Today was the day for the Legacy to have the airbag replaced under recall. The car is 20 years old but they recalled it and completed the work today. This is the invoice:
They loaned me a new Subaru Crosstrek which had all the bells and whistles you could ever cope with. I tried out all the features which I would use and ignored the rest. I found the 'vehicle in blindspot' warnings irritating with the lights flashing on the edge of the door mirrors. The lane assist was a real pain but I was able to turn that off. I was irritated by messages like 'You have been running for 2 hours - time to take a break' , 'beware obstacle ahead', 'caution vehicle in close proximity' - that one appeared when I moved slightly left in the outside lane to miss a pot hole having already assessed the 38 ton artic in the centre lane, and several others which I would classify as ' stating the bl****ng obvious' messages causing me to look down to the instrument binnacle unnecessarily.
You can definitely keep all these so called 'driver aids' which I will simply refer to as 'driver distractions' in the future.
So what was the car like I hear you ask?
Here are the pictures which should show why I thought the build quality and general design was very good indeed, as I would expect from Subaru.
You will see the info screen and the instrument binnacle are well laid out and very clear to view and intuitive to use. My phone paired instantly and was very good voice quality in use. I could have allowed the system to read my messages and present them on the big screen but me being me I did not permit that. The centre console was also well designed and pleasant to use with ample storage.
Performance was excellent in terms of acceleration and cruising and I achieved 53 mpg over the day. which was 130 miles of return trip to Cambridge + running around in north west London to visit Car Giant at White City. Comfort was fine and the seats felt comfy and secure. The steering wheel could be slightly thicker to hold and was loaded with many buttons which I would seldom use and flappy paddles which worked very well traversing hills.
- From the front
- From the back
- Binnacle
- The wheel
- Centre screen
- Centre console
So looking at all those you may wonder Would I buy one? Well the answer is a resounding NO, but not for any of the things that I have moaned about above, there are two reasons why I wouldn't, price and
- Spoiler: show
- the driving position. I found it very difficult to see to the left at tee junctions without crouching to get my eyes below the centre monstrosity that houses all the gubbins for the features I don't want!!
- The reason I'd never buy one, camera on the bridge of my nose!
If this has intrigued you there is plenty more about it on the Subaru website which I have linked from the Video thread:
viewtopic.php?p=790754#p790754
