Replacing with Subaru Outback?

I'm old school in a way, I want actual gears in my transmission. But maybe in a few years I will accept it for a daily driver and make the Tacoma a 2nd vehicle. Or I will get a Prius as the daily driver and offset the money I spend on gas now.

 

Yeah, I gas up every couple of days now and it takes its toll. Ideally I'd have something small and a little sporty to DD to work and save the Taco for the weekends and vacations. Unfortunately I'm an underpaid IT Analyst who's trying to save up for a house, so my next vehicle may be a long way off.

 

yup the 3.6R is where its at!

 

I have owned 2 Forresters. My'05 XT was just about the perfect car IMO. My '10 was "nicer", but lost a lot of the charm the SG had. I'd own an SG again in a heartbeat, but they are getting up there and rust is taking its toll on the survivors. Luckily the mod crowd sorta ignored them.
Neither car felt quality like my FJ or Taco has and does though. That's ok though, they were great cars and I enjoyed them.

 

get a sti forester.

 

I just got rid of a 2016 outback limited for the Taco. For me hauling two dogs, plus baby and stroller/hiking backpack, hiking/camping gear, bike etc and wanting to do more overlanding stuff with the dog and kid while the husband is working weekends the outback just wasn't ideal. The dogs kept breathing their hot garbage breath and stinking up the inside, plus their general dirt and fur exploding everywhere the instant I loaded them up plus they'd step on the baby in his carseat every time I got out to open a door because they were too excited. I just needed more room and seperation between people and fur balls. I wanted true 4wd for some of the places I want to go too. I'd hate to be back there and get stuck w/ awd and have no 4wd button to hit and hope it gives me the extra oomph I need to get out without a lot of extra work.

That said I got 28 mpg consistently, and it was a good road trip car for two people and bikes/gear to Moab etc. The CVT is not my favorite invention though for a 4 cylinder it did help it on hills a fair bit. And the eyesight worked better for me than I've heard from some others, though it was notoriously sensitive when the car ahead was going to turn out of my way but the system was sure we were going to collide before they exited the road. A friend's car has slammed on the brakes on the highway going 70mph+ when it recognized a tumbleweed blowing across the road as a hazard, scared the crap out of him and his family. Could have been bad if someone had been behind him.

 

A good friend has had two Outbacks while I've had my Tacoma. He loves them. They are great cars although he does need the roof-top box for longer trips and such. The lane assist and radar cruise control are really nice "sorta kinda like Tesla" features that make long drives much better.

All that being said, when we were thinking of getting a new car for my girlfriend, we cross-shopped Subaru and Mazda, and Mazda has much much better fit and finish. The Mazda CX-5 can also come with AWD, although admittedly the system is mechanically inferior to the Subaru. I wouldn't tell you which to buy, but I would definitely tell you to at least go test drive the CX-5 before buying an outback.

Also, a testament to Mazda, I still have my high school car, a 2003 Protege5 with 190,000 miles on the clock. Still super reliable and takes me to work all the time. Still handles great too, with no suspension work ever done. And that car has been lent out to abusive family members multiple times, seen Buffalo winters, Albuquerque summers etc etc.

 

Lol, just kidding brother- couldn't let that one pass.

Our 01 Forester is a champ-still running smoothly with about 210k on the clock.

I always appreciated the way the Subaru handled the snow, but I believe the Taco in 4wd is better.

I usually find it amusing when anyone qualifies themselves based on their possessions or what vehicle they drive, but that's my weird sense of humor at work.

 

I'm lucky that a tank lasts me a little over a week with my commute, 30 kms (approx 20 mi) each way. but our gas prices are unreal right now and getting worse. $1.54 CDN a litre x 3.78 ltr = $5.82 CDN per US gal, or $4.64 US per US gal.

 

$3.93 a gallon for me here.

 

Last time l bought gas was last week, it was $3.25 for Premium.

 

God bless the Midwest

 

Not really. I have a 2016 Forester 2.5i Premium and a 2016 Tacoma SR5. Both are good vehicles, but I will say the Subaru is a bit more Spartan in the materials department and a few design issues kinda cheapen the car.

I do think the Subaru is a great car overall though, it's definitely more zippy to drive around. I also think it's mechanically a great car. Definitely had fewer issues than the Tacoma..... the Tacoma wasn't bad though.

 

Subaru's are nice cars but they all seem to leak oil

 

I like girls. That makes me a Lesbian & a Vagitarian....

 

Yep! Got a 2010 new and that's the only issue I had ever had. Replaced the original brake pads at 120K miles with OEM pads and rotors. It's actually been a great car and is sitting at 129K now.

 

Haha wow. Made it to 120k with OEM pads and rotors lol. My wife blew through those in 45K. Definitely looking to get 300k out of this car. Shouldn’t be an issue.

 

Nah, with good maintenance it won't be an issue. I'd keep this one, but we need something bigger. Been looking at lightly used Gx460s. We have two little boys now, so this little hatchback is seeming VERY small lately!

 

Oh man,

Oh many I can only imagine. Yea, they aren’t very practical for kiddos and all the other stuff that goes along with it. I’ll end up getting the wife a 4Runner when she stops driving 30,000 miles/ year haha. A Gx460 is nice, but what a difference in MPGs. Although the 2.5L in yours was from the Ford design, if I’m correct. 2012+ was the skyactiv 2.0L and 2.5L. They are incredible engines. Got on Wards 10 best engines list.

I’d stay away from
Subaru though. Wouldn’t own one out of warranty. Know to many people who have had issues with them.

Stoked to see how the new generation of Skyactiv-x engines from Mazda will do. They are claiming at least 20% possibly 30% improvement over skayactiv-g engine (1st gen). That would be close to 50 mpg highway, and 36 city. That’s huge from a gasoline engine.

I can also see this 3.5L in our gen 3 Tacoma’s going to 500,000 miles +.

 

We have considered a 4runner too, I just really like the V8 and all time AWD. Still not sure. Yes ours has the Ford 2.5 in it. It has been pretty good to us for sure.