Ranger83

Park off street? Run an electrical cord out to it, and put a light bulb next to the battery with a towel around it, or a heating pad. A lot easier than carting around 45 lbs of lead. I had to bring my battery in one morning when it was colder than -30 F. in VT and it took hours by the fire to warm up.

Glad they work for him. What are you using? I'm going by personal experience on my own cars. I've never found snow to be as big a problem as ice, so Nokian and X-Ice are what I've purchased. The latest CR winter tire test (FWIW, which is not much IMHO) found the Cooper to be a little better than the RSI on snow but not as good on ice. The Nokian RSI is Nokian's replacement for the Kakka Q:

Presumably up 93? If so Singer Subaru in Plaistow may be closest to you - don't know them. The dealer list is at: http://www.newenglandsubaru.com/dealerlist.asp?state=NH I've only had service at Wakefield (MA) Subaru and Manchester. Both OK. I bouhgt my last Subaru at Manchester, they're pretty aggressive on prices and Nashua wouldn't beat them on two different occasions. There are many good independent repair shops in the area. The best place I've found to locate them is the MechanX files at Car Talk. Many of the shops don't list Subaru specifically but are very familiar with them as they're everywhere here. The only dealer "Disaster Area" I'm aware of is CarMart Subaru in Wilmington, MA. They've been known to pull stunts like agree on a price, then present a contract with a different price. An employee had that happen to her and simply picked up the contract and told the salesperson, "The Attorney General will be in touch." They then said it was a "misunderstanding" apologized profusely and gave her $500 off the original deal - but others have had the same happen to them. Caveat Emptor!

I never thought the OBW needed dedicated snows, but after driving our Nokian RSI shod Honda Accord in snow last season, I said, "Gotta have em." Because the 06 Subarus have TPMS, I had them mnounted on the OEM rims. A lot of people are buying 16" WRX rims on eBay etc as they can be had for $200-250 a set. The offset is off by a few mm, though. Studded tires are great on ice, and noisy and slippery on dry or wet roads..... In addition to the Nokians, Michelin X-Ice, Yokohama Ice Guard, and Dunlop D3's seem to be popular. The Hankook Icebear W300 is less expensive but hard to find, I'm told.

I owned two 97 Outbacks and just purchased an 06 Outback 3.0R. I put a total of 250,000 miles on them and replaced brakes, tires, one axle, one wheel bearing, one ABS sensor, and the head gaskets. The 2nd one currently has over 165,000 miles on it and is driven 100 miles daily in VT. Forums like this tend to collect problems. Not many owners post a thread that says, "I'm really happy with my car." Go to a place like Edmunds.com and you'll find problems with all brands of cars. But the percentage of owners with problems is still quite small, even for some less reliable brands. And my old GF had a Honda Accord that was a mess at 43,000 miles - mostly her fault. The Forester is an extremely popular, reliable, economical AWD vehicle. Some people consider "economical AWD vehicle" an oxymoron, though.

On road, sure. I've driven three Outbacks a total of 250,000+ miles - and two of them didn't have the limited slip differential. I can count the number of times I've spun the wheels on one hand. But like almost everyone, I don't drive them of road. You're going to tow your new Ariens with this? You have your learner's permit now?

It doesn't. The Grand Cherokee has a low range and the ability to lock the differentials. The Outback is fine for wooded trails with a few rocks. That's not "off-road," but "bad road." As long as you replace the OEM Potenza RE92's with dedicated snows any of them will be extremely capable in snow - which is why you see them everywhere in New England, the Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest. How much snow isn't really a question that can be answered - thre's a big difference between high altitude powder and the windblown wet concrete you get near the seacoasts. Subaruoutback.org and Legacygt.com have entire forums devoted to pre-purchase questions of these vehicles.

Because Nokian wants tires sold by servicing dealers. most likely. From Subaruoutback.org: From the Consumer Reports www forums: Answer from CR: So, as long as you are comfortable with ratings that don't reference any actual test data; are scored on categories not published; and with weights of different categories also not published, CR's the place to go. Their choices for winter tires raises more questions. They tested Nokian Hakka II and Hankook W404 that are both designed for use with studs - but not the Hankook W300 IceBear, which is the direct competitor to the X-Ice and Nokian RSI (which was tested). Nor did they test the Yokohama Ice Guard, another studless tire design. I bought the Nokian RSI's because I had them on an Accord last season and every who has them is satisfied. User feedback on the X-Ice does not seem as uniformly positive.

Pardon me, but if your mother thinks all the curent Subaru vehicles are ugly, and she is buying now, why even post here? The future design direction of Subaru is immaterial if your mother is buying a car now. Most middle-aged moms in that market buy Toyota Highlanders with the towing package. Or Explorers if towing is more important. What are you towing, how much does it weigh, and how far are you towing it? There's another choice for 2006 - the Outback 3.0R. This is similar to basic Outback but with the 3.0 six cylinder. It also has the 5 spd auto; automatic climate control; 6 disc changer; and 5 spoke wheels. I bought one a couple weeks ago. I paid a little over $26,000 at Manchester, NH Subaru. That's less than the LL Bean or VDC, the other two H6 wagons. The H6 seems to be holding up well. If your mother thinks 0-60 time is the sole significant measure of performance, the 3.0 is not for her. The 3.0 is very quick at highway speeds, as well as being quiet, smooth, and relatively fuel efficient. Towing capacity and MPG are higher than the turbo fours. With dedicated snows (I have Nokian RSI's) it's as good as just about anything in snow. The 3.0R and LL Bean use a slightly different drive system than the 2.5i or VDC equipped vehicles. No Subaru - in fact no crossover-style vehicle - is usable in a "real off-road situation." In fact, most body on frame 4WD vehicles are not usable in a "real off-road situation." They are far too heavy, undersprung, and the chassis components are not robust enough to do anything other than get really, really broke and/or stuck. Just putting another radio in the M151A1 military jeeps we used made them a lot more likely to get stuck - and they were a whole lot more capable than just about any of the civilian offerings. But Subarus are great on roads, even really poor roads, which represents 100% of driving for 95% of US drivers. And a heck of a lot more secure in bad weather than a Magnum or minivan.

I think I'd try subaruoutback.org and legacygt.com. Maybe even NAISOC. Lot more people there have purchased recently than on this forum, which seems more maintenance oriented. Albeit true blue. How about, "If Pamela Anderson still lived in Canada, she'd drive a Subaru. They have big airbags."

My sister-in-law replaced her head gaskets on a '97 with 144,000 miles on it. They just blew - only lasted another 101,000. I replaced the HG on my 97 at 140,000. It had 165,000 when I sold it to her, so maybe she'll only get another 80,000 out of this one if what your mechanic says is true. Personally I'd focus on the "bad luck" part. Job cost me around $1,200.

Nokian does not allow online sales of their tires. I suspect once the folks selling them mail order are discovered, they won't have the line anymore. Not the WR's but I paid $170 installed for 225/55x17 RSI's locally. 205/70x15 were $110. There's a dealer locator at http://www.nokiantires.com

I had great luck with Michelin HydroEdge on my 97 OBW. They had 45,000 miles on them when I sold the car to my sister-in-law, and still had 9/32nd tread. The TripleTread is popular, costs a little less than the Michelin, but according to the local dealer who sells both has more out-of-balance problems than the Michelins. The HE is reputed to have a little lower rolling resistance than the TT, but that 5mpg claim is suspect. The plain ole Michelin X available at Costco, Sam's Club etc is also a good all-around tire. One hting to keep in mind is that many of the rating differences in tire tests are quite small.

Take them to a tire shop and have them flipped on the rims so the RWL are on the inside....

K&N has done a brilliant marketing job. Most of the guys who install them don't bother doing any performance testing or logging of MPG before they install them. You can't prove or disprove any performance difference. Folks who spend money on "performance equipment" without testing aren't likely going to be the ones doing oil analysis. I do oil analysis but long ago decided the K&N's are a waste of money, after doing performance testing of an OEM versus no air filter on a car I used to road race. There are too many restrictions in a street-legal car to have any real impact. There's a thread on legacygt.com where a Subaru 2.5l was built up successively with new headers; intake tract; computer programming; exhaust system; high flow catalytic converters; and in the final stage, high lift cams. The total peak horsepower gain was 20hp (and the cost for the full stage was $5,200). So how much hp gain do you think you get with a K&N? Decals, although "ricer" offer a bigger performance increase for the money.

Anyone had their seats redone with leather? What did it cost? The dealer can get it done for $1,500 (OBW) but I figure they're using an upholstery shop under contract and I can probably do it directly for $1,000 to $1,200? I'm not overwhelmed by the fabric on my new seats, the seats are nivcer but I like the fabric on my old OBW better. I contacted the manufacturer of Katzskins, autoleathers.com, for a local dealer.

Yes, thanks, if the factory one is upturned, that's what I need. I've heard that the Cannon/WeatherTech mats don't fit Subarus very well, supposedly they're made for another car.

I want to get some all weather mats but the factor mats don't seem to have a lip? Any better ones?

sorry, couldn't resist.....

I used to work with a guy who came in one day to say his Toyota Celica (it was years ago) wasn't running too well: it was getting difficult to start. The guy was an Industrial Designer and kind of a space cadet. He had a long highway commute, about 40 miles one way a day. When questioned, the Toyota had 69,000 miles on it. He was surprised to learn that maintenance was required - he was running on the original plugs, air cleaner - everything. It was around three years old! He said that "the guy at the gas station" had added oil a few times and chastized him to "change it" so he bought a different brand the next time he added oil.... He b!tched about the $600 in repairs and maintenance he racked up but was just amazed at how well it ran - like a new car! Just another example of the unsung heroes in Engineering.....

I changed HG on my 97 OBW at 140K, before I had much in the way of symptoms. Only after driving hard on the highway for 20 minutes or so would I get bubbles in the coolant overflow tank. That was the first indicator, so popping the hood now and again after such a drive might pay off. PS Q. If your Primary malfunctions, how long do you have to pull your Reserve? A. The rest of your life.....

I learned about oil analysis in the Army where we pulled samples on our old Patton (diesel) tanks. I've been doing oil analysis on my old Subaru )97 OBW) and a Ford truck. They both curerntly have 165,000 miles. I use National Tribology - http://www.natrib.com. At 7,500 miles the oil has been absolutely fine in both every time we've tested. It could go much, much, much longer but we don't bother. Many heavy trucks are going as much as 40,000 miles between changes but they have better filtration systems. We use Purolator One or Mobil One filters as they are supposed to have synthetic elements, but at that interval just about anything will do. There are still people who swear on a stack of Bibles that your car will burst into flames and/or major pieces will fall off at 3,001 miles. They have nothing to back this up except Faith. But it is a religious argument so save your breath. There are some good references above to read. Car manufacturers would be risking major class-action lawsuits if their recommendations resulted in accelerated wear, but engines are lasting longer than ever. On our other 97 Subaru we used Castrol High Mileage and changed it every 5,000 because it's easy to remember. Cold starts are one of the primary contributor to engine wear, so use your block heater if you have one!

Yes, found the recent thread, and new ones at: http://www.autolightwarehouse.com/legacy95-97.html - $125.

One thing to keep in mind is that many 06 models have a tire pressure monitoring system; the sensors are $80+ each; and the computer has to be reprogrammed by the dealer to recognize them. I may just mount the snows on the stock rims unless I can figure out how to disable the dashlight.