[addison]

Isn't the Dart based on an Alfa platform?

[Quagmire]

Carroll Shelby has passed away.

[turtle]

Sad day today.

[Robo]

This is going to make Xaqtly cringe:

There's one fewer (intact) CTS-V wagon in the world.

[Sauvblanc]

Apologies for resurrecting an old-ish thread, and also whether this has already been discussed. Not sure I can bear to go through 37 pages of comments...

I was looking at a 2007 Subaru Forester yesterday. It was actually fun to drive (at least compared to the Honda CR-V I tried right afterwards). It's in my price range. The only thing that gives me pause is that it has nearly 200,000 km (~120K miles) on the odometer. Supposedly it's been well maintained (need to verify the service records) and had a major service done at 189,000 km (brakes, timing belts, driveshaft, etc...). If I do decide to get this car, I plan to get the RACV (AAA equivalent) to give the car the once-over before finalising the deal.

Should I be wary of the high odometer reading given the age of the car? Should I look for a slightly older model with fewer kms?

I've spent the last hour looking online on the young car high mileage question and the gist I'm getting is that as long as the car has been meticulously maintained with regular service intervals including oil changes, the car should still have a lot of life left in it. However, at that mileage a lot of things might need replacing or overhauling and this could add to the cost of ownership considerably.

I only plan on driving it on weekends to the beach (~100 km return trip) for scuba diving with the occasional longer trip, so don't plan on doing any really hard driving.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Xaqtly]

Yep, when you're at 120k miles all bets are off pretty much. The Forester is generally a very reliable car, my Subaru Legacy was still very nearly perfect at 92k miles. Just make sure you have the basics taken care of on the long term wear items like the timing belt (or chain... not sure which the Forester has), but honestly because it's only 5 years old I wouldn't expect things like bushings or hoses to be going bad yet.

Because of that I'd say you're probably in a better position than you might be with other cars that have 120k on them. Just keep an eye out for common wear-based issues, like the shocks, brakes, things that wear out via use rather than age.

[Dorian Gray]

It also depends very much on how the car was driven. If those 200,000 km were mostly accumulated at 100 km/hr in top gear on slick asphalt, driven by a careful driver who doesn't mangle the gearbox or drag the brakes every ten seconds, the car will be far fresher than another one that spent its life in traffic or on bumpy country roads with a reckless driver at the helm.

[Dorian Gray]

By the way, I have a question too. I like to clean my own car inside (because valet services don't reliably do a good job), but because I live in a first-floor flat it's impossible to plug in a vacuum cleaner. I was thinking of getting either a cordless vacuum cleaner or one that's powered off the 12-volt cigarette lighter socket. Are these worth trying or are they uselessly weak?

[addison]

Subarus have had problems with head gaskets over time that may or may not include MY 2007 cars. You might want to look into it. The fix is expensive so you might want to take it into consideration when making an offer.

[addison]

VW took the wraps off of the Golf 7. Evolutionary for sure. Like most of its competitors it's a little bigger and a good deal lighter. The interior has definitely taken a more Audi like design with the center stack angled a bit towards the driver. Lots of nice powertrain options too, most of which we won't see here in the US.

[Dorian Gray]

The engineering is undoubtedly impressive (the low-end model weighs 1050 kg, which is pretty light for such a big and stiff car), but this has to be the most conservative Golf yet. Anyone but a car geek would be hard-pushed to spot the differences between this and the Mark 6.

By my reckoning, the design is also ugly in places. That horrible, small, fat, flat-bottomed steering wheel, for instance. What is it with steering wheels these days? The flat bottom is inexcusable in any car, and fat, small wheels belong in rally cars, not family cars.

If drivers want to pretend they’re rallying, they could start by shoving their seat forward by about six inches, so they have a hope of controlling the wheel quickly and precisely. I’ve seen so many guys poke fun at their girlfriend/wife/anonymous woman on the road for sitting too close to the steering wheel. No: you sit too far from the wheel. By about a mile. Do you think you look cool with your arm stretched out straight to reach the wheel? Maybe you do, but don't do that and simultaneously pretend you know how to drive. Amateur.

Back to the Mark 7. I heard that the entry-level model will have torsion-beam suspension. A Volkswagen Golf with an expensive (albeit not entirely successful) interior, but torsion-beam suspension? Are Golf buyers now so disinterested in driving that they’ll buy that?

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray If drivers want to pretend they’re rallying, they could start by shoving their seat forward by about six inches, so they have a hope of controlling the wheel quickly and precisely. I’ve seen so many guys poke fun at their girlfriend/wife/anonymous woman on the road for sitting too close to the steering wheel. No: you sit too far from the wheel. By about a mile. Do you think you look cool with your arm stretched out straight to reach the wheel? Maybe you do, but don't do that and simultaneously pretend you know how to drive. Amateur.

Ridiculously cramped driver position is sort of a throwback to earlier days. Only some drivers still do this...and of course they also have short throw shifters, 5 point restraints and HANS devices. If I sit that way in a normal car, I imagine an airbag deployment would completely miss my head rather than hit both my head/chest.

F1 or Indy car drivers obviously sit in a severely reclined position due to the design of the cars...





It looks like Foust sits farther back, Block closer to the wheel. The position of the wheel is relatively higher than most people prefer as well.

EDIT: The front seats *are* reclined past way past the B-pillar. It was probably done to make the interior look more spacious.

[addison]

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray The engineering is undoubtedly impressive (the low-end model weighs 1050 kg, which is pretty light for such a big and stiff car), but this has to be the most conservative Golf yet. Anyone but a car geek would be hard-pushed to spot the differences between this and the Mark 6. By my reckoning, the design is also ugly in places. That horrible, small, fat, flat-bottomed steering wheel, for instance. What is it with steering wheels these days? The flat bottom is inexcusable in any car, and fat, small wheels belong in rally cars, not family cars. If drivers want to pretend they’re rallying, they could start by shoving their seat forward by about six inches, so they have a hope of controlling the wheel quickly and precisely. I’ve seen so many guys poke fun at their girlfriend/wife/anonymous woman on the road for sitting too close to the steering wheel. No: you sit too far from the wheel. By about a mile. Do you think you look cool with your arm stretched out straight to reach the wheel? Maybe you do, but don't do that and simultaneously pretend you know how to drive. Amateur. Back to the Mark 7. I heard that the entry-level model will have torsion-beam suspension. A Volkswagen Golf with an expensive (albeit not entirely successful) interior, but torsion-beam suspension? Are Golf buyers now so disinterested in driving that they’ll buy that?

VW styling has always been conservative. It's what makes their cars age well in my opinion. I look at my eleven year old Jetta and it still looks modern. Compare that to some of the edgier designs from others and they look good for a few years then seem dated.

Totally agree about the flat bottom steering wheel. Not sure it's standard though. The car in the pics is pretty well optioned. I did see it has an electronic parking brake as standard which I could do without. The beam axle out back is probably standard except for the GTI. I'm guessing on that though. Don't think it matters. I've driven the new Jetta with one and it handles fine. It's not the end of the world that auto writers want you to believe. They need to cut costs to compete and they choose to do things like this. It's always been hard for them but they have no choice.

[Dorian Gray]

Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti head of design, on his stripped-down Porsche 911 job. Tasteful, über-cool, and 820 kg (1800 lb).

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti head of design, on his stripped-down Porsche 911 job. Tasteful, über-cool, and 820 kg (1800 lb).

I wonder how a more modern 911 would react to that treatment?

[Xaqtly]

On the Cadillac forums, rumor is that the 2013 CTS-V wagon will be the last one. There are no plans for a wagon version of the upcoming all new 2014 CTS-V, there will only be a sedan and a coupe. Or a saloon and a coupé for you weird people in Europe. The good news is that the new CTS-V should be an even better car performance wise, it'll be built on the new ATS platform and it will lose a significant amount of weight, possibly 500-600 lbs.

But for those of us who like performance wagons - or performance estates for the Euros again - this is disappointing. The CTS-V is the only performance wagon you can buy in the US with a proper manual transmission. My long term plan was actually to trade mine in on a next-gen V wagon some time down the road. I would love to have the option to buy something like an Audi RS6 Avant, but they're not sold in the US and even if they were they would cost $120,000 or so. You can get an E63 AMG wagon in the US but again, no manual transmission, over $100,000, and handling isn't as good as the CTS-V.

One thing about Europe, there is no shortage of great estate cars. Cadillac say they're discontinuing the CTS-V wagon due to low sales, but the consensus seems to be that the low sales they're talking about are actually the normal CTS wagon, not the V model. And that's too bad because they've been making profit on the V wagon since it was released in 2011.

[Matsu]

I love the old air cooled 911's. There's something simple, beautiful and durable about them. Especially when all the extra racy visual pollution is stripped away. I hope I can own one one day. It remains just accessible enough for an enthusiast to buy and set right, though it would take years to do, that's just part of the fun...

[Dorian Gray]

Originally Posted by Dave I wonder how a more modern 911 would react to that treatment?

Wouldn’t start with the heater removed? (I’ve no idea, really.)

I love air-cooled 911s too, Matsu. I liked them when I was ten years old, and I still like them, mostly for the reasons you list.

Xaqtly, almost all the estates/wagons in Europe are lumbering diesels. There are a few exceptions (still diesel, but fast), but people who buy them typically need the space for dogs, kids, wetsuits, etc. I suppose Americans prefer SUVs for those things, since fuel is cheaper in America. In any case, they’re rarely bought for fun, so they rarely have fun engines.

An extreme example was the first diesel car my family had, a seven-seat Renault 21 Savanna estate. This great hearse of a thing had a 1.9-litre naturally aspirated diesel that made 60 horsepower on a cold day, took darned near half an hour to warm up, and enveloped the neighbourhood in smoke in the meantime. The engine was unburstable—it sounded like something from a trawler—but the bodywork was flimsy, and the handling was dominated by the usual massive understeer associated with diesel estates.

They’re a bit better today, I’m sure.

[Dorian Gray]

Does anyone here have a ScanGauge? My car doesn’t have a water/coolant temp gauge, which is pretty annoying. I’d also like to know exactly when the oxygen sensor disconnects at large throttle openings, the battery voltage, and the intake air temp, not to mention instantaneous fuel consumption. General geeky stuff like that.

I was thinking of the ScanGaugeE. Any objections?

[Eugene]

So after test driving a 2013 Ford Fusion, I'm going to go ahead and say it's the far and away best ~$20-30K large/midsize sedan. It just does certain things that matter to me way better than competitors like the Accord, Camry, Passat.

[Dorian Gray]

What things matter to you?

[hmurchison]

On a collision course with a Tesla Model X.

Car lust has taken over.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray What things matter to you?

Styling, ride quality/handling (how German does it feel, basically), cabin noise, driver's seat comfort, fit/finish. The minuses are the engine is slightly underpowered and fuel efficiency isn't class leading.

[addison]

Have you considered an Optima?

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by addison Have you considered an Optima?

I think the Optima has good exterior styling, but the interior could use a ton of improvement, particularly the center stack and door dressing. Too much hard black plastic, not enough soft-feeling material.

[Chinney]

Originally Posted by Eugene So after test driving a 2013 Ford Fusion, I'm going to go ahead and say it's the far and away best ~$20-30K large/midsize sedan. It just does certain things that matter to me way better than competitors like the Accord, Camry, Passat.

I have always kind of liked the Fusion myself. I have driven a few as rentals and driving cars belonging to family. Too bad that they don't make it in wagon though. If they did, I would give it some consideration.

The lack of availability of wagons generally in the North American market annoys me, especially since the same models in many brands are available as wagons elsewhere in the world. We also tend to have far fewer options in engine type (i.e., diesel) and size (i.e., smaller engines). I thought consumer choice was supposed to be a good thing. There are almost no vehicles for sale here now that would tempt me, if we were to replace our now 5-year-old Subaru Legacy Wagon. The Legacy Wagon itself is no longer available here - just the Outback, which Subaru has now fully turned into an SUV. We may just hold onto the Legacy for a long while. I know a good private mechanic who specializes in Subaru, and I imagine that he will be able to keep it running in good condition.

[addison]

There used to be lots of wagons offered here in NA. People just stopped buying them. They moved on to SUVs, especially car based ones. Ford isn't going to build a wagon version of the Fusion that nobody will buy. They'll just point you towards an Escape.

[Chinney]

Originally Posted by addison There used to be lots of wagons offered here in NA. People just stopped buying them. They moved on to SUVs, especially car based ones. Ford isn't going to build a wagon version of the Fusion that nobody will buy. They'll just point you towards an Escape.

I think that it has more to do with auto company margins than their customers' actual preferences.

[Wraven]

Matsu and Dorian,

I really like the air cooled 911's as well but when I finally had the means to get a Porsche I just couldn't bring myself to get a classic (I wanted something resembling a daily driver). So, I added a 2008 Targa 4S to my car family back in February.

Is there a way to attach a pic to a post? I can't for some reason...

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Chinney I have always kind of liked the Fusion myself. I have driven a few as rentals and driving cars belonging to family. Too bad that they don't make it in wagon though. If they did, I would give it some consideration.

Originally Posted by addison There used to be lots of wagons offered here in NA. People just stopped buying them. They moved on to SUVs, especially car based ones. Ford isn't going to build a wagon version of the Fusion that nobody will buy. They'll just point you towards an Escape.

Sadly there is a wagon version in addition to a 5-door hatchback version in Europe. Maybe if we start calling them estates instead of station wagons, they'll become more popular. I think addison is more-or-less correct. Ford just knows the US market will accept MPVs like C-Max or CUVs like the Escape in its place.