What is your other vehicle? We’re going to try to get by on one vehicle (the pending purchase of a Forester - the do everything + tri vehicle), but if we do need to go back to two sets of wheels, we don’t know what we want the other vehicle to be and we don’t want to duplicate the utility or capability of the car.
Its just me and the wife, with kids 2-4 yrs from now, both of us are active and live the tri lifestyle. We now drive a 4runner and a civic - for separate reasons we’ll be getting rid of both. Our work commute is 20 min (we work in the same office) but we supplement that with bike commuting part of the time, the rest is errands and trips. The Forester will handle the tris, swim practices, mtn/road biking, hiking, running, trails, camping, 2 kayaks, and road trips (28-30 mpg not too shabby). We bought a house and doing small projects that involve some basic trunk hauling (not towing) - on the fence on a small truck (frontier, tacoma, colorado) or wonder if the Forester can do that too… oh and luxury is not really important to us, price range is probably <$25k but want to spend less - reliability, utility, efficiency, safety, and common/easily found parts (read non-euro, except VW) are most important to us. We are in DC for the next 5 yrs or so and who knows where next, hopefully the Pac NW. The odd time we need to throw the bikes on top is a plus too.
In other words, where does the Forester fall short? Does it do so much that it doesn’t do something particularly well?
Our other car is a VW Passat. We got an Outback in February, and it’s quickly become our vehicle of choice. Hauls medium-sized furniture well, and we’ve managed to fit some other very long objects into the car with the back seat folded down. Only complaint is that we should have paid the extra money for the six cylinder instead of the four. The four isn’t bad, but the six would have been a lot more fun.
When we replace the VW in 5-7 years, right now the leading contender is a Subaru WRX- don’t need two big cars, and it’s a fun car to drive that comes in way less than a BMW 3 series. (which would probably be the other option)
I feel like we’ve drunk the Kool-Aid or something with the Outback, but we’ve been really happy with the car so far.
In other words, where does the Forester fall short? Does it do so much that it doesn’t do something particularly well?
I have a '05 XT ( 0 to 60 in 5.3 secs baby!! ). Really no complaints from me. The car is actually perfect. However if you need some cons… leg room in the back. No problems with small kids but tall adults wouldn’t want to travel too far sitting in the back. It’s full time AWD so gas mileage isn’t the greatest; like all Subaru’s. Plus mine is the turbo so it has to take preminum gas. Gas tank is kind of small. But that’s about it. Oh…the cup holders suck. Really.
Our Subaru Forrester does it all. It meet all your needs. I would look at the Xtrail by Nissan as we test drove one and will likely switch to it when we change vehicles. Check on the allwheel drive or maybe just 4/2 wheel drive on the Nissan. That might be the difference - can’t remember. ANywho why we liked the Nissan was it had more leg room in the back and more head room and hence a larger volume capacity. Check it out. Personally the Subie looks much better.
had one for 5 years runs fine, no real complaints but wished we got the Legacy Outback which is longer by 6inches and also the leather seats. The seats we have is light tan which is not practical when one hauls two bikes and a dog in the back. It handles rather well compared to the other vehicles we tried - CRV and a Mazda SUV, massive improvement over the previous car a Jeep Grand Cherokee in the handling department.
I have a an '04 2.5X. Overall its good. I bought it when I lived in a small New Mexico town, so I have had it down dirt roads, through deep mud and snow, and across a few pretty high arroyo crossings during the monsoon. It has good clearance (not an issue for you in D.C.), and the AWD is excellent. There is Plenty of room, and I can put the bike inside the car. Mechanically I have never had a problem. The integrity of the body and frame is excellent (I think its 5 star crash rated). One shortfall is with the quality of materials. I have the basic X model, and I had a hole in the drivers side carpet by 45k miles (even with a floor mat on top). If you go with the Forester I would go with a better trim package than the base model, but personally I will echo what someone else wrote and say I should have gone with the Outback. When I was looking, fuel economy was very close (I think just 1 mpg difference), and the Outback was bigger, had more clearance and IMO is a nicer car.
edit: to the guy who suggested the Xtrail. Sadly, we don’t get those in the U.S.
If you live in DC, you won’t get anywhere near 28-30 mpg with the Forester. My wife uses it to commute down 270 and is lucky to get 22. We do get around 28 doing at-speed highway driving.
One of the most important comparisons between the Outback and Forester is the vertical height in the backseat/trunk area that will allow for bikes to stand upright (with front wheels off). We use a 2x6 flat board w/ front skewers to carry bikes inside the car, so this is important to do this and not have the saddles be hitting the roof. The largest bike we haul is a 58cm road frame.
Can any Outback and Forester drivers put a measuring tape from the roof to floor of the cargo area? How about ground clearance? These measurements are absent from what I’ve been able to find on Subaru.com and other sites. While the Outback may be a larger vehicle, the Forester may provide more room in critical areas such as cargo height, where I often use my vechicle as a change tent. A few extra inches in height makes a big difference. I realize the Outback may have been redesigned recently, and we’ll likely buy in the 2006+ model year.
We just bought my wife an 07 Outback in December and I couldn’t be happier. We needed 4x4 or AWD in winter as it’s about 300yds uphill out of our driveway. With about 6k miles we are averaging over 25+mpg in all types of driving and right at 28 on the road. Ground clearance is fantastic for a car of it’s size and I’ve been really impressed with the 4cyl boxer engine…pretty zippy in my book.
The Forester may in fact be a bit taller in the interior and that may be a deciding factor…for me it wasn’t as I installed a trailer hitch and put the bike rack on…done. Outback has better overall interior room which was important to us as we have a 6 & 8 year old and when traveling it’s nice.
As someone said earlier “I may have drunk the koolaid” but after looking long and hard for something to fit our needs the Outback was head and shoulders above the others and the price was a really nice bonus.
I am an “OK” fan of the Xtrail (currently have one) compared to the Rav4 (previous model for sure) since I my bike will not fit inside the car without removing the front wheel (I did not have that problem with the Rav4).
If you can get past the quircky looks of the Honda Element, it will do all that you need.
I had mine since 2003. 95,000 Miles on it and no major problems. Great Tri car. Bikes go right in.
Great for house projects, The back is almost minivan like without the seats in.
Great for pets. Not sure about kids and the element tho.
My wife and I have an '02 Outback which we are very happy with, had it in to the local dealer for one of the regulaly scheduled services yesterday and were checking out the new Forester in the showroom when we went to pick it up. First thing we did was open up the rear to check out the cargo space as far as hauling bikes. The Forester does have taller space but the wider wheel wells narrow out the floor space moreso than the Outback.
When we drove out to Wisconsin for IM two years ago, we were also bringing a friend’s bike in addition to both of ours plus all of our tri gear for the trip and were able to fit everything into the back of the Outback with plenty of room to spare. Wheels came off the bikes and the frames, derailleurs and everything else were wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in a way that we could fit the rest of our bags plus a cooler and still have room to see over everything out the rearview mirror.
As YO just mentioned give the Element a good look. I drive an Outback right now and have looked at the Foresters as well. While I absolutely love my Outback the one thing I’m really envious of is the ability to load two bikes standing up with wheels on in the Element. That’s just freaking cool.
If you can get past the quircky looks of the Honda Element, it will do all that you need.
I had mine since 2003. 95,000 Miles on it and no major problems. Great Tri car. Bikes go right in.
Great for house projects, The back is almost minivan like without the seats in.
Great for pets. Not sure about kids and the element tho.
Bit of humor. Riding in a group ride, I am up front pulling in a double paceline. I see a Honda Element in front of a house…I open my mouth and say “That is quite possibly the ugliest f…ng vehicle ever made.” Most of the rest of the group starts laughing uncontrollably…turns out I wasn’t paying attention to where we were…in front of my buddy John’s house where his brand new Element was parked and him sitting on my wheel. I don’t stick my foot in my mouth often but when I do…youza!!
My boyfriend and I also survive on our one car, a '98 forester, and love it most of the time, except when something goes wrong. The cost of repairs is quite frustrating because of the way the engine is set up. I know next to nothing about cars, but apparently Subaru’s are notorious for their difficulty in getting under the hood. On two different occasions our labor costs have been over $800 because they had to take out the whole front engine to get to the problem. Granted, my car is old, but it still is frustrating. If I had to get a new car, though, I would most likely get another Forester. Either that, or an Element because I think it’s awesome that you can hose out the interior!
We had a Forester until we outgrew it to a minivan. The forester was nice and the awd was great. My only complaints were the seats were not the best for me but I do have a terrible back. My wife never complained about seat comfort. The road and wind noise was a little loud but nothing major. Have you also looked at a Rav?
If you do buy the subaru look me up I am still trying to sell my subaru wheels with snow tires:)
No votes for a pickup (homeowners?) great for hauling gravel, mulch, ATV for pulling mower (a hilly acre of lawn), refridgerator, freezer, shed…My main vehicle isn’t a Subaru (seats are uncomfortable for me), but my second vehicle is a 2000 Ford Ranger. Everytime I think of selling it I need it to haul something.
Pick up’s are great. I’ve owned two Toyota’s 4x4’s and almost got a third but I liked the idea of having the element hold my bikes and dogs inside. My bikes\dogs are my babies can’t have them exposed to that nasty wind.
Believe it or not, the element will take a fridge ( on it’s side ). I have also caried a small lawn tractor, a snow blower ( new in box ), futon and lots of other stuff. The element swallows them up great.
). Really no complaints from me. The car is actually perfect. However if you need some cons… leg room in the back. No problems with small kids but tall adults wouldn’t want to travel too far sitting in the back. It’s full time AWD so gas mileage isn’t the greatest; like all Subaru’s. Plus mine is the turbo so it has to take preminum gas. Gas tank is kind of small. But that’s about it. Oh…the cup holders suck. Really.