's and had less than 1% market share, In the 1990's they popped the roof and raised ground clearance on the Legacy wagon to make the Outback. This happened just as most manufacturers abandoned station wagons in the US and few had AWD, so almost overnight little quirky Subaru became the #1 selling wagon in the US (i.e. "World's Biggest Midget).

Along with building reliable AWD cars, the next breakthrough came when the WRX was picked up for the Xgames. This series became wildly popular and WRX/STI started to sell in regions outside the snow belt. WRC is virtually unknown in the US, but Subaru gave (and continues to give) contingency money for amateur Rallyists so they dominate North American grass roots rallying. ProCar was dumped along the way, having spent a ton of money to accomplish very little, and Vermont Sports Car started building the US Rally team and XGame cars.

Today Subaru is #9 in the US market, outselling brands like Dodge, Mazda, BMW, aforementioned MB and Volkswagen. They aren't necessarily cheap, with top-of-the-line Outbacks and STI costing $35-40,000.

 

[Renze]

....but could you please clarify why lesbians buy Subaru in particular ?

Here BMW regularly advertises in the gay paper, because gays are usually double, higher, income people with disposable income because they dont spend it on family.

 

[ultrarunner]

I was not the one to make the comment but find some truth to it...

Last night I met a two ladies walking their dog and they stopped to introduce themselves... said they bought a home nearby... and were looking to buy since they became married... I learned one sells Subaru and I thought of this thread... I asked her how business is and she said great... she is the go to person for people in the community car shopping...

Then I started to think about half the Subaru owners I know are LGBT... so who knows.

 

[Garandman]

....but could you please clarify why lesbians buy Subaru in particular ?//

From the previously quoted article above.

...This search for niche groups led Subaru to the 3rd rail of marketing: They discovered that lesbians loved their cars. Lesbians liked their dependability and size, and even the name 鉄ubaru. They were four times more likely than the average consumer to buy a Subaru.

Subaru is Japanese for a six-star constellation, ironically called "The Seven Sisters" in the West.

The Seven Sisters also referred to a group of prestigious Eastern all-women colleges: Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, Vassar College, and Wellesley College. Barnard and Vassar are in NY, Bryn Mawr in PA, and the other four in MA. (BTW Vassar is now Coed and Radcliffe was absorbed by Harvard). So it was a combination of value, practicality, and [initially inadvertent] social appeal. BTW one famous Wellesley graduate: Hillary Clinton.

An Army buddy has a 2013 Outback, their second. They bought the extended warranty and the CVT transmission failed just before 100,000 miles. Good thing as it is a very expensive repair. The dealers seem to want to put in a new replacement for $7,000 although I believe rebuilds are available.

 

[Renze]

Ha ha similar as why YMCA of the Village People became the national Anthem of the LGBT community.. it stands for Young Mens Christian Association but somehow they had different ideas of young men coming together...

 

[ovrszd]

Ha ha similar as why YMCA of the Village People became the national Anthem of the LGBT community.. it stands for Young Mens Christian Association but somehow they had different ideas of young men coming together...

Good one???

 

[hutchman]

Pretty much older for the most part... been there done that when it comes to being an early adopter.

1930 Model A Ford is the first car I owned and bought it at age 12 and paid for it in full with money I had earned... still have it.... many more A's and T's...

For 20+ years my daily driver and college and career is the 1972 Plymouth Valiant I bought for $800... towed 1 yard concrete gondola's with it... too many to count.

My "New" car and only new car I ever bought is a 2002 BMW 325iT that I was able to get a special deal when I was working in Europe at the time... brought it home as a souvenir.

Currently my collection is about 50 vehicles from 1905 newer.

I grew up around the car business and am happy to leave the latest and greatest bells and whistles to those with money to burn...

Also am certified as a California Lemon Law Arbitrator and have seen first hand who gets stuck when technology doesn't live up to the promise.

Anyone remember the GM 8-6-4 cylinder engines or the Diesel Oldsmobile?

The there are the supercharged cars or the Ford Fiesta debacle with the dual cone automatic... can't give those cars away...

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/201...-ford-but-too-late-for-consumer-reports/?_r=0

Yes! My neighbor always had Olds 88's. He got the diesel one once. I'm convinced that engine is what hampered other American cars from going diesel. Had they implemented a solid product back then we would of had lots of American cars like the Mercedes 240/300D, VW Jetta (the poor diesel rabbit couldn't get out of it own way though), Volvo (can't remember model), and Peugeot 504's, etc.

 

[hutchman]

My wife had major surgery a year ago and was complaining about driving stick shift. I ended up getting her the 2016 Subaru Legacy 2.5I Premium. We didn't get the eyesight feature but it has about every other option.

I'm a Ford guy but I compared the Legacy to everything in its class and it got better fuel economy than most of the others that were 2WD so I took a chance on it.

I'm fully aware of the gay/lesbian marketing. In fact when we got it I emailed a good friend and told him not to send me any purple teletubbies or rainbow stickers to put in the back window!

This has the CVT with the fake 6 speed flappy paddles. About all I've found the paddles good for is gearing down at stop lights or holding the car back driving down steep grades on the Interstate.

We had a few pretty significant snow storms (for this area) and I couldn't be more impressed with its performance. We have a pretty steep hill right at the end of our driveway. With the F150 in 4WD I could usually just go straight up it or back up a bit to get a little run at it.

The Legacy just climbed it every time with no drama at all. No run at it needed. One time neighborhood kids were sleigh riding on the hill and had it pretty slick. The Legacy didn't even notice.

I've heard others rave about Subaru AWD and just dismissed it. I never paid attention to the symmetrical aspect of their system (no torque steer) but I'm a fan of it now after reading up on it and experiencing the performance for myself.

I just took it on a trip to KY. Two adults going on avg +5/6 over speed limit (so 76mph) with AC blasting and it got 33.6MPG and that is paper/pen method. In town it's been getting 25-26mpg. Not as good as my VW TDI (pre-scandal) but not bad when you factor in diesel premium and the fact one is AWD.

I like the CVT so far and think we will be seeing more of them in order to meet emission/mpg standards. It keeps the engine at the sweet spot.

This is my first Subaru so it remains to be seen how it will hold up. We keep vehicles a long time and then usually hand them down to children etc., so I guess I'll find out.

I never paid attention to Subaru before but after learning about their CEO and philosophy, growth, etc., I find them to be pretty interesting company.

 

[hutchman]

Forgot to mention ... doing from neutral to drive takes a little over one second. A few times at a long stop light I put it in neutral and when the light turned green is when I noticed it ... I had a tendency to drop it in drive and start to mash the go pedal before it engaged in drive. I'm used to it now but it caught me off guard a few times.