Might be new car time

My clutch is starting to slip. Shop says a new clutch is $1100. Add that to the $1200 of other stuff I've been putting off (hoses, belts, ball joint, brakes) and it might push me over the edge.

New car should be here around the 20th. I'm having a few options installed: roof rack, better stereo, fancy wheels.

Researching my 1998, I bought it in January 2000 for $20,000 with 35,000 miles on it. High mileage for 18 months old, but with Subarus I figured that wouldn't be a problem -- and it hasn't been. Put another 100,000 miles on it over the past twenty years. Never did anything but belts & hoses -- oh, and a valve cover gasket, which I guess these engines were infamous for.

I'm 40,000 miles into the 90,000-mile waranteed tires. I'll leave my $100 stereo in it (which I love) but I'm taking the $400 subwoofer.

I see what you mean about the owner's manual, Howard. I went out & sat in a 2020 this morning, and the controls looked like something out of a space shuttle.

Adaptive cruise control, where you can set your following distance to the car in front of you.

Lane assistance, to keep you between the white lines.

Temperature inside & out, with automatic settings. Clocks, MPG, miles to next gas fillup, direction controls, maps,

Volume control and presets for the radio, connections for your phone, USB stick, satellite radio, microwave, MRI and doomsday countdown clock.

There is way too much to deal with on the control panel. And someone needs to tell me why the radio turns on when the ignition is turned on. Doesn't matter if the radio was on or off when you turned the ignition off, the damned thing comes on when you turn the ignition on.

If I'm still around in another year, I may buy a new car, By "new" I mean different. I will NOT buy any of the new cars I have seen or read about. I don't want any control of the car taken away from me and handed over to a recent computer science graduate who may not even know how to drive. Some people in the east never drive. My son-in-law has never had a driver's license. He has never driven a card in his just over forty years. He's very intelligent and I like reading his articles in Rolling Stone, but I wouldn't want him programming a car that takes over control from me.

If the time comes that I get another car, I'll have to see what kind of stock my Friend Joe has. A 600-hp Mustang would be nice.

If you absolutely need a car you can tinker with in the garage, read what this guy has done to his 2019 Forester Sport.  Should put a smile on your face -- if your wife will let you near her new car.
https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/my-2019-subaru-forester-sport-let-the-modz-begin.792005/

Somewhat astonishing story (to me, anyway):

Getting ready to pick up my new car at 1:00, and cleaning out the old one. Found the original owner's manual, the extra fuses and light bulbs, the registration and title. TRYING to find the keyless entry fobs, of which I had two, both of which wore out (I found one -- no idea what happened to the other!)

Started wondering about any spare keys.

Remembered, way back when I bought the car nineteen years ago, I had stashed a spare key in a magnetic box way up inside the rear bumper (which is mostly plastic, so it had to be WAYYYY up there to find steel). I have never, ever, locked myself out of the car since so I've never had to use that key.

But yup, it was still there.

NoCoPilot wrote:

If you absolutely need a car you can tinker with in the garage, read what this guy has done to his 2019 Forester Sport.  Should put a smile on your face -- if your wife will let you near her new car.

I don't know where you got the idea that I absolutely wanted a car to "tinker with," but you couldn't be more wrong. I do not work on my cars anymore. Too broken down (me, not the cars). Besides which, I have never "tinkered with cars." I have made serious modifications to them to increase the power and improve the handling. And just generally kick a little ass on the road - but I never "tinkered." Tinkering is for dorks, such as the guy who wrote the article to which you linked. All he did was bolt on a bunch of after-market crap which required nothing more than a half-page of instructions and a couple hundred bucks worth of cheap Craftsman tools and did nothing for the performance or handling of the car. He and I are in different classes when it comes to modifying cars. Not better or worse - just different.

Design flaws.

1.  My new car has USB ports and an audio port for connecting mobile devices to the in-dash stereo.  The problem is, they're on the inside back wall of a recessed cubby under the stereo.  You have to get down on your hands and knees, when the car isn't running obviously, to plug anything in there.  Also, the cubby is not quite big enough to fit an iPhone after you plug it in.  It's about 1/8" short.  I'll be scouting around for a more elegant solution.

2.  The roof rack does not come with cross bars, they're optional.  They'd be pretty necessary however for hauling anything, to avoid scratching the roof.  I had the dealership install them for me.  But they put them pretty close together, in the middle of the roof.  I wanted to spread them out, as far forward and as far back as possible so when I tie down 8' lumber it has maximum stability.  They're screwed to the railings with big star-drive screws, which is unusual but I had a suitable bit.  I started adjusting the cross bars and quickly ran into an issue: the front-to-back railings on top of the car are not parallel.  Measuring them, they're 40" apart in the front and 36½" apart in the back.  Why?  No clue.  The crossbars are different lengths (without being labeled which is front and which is back -- although they're also somewhat teardrop shaped in cross-section so there's a "this side toward front" marking [Why?  No clue.])  One end of each cross bar is also slide-adjustable.  Great, right?  However, if you take the longer crossbar and pull it out to its maximum length, it's still 1/4" too short for the front of the railings.  The back crossbar, pushed in to its minimum length, is 1/4" too long to mount all the way to the rear.  Why?  No clue. The clamps that go under the rails are labeled "L" and "R" -- though as far as I can see, they're totally identical. Why? No clue.

3. The dealer printed out an invoice. It lists the MSRP, the dealer discount, the dealer prep, taxes, doc fees, accessories, etc. Unfortunately, the subtotal and total boxes are highlighted with a gray background -- might have been a different color on the computer screen -- that all but obscures the dollar figures in the box. This isn't the first car they've sold. Why hasn't anyone fixed this?

4. The dealer invoice lists the car "retail price" -- not called MSRP for some reason -- and "sales price." There's also a line for "accessories," which is $0.00. The accessories I ordered -- roof rails, door guards, stereo upgrade -- are folded invisibly into the "sales price" instead of being listed under "accessories." Wouldn't it make more sense to list the accessories under accessories, so both the dealer and the customer know what's being added to the car?

5. The window sticker from the car lists MSRP, destination fee, expected MPG, smog rating, etc. It also lists -- supposedly -- the options. In Subaru, as I imagine most new cars, there are "option packages" where you get a constellation of options all together in one package. This car is listed as having the "Alloy Wheel Package," which is $1,100.00. It includes the following: Alloy Wheels, $600; Alloy Wheel Package Discount, -$500; All Weather Floor Liners, $132; Cargo Tray, $101. How these add up to $1,100 is beyond me. Wouldn't you think the window sticker is the one place where the math should be plain and obvious?

Turnabout is fair play -- design wins:

1.  The car is very comfortable to drive.  Good seating position, comfortable arm rest, good steering wheel size, incredible visibility.  Everything is where you expect it to be.  Was able to drive home without reading the manual.

2.  The steering and brakes are very responsive and tight.

3.  The lighting (inside cabin, and headlights) are excellent.

4.  The climate controls are clear and powerful.  After my swim in the morning I like to blow cold air on my face until my metabolism settles back down.  This car puts about twice the volume of air in my face.

5.  Setting radio stations is a snap.  There are 18 presets, although I only know of 3 or 4 stations worth listening to.

6.  Plugged in a USB music stick, it played right away.  With artist information on-screen.  Nice.

7.  Plugged in my phone, it recognized it right away.  Gave me my contact list (for making calls), allowed me to sync the car's clock to the phone's clock.

8.  Pandora button on the stereo grabbed my Pandora from the phone, and began playing the station I had going.  With artist information on-screen.  Nice.

9.  Map icon on the screen tied into Google Maps on the phone, and put up a navigation screen (just like Tesla!)  On my way home, it knew I was heading home (somehow?) and gave me turn-by-turn instructions (aurally and on-screen).  It's not just a screen capture of the phone navigation app either; it's redesigned with better graphics and more information.  Nice.

10.  Some of the MANY buttons I need to learn give me MPG since last fillup, MTG until next fillup, outside temp, compass direction, clock, tire pressure, and more.

11.  Car has a feature called AVH, automatic vehicle hold, when you're at a stoplight going up a hill the engine & tranny will hold the car in place so you don't have to press down on the brake.  Not sure how important this will be, but Seattle does have a lot of hills.

12.  Car has a feature called Auto Start-Stop, which shuts off the engine at stoplights (to save fuel & smog).  As soon as you let off the brake, the engine starts up again.  It's a weird feeling that'll take some getting used to.  One of the things I remember about my Tesla test drive was, at stoplights, the car seemed to go completely dead.  It wasn't until you stepped on the accelerator that you realized the car was still active.

13.  Driver's seat is adjustable for height and distance to pedals and, unlike most cars, will adjust way past what's usable for me.  In most cars I have to adjust everything to the limit just to be comfortable.

14.  Wipers clean more of the windshield than my old car, and the intermittent interval is adjustable.

15.  The doors have lights underneath them.  When you open the doors in the dark, the ground underneath you is illuminated.  Who'da thunk?

16.  Timing intervals of everything is adjustable.  When you turn off the car and open the doors, the dome light comes on.  You can set it to go off again as soon as the door is closed, or 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds after.  Ditto the headlights.

17. The range on the remote lock-unlock is at least a hundred yards. You can also flash lights & honk the horn if you forgot where you parked.

The Subaru manual wrote:

Subaru Intelligent Drive
SI-Drive has two modes; intelligent (I) and Sport (S).

Intelligent:
Intelligent mode provides well balanced performance with greater fuel efficiency and smooth driveability without stress. Power delivery is moderate during acceleration for maximum fuel efficiency.
Sport:
Sport mode provides the engine power desired by those who want to make the driving experience their own personal adventure. The throttle becomes more responsive regardless of the engine speed. Delivering maximum driving enjoyment, this mode is ideal for driving on twisting roads and for merging or overtaking other vehicles on the freeway with confidence.

I'm guessing Howard you would not be a fan of "Lesbian mode."

18. If the rear window wiper is in the intermittent mode, and you put the car in reverse, it changes to continuous mode.

NoCoPilot wrote:

• Car comes with 3 years of free SiriusXM.  I'll need to explore it -- vast fields of yuck but maybe something worthwhile.
  

SiriusXM wrote:

Essential, $8/mo
Ad-free music
24/7 news, talk, and comedy
Sports talk and analysis
Xtra channels for every mood and activity
SiriusXM video

Select, $15.99/mo
Ad-free music
24/7 news, talk, and comedy
Sports talk and analysis
Xtra channels for every mood and activity
SiriusXM video
Play-by-play MLB, NBA, and NHL

All Access, $20.99/mo
Ad-free music
24/7 news, talk, and comedy
Sports talk and analysis
Xtra channels for every mood and activity
SiriusXM video
Howard Stern channels and video
Play-by-play NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL
Personalized Stations Powered by Pandora

Well, since I don't listen to sports, and hate Howard Stern, and already have Pandora, I think I can safely save $96yr.

Does it have a "learning" mode?
Our Mercedes had a button for "normal" or "sport" which controlled the shifting characteristics. (I think those were the labels, but you get the idea, anyway). In "sport" mode, the shift occurred at a higher RPM, thus improving the acceleration in all the lower gears (seven ratios). You could, of course, shift manually. The bit I liked: in "normal" mode when you shifted manually, the computer monitored the shifting parameters. If you spent a lot of time manually shifting, the computer would modify "normal" mode to emulate your manual shifting. Clever.

NoCoPilot wrote:

The clamps that go under the rails are labeled "L" and "R" -- though as far as I can see, they're totally identical.  

Discovered there's a very small offset alignment tab on each clamp, in different places for left and right. So there *is* a difference. Not sure why they bothered -- it'd be easier to make the lock tabs centered. Oh well. Got the rails back on, and they're A SHADE wider than they were

The Subaru Manual wrote:

Do not rest your arm on either the door or its internal trim. You could be injured in the event of SRS side airbag deployment.

Yeah right.

There's a road up by the grocery store that has been heavily patched with lines of tar in the cracks.

Drove my "lane assist" software crazy.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Also, the cubby is not quite big enough to fit an iPhone after you plug it in.  It's about 1/8" short.  I'll be scouting around for a more elegant solution.

Ordered one of these:

Moved the Automatic car dongle over to the new vehicle.  It needs to be re-registered.

[Edit: guess that won't happen. Oh well.]

Took the new car out for a 200-mile road trip yesterday, just to see how it did.  Got to use the cruise control for the first time.  The "adaptive" feature which sets a following distance is slick -- I set it to maximum, which was about 12 car lengths.  A car pulled into the gap.  My car slowed down until the gap was 12 car lengths again.  That car soon pulled out of my lane.  The car sped up again to close the gap.  Neat.

I was less impressed with "lane assist."  When cruise control is enabled, lane assist by default comes on too, although you can disable it with a button push.  I had just turned everything on, and was cruising up the freeway when the road started taking a gentle left turn.  I could feel the steering wheel tugging left under my grip.  I let go and the car followed the road as it curved then straightened out again.

Gotta say, that was a bridge too far for me.  It feels creepy to have the wheel turning under your hands!  It might be useful crossing Montana or someplace where there is no traffic and no turns, but in traffic?  With turns?  Creepy.

After four hours of driving I wasn't fatigued or sore at all.  Very comfortable driving position, wonderful climate controls.

The integration with my iPhone is slick.  Made and received calls hand-free.  Played Pandora.  Put maps up on the screen.  Talked to Siri about the football game score.  Got directions.

This morning, it was cool out (34º) and at a stoplight the car in front of me output a cloud of steam as it pulled out.  This caused all sorts of bells and whistles to go off in my car.  It didn't slam on the brakes (collision avoidance) thankfully, but it reacted to the apparent solid mass in front of me.  Kinda amusing actually.

Got my stereo upgrade installed Monday.  It's a pretty big install -- the dash has to be disassembled to get to the back of the stereo, both door panels come off to install new speakers, the glove box comes off, the door sills come off, wiring is routed underneath the carpet.  The whole thing took two hours by trained professionals.

But they did a good job.  Everything works with no signs of damage.

A new amplifier under the passenger seat provides a higher SPL than the factory stereo, higher than its safe to drive with.  The new door speakers have palpable bass now.  The stereo sounds pretty darn good.  Maybe not state-of-the-art, but darn good.  It was a $574 option (installed), which was too high but I'm glad somebody else did all the installation. Their shop charges $130/hr theoretically, so $314 for the stereo sounds about right.

Howard, does your wife's have a Rockford Fosgate stereo, a Harmon Kardon stereo, or a factory Subaru stereo?

I've been checking to see if my under-seat subwoofer can be added, but the answer seems to be: not easily.  Dunno if I really need it anyway.

Harmon Kardon, same as the Mercedes had. But she says the one in the Subaru sounds just a little bit better. Probably acoustics.

Last night, I had the opportunity to drive the wife's new Subaru for the first time at night. Fucking terrifying! The headlights would change from high beam  to low beam and vice versa, seemingly at random. The road I was on was very winding and changed altitude frequently. There were a few very tight (more than 90 degrees) turns. The fucking headlights switched high-to-low or low-to-high a lot. And they would change their aim right or left, rather than just straight ahead. There was more than one occasion when a right-the-fuck-now turn on the road could not be seen because of the headlight "dancing." I am not sure that I would have made it home if I wasn't so familiar with the road (okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much). This is the road that we drive to the house. My wife did admit that she did not like driving the car at night.

I have downloaded the driver's manual and am reading about all the settings for the headlights and their various modes, but haven't yet found one that says "FOR NORMAL FUCKING HEADLIGHTS: DO THIS."

Absolutely dangerous car to drive on the road to my house. Unbelievable.

Thank god the house went on the market yesterday.