General Auto Chat

I’ll see how is the new 2023 Subaru Legacy made in Indiana will be for me when I take delivery of it in early 2023.

At least I got MSRP and an estimate out of the door price. Too bad the APR will go up higher by then, but I normally put 30% down on cars, so meh. AWD is useless in FL but I’ll take a MSRP Subaru over a high marked up FWD car in this trash market thanks to dealer greed.

Funny I went with Legacy, everyone wants a Crossover. I’ll miss my Fit since I’m giving it to the GF, but my fat belly is telling me that the Legacy should be the better ride quality over something lifted up like the Crosstrek (which is just the Impreza on stills) and the Outback (lifted up Legacy Wagon like they make for Japan). I just do basic driving on the roads and highway in FL, so I don’t really need something lifted up.

@penguins pervious autist comments about Sedans was a good selling point to me that getting a crossover for my needs is stupid.

Also agreed with @purr1n on Benz’s and BMWs. Broke My Wallet indeed.

 

Crossovers are dumb. Lifted ride height compromises everything at extra co$t and for what? Because you go skiing 5 times a year and dont want to get caught in a freak snowstorm?

And with that here is my new car. Subaru Crosstrek Sport 2023:

 

At least you got the better engine than the base one.

 

My 2012 GTI developed a cylinder leak and my mechanic advised fixing was not worth it and said we should trade it in while all the codes were still clear. Mechanic is a nice guy, it was nice of him to tell me its not worth fixing even though it cost him a lucrative client (something on the VW breaks annually). Well, I couldnt lie to the stealership so we decided to hold on to the VW as a backup car until it finally keels. I get emotionally attached to our vehicles anyway so do not mind holding.

Why a Crosstrek? Because thats what the wife wanted. The wife abhors manual transmission vehicles and I dont care for automatic. If its not manual then I dont care what car we get so long as the wife is happy. So she picked the car and I got to pick trim and color. btw I wouldve went with a new Civic hatch 2.0 NA manual.

The Sport trim gets an upgrade from a 2.0 4cylinder to a 2.5 4cylinder. Its a 25% increase in power with no sacrifice in mpg, easy choice. The one major option is the sunroof + media upgrade which also nets some extra safety features like turn signal mirrors and rear cross safety alerts. The media upgrade is a larger touchscreen display which also has higher resolution than the smaller stock screen which means reverse camera is much more clear, easy choice. This combination of Sport trim and package was scarce and it was the only one within 400miles and the next earliest arrivals were at least a month away, so we bought it and the color was silver. Paid MSRP and no tax because Oregon. Still, dealership was a pita to deal with as expected even though we didnt have to pay market markups.

Review:

OMG CVT sucks balls in so many ways.
- slow acceleration from a stop
- their is no sweet buildup of revs, its like an on/off switch for drone noise
- the rubbery disconnected acceleration kills all the fun in driving spiritedly
- it has a manual mode where it vaguely defines 7 simulated gears, but the computer will override your commands if it doesnt like what youre doing. Using the manual mode to try and engine brake down a hill is annoyingly difficult because the CVT will “upshift” automatically even though youre in manual mode. Perhaps cvt transmissions inherently cannot engine brake down a hill, idunno.
- btw the old VW has a DCT which works well

The safety suite of “eyesight” features are annoying. Eyesight is the name for the safety features provided by the dual-camera system which are located near the top of the windshield.
- Lane departure warning annoyingly beeps at you when say youre trying to dodge a pothole and you move to close to the edge of your lane. Lane departure also will automatically steer the car towards center lane when you get too close to the edge which is also annoying because it disrupts the smoothness of the drive.
- Cruise control automatic car ahead distance maintain thing cannot be switched off. Have to disconnect some wires or fuses under the dash which Ill do sooner or later. Again, disrupts smoothness of driving.
- Crash alert can not be permanently turned off, must be reset every time you turn on/off vehicle. Crash alert is annoying because it will automatically brake the vehicle if it detects imminent collision. The problem is that the computer is dumb and esimates crashes when none is on the horizon. Like if youre on a bend and there is a divider in the median the crash alert sometimes considers that a problem and will brake hard! Other times it screeches at you because youre driving too close to parked cars that are parallel parked along the sidewalk. Volume cannot be changed, you must turn off manually everytime. Need to lookup how to disconnect...

The mpg saver that is engine start/stop tech is very jerky. Also must be turned off manually every time you get in the car.

The interior road and wind noise is quite a bit higher than the VW GTI even though the VW was cheaper ($25k otd VS $33k otd).

The steering has very little feedback in comparison to the VW. The VW has hydraulic steering and it was heavy and sporty. Crosstrek is electric which is the norm these days but Ive not driven a lot of cars to say whether the Subaru’s is particularly numb. This Subaru is definitely an unengaging drive unless youre going off-road I imagine.

$33k and halogen headlights? Doesnt bother me the lights but thats kinda surprising.

The interior is actually nice. The controls are physical instead of all on a touch screen. Lots of leg room and shoulder width. Stereo sucks but fine for podcasts or audiobook.

Actual mpg has been about the same as the VW. I drive mostly city.

I wouldve preferred the Outback wagon with turbo but it felt a little too large for my wife to feel comfortable driving and parking within the city, and the price was higher anyway but maybe worth it.

 

I forgot to talk about my feels regarding the raised suspension.

1. Yes, it makes the car worse in many ways except for ground clearance is improved. Stupid for regular city use which is how we are using the car.

2. The raised height from the floor messes with your vision’s perception of speed. The ground is further away so it feels like its not going by as fast which adds to the less engaging drive (in comparison to the gti).

3. The raised height does feel safer. A pet peeve of mine is lifted trucks which negate the bumper to bumper safety designs in case of a car accident. My little VW would have lifted truck bumper straight to my windshield in the event of an accident. But the Subaru’s lift makes it less worrying.

4. Not necessarily a ride height thing, but suspension travel… The plushiness of suspension to absorb bumps is awesome and probably the car’s best feature. Commutes are very comfy (after you turn off all the safety alerts).

 

And the AWD with torque vectoring actually is noticeable when accelerating out of hard turns. The VW would understeer and tires would squeal and chirp. The Subaru maintains neutral and just goes. Its the one area where the Subaru feels faster and more fun than the VW.

 

Yes, for nearly the same price we couldve gotten a WRX… But the wife dislikes sedans. Hatch > trunk

 

Butt shot

 

The Crosstrek is super popular with chicks. A lot of my friends who like Subarus don't like the Crosstrek but their wifes/gfs really like the Crosstrek. When I was test driving Subarus my GF really liked the Crosstrek but honestly I didn't see the point of a lifted Impreza Hatchback with worse MPG driving in FL mostly solid city roads. I thought the Crosstrek was a little more bumpy ride than than the Legacy Base that I test drove (I went with the Legacy Premium for slightly extra features that is more focused on my passengers and being a mid-size car it handled better IMO than the Crosstrek).

I am not looking forward the stop/go feature, but I tested it with the Legacy Base and honestly it wasn't terrible.

Also @Philimon stop being an Autist and posting multiple posts of the same subject within minutes. You could had made one post and be done with it.

 

Did old-car stuff a few weekends ago. There was some friends with Model A's and another guy drove a Model T almost 2 hours. The T had a 2-speed rear end, so he could do about 50mph, which is extremely sketchy in one of those.

We all met up a cider mill in Parshallville, then drove around for a while checking out the fall colors.

 

Sorry. Will do Florida manatee.

Makes sense. Legacy has a longer wheel base and probably more tire to wheel ratio and decidedly more luxury. Crosstrek comparison is to my car of the last 10 years: 2012 GTI. For all I know Crosstrek comfy ride is not special and below average but it is a huge difference from GTI when over rough pavement.

It isnt terrible and I actually kinda like the vibration and grunt of the engine turning on as it adds a mechanical tactile feel to the driving experience especially appreciated because the car lags elsewhere in that department. The auto stop/start is jerky on hills only and unfortunately I have to drive on a lot of hilly roads. It doesnt bother me that much the jerkiness but the wife hates it and asks me to turn off the feature every time. And because I drive mainly city the stop/start activates frequently which means its saving more gas but also more frequently disturbing because hills.

 

That's so awesome!! There's a '29 Model A that was restored by my grandfather that I've inherited that is still out in Montana that I'm going to be retrieving in the next year or two. I've been watching all of Paul Shinn's videos on You Tube in preparation. Its such a simple machine, but there's so much I'm afraid to touch on a car like that because it's so much more about technique and tricks than what's in a shop manual, and there's so much that was "customized" by my grandpa, I wouldn't want to undo things that were his making-do-with-what-he-had-around that make that particular car special to me. I'll dig and post up some pics of the car!

 

The 2023 Prius. Nearly 200hp.

 

That's actually a damn fine looking Prius.

 

Not really my thing, but I'll bet Toyota sells lots of those. A lot of people are critical of Toyota because they have not gone all in on EVs - continuing to update their hybrids and hedging their bets with hydrogen - but there is no question about the success of the Prius, there are lots of them out there. Not sure why anyone would think they should be in a rush to ditch such a proven and popular platform. Most taxis around here are Priuses, which says a lot about their durability, economy, and cold weather ability.

 

Priuses haven't been selling as hot as they used to be. Sales been tanking YOY. Also didn't help that their catalytic converters are easy theft targets that is making some people taking a second guess before they purchase a Prius. Lets see if they figure out how to make it harder to steal the new generation's catalytic converters.