A year and 15K with the '17 Forester

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We bought our newer Forester on July 8, 2017. It hit 15,000 yesterday on my wife's commute.
This car drives and rides pretty much like our 2009 Forester, which is a good thing. It offers about the same outward vision as well, also a good thing. The seats are comfortable even if the entire interior is a little plain.
The enormous glass sunroof is a nice feature to us although not everyone would agree.
The center display can be scrolled through to deliver all sorts on interesting information, like oil temperature and torque split.
These cars have a very compliant ride and handle large road irregularities with aplomb. The AWD is seamless and transparent in operation and the car handles treacherous winter conditions with ease even on the OEM Geolanders that many owners like to hate. While this is in no way a sporty car, the steering is responsive and the lack of understeer is appreciated, especially as compared to my '12 Accord with the Subie having a better ride as well. The Accord is quieter, though.
The newer chain driven OHC engine has the same displacement and the same output as the old timing belt one in the '09.
It feels stronger in typical use and fuel economy is at least 20% better in a package of similar size and weight. I can only credit the CVT for that. Fuel consumption has average slightly above 30 mpg on my wife's brutal commute down I-75. Traffic is always awful but gets worse during rush hour and it is a drive I'm happy not to make.
I've changed the engine oil twice thus far and have seen no oil consumption. Subaru did back the recommended OCI down to 6K from the 7.5K originally recommended for this engine and there is a low oil idiot light on the dash. Some of these engines have exhibited high oil consumption, with the same being true of the K24 in my Accord, although mine doesn't use any appreciable amount. I wonder whether Subaru was concerned about excessive timing chain wear using 0W-20 on the originally recommended drain interval?
Anyway, the Forester has performed exactly as we had expected when we bought it. It has had no problems of any kind and does make a good and comfortable daily driver that should also protect its occupants fairly well in a collision, more so than appears to be the case with most CUVs of similar size.
I'd recommend this car to anyone needing something in this size range and any previous Subie owner would feel at home in one of these cars.
We paid around $26K for this Premium Package car, a nice discount off list and not too much over dealer invoice. The kind of killer deal that we got on the Accord was not to be had as the Forester remains in high demand and is supply constrained as a Japanese built model. You can get a better deal on the Indiana built Outback if that would suit you.
Our '09 Forester now has around 105K and will hit ten years in service next month, when I'll give a little rundown of how it's held up over the years.
 
I would expect a Love fest COMING FROM ANY Subaru owner. It's a culture thing.

Not that the vehicles are not without fault.......
 
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The Subaru Forester is a great AWD vehicle for roughly $25k. Rates high by Consumer Reports.

It's not a BMW or Jaguar. But they might be double the price.

For those of us not rich, the Subaru is a great car.
 
Well, this was our fourth Subaru purchase and we've had the '09 in the family fleet for nearly ten years, so I think we understand Subarus pretty well.
These cars are not as trouble free to own as the Hondas we've had, and we've had eight of those, but they do have their particular appeal and they are wonderful on those bad winter days when one has either to get to work, which can always be deferred, or to get home, which nobody wants to delay.
The troubles we've had with Subies have been of the minor and cheap variety, although timing belt replacement isn't cheap on the earlier cars, as it wasn't when I had the '09 done last August at around 94K.
I don't think that you'll find a better AWD system at any price point and even absent the need for AWD, these are comfortable, fuel efficient and roomy cars that are not very expensive to buy and that do offer excellent resale when an owner decides to move on.
Subarus do have a bit of a cult following, not necessarily a bad thing.

You posted:

Not that the vehicles are not without fault.......

The double negative used would indicate that you're stating that they are without fault.
Is that what you actually meant?
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
... You posted:

Not that the vehicles are not without fault.......

The double negative used would indicate that you're stating that they are without fault.
Is that what you actually meant?
Not not without looks like a triple negative to me. It's definitely confusing!

Any trouble with the head gasket on the '09?
 
To date, the '09 has had neither HG problems nor oil leaks.
It may be that after so many years Subaru had finally figured out a solution to these baked in problems.
The old 2.5 remained an open deck design which is less than optimal with any engine from the standpoint of HG life.
I'd hate to have any sort of overheating episode with one of these engines.
The outcome would almost certainly involve some machining and new head gaskets.
Might as well do a complete timing belt service on reassembly since the parts are pretty cheap.
Kind of looking forward to posting a ten year review of this car and noting that the HG replacements and oil leak repairs that a certain member assured me would be in its future when I did a five year review of it have not come to pass.
 
Thanks for the review. We are in the market for another small to midsize suv and the Forester is on our list, along with the Crosstrek and a few others.
 
Thanks for the the review!

I was sold on Subaru since my 1997 Legacy Brighton Wagon. With a set of snow tires, that thing was an absolute beast here in Colorado. Snowboarding trips were more fun just for the 1.5 hour commute up the hill. The wife is really enjoying her 2018 OB Premium and we just rolled 13K after 7 months. I would love to try the Forester XT one of these days.
 
Great review. Thanks for posting. Send us some tidbits on your oil temp such as where does it sit, does it change with ambient temps, hills etc.
smile.gif
 
Nice review, it's a great thing when the car suits your needs well. We tried to like a new Forester in '14 but the interior/dash looked 10 years old and more importantly the primary driver hated the CVT. Tried an Outback as well and we both immediately didn't care for the seats. We drove the '14 RAV4, she liked, game over. Maybe next time.
 
Originally Posted By: CKN
I would expect a Love fest COMING FROM ANY Subaru owner. It's a culture thing.

Not that the vehicles are not without fault.......


CKN, why the hate? It's NOT just a love fest from prior Subaru owners... after about 10 years of cajoling, harassing, and suggesting, my mom finally bought her first Subaru, an 18 Forester, in February. She had been a lifetime GM buyer/owner, partly because her Chase card racked up dollars she used towards those purchases. She's got about 14k miles already, and she can't stop talking about what a nice vehicle it is. And it hasn't even snowed yet!

Sure, older Subarus do have some design issues which can be aggravating (HGs, wheel bearings esp. on pre-'04 Foresters, etc.) but I'd be willing to bet that as a percentage, Subaru owners are much more likely to continue owning their vehicle even when the bigger maintenance items like timing belts and wheel bearings and head gaskets come up... because Subarus are very good at what they are intended to be (certainly more capable than the throng of cute-utes). Are there better cars? Sure. Are there better trucks? Sure. But to get something with similar capabilities you're going to spend at least $10-15k more, plus those other vehicles will not be worth anything close to the Subaru 5 years down the road. Subaru engineers have been righting the engineering "opportunities" of the late 90s and early 2000s, and the early oil consumption issues of the FA/FB motors seem resolved, so there's not really any reason to not buy one if you're in the market for a $20k vehicle. Unless you want something that's really fast or can tow your 30' boat
smile.gif
 
You posted:

Not that the vehicles are not without fault.......

The double negative used would indicate that you're stating that they are without fault.
Is that what you actually meant?

[/quote]

So the teacher had just explained how double negatives work and went on to say however two positives are not negative …
To that little Johnny says: “Yeah, right” …
wink.gif
 
How opportune because , "Yeah, right" was my attitude toward Subaru after my 2.2l (1995 Legacy) was upsized to the leaky 2.5l.

It was funny. My 2.2 ran like a watch. It had no guts which was no problem for me except that the mileage was disappointingly low for such a weak engine.
Then the SACBP demanded "more".
They got a nominal 0.3l increase in displacement and probably no appreciable power increase. They got leaks.

I was happy not to have Subarus on my mind. Enlarging the 2.2 seemed like a really stupid / cheap idea.
I figured the vehicles did offer what some people needed-chiefly the smooth AWD.

I'm glad to hear they are chasing down the problems but doesn't it seem to have taken a while?

Loved the review OP. It's nice to hear someone not trying to imitate a ritzy car magazine.
What seems funny to me is how often people say, "The interior is too plain." ?? With steering feel, mileage concerns, longevity concerns, even options packaging....who has time to stress that? Just my opinion.

Best of luck
 
Originally Posted By: Snagglefoot
Great review. Thanks for posting. Send us some tidbits on your oil temp such as where does it sit, does it change with ambient temps, hills etc.
smile.gif



Bearing in mind that I'm not the primary driver of the car, I'll share what I've seen.
First off, ambient temperatures do have an effect on oil temps.
During the recent 90F+ heat wave, I saw a peak oil temp of around 220F after a hard twenty five mile commute home by my wife, who was of course using the AC.
On the one long trip we've taken with the car, I saw a peak of 212F on an ~85F day uphill with the air running and maintaining around 80 mph.
The blue light indicating cold coolant goes off at just under 100F oil temperature and a five miles drive on a ~50F sunny day last November (wanted to warm the oil a bit before draining it) yielded around 150F.
All in all, oil temperature is kind of fun to look at.
 
I have an 08 and now an 18.

The 08 had a HG lead at 122K miles and we had the timing belt, idlers, tensioner, and water pump changed at the same time. It ate up a rear wheel bearing and two alternators also in the 180K miles we have it. It consumes lots of oil at 70# mph. I recently switched to 40 wt and it is now fine. There is every reason to believe it will go another 70K with no problem. The car now is mechanically perfect.

I have about 225 on the 18 it is the 2.0 Turbo. Its an amazing engine in every way and has several "sports" modes. There is no competition to the forester in its class unless you venture into $45+K. It truly is a beast. But its the wife's and will be driven like a little old lady (which she is)

I believe its reliability always was and probably still is below the CRV. So if you desire that and an inferior AWD system I would opt for the CRV all day long. But there is one other problem with the CRV..It is the most boring vehicle on the planet. My daughter in law has one.
 
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