Subarupusher

Brings back good memories. I bought one of the first Imprezas that came out. A 1993 Automatic Aegean Blue Impreza. The best car I ever had for reliablility. Traded it in for one of the first Foresters. Check out the little horn buttons on the steering wheel. I remember my friends commenting about that and the side turn signals.

The Auburn dealer has a good service crew there and they always have a parking lot full of loaners. Maybe next time (hopefully many years from now...that is why we buy Subarus) you can try driving 30 minutes south to get a guaranteed loaner. I never try to get a loaner in Seattle. Most of the dealers never have enough lot space to keep "unimportant" amenities like loaner cars around. Their service volume is also a lot higher.

The wife's 96 Impreza Outback had the wire harness for the pump and lock split right where it curves up in the right corner of the of the hatch. Neither the pump or lock would activate. The dealer ordered a part and then lost track of the order when they moved their shop. We took it to an independent on the next oil change and they reconnected the existing wires and threw some goop over it. That lasted until this year. We took it back to the dealer (now more organized with new owner and shop personnel) and they put the right part in and everything works. Maybe your wire harness is starting to split and short or it could be the tubes are clogged or askew. One of my friends had the tube come loose it was doing a good job of trying to clean his interior. Nothing like wondering where that wet spot in your carpet is coming from.

I have the 2007 2.5i and I doubt there are preinstalled seat heaters since that is not an option on the base models. The WRX has the option for seat heaters so maybe it is a different story for that model. There are shops out there now that will put seat heaters in any car. I may go for that some day. The options I have done are splash guards, extended arm rest, and a 1 1/4 hitch for my bike rack. I am currently negotiating with the dealer to put the Sirius module in. That is pricey but I got used to having satellite radio in the wife's Subaru. Pretty nice when you take those long interstate drives.

Up here in the NW you would never have your hands on the wheel if you waved at every Subaru you saw on the road.

Hmm...Ford quits producing the Focus hatchback in 07 and then the new Focus like Subaru Impreza shows up in 08. Makes one wonder especially since it was a cost cutting measure by Ford. They could glue a Subaru badge on the front and put a Subaru drive train under it and jack the price way up. Hope it is just a Mazda/Ford design phase for a couple of years before the old Impreza style lines come back for 2010.

Used car at a premium price. Just passed a lot today that had "Certified pre-owned" on one sign and and "Mechanic Wanted" on another sign. Makes you wonder.

Almost wonder if they should have closed the Impreza out and came out with a new name. When I look at our 96 Impreza wagon next to our 2006 Impreza Sedan you can see they are closely related. Not so with the 08. I was not thrilled with the Impreza look when it first came out, but it kind of grew on me as being the look of something dependable. Now they have messed with the design to look like the other guys. There is a very big positive for me though. They brought back the 60/40 fold down seats on the sedan.

My sister is now finally happy with her 2006 Forester XT Turbo after about a year. It had a sticky hill holder that took two different dealers, 9 months, and several appointments to fix. Nice car, I will make her a serious offer on it if she wants to trade it in in a few years. The other thing to look at when comparing the Outback to the Forester is the interior measurments. The Outback is actually more spacious and I have seen the interior measurements that prove it.

I went with the Subaru upgraded speakers with the tweeter kit. I gave the local big chain installer a chance but the cost kept escalating. I got a good discount from the dealer and I put them in with only a few minor pieces breaking off from various clips in the doors. I have the JVC HD deck which pushes about as much as the OEM deck. I then made the mistake of ordering the OEM subwoofer since I like how it is compact and fits under the seat. I figured that all I had to do was figure out how to power it and hook the leads to the subwoofer tagged ones in my harness. After scratching my head with the 20 something page installation manual and then getting laughed at at the local big chain installer (they showed me the unique clips that the subwoofer has to hook into the OEM stereo), I gave up. When I used to do this a lot a couple of decades ago, you could mate anything with a few trips to Radio Shack. Maybe you still can if you know where to get the parts but Radio Shack has gone out of the car stereo hook up parts business. Anyway I had the local big chain installer show me their various subwoofers and I was not too impressed. I am middle aged now and I had a hard enough time trying to hear every other word when they were demoing and describing the various features of the subwoofers. Us old farts like the subwoofer to accentuate the music and still have room in our trunk to carry a suitcase or two. The HD Radio sounds incredible and the bass is not bad with the upgrades. I may do the 6x9 route for better bass someday but will keep an eye out for a subwoofer that is compact enough to fit under the drivers seat.

Just did the 90K service for a 96 Impreza at the dealer. $471! but it is more than a fluid change. Add plugs and a few other bits. A very good car wash and they troubleshooted a few rattles and bolted them down too. Still not worth that price if you have the time to do it all yourself. I do not and have lots of OT to work to pay the dealer. The 2000 Forester is probably pretty solid being the third year of the first model. I had a 2001 (2nd model) and had some brake issues that are uncharacteristic for young Subarus. Unless you need something a lot bigger (my reason for trading my Forester in), it makes no sense to get a newer Subaru based on economic reasons.

My truck is E85 certiified and I got to deduct the difference between a standard Chevy fuel system and one with special components that are resistant to ethanol. Works out to a few hundred bucks so I think it would be pretty easy to swap the parts for ethanol. Programming the computer may be another story. Hard to say how much tolerance the programming has to adjust the mixtures for optimum firing if the design was for only minor amounts of ethanol to be in the fuel. Oil is going back up so the money will be there to get more creative about ethanol prodution. Using enzymes to turn prairie plants into ethanol sounds promising and supposedly the yield will be greater than a field of corn.

So I get an HD Radio deck for my precious and I decide that I need better speakers especially after I see the photos on this site of the base speakers. The dealer gave me a really good deal on the upgrade kit along with the tweaters. I made the mistake of asking how much it would cost to have them install them figuring an hour of labor at the most when I brought the car in for an oil change. I had a couple quotes from different dealers and the best deal I could get was $280!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Best Buy would have done it for $120. I decided to do it myself and it took about 1.5 hours and I managed to only break a couple of minor pieces off of 2 out of 4 of the door latch cover clips. They still seat tight so I consider it a good install. When I was pulling out the old speakers I noticed they had droplets of water on them. The dealer had washed my car after the oil change and I started wondering if water gets back there during normal operation in wet conditions. I noticed that the speaker upgrades had more plastic shielding in the back. Probably happens all the time in car doors and most people never pull their doors apart right after a car wash.

Cam seals should definitely be replaced. I have seen at least one suggested maintenance schedule that says it should be done along with the water pump and belt replacement at the 75K. Our 96 Impreza started spritzing oil well before that mileage mark so it may be age related too (independent of how many miles you put on). There are a lot of subes that make it well past the 100K mark before this gets taken care of but in my experience they all start leaking before 100K.

I bought one of the first batch that came over here (US) in 1993. I think I bought it in March of that year and it may have had Dec 92 stamped on the door frame for the assembly date. I owned it 1993-1998 (traded it in for a Forester) and it was the best car I ever owned for reliablility, traction, and stability. The only complaint I had with it was that it was underpowered for such a solid car (1.8 liter engine). They rectified that issue a few years later with the 2.2. My current Impreza was purchased in the hope that it will live up to its ancestor that I carelessly traded in 9 years ago. I did look for Imprezas in that vintage before I opted for a new one but the well cared for ones are held on to by loyal owners. The few for sale were very neglected.

Never used them on any Subaru I have owned in the last 18 years in the NW. That includes lots of ski trips. The Impreza has turned a lot of heads when it zigs and zags up ice covered hills avoiding the one wheel spinners. We did have to do some shoveling once to get one of the subes out of a 1' snow bank that was pretty crusty in May. If the snow gets that high, the car underbody starts to grind on it and you lose traction. I would probably not drive in conditions where there was more than 6" on the road. Chains are a good last resort and we do have a set to pull ourselves out of some situations mentioned earlier in this thread. I would never put them on to do normal driving. If my AWD sube can't handle the conditions with just good tires, then it must be the storm of the century and that is a good excuse to stay home and visit the car boards.

I am against ever getting studded tires especially in Western Washington. Think about how much you really use them here. We get a real snowstorm in the lowlands maybe once every few years and it results in 3-4 days of slush. The rest of the time you only encounter snow and ice when you get within 10 miles of the ski areas. That leaves a lot of people pulverizing perfectly good snow free roads with studs for 5-6 months without ever seeing snow. I have driven various Subarus up to the ski areas in Washington for 20 years and never gotten stuck. Never even needed a push. Just drive smart and and have a good set of all season tires.

Same impressions on the test drive...handles well but underpowered. The sunroof is an afterthought when compared to the Forester or Outback. I came close to buying one anyway and am glad I did not pay for the 7 passenger sight unseen when they first arrived. The far rear seat is useless for anything more than kids that are too big for carseats but still need to be restrained via how cramped the leg space is. I do like the look of the cockpit and it is a very safe vehicle. About as sexy as a waxy shoebox from the rear. The Murano definitely wins that battle. I predict that in a model year or two the front and rear will be redesigned and a turbo engine will become available that will get the same gas mileage with 70 more HP. That will make the original owners grumble.

I just had a 1-1/4 hitch put on my Impreza Sedan. Here is the link to the place that installed it in Seattle (if your friend ever gets over to this side of the mountains). http://www.racknroad.com/trailer-hitches-and-accessories.html I learned to leave the installation to experts. I installed a stock hitch to a 2001 Forester and it involves about 1-2 hours and three people. One to read instructions, one to bench press the hitch into position, and one to run the socket wrench while the bench pressing guy swears at you to hurry up. $80 for an install is well worth it. I have done the "oops my bike is on the roof there goes my garage gutter" before and definitely recommend the hitch bike rack as the way to go. It also allows me access to my trunk on the Sedan. I was using one of those bike racks that strap to the trunk and I was also concerned about warping the hatch.

I have used a government truck (GMC Sonoma with 5.0 Liter engine) with gasoline/propane for 10 years and 100K mileage. Engine seems as strong as the day they delivered the truck. There is a definite power drop off when running on propane and my city mileage averages about 15. It did take a few tune ups for the first two years to get the engine to run the same on either fuel. It seemed like that it would either run rough on regular or propane depending on how they tuned it. Has not been a problem for years. The tanks are easy on pick ups because they mount in the front part of the bed and have a cage around them. There was also a new tank developed in the 90s that allowed more than 20 gallons of storage. The first generation of propane tanks for our motorpool only had 10 gallon capacity and drivers would not switch over to propane since it seemed like they had to fill up almost every day. Our motorpool is also not converting trucks anymore for propane probably due to the cost of the initial conversion and tune ups and getting the drivers to quit burning regular because it is more convenient.

Base Forester or Base Impreza like my 2.5i. The HP in both are great when compared to the models of a few years ago. The WRX line will cost more, get you higher insurance rates, lower gas mileage, and you do have to buy the premium fuel for the turbo models.

I finally got my sister to take the Forester in after it got stuck again in a level parking lot. This time she took it to the same dealer I got my Impreza at. Even the secretary there knew the hill holder needed to be adjusted. They adjusted it and also said that it engaging in reverse was not supposed to happen. Nasty letters will be going to the original dealer and SOA. Hopefully this will fix it and my sister will quit regretting that she should have got the new RAV 4. This is the only "major" problem of the ten or so people I have pushed Subaru Forester's on in the last 5 years. I was following a new Forester the other day on my bike and smelled the distinctive burning brake smell so maybe it is turning into a bigger problem.

Thanks for the info. I was hesitant to help her buy the car at this dealer because it is not a long established Subaru dealer in the area and they do not have much volume but had the car she wanted. The small maintenance department seemed like it would get taxed doing an oil change and tire rotation. I will help her get it in to one of the big dealers in the region. I will also print out this thread for back up when I am talking to them. My sister did write a long nasty letter to SOA and we will see if she gets more than the automated response letter.

I finally convince my sister to dump her RAV4 and get a Forester with everything. Now she hates the car because of the following problem. Occasionally she will get in and start it up and the car is stuck in place. She has shifted into gear and the RPMs approach 3000 before the car starts to budge. The first time this happened lots of smoke started pouring out from underneath the hood. She says this has happened a few times every month she has had the car (bought it last February). Turning the car off and then restarting seems to solve the sticky situation lately. She has taken the car into the dealer a few times and they keep telling her there is nothing wrong and maybe she does not know how to drive a clutch or use the hill holder. She has never driven an automatic and has 20 years driving experience under her belt and is getting very angry at the dealer treating her like a stereotypical female driver that cannot shift. When I first heard the symptoms my immediate thought was the hill holder was not adjusted correctly. I have noticed the few times that I have driven it that the hill holder catches even when you are backing up on a slight slope. The dealer said that this is normal and it always backs off once you give it some gas. I have had two Subarus in the past with hill holders and have never encountered a hill holder as touchy as hers. I also noticed that they do not include it in my Impreza 2.5i and that makes me wonder if it is a troublesome item for Subaru to include in their cars. It keeps fading in out over the years as models change.