2020 Touring XT, 2013 Outback Lim SAP 270K, 2003 Outback Lim MT 2.5L, 241K..
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2,260 Posts
Last night I got back from my trip from LA to the Bay Area. I got the car on the 24th.
I am well past the 1000 mile break in period mark
My car is the 2013 Limited with SAP.
My last was a 2003 Limited.
So I EXPECT to love this car of course - but it is different in many ways.
All in all - I LOVE it. The drive was SO smooth and comfortable. So many nice little features the 2003 didnt have. Even just the visor extenders!
Its def a heavier car - I can certainly feel it. But it is what it is.
I am very impressed with the CVT. I came into this still wanting a manual and really NOT wanting an automatic - esp after many rental cars this past year with my 2003's problems. Hated all the 5 or 6 AT's I drove. (except a Nissan that stuck out as fairly smooth.
As everyone told me here - the CVT is really smooth - I am thoroughly impressed. It IS noisy - esp climbing back up the north side of the Grapevine last night. Its a little unnerving when the revving is noisy - but I was warned about that. Ill get used to it I guess. The paddle shifter thing (whatever its called) will NEVER replace the MT when I finally take it up into the mountains, but, its not like I was going to buy another car for a MT. I will appreciate it in LA traffic - I have lived here my whole adult life with MT's and it will be a nice change in that situation.
I do have a couple issues I am taking it in for tomorrow - the main annoying one is my drivers window doesnt roll back up when I roll it down - noticed this about 4 days later when I finally rolled it down. Something is catching and it gets halfway up and comes back down. I can force it up by pushing with my hand while its moving. Im going in tomorrow to get this looked at - and the window rubber trim is sticking out on one door. Also hopefully getting them to turn off that annoying lock beep. Sorry but its completely stupid that a dealer needs to do that - and if they want to charge me - Im stuck.
My biggest complaints:
The Audio system. Used it quite a bit more this week. The ipod interface is pretty good - I used a handful of these on my rental cars recently and they all were horrible (cheaper cars of course). This one is good but still scrolling through all my artists could be faster - but Im pleased as its WORLDS better than the ones in the cheaper cars I rented.
But the sound is just awful. I am still investigating it - Im even to the point of thinking some speakers may be wired out of phase (I have had this happen and the audio installer couldnt hear it till I pointed it out to him - he put them "in phase" and it sounded worlds better. In his defense, the complicated acoustics of a car interior make it trickier to hear than a pair of speakers on a shelf or whatever. But there is something really not good with this system. Considering I had a limited with a fairly similar speaker layout before (sub in rear right and others in nearly the same position), it shouldnt sound as it does. The front door speakers are more low end then it seems they should be. When I isolate the rear door speakers - there is NO low end - which should be coming from the Sub. The Sub IS playing - but very low - and when I am on the front speakers (highs and mid divided to 4 speakers) - all the low end is from them.
A good indicator is that if I have the speakers centered, and I drop ALL the low end out of the EQ given - it is STILL too boomy on my music for MOST of the music. That shouldnt be. I shouldnt hear the real low end (50H -100Hz) still blasting out of the FRONT door speakers. I will continue to investigate - tomorrow going to sit in another OB limited SAP at the dealer and compare.
Now that some are saying there is a hidden loudness setting in some of the head units - while I think this ISNT the case - I am curious to see if it got turned on on my unit. Among other issues - its just TOO boomy and considering the sub is really low (separate vol would be nice) its not right.
I DO notice a hiss sometimes even when the volume is down - havent figured out what is feeding it. Also noticed once the cell phone noise present in the speakers when the volume was down - so something is amplifying SOMETHING even with the volume down.
My other complaint is the Nav unit - but I expected this. I havent used it a TON yet - but man is it SLOW to react sometimes. I mean REALLY slow. Just pushing the zoom in or out gets a big delay sometimes. I will be using my Garmin for a while before I am going to fully switch over to this unit. I have a nice Garmin (the really thin ones they made). Its fast and easy - and touch screen using thing like pinch zoom and such. It makes this brand new 2013 OB Nav look like a dinosaur.
Apart from those two issues though - I am loving this car. I even got to deal with it being iced over up in Petaluma in the morning. Was very impressed how quickly it dealt with it on the windows. Keep in mind I have HAD an OB limited with weather package - and I am still impressed with this new one.
I am well past the 1000 mile break in period mark
My car is the 2013 Limited with SAP.
My last was a 2003 Limited.
So I EXPECT to love this car of course - but it is different in many ways.
All in all - I LOVE it. The drive was SO smooth and comfortable. So many nice little features the 2003 didnt have. Even just the visor extenders!
Its def a heavier car - I can certainly feel it. But it is what it is.
I am very impressed with the CVT. I came into this still wanting a manual and really NOT wanting an automatic - esp after many rental cars this past year with my 2003's problems. Hated all the 5 or 6 AT's I drove. (except a Nissan that stuck out as fairly smooth.
As everyone told me here - the CVT is really smooth - I am thoroughly impressed. It IS noisy - esp climbing back up the north side of the Grapevine last night. Its a little unnerving when the revving is noisy - but I was warned about that. Ill get used to it I guess. The paddle shifter thing (whatever its called) will NEVER replace the MT when I finally take it up into the mountains, but, its not like I was going to buy another car for a MT. I will appreciate it in LA traffic - I have lived here my whole adult life with MT's and it will be a nice change in that situation.
I do have a couple issues I am taking it in for tomorrow - the main annoying one is my drivers window doesnt roll back up when I roll it down - noticed this about 4 days later when I finally rolled it down. Something is catching and it gets halfway up and comes back down. I can force it up by pushing with my hand while its moving. Im going in tomorrow to get this looked at - and the window rubber trim is sticking out on one door. Also hopefully getting them to turn off that annoying lock beep. Sorry but its completely stupid that a dealer needs to do that - and if they want to charge me - Im stuck.
My biggest complaints:
The Audio system. Used it quite a bit more this week. The ipod interface is pretty good - I used a handful of these on my rental cars recently and they all were horrible (cheaper cars of course). This one is good but still scrolling through all my artists could be faster - but Im pleased as its WORLDS better than the ones in the cheaper cars I rented.
But the sound is just awful. I am still investigating it - Im even to the point of thinking some speakers may be wired out of phase (I have had this happen and the audio installer couldnt hear it till I pointed it out to him - he put them "in phase" and it sounded worlds better. In his defense, the complicated acoustics of a car interior make it trickier to hear than a pair of speakers on a shelf or whatever. But there is something really not good with this system. Considering I had a limited with a fairly similar speaker layout before (sub in rear right and others in nearly the same position), it shouldnt sound as it does. The front door speakers are more low end then it seems they should be. When I isolate the rear door speakers - there is NO low end - which should be coming from the Sub. The Sub IS playing - but very low - and when I am on the front speakers (highs and mid divided to 4 speakers) - all the low end is from them.
A good indicator is that if I have the speakers centered, and I drop ALL the low end out of the EQ given - it is STILL too boomy on my music for MOST of the music. That shouldnt be. I shouldnt hear the real low end (50H -100Hz) still blasting out of the FRONT door speakers. I will continue to investigate - tomorrow going to sit in another OB limited SAP at the dealer and compare.
Now that some are saying there is a hidden loudness setting in some of the head units - while I think this ISNT the case - I am curious to see if it got turned on on my unit. Among other issues - its just TOO boomy and considering the sub is really low (separate vol would be nice) its not right.
I DO notice a hiss sometimes even when the volume is down - havent figured out what is feeding it. Also noticed once the cell phone noise present in the speakers when the volume was down - so something is amplifying SOMETHING even with the volume down.
My other complaint is the Nav unit - but I expected this. I havent used it a TON yet - but man is it SLOW to react sometimes. I mean REALLY slow. Just pushing the zoom in or out gets a big delay sometimes. I will be using my Garmin for a while before I am going to fully switch over to this unit. I have a nice Garmin (the really thin ones they made). Its fast and easy - and touch screen using thing like pinch zoom and such. It makes this brand new 2013 OB Nav look like a dinosaur.
Apart from those two issues though - I am loving this car. I even got to deal with it being iced over up in Petaluma in the morning. Was very impressed how quickly it dealt with it on the windows. Keep in mind I have HAD an OB limited with weather package - and I am still impressed with this new one.