dingbat

Thanks for that people. All good advice. Took the new beast for a run over the weekend. On the punt over the river, 50km of dirt and gravel, then winding backroads along the coast to get home ... With a stop for lunch and to stock up on supplies at the vineyards. Just a taste of things to come and a good start to the running-in period. Must get it into low range for a bit too. Roll on Friday! Cheers all!

Hi All, Got the brand new Forester X 2.5litre MY06 ... and the book obviously says I should check the oil regularly during running in ... and I should of course only ever use the Subaru branded top-up bottles. Could someone please tell me which regular, commercially available oil is best ... that I can pick up at any normal Autobarn, Service Station, Cars Plus etc.? I'm in the Sydney metropolitan area in Australia. The car has a Castrol sticker on it so I'm guessing it may have something of theirs in it currently? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for all your advice people. Picked up the shiny new Forseter yesterday and had the dealer's mechanic 'minimise' the Hill Holder before handing over the big fat cheque. With that done it's like the Hill Holder didn't even exist ... works like a dream. And yeah ... I know it's a crap driveway, but it's a really nice house! Honest!! Thanks again.

Yeah, thanks for that. I'm not sure if it's still a cable or not but will check with the dealer's mechanic I guess. Since posting I've been searching the forum and seen lots of suggestions to adjust or simply remove the cable. The 'not in gear at all' idea is valid except that our carport (yeah, I know ... just move home!) needs the previously mentioned roll backwards down a hill and around a 90 degree corner and then keep reversing UP an incline. All the while making sure the neighbours (who share the driveway) aren't screaming down and catching you between gears. So it's kind of nice to already have it in Reverse with the clutch pushed to the metal. What a pain. But thanks again heaps for the reply. Sounds like an adjustment to make it only cut in on real steep hills might be the go. Thing is, my partner and I both learnt how to do proper hill starts years ago and have never had a problem. The whole Hill Holder idea seems kind of like being lazy to me I guess. But I can see how it would be handy in extremes and there's plenty of extreme hills round where I live. Hell, the reason we're buying a new car is 'cause the last one got totalled by a BIG tip truck rolling back into it and then driving off with the front bumper/skirt assembly. Nice! My son was in tears! Thanks again.

Hey everyone, I'm a complete novice and hoping to soon be a Forester X MY06 (manual 2.5L) owner but ... to get into my carport (roughly 6 times daily) I absolutely NEED to roll backwards down a 15 degree incline. I have tried this several times in a test drive vehicle and find it infuriatingly difficult to combat the Hill Holder, with frequent stalls. Am I doing something wrong? Is there an easy way to do it? Can the bloody thing be turned off? Also, what's the go with the gear shift? Does it settle in or is it always so firm ... almost lacking 'smoothness'? Or do I just need to stop being a whining wimp and get on with it. Thanks in advance for any help. Just really glad y'all are out there. Cheers