2014 Outback Driver

[Xavier_ONassis]

I just bought a 2014 Outback and am quite impressed with the way it handles.

I went to several dealers and heard the usual silly stuff. One claimed that one could not rent a Subaru because the company would sue the rental company.

 

The manual seems quite complete, except it does not show where one plugs in the OBD reader  to read error codes.

 

I was unable to get the radio to connect to my Android phone via Bluetooth. I was almost annoyed until I found that inside the console there was a USB port and a micro jack.

 

How hard is it to remove the glovebox & change the cabin filter? The instructions say to disconnect the battery so as not to trigger an airbag.

 

I wanted to buy a car from an individual, but I could not find one with low mileage. The car I bought was from a place called OffleaseOnly. It was a pretty pleasant experience until I reached the final hurdle, a guy named Dwayne,  who tried to peddle a SIX YEAR warranty for $2100 cash, and obliged me to sign a zillion papers all of the cover the dealer's rump roast variety. Ofr course, I am not against considering a warranty. So far I have received four official-looking notifications, all of which I checked out online and found to be major scams.

 

I don't ever buy extended warranties on anything else, and in each case, the things that went bad did so after the extended warranty would have run out. If anyone has a reputable warranty company I could checkout, that would be appreciated.

[GreaseMonkey03]

The OBD port is under the dash on the driver side. Get down low and look up and you should find it. I believe on these it is toward the far left but I could be wrong. It's black so hard to see without light.

 

The Bluetooth is a pain but I have set it up for customers in the past. The manual is a little hard to follow but I followed the instructions and it worked like a charm.

 

The cabin filter, if this is the pain in the neck design that I think it is, is a little tricky to get to but something anyone can do. The side panel pops off where there are one or two screws and if you pull out the rectangular tray I think you can see the rest of the screws. I can't remember the exact steps and where the screws are but just poke around and you'll figure it out.

[Xavier_ONassis]

Thanks for the advice on the ODB port. I have not tried to connect the bluetooth because I discovered that I can plug in a16 GB thump drive  with 4000 songs on it into the USB port inside the center armrest.

I never use the phone for calls when driving.

[DaveT]

Set aside some cash every month, that is your extended warranty. For most Subarus, miles are not that big of a deal, and lots of people pay a lot of cash for low miles when the car with 150k is still fine. Get one with about 100k on it. Maybe drop a few hundred or so for new timing parts, or extreme case, do a reseal, but then good for another 100k. Be sure to check out threads on here about which engines to avoid and prefer first.