Nashwill
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Posts posted by Nashwill
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Dunno how many other SoCal Subaritics are in here, but the Forester is in need of a little attention and we have a (possibly unfounded) prejudice against using dealers' shops. There are several garages in Pasadena that advertise themselves as Subaru fixers, but we like to get recommendations whenever we can. That's how we found one of the best (and the cheapest!) Alfa mechanics on the West Coast, but he works only on Alfas. Of course a guy could starve to death if he worked on nothing but Subies!
Anyway, if anyone's got a recommendation I'd love to get it. Nothing really serious, probably - it's just throwing a little oil now and then and making noises like something's rubbing, and the front brakes put up a terrific vibration on first application at high speed, so we do need to get it looked at soon.
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The Forester is sensitive to driving style for fuel economy. My wife always gets better than 10.0L/100kms in city driving. (24USMPG for the metric imparied) Me? Not so good! I drive with a bit more "spirit" and I also do goofy things like climbing over big snow berms just for the heck of it. That playing causes the economy to drop. I've had some 14L/100kms tanks! (17mpg)
Also, the Forester is a brick, so don't expect dramatic highway mileage.
Make sure your engine air filter is fresh, plugs are good, fuel filter is new and check your tire pressures. After that, drive with a light foot.
Among the Subaru owners I know, the AT versions also seem to get a teeny bit better fuel economy.
Okay - I do drive hard. My point is that a modern car with a fancy electronic EMS driven hard should get better mileage than a 45-year-old car with a carburetor driven the same way, especially if said modern car is rated at 27 mpg highway (yes, it is an automatic)! And I flog the bejeezus out of the Alfa and still get about 20 urban/27 highway.
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New to this forum, and to the current generation of Subarus: we got a 2001 Forester a few months back. We love everything about it except that we can't get more than 20 miles out of a gallon of gas, whether it's around town or over the road. This is the fourth 2.5 liter car I've owned, and easily the most technically advanced, but it gets worse mileage than any of the others. I've had a '59 Daimler V8, a '60 Falcon straight-6 (with 2-speed automatic), and an '87 Alfa Milano V6, and they all returned 25-30 mpg on the highway. It can't just be weight - it's only about 300 lb more than the Alfa.
What gives?
Will Owen
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My bet is you like the Forester!
If you get a chance take it in the mountains on some gravel/dirt roads and give it a chance to run...
> Not real likely - it's really my wife's car, and she doesn't even want me parking it where it might get a ding. Hell, she didn't even want me taking the dog to the vet in it, but she got over that...
Bet the Forester is faster than the Alfa?
Friend used to have an Alfa, got hit, the fastest way to get parts was to walk to Italy and carry the parts back
> 2.5 Alfa's supposed to be good for 130+, though 110 is all I've done with it. I will never find out how fast the Forester is (see above). As for Alfa parts, my mechanic is just 11 miles away, and he has huge stock of parts cars. The new parts that are available are also generally cheaper than Subie parts - sorry, but it's true - and very easy to come by. The Forester got scraped bad on the passenger side by some jerk pulling out from the curb without looking - all the way from the leading edge of the front door to the rear bumper skin. Insurance paid almost $4000 for that, almost $500 for plastic panels alone.
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A fellow ought-1 Forester driver! Welcome to the board, amigo. Don't forget to put pics of your ride on the photo gallery. Got any questions about your ride? I've driven my Forester for a year now, so I might be able to answer quite a few of them.
Yeah...what kind of gas mileage are you getting? This is my 4th 2.5 liter car (though the only 4-cylinder), and the most modern by far, but it's the only one that won't give me over 21 mpg. That just ain't right!
Nashwill
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Hello - just got here. I'm a longtime Alfa guy who's managed to fetch up with a 2001 Forester, and I'm pretty happy with it, except where I'm not, but we'll discuss that later...
This is actually my third Subie. #1 was a 360 van that I spotted out in rural Tennessee and just had to have. So tiny, so cute, so amazingly handy for carrying great big items, so intent on killing me...! Yes, the geniuses who designed it accomplished the impossible: a chassis/suspension that could not handle the full force of 16 hp. (Can discuss later.) The other was a '90 Justy, and I really liked that car a lot. In fact, if anyone knows of one for sale, I'd be happy to hear about it.
The Forester has taken over daily-driving duty from our still reliable but increasingly fragile '87 Alfa Milano. There are some striking similarities between the two - they both have 2.5 liter engines, though the Alfa's is a V6. Their dimensions are within a couple of inches of each other, except the Forester is almost a foot taller, and almost 400 lb. heavier. Both supposedly 5-passenger 4-doors, both a lot more comfortable for 4 people. The Alfa is of course RWD - I enjoy driving a car like that more in a sporting way than either a FWD or AWD, though I have to say the Forester's drivetrain is amazingly neutral - it's almost impossible to tell which end it's driving from. It just grips and goes.
Not much more to say by way of introduction, except that I'm looking forward to sharing the Subaru Experience with y'all. Oh, and I'm in the LA area.
2007 Forester Sports Models
in 1990 to Present Legacy, Impreza, Outback, Forester, Baja, WRX&WrxSTI, SVX
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We saw this guy at the LA Auto Show. Unlike a lot of y'all, we both like the Forester best of all the Subies, both in the looks department and as a practical proposition: it's exactly the size we need, no bigger and no smaller. And I think the new Sport is the sexiest little box I've ever seen. We are both officially In Lust...