Non E30 content: Does anywhere on here daily a 2.5x or xt forester?

[ZekeTheSneak]

Does anywhere on here daily a 04 2.5x or xt forester? I have some questions, I'm looking into a coworkers 2.5xt forester and its a manual! Low miliage motor out of a newer legacy all the work was done by a reputable shop. Seller wants 9,500. Reciepts galore and very well taken care of. Bone stock from there and driven nicely. I need a daily that can get me to work and get me to the mountains. Roads are fucked in the port of tacoma.

Questions,

How do you like dailying yours?
How is it with gas?
I know its a subaru but how does it do in deep snow?
Overal tell me what you love about your forester?
Opinions of having debt at 20 years old? (this ones for everyone)

Thanks hopefully a few of you own one.

[nebulous123]

My neighbor has one. He has said that the maintenance is different from his older/easier to work on Toyota Pickup. The one thing he said is, if anything comes up with the AWD you have to fix it immediately or else it can ruin the whole system.

I live in CA so no snow stories, but I had a friend use a 2.5 impreza in Chicago and had nothing but great things to say.

Gas milage is going to be less than an E or I motor but not by much. We did a road trip with the impreza and were close to 30 without A/C and no hills. But in real daily use prob more likely to see low to mid 20's.

One thing I love about subaru is the stock roll bar that comes in it, I think thats a cool safety to have and always keep in the back of your mind.

As far as debt goes....no debt is better than having debt hands down. However a low miles car will lead to less repairs which leads to less debt I guess. Depends on the condition of your e30.

[kts]

I don't own a Forester but I've owned 2 Subarus and have plenty of friends who have had the Forester XT.

Turbo Subarus aren't known for their awesome gas mileage. I doubt you'll get over 25mpg from it. 23 is probably more likely.

As nebulous123 said if there is an issue with the AWD system you'll need to fix it since otherwise it will cause much worse things to happen. That said the Subaru AWD system is pretty bulletproof and I haven't known anyone to have any issues with their AWD system, unless they were trying to do burnouts in the car all day and broke the center diff.

It should do well in snow, my Imprezas got me through some pretty crazy winters around MD. (So you'll be in better shape with a car with higher ground clearance.) Put good winter tires on it and don't drive like an idiot and you'll be fine.

If you are mechanically inclined it's not hard to work on. Changing the spark plugs and the O2 sensor is harder then on the E30 but otherwise I've found it's an easy car to work on.

[marshtgrade]

I've only had good experience with my moms xt up until recently.
decent milage (compared to e30) id say its fair to give it 23mpg
lots of snow use but never had snow tires. don't know brand of tires but handles great my parents drive it to tahoe and back all the time. really fun on the dirt and snow. this is our first awd car and after digging out many many cars from deep snow this thing is great. almost always gets itself out. we even pulled our tundra which was severely high centered out no problem. only issue is a tranny solenoid burned out which is apparently part of a "cluster" of solenoids so the single part can't be bought and replaced so its out of commission until the expensive cluster and/or the whole tranny gets pulled. no real racing/dogging or anything wit the car and only 100,000milles on her. hope this is any bit helpful

[ZekeTheSneak]

Thanks guys sounds like a great buy, I drive really respectable in snow but wide place gotta get a little wild :) my e30 is well low and not as snow worthy as I would like. It's more project/cruiser that I've built all by myself. I'm getting the guys phone number tomorrow and seeing if he's serious about selling this time around. Thank you for replying keeper comin!

[MaksV]

My mom has a non turbo. gets about 22 avg on city, and 26 on HW with 4 people and a boot full of stuff. we use it as a travel vehicle, as well as her daily driver. A bit buzzy, and crap in the corners(my opinion she likes it) - a good overall vehicle, but nothing special.

[5Toes]

The parents got a 03 xs forester. I mostly drive it though whenever we go somewhere.

It has under 20000 miles :)

I have to say this about it though... the engineers at Subaru are idiots for using that engine.

Somecomplaints:
A. Its way too big to be 4 cylinders...
B. No power can be had from it until about 3000 rpm
C. ^ thus you are constantly running way higher revs to get up hills, etc. And it KILLS your mpgs. When my Mom first got ours, it was returning 13/14mpg until we learned how to drive it.
D. Cars have even higher gearing than my auto e30 with a 4.10 diff... so high revs on highway
E. Road noise in them sucks, I believe it has to do with stock tires though

I hear 5 speed ones are hard to find. Also, the auto in ours sucks. It kicks down at bad times, and if you are barely on the gas and let off quick, it has a tendency to "clunk", it is just its design.

Also, they dont have much room. E30 is massive in the front compared to it. Backseat sucks too.

[5Toes]

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f107/2004-fxt-terrible-gas-mileage-95342/

[ZekeTheSneak]

Yah I'm 5' 10 and the guy who drives it is 6'4 at least lol. Yah manuals you can use more of your gearbox unlike an auto where that assumes they need to downshift to go 5 miles an hour faster. I want to test drive it, he says it's really fast. Also could add STI bits like injectors, turbo, inter cooler and a tune but i would say bye bye to gas mileage.