I am on my 6th Subaru, since our first 2004 Outback, all have been Foresters ever since. When it came time to replace to the outback, or to add another, my wife did not like the low seating position of the newer Outbacks. She though she felt like a little old lady peering over the steering wheel. The Forester seating was much better with a higher position. Then again, newer designs of Outbacks had new design fold-out crossbars placed too close together to securely support a canoe IMO. They were better placed in the Forester.
All of my Suburas have been purchased with the assistance of their outdoor related VIP program, which provides a no-hassle significant discount of several thousand dollars, as much as 2% below actual dealer invoice, (invoice, not sticker). That puts the actual out the door cost to me the same as what a Subaru employee would pay. The best value of $25 annual membership to any organization ever. I use Leave No Trace for my VIP contribution, only one such organization that best matches my outdoor values.
My wife and have been mainly pleased with all of our vehicles, in spite of the reported head gasket problems that tended to occur in some model before 2010. Last December we decided to trade in both of our 2015 and 2016 Limited model Foresters for new 2024 models. Our dealer happened to have a new shipment that had just arrived off the truck, including a Wilderness and a Limited Forester. We snatched both with the dealer agreeing to apply the VIP pricing to both (normally you can use VIP only once per year).
There are few things that take some getting used to on newer vehicles. Top of the list is the push button start and the gigantic massive heavy key fob. With my previous cars, when I park in my attached garage, I would just leave the "old fashioned" key fob in the cup holder. I am told I cannot do that with the new one, as it constantly communicates with the car and will quickly run down the battery in the fob if it is in close proximity to the vehicle. So ,I must take it in the house with me. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to the car, forgetting to take the key off the hook by the door, resulting in some amount of swearing about this "improved" key system. When parked at a trailhead, previously I could hide the key in a nearby location near the car, but now I must take the massive thing with me, protecting it from loss while hiking or getting wet in my canoe. Bring back the days of a simple metal key in my pocket. I note, as advertised, due to the different Wilderness gear ratio, I get about 3mpg less than my wife’s Limited model.
was surprised that the new cars do not come equipped with roof rack cross bars, as all of my previous Subarus had. But I was able to remove them from my trade ins and with some modification they fit the new Foresters for my light weight solo canoes. For heavier canoes my Thule bars do fit as well. There are a couple of other minor nits that I will forgive for now, but overall I love my new Wilderness Forester.
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