First extended drive

[Jake2c]

This is my first OB and this morning I left home to drive up to work with it. I had to wait for my wife to break it in the first 1000 miles so I could put it on cruise/steady speed. Anyway, trip is 630 miles door to door. Speed limit is 70 for about 80% of the time so I put it on cruise 73-75 for most of the highway miles. I had pulled a back muscle and was wondering how it would go. I have a premium so cloth seats. The lumbar support did fine and at the end of 10 hours my back felt pretty good. I still have just under 2000 miles on the car. Initial gas milage by the cars figure was 29.1/gal. My figured one ended up being 29.2 so very close. Probably that close because it was almost all highway. I have heard others say it is overly optimistic. The car tracked ok and seemed to do better as the miles went by. Not sure if that is wearing in the tires or I just got used to it. In any case, the car would remain on track for a decent amount of time without input from me. This was also road dependent. The only casualty was the little plastic nub that holds the cargo net in place pulled out at some point during the drive. It was installed by the dealer and I guess the salesman was not that good at it. I have to check to see if the threads were stripped during the daylight. Turns out in this type of driving the car has about as much range as my bladder does. Overall, satisfied with the trip and am happy with the way the car performed on the highway. I realize nothing I wrote was important but just thought I would share.

[mcbrew]

Do you have the 2.5i with CVT transmission? If so, you don't really have to worry about using cruise control, since the transmission will vary the RPMs constantly to keep you at speed.

Anyway, sounds like your Outback is doing fine... Just get that cargo net taken care of.

[Jake2c]

Yup I have the CVT/2.5. Car has started out great for me. Oh, I did check the cargo net thing. Turns out that nub is a compression type of fitting like the drain plug ona boat. It goes into the hole and as you turn it a soft inner sleave expands. I found that both were loose, looks like th salesman was unaware of how it worked and had just stuck them in. 60sec fix.