Mitsi Outlander OR Subi Forester

[hawkgirl]

the holden driver had the misfortune to trial a Forester as his new company car. He is approx 6 ft & I am 5ft 6ish.
Seating was awful & uncomfortable for both our sizes.
He carries a LOT of stuff with him & easily covers 70K a year, the Forester has nowhere near the internal room of his bombadore & could NOT carry the same amount of gear.

Also, dont even think of driving it through water - air intakes are very low down & at least 2 of the cars from qld got new engines courtesy of water going into the engine due to having to be driven through causeways

[danzvtil]

my sister is onto her 3rd outlander, her current one is 6 yrs old with 160ks on board, with nothing other than scheduled service, tyres and brakes. You will have heaps of outlanders to choose from at 10K, and they are cheap to insure and repair.

[Dr Danger]

Dual mass flywheels and thrust bearings are also issues on manual Forresters. Check if they have ever been replaced, especially in older examples.

[EgoFG]

My analysis on the 2nd hand market a year ago - looking for young cars good value for money:

Subi - blokes car, wife did not love, overpriced as 2nd hand
Rav4 - she did not want to learn to be a hairdresser
Nissan X - too blokey looking

Outlander - nice looking, great rear room (adjustable rear seats), pretty enough for her to drive

[MAGPIE]

Originally Posted by hawkgirl

Also, dont even think of driving it through water - air intakes are very low down & at least 2 of the cars from qld got new engines courtesy of water going into the engine due to having to be driven through causeways

That is a dumb driver issue not a vehicle issue, who drives through water without knowing where their air intake is

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by danzvtil

my sister is onto her 3rd outlander, her current one is 6 yrs old with 160ks on board, with nothing other than scheduled service, tyres and brakes. You will have heaps of outlanders to choose from at 10K, and they are cheap to insure and repair.

Thats a pretty good rap for the Outlanders and I like that they sit higher than the Subaru's too.

[GASWAGON]

Does anyone know what the Rav 4's are like (4 door)???

I'm pretty loyal to Hilux's after my dad having very good runs with them.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by EF_6

Does anyone know what the Rav 4's are like (4 door)???

I'm pretty loyal to Hilux's after my dad having very good runs with them.

I know the Rav4 auto gearboxs in the older series are garbage. Not sure what they are like in the brand new models.

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by blueoval

I know the Rav4 auto gearboxs in the older series are garbage. Not sure what they are like in the brand new models.

Gees thats not good news then.........Not sure what to do now???

[SSVPom]

Originally Posted by SSVPom

Second hand ? Outlander XLS lux or VRX.. Cheap and reliable, spacious with 7 seats and loaded with kit on these higher spec versions. They don't drive as nicely as the Forresters though, but only need servicing once a year instead of twice, and parts are much cheaper.

I forgot to mention that my Outlander was faultless for the two years I had it.

[GASWAGON]

She's decided to just get the EF fixed now.......Thanks for the input guys I reckon the Outlander is the better car.

[Pliers]

WE bought the missus a 06 Forester new and it's got 220,000 on it, never broke down apart from a flat tyre, only thing wrong is the drivers side electric window stopped working at 200,000, needed a new switch block in the door but otherwise it's been dandy. Eats front tyres though so it's fitted with Cooper RS4's now that last about 3 times longer than the original Yokohama's did. Pretty hard to fault it.

[hawkgirl]

Originally Posted by MAGPIE

That is a dumb driver issue not a vehicle issue, who drives through water without knowing where their air intake is

they were presented to the company as being able to handle that sort of thing (only actual 'car people' knew otherwise) but even so, we were surprised at exactly how low the intake was... as in the bottom of the engine....

[blueoval]

I have a couple of mates who bought new/near new Mitsu's. One mate bought a brand new Mitsu challenger as an upgrade from his VRX Magna. Swears by it.

Another mate bought a near new Mitsu Triton. Only a year or so old. less than 10,000km on the clock, remainder of 5yr warranty, hard lid cover, Alpine after market stereo, plus a few extra bits and pieces and saved himself $10k+ for the privilege and its immaculate with full service history. Also swears by it.

They aren't bad cars at all. Have excellent warranty.

[nothin suss]

If I remember correctly you were the same bloke that was buying a high klm Territory, a new Fiesta Ecoboost or a Volvo wagon of some sort mid last year to replace the EF?

[Ringo]

Subie Forester owner here...well at least the wife owns it. It is a 2012 but its the same as the older models mechanically being 2.5 with 4 speed auto. You might notice that they are geared a bit taller than most cars...apparently this is a classic Subaru thing..m'eh.

Not bad, but not great on fuel either and having worked in the auto game all my life i know that these cars are very reliable and have decent reputation and resale value.

We went from Melbourne to Brisbane in the car 6 months ago and it was great - comfortable, sat really well on the highway, in high speed bends and overtaking was a non event. Driving in the wet is where you feel the AWD stability.

Couldn't stress enough about regular oil changes being a must have with any used car purchase. Modern engines and especially Japanese engines it seems to me need clean oil and skipped or stretched oil changes will come back to bite.

Nothing wrong with Mits product either.....tough as nails in my book, just not as popular design wise.

[mechanic]

"She's decided to just get the EF fixed now"
Very wise decision.