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AWD is pretty overrated IMO. I have lived in Wisconsin all my life and driven numerous vehicles in every condition imaginable. AWD is very nice for starting from a stop and getting up slick hills. I've never had any issues in winter with FWD vehicles though. For optimal winter driving it's all about traction and traction is all about the tire. AWD will put power down through all the wheels but that won't do jack sh*t if you don't have the traction. That being said there are plenty of conditions where having AWD will help but if you're just doing typical daily commuting you won't need AWD. Hell there are people here who drive RWD vehicles all year long without problems.
And if you live in an area where it never snows, there's really no reason at all to get AWD for typical daily driving.
Turbo Subies are not very reliable at all. At least in the 2000's
Ummm. Yeah. The OP is referring to a brand new Outback. And I know a lil about Subarus regarding reliability owning them for 30 years now including the bugeye wrx that Ive had for close to 10 years now. Thanks though..
Ummm. Yeah. The OP is referring to a brand new Outback. And I know a lil about Subarus regarding reliability owning them for 30 years now including the bugeye wrx that Ive had for close to 10 years now. Thanks though..
Fantastic at 40k miles my 05 Legacy GT had a cracked intercooler at 70k miles the clutch went out, the rear diff mount cracked and the front passenger inner CV Boot cracked. It also drank 1 qt of oil every 1k miles. I eventually had to rebuild the engine. These are all fairly common issues. Turbo failures seem to be fairly common too. The guy that built my engine confirmed all of these issues and more were common. I followed his posts and another local subie shops posts on facebook and it was the same things over and over and over. There are issues with oil pickup tubes cracking. It seems somewhat rare, but its a tube. I don't see how you screw that design up. In decades I've never heard of an oil tube failure from any other manufacturer ever. Also older NA engines were notorious for head gasket problems.
Never owned an AWD car before. Done lots of research, and the "consensus" seems to be that unless you do a lot of driving in snow or mountains, there is no reason to buy an AWD b/c they cost more to maintain. Is this correct? So basically if I buy an AWD and live in Florida, I am wasting my money?
FYI, trying to decide between Honda Accord (cheap to maintain for 10-15 years) and Subaru Outback (not as cheap due to AWD)
Accord benefits
Cheap to buy
Extremely reliable
Cheap to maintain
But if I don't need AWD, then I shouldn't even be looking at Outback. Correct?
Decide between Subaru and Honda CR-V.
I am in total LOVE with CR-V. Subaru will give you type of 4WD, as that is a 4WD vehicle, you are questioning. No need.
CR-V will give you go anywhere "normal" very reliable and exellent AWD system. And what if you decide to go skiing to Gutlinberg winter time? I have driven on thick ice in AL. That you in FL does not mean, fecis will not hit the fan there, or you will decide to take a trip.
As of maintenance costs. Well, you will have to do
front differential fluid change
transfer case fluid change
rear differential fluid change.
But all of those are done at 65 000 miles and if you use Amsoil synthetic, you good for next 100 000 or so. Hence, you'll be doing maintenance once in vehicle ownership time. No big deal - seriously - to DIY either.
I'd rather not recommend RAV4.
The Subaru equivalent to the Accord is the Legacy. It is a fine if unexciting car. Has all the Subaru attributes in an AWD sedan package.
Begging your pardon but I drive a 1998 Subaru Legacy and I find it quite a lot of fun to drive.
In my driving past I have owned:
1988 Ford F 150 4x4 Good truck.
Great in snow, bad on ice.
1988 Ford T-bird with a 302 (rear wheel drive) and a full positraction rear end
As good in the snow as my 4x4, great on ice and wet roads. Not great on gas. Not so fun on
windy roads due to the high center of gravity. Great for pulling the horse trailer.
2001 Chrystler Intrepid (Front Wheel drive) 2.7 Lemon Catastrophic engine failure
Handled well, great in snow not so great on wet roads and ice.
1998 Hyundai Accent (front wheel drive)
Horrid in snow amazing on fuel
1998 Subaru Legacy GT AWD
Loads of fun to drive. Amazing in snow good on ice, really good on rain soaked roads.
Incredibly fun on curvy roads. Not bad although not spectacular on fuel. It goes when I want
to go and stops when I need to stop ,no matter what the weather.
Oh god. Well, I guess it's another boring Accord for me. Sigh.
Well, there are a lot of cars out there besides Outbacks and Accords. By all means buy something you will enjoy - life's too short to drive a boring car.
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