Subaru Automobiles

[Torvy]

2018 Outback Limited - bought it new because the 0% was cheaper than buying a lightly used at 5%. Only has about 55k on it (less driving due to lock downs and change in commute from 35 to 8 miles). It has become our daily driver since we traded the 2020 Prius Prime for a 2017 Tundra. I am mostly a Toyota person, but more because I am a reliability first person. The Prime had similar features to our Outback. One difference is that the distance on the adaptive cruise control resets on the Prime every time you shot off the car. The Outback retains our settings. Most of the technology stuff is nice to have and can be disabled.

The Outback has paddle shifters, so if you like more control, you have it. The 8.5" ground clearance is less than some dedicated off road type vehicles, but makes driving around our property possible.

Negatives, we have had some minor electrical problems with windows. Technology can be habit forming and makes going 'backward' more difficult. For instance, the auto-braking is usually awesome (though it sometimes brakes hard for a tall weed when backing up), now when I back up in my truck, I has the camera and I habe to actively remind myself that it will not stop.

I will look for pictures. Wife currently has it in San Antonio.

 

[BadDecisions]

Because of all of the technology in these vehicles, I do wonder if the vehicles will just age out when the repair bills get to a point of being unaffordable. Certainly the auto companies are trying to drive us, pun intended, to a subscription model for some services but I think they would love it if the subscription was basically a lease that never expired. Get a new car every N years and always have a subscription, aka, car payment.

This is one of my big concerns as well. I've had a car payment twice in my life, both of which were paid off inside of 12 months, and it made me uneasy the entire time. Other than that, I've owned over 50 different vehicles, all of which were paid with cash. With the exception of one single time in my life, 100% of the repairs on my cars have also been done by me (that one time was a clutch that went out in the middle of a Detroit winter in my Charger, and the only place I had to do the repair was the driveway with about a foot of snow on it.)

Or the other scare - the crap that Tesla pulled with removing features on used cars because the 2nd owner didn't "pay" for the features. I feel like Mercedes tried something similar as well at one point. Or the subscriptions for features like heated seats and steering wheel that BMW is doing. It's only a matter of time before that becomes widespread, and the one time fee "lifetime" subscriptions cease due to some nonsense like "lack of interest". All it takes is one bad software update to break some important features of a new car...how long will it take before people lose access to heat altogether because some programmer flubbed a line of code, with the manufacturers dragging their feet to fix it?

 

[dmccarty]

...
Or the other scare - the crap that Tesla pulled with removing features on used cars because the 2nd owner didn't "pay" for the features. I feel like Mercedes tried something similar as well at one point. Or the subscriptions for features like heated seats and steering wheel that BMW is doing. It's only a matter of time before that becomes widespread, and the one time fee "lifetime" subscriptions cease due to some nonsense like "lack of interest". All it takes is one bad software update to break some important features of a new car...how long will it take before people lose access to heat altogether because some programmer flubbed a line of code, with the manufacturers dragging their feet to fix it?

last year, Toyota tried to make remote start capability a subscription and they caught heck for it, as they should. I don't really know the full story since I just started looking at the technology in these new vehicles but my understanding is that Toyota would require a subscription after an initial period for remote start. Customers had a fit and Toyota said the remote start capability subscription was for the cell phone application and not the key fob.

Ford just filed a patent that would allow them to turn off the AC, heat in the vehicle, or make an annoying sound if one missed a payment.

 

[cqaigy2]

Residual income.

 

[NoTrespassing]

last year, Toyota tried to make remote start capability a subscription and they caught heck for it, as they should. I don't really know the full story since I just started looking at the technology in these new vehicles but my understanding is that Toyota would require a subscription after an initial period for remote start. Customers had a fit and Toyota said the remote start capability subscription was for the cell phone application and not the key fob.

Ford just filed a patent that would allow them to turn off the AC, heat in the vehicle, or make an annoying sound if one missed a payment.

Interesting way to get people to keep up with payments. I wonder if anyone gets creative when returning a car they couldn't keep up the payment on. A friend of mine had a 1 lb. roll of raw sausage roll under the seat of his Explorer. It started stinking after a week or so but it took them over a month to find it. It was the heat of summer at the time too. It was very difficult to get the smell out of that vehicle. Sorry, I'm off topic, let's just say if was a Subaru instead of an Explorer.

 

[CobyRupert]

….but how many cup holders?
Those electronic gizmos are getting more fancy every day.
The only experience I had with one that had auto-braking / crash avoidance was in a situation where the car ahead was also slowing to turn right. I was following far enough behind and could calculate that even though I was closing the distance between us at a concerning rate, we would not collide.
I also did not want to suddenly brake because there was a cement truck approaching at a higher rate than both of us.
As I was about to safely clear the car leaving the road the Subaru decided to slam on the brakes! The cement truck got really large in the rear view mirror. I cursed something about Nippon designers.
My wife has a basic model, 5 spd man. Impreza. Underpowered, but that AWD is great in snow.
She fell for the “It’s built with love” as campaign. They give it a PZEV badge. That stands for Partial Zero Emission Vehicle. Hug the earth! Wait, “partial zero”, what? What kind of meaningless phrase is that b.s.? Technically it has a top speed of “partial light speed” too!

 

[California]

My '99 has a PZEV decal.

I think it relates to how much smog credits they have to buy from Tesla.

A few years back they raised the suspension to evade 'automobile' smog standards and qualify in the SUV category - a lesser standard.

 

[BadDecisions]

last year, Toyota tried to make remote start capability a subscription and they caught heck for it, as they should. I don't really know the full story since I just started looking at the technology in these new vehicles but my understanding is that Toyota would require a subscription after an initial period for remote start. Customers had a fit and Toyota said the remote start capability subscription was for the cell phone application and not the key fob.

Ford just filed a patent that would allow them to turn off the AC, heat in the vehicle, or make an annoying sound if one missed a payment.

I had a similar thing with the Chevy Volt - the cell phone remote start went through the OnStar system, but then it also had key fob remote start. I got a free trial that I think was for a year for the OnStar, then went on to a month to month deal. But the key fob remote start was permanent, which I was OK with. Really, I don't see any real pressing need for the ability to remote start the car on the other side of the planet anyways, lol. Though I can see where some people may want it for pre-heating/cooling from inside their office or something, and I don't see a problem with making that a subscription service, as the computer systems needed to facilitate that is a recurring expense for the company. But the key fob, heated seats, etc is a one time expense...

As I was about to safely clear the car leaving the road the Subaru decided to slam on the brakes! The cement truck got really large in the rear view mirror. I cursed something about Nippon designers.

Similar issue with the Volt as well, but in the traction control system. There were a number of times I'd hit a bit of water or snow going through an intersection, and the traction control system would cut ALL power to the wheels, and I'd be dead in the intersection for 2-3 seconds until it recovered. Usually it would just coast through, so it wasn't a huge deal, but there were a couple times when I knew it was slick, so I was accelerating very slowly, but then it meant I came to a dead stop for those 2-3 seconds...dead in the middle. NOT at all a comfortable feeling in heavy traffic. No idea if it was common to those cars, or it was just something goofy in my particular car, but it ended up being one of the big reasons why I ended up selling it and went back to old tech cars.

 

[lman]

Interesting way to get people to keep up with payments. I wonder if anyone gets creative when returning a car they couldn't keep up the payment on. A friend of mine had a 1 lb. roll of raw sausage roll under the seat of his Explorer. It started stinking after a week or so but it took them over a month to find it. It was the heat of summer at the time too. It was very difficult to get the smell out of that vehicle. Sorry, I'm off topic, let's just say if was a Subaru instead of an Explorer.

That's kind of sad that because somebody was not responsible enough to pay for a car, they took it out on the dealer.

 

[MTGreen]

last year, Toyota tried to make remote start capability a subscription and they caught heck for it, as they should. I don't really know the full story since I just started looking at the technology in these new vehicles but my understanding is that Toyota would require a subscription after an initial period for remote start. Customers had a fit and Toyota said the remote start capability subscription was for the cell phone application and not the key fob.

Ford just filed a patent that would allow them to turn off the AC, heat in the vehicle, or make an annoying sound if one missed a payment.

Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen people can die from no heat or air conditioning depending on the situation