Have an '07 Forester (NA, 4eat) in the family and I find the throttle "tip-in" really annoying. (I find the throttle response to be non linear / overly twitchy for gentle acceleration... basically, it feels like they engineered it to impress people on test drives "wow, the car surges away with only a touch of throttle, it must be really powerful!" when in fact, there's hardly any difference between 1/3 throttle and floored.) 

I'm looking to replace my '98 OBW 5 speed and was wondering two things-  do the newer drive by wire manual transmission Subarus also have this twitchy throttle response or are only the automatics programmed this way? Also, is this an issue across the model range or are specific models and years known for being set up this way? (Yes, I know, I should just test drive the cars I'm interested in, but it's hard to find manual Subarus nearby, and I don't want to drive 100 miles to look at a car and discover I don't like how it drives.) Anyway, I appreciate the input of anyone who has thoughts about this!

Look for an 00-04 outback or an 05 baja. These will still use a cable feed throtle.   Watch out for a  2004 California emission car,which is the very first of the drive by wire cars. 

Well, I suppose buying a non DBW car is the brute force solution to not liking the touchy throttle on the DBW cars! I'd really like to get in to an '05 and up Legacy or Outback so I get the side curtain air bags....

I'm hoping to hear from someone who has driven both an automatic and manual version of one of the DBW cars. 

 

23 hours ago, hankosolder2 said:

I'm looking to replace my '98 OBW 5 speed and was wondering two things-  do the newer drive by wire manual transmission Subarus also have this twitchy throttle response or are only the automatics programmed this way?

No experience with automatics, I went from a cable throttle turbo to dbw turbo; same car, same manual trans.  There's somewhat of a rev hang with the dbw when shifting gears.  On the cable engine, you clutch in, let off gas, and shift.  On the dbw, if you do the same thing, depending on how hard you're accelerating, the rpm would stay the same or even shoot up even though you released the gas.   Not a big deal, you just learn to let off the gas before clutching in hard acceleration.  I was annoyed for a month or so.  With the manual I don't recall any twitchiness at the low end, but then again the rev hang bothered me more.