Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I can only speak to my experience with a forester, now 18 months old. Very happy with it. Wanted a reliable snow car, as well as handling well on gravel (and sometimes mud) roads, and got it. Bells and whistles were not important to me, bought the cheapest version except for springing for automatic. Absolutely loved the great visibility with so vast an expanse of window. Have driven it on many long trips, and did not find the seats uncomfortable, although I had expected the worst from reviews. Must be an individual thing. Anyway, my main concern was an affordable snow car, and the base model forester gave me exactly what I wanted. My only big complaint was discomfort where the driver's left leg tends to relax into the door during a long trip, sonething in the door molding hit me wrong. So I bought a thin chair pad with a loop, tied it on top to the door with a shoestring through the loop, tucked the bottom into the door pocket, and I'm good to go. Never felt so safe and comfortable in snow with any other car.
I still like the Rav4 hybrid but really wonder if it will go 250,000 miles. I guess you should expect to replace the battery and thst's not cheap, possibly offsetting the years of better fuel economy. Also wonder if you would be required to get it serviced at a dealer, my local shop does not work on them. That is a huge drawback.
I still like the Rav4 hybrid but really wonder if it will go 250,000 miles. I guess you should expect to replace the battery and thst's not cheap, possibly offsetting the years of better fuel economy. Also wonder if you would be required to get it serviced at a dealer, my local shop does not work on them. That is a huge drawback.
I don't know why they wouldn't. The Priuses routinely go that far with no problems.
The big reason here to get the Subaru over the Toyota is the ground clearance. Camping and traveling to remote areas one regularly encounters very bumpy roads.
I believe both have about the same level of dependability and resale value. Both were higher quality 20 years ago than what they are today.
I've driven Hertz RAV4 rentals many times on 200+ mile trips. Maybe they're better in the top trim level but the Hertz ones are pretty uncomfortable on long drives. I give it 2 thumbs down based on a thousand miles driving them.
The NA Forester is a smidge underpowered unless you buy a stripped one with the manual transmission. I had VW GTIs as my daily driver for 14 years and watched the price spread between 87 and 91 octane go from 20 cents to 50 cents. I'm not buying a Forester turbo that recommends 91 octane and is a dog with 87.
The Subaru Outback is the #1 selling car in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. Personally, I prefer the sedan-style seating position of a lifted station wagon to the bench seating position of compact crossovers. I'm 6'2". You can put four of me in an Outback comfortably. I prefer the 6 foot seat-folded rear cargo length.
If I couldn't buy a 6 cylinder Outback and had to buy a compact crossover, I personally prefer the CR-V.
Has to be some reason they are the "#1 seller"....they only hold 1.2% of the marketshare sooooo, unless everyone is vying to be in that commercial, I don't buy it. For every one of those I'll show you 2 Tacoma's trekking even better in the outback coffeshops of vale....
It's not a bad car, it's just not a prevalent car overall. If you TRULY get out and camp in the Western states you need a truck, preferably a 4X4 for year round challenges....can a car/crossover/mini-van/whatever do it? Sure, just not real well past a few potholes. Not built for it.
Some of the larger SUV's fare well in this arena but, not by that much. They are improving but, so is Hyundai and Kia....and I still don't see them knocking off Toyota and Honda anytime soon. They are about the same money, stick with the top two and you can't go wrong. Here you a bit on the Rav 4 though....I like the Honda CRV slightly more in that space. Just more comfortable. Engines are fine in either.
I think if they would get the cost of the Tacoma's out of the stratosphere, they would essentially wipe out the Subaru and give both their own RAV 4 and CRV a good washing....you can do more with it. Resale is off the charts rivaling the Jeep Wrangler (Truly the mystery of the ages, they are built poorly, leak and people line up for the privilege. They are the coolest convertible though so....there's.....that).
Hey, at least we aren't battling the Yugo vs. Hyundai circa 80's?
2002 Forester and now at 147K+ miles, I'm still getting 25 mpg on the highway as I did when I first got it.
I need to get it repainted, probably need to do something with the sound system, but generally, it works just fine.
I've had the passenger side wheel bearings replaced once over the years, the front brakes redone, a very expensive valve job done around 90K, things here and there, but the car does not leave me wanting.
Some say that the 150K death mark is it but my mechanics tell me that properly maintained, they've seen ones with 250K on them.
I suppose it depends on what one wants. I bought it at $20Kish with essentially adventuring gear such as trailer hitch bike rack, brush guard, hood shields, radio with a tape deck, things like that. I recommend the trailer hitch because when I got rear ended, it was the towing rig that took the impact.
I have no regrets at buying a Forester; far from it!
Bought an 04 Forester new. It was a great car in terms of handling and the size was perfect for my needs. The AWD system was better than any other small SUV out there and even better than the Jeep I owned prior to the Subie.
It completely fell apart at 100k, though. Electrical issues, a LOT of brake problems that neither my regular mechanic nor the Subaru stealership could get right and exhaust issues. A clutch in the a/c went during a hot summer and I opted to trade it in - fortunately for me the a/c would work for about 20 minutes or so when the car would first start so the stealership didn't notice the problem at the time of trade-in.
I would consider another Subaru, but not sure if I would buy it with the plan of hanging on to it for 150k+ miles the way we do with the Accords in our household. I know several people that hang onto RAV4s for the long haul, but for that matter I also know several people that have hung onto their Subarus for awhile, but they tend to visit the repair shop more often.
I also know several people that have hung onto their Subarus for awhile, but they tend to visit the repair shop more often.
This might be more based on personal experience the only time our two Subaru's visit the shop is to do oil changes and whatever maintenance there is to do.
Back on topic as I said before you will have a lot of loyal Subaru owners and for good reason, both Subaru and Toyota are both excellent choices. But I just don't see how you can't pick Toyota's long standing reputation for reliability and longevity. And I say this as a person who has never owner a Toyota but understand their value.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
