Subaru: Best Car Money Can Buy?
#1
By Alex Taylor III | Fortune

Quote:By the usual measurements, Subaru should be no more than an afterthought in the U.S. car market. It sells just seven car and crossover models and accounts for a slim 2.3% of U.S. auto sales. By itself, the Toyota Camry outsells the entire Subaru lineup. For years Subaru has been essentially a regional brand -- strong in the Northeast and Northwest but unknown in the rest of the country. No overnight success, Subaru of America -- the U.S. arm of Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries -- began selling cars in the U.S. 44 years ago and still ranks only 12th in size. Hyundai and Kia, which arrived two decades later, have developed broader product lines and sell several times more vehicles.

Yet Subaru has racked up more endorsements by independent arbiters of automotive quality and safety than just about any other manufacturer. Consumer Reports rates Subaru above Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and every other manufacturer in performance, comfort, utility, and reliability, and says the company makes the best cars in America. ALG (formerly Automotive Lease Guide), the industry's arbiter of residual value and used-car prices, named Subaru the leader in retained value among mainstream brands. And after crash tests, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety made Subaru a "top safety pick" across its entire product line, a distinction no other manufacturer can claim.

Fueled by this trifecta of achievements, just about everything Subaru sells is flying off dealers' lots this year. Despite a chronic shortage of inventory, the company has been breaking monthly sales records with regularity, and sales for the year are up 26% compared with last year's -- nearly double the 14% gain for the industry as a whole. Hurricane Sandy struck right in the heart of Subaru's customer base, yet the little car company saw sales jump 30% in October, vs. the industry's 7%.

What Subaru has done is to make itself into the first automaker that could be described as "artisanal" -- focused, individualistic, and really good at a very few things. With only limited resources, Subaru has made smart bets on features like all-wheel drive, developed memorable marketing and advertising that set it apart from the competition, and learned more about its customers than any other automaker. In appealing to them by geography, lifestyle, and, at times, sexual orientation, it has built the deepest loyalty in the car business. The company understands itself so well that for years its advertising tag line was the self-referential "It's what makes a Subaru, a Subaru."

Rest of Article:
http://autos.yahoo.com/news/are-subarus-...-buy-.html
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#2
[quote='Clone' pid='244601' dateline='1353373554']
By Alex Taylor III | Fortune

Quote:By the usual measurements, Subaru should be no more than an afterthought in the U.S. car market.
...Snip...
Rest of Article:
http://autos.yahoo.com/news/are-subarus-...-buy-.html

I could never own one. Sounds too much like a character from a Kipling novel.
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#3
(11-19-2012, 06:32 PM)Wonky Wrote: I could never own one. Sounds too much like a character from a Kipling novel.

I owned one. Leaked. The first rain we had, after getting it, I went to take the kids to school... got in and our feet were in a lake! The entire floorboard... front seat, back seat and the back end... had turned into a lake! Dry

I love my Chevy Tahoe! Big Grin
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#4
(11-19-2012, 06:49 PM)Scrapper Wrote:
(11-19-2012, 06:32 PM)Wonky Wrote: I could never own one. Sounds too much like a character from a Kipling novel.

I owned one. Leaked. The first rain we had, after getting it, I went to take the kids to school... got in and our feet were in a lake! The entire floorboard... front seat, back seat and the back end... had turned into a lake! Dry

I love my Chevy Tahoe! Big Grin

Maybe you got the one made in India by wolves. Laughing
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#5
I saw a Brat the other day, that looked like new.
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#6
(11-19-2012, 08:27 PM)illcommandante Wrote: I saw a Brat the other day, that looked like new.

[Image: subaru-brat-02.jpg]
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#7
My mother prefers Subarus. I like my '06 Honda Civic. Good milage (35-40mpg), great resale value, great reliablity.

Generally, I prefer to buy American products, and Oregon products if I can manage, but for an investment like a car, I'll go for the best fit, regardless of where it is made. I mean, if I had the money, I'd have gotten a Tesla Motors car and a Brammo electric motorcycle, but since I don't have the money...
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#8
Subaru is pretty nichey, and very nice. Honda is just as incredible, in their end. You can buy a Honda, with some confidence, even when it's over 150 thousand. But, the highliners, don't have a whole lot on the rest. It'd be hard to be disatisifed with any car out there. For most, it's about the trim packages. It'd be hard to find a trim package that'll look good, when that old wreck finally dies. This is the golden era.
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#9
(11-19-2012, 08:55 PM)csrowan Wrote: My mother prefers Subarus. I like my '06 Honda Civic. Good milage (35-40mpg), great resale value, great reliablity.

Generally, I prefer to buy American products, and Oregon products if I can manage, but for an investment like a car, I'll go for the best fit, regardless of where it is made. I mean, if I had the money, I'd have gotten a Tesla Motors car and a Brammo electric motorcycle, but since I don't have the money...

A car made in Oregon.
I imagine it would look like this
[Image: 22504909.JPG]

From Caveman motors.
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#10
(11-19-2012, 06:49 PM)Scrapper Wrote:
(11-19-2012, 06:32 PM)Wonky Wrote: I could never own one. Sounds too much like a character from a Kipling novel.

I owned one. Leaked. The first rain we had, after getting it, I went to take the kids to school... got in and our feet were in a lake! The entire floorboard... front seat, back seat and the back end... had turned into a lake! Dry

I love my Chevy Tahoe! Big Grin

With all the money you throw away on gas you could have fixed that leak 187 timesLaughing
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#11
I wish I'd known what I was looking at, when I saw that first CRX. Not for the 160 some mph. But, for the mpg you could wring out of those things. I recommend buying something Japanese, with over a hundred thousand on it. Stick if you can bear it. Small as you can get by with. No more insurance, than the minimum property damage, and public liability. Pick something kind of classic, if you can. I drove fifty years without an airbag. Timing Chain! WaterPump! Oil every Five Thousand! There, now you're out there for as cheap as can be. Time to start thinking about hypermiling. You can have an enjoyable driving experience, without bleeding too hard.
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#12
I've been driving Subaru's for 10 years or so They are a damn fine cars I've owned six of them. I use my 93 Loyale like a truck . You can't imagine what I've hauled in it.

This is the one I drive now. I was testing the wind speed for a wind generator I made. You might not notice but I enhanced the photo a little.


[Image: windturbine888125wide.jpg]
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#13
I'm with TeeVee. Two Subaru's in the garage. Not a Honda fan. Noisy at highway speed.
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#14
(11-20-2012, 11:52 PM)Willie Krash Wrote: I'm with TeeVee. Two Subaru's in the garage. Not a Honda fan. Noisy at highway speed.

I did a TON of research on the Kia Rondo before we bought one with only 11,000 miles on it from Enterprise.

It was almost difficult to believe Edmunds and others who wrote that Kia was the next Honda/Toyota. But we could afford it.

The only complaint I have so far is, because it's in a lower price range, the road noise isn't all that great...but...this is one of the best handling cars I've ever owned, and I've owned a lot of cars.

A test in handling to me is, when not endangering a passenger, I like to see how fast I can take those I-5 curves around Shasta Lake.

I can pass 18 wheelers on the curve coming up to the bridge at 80mph and she's solid. Hugs the road like a champ.

That's a good handling automobile. Cool Ninja
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#15
(11-20-2012, 11:52 PM)Willie Krash Wrote: I'm with TeeVee. Two Subaru's in the garage. Not a Honda fan. Noisy at highway speed.

Wow, funny you should say that. We just recently bought a 1997 Honda. Bought it from an older well to do couple. A one owner in perfect conditionBig Grin We paid 3200.
Anyway it's the first Honda I've ever had and when I finished the test drive I asked why it was so loud.
He said that it was always that way and that particular year was kind of known for engine and road noise. Seemed to me to come through the firewall.

Not really a big deal. BTW the 97 Volvo we had and are now selling to the grandkid was so quiet you couldn't even tell if the engine was running.
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#16
I've had people mistake my Honda for a hybrid, it's so quiet Razz
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#17
(11-19-2012, 06:49 PM)Scrapper Wrote:
(11-19-2012, 06:32 PM)Wonky Wrote: I could never own one. Sounds too much like a character from a Kipling novel.

I owned one. Leaked. The first rain we had, after getting it, I went to take the kids to school... got in and our feet were in a lake! The entire floorboard... front seat, back seat and the back end... had turned into a lake! Dry

I wonder if that car had been in a major accident. Most leaks like that are coming in from the windshield. I'm sure it didn't come from the factory like that.

(Many, many years ago I played with rebuilding totals. I did some rollovers so smashed up around the window area the windows had to be massively ground down in several places in order to "fit", and I really felt sorry for the next guy that ever had to try and replace them.)
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#18
I bought my wife a little Mercedes at World Famous Auto. My friend showed me where it had been in a wreck. They agreed, and gave me back a thousand bucks. And, it'd never been wrecked at all. It had just overheated and blown a radiiator hose. It was an 84 diesel. I'd like to have it back.
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#19
I owned an old subaru. What I found is that, not being mechanical, I spent more on subaru fixes than on other cars. Oh, and often had to wait days for service because I would have to take it to a Subaru specialist.
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#20
(11-21-2012, 08:40 AM)Tiamat Wrote: I owned an old subaru. What I found is that, not being mechanical, I spent more on subaru fixes than on other cars.

Yes when you buy an old car of any kind you have to expect to fix things. It's funny but sometimes you get one where most all of the things that fail, already failed and were replaced.
If you are unlucky and you buy a used car the CV joints, hoses, alternator, starter, water pump and things like that are all new.
When you have NO car payment whatsoever you are still usually better off even when repairs are frequent.
But maybe not so much when you don't do any work yourself.

Quote:Oh, and often had to wait days for service because I would have to take it to a Subaru specialist.

How long ago was this? I'm pretty sure that most any garage will work on a Subaru now.
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