Anyone driving an XV??

A friend of mine is looking at getting a new car and i have suggested the XV, as well as the Forester, which she drove the other day and quite liked. Today she went in a new RAV and tomorrow is driving the XV.
In general i reckon the reviews on the XV were better overall than the Forester. The main criticisims (of the XV) seem to be the gearing of the manual gearbox and the Yoko tyres in the wet. Otherwise it seemed pretty good.
Any knowledge out there??
Also...if you are driving the new Forester what do you think?? She is looking at the base model manual.

Gidday Silver

The XV is almost identical in size to our 2006 SG Forester.

The new Forester is even larger than our 2009 SH Forester, and it is very considerably larger than the SG.

All a question of personal preference, really. SWMBO likes her SH. I much prefer my SG ... :iconwink: :biggrin: .

Lol... I have my eye on the xv ..... But in another 10 years or so. I read all the reviews with very much interest!

Gidday S2

Remember to pick up all the marketing/technical stuff for future reference ... . I've been doing this for over 25 years ... :biggrin:

I was planning to buy an XV when they 1st came out, so I went and checked them out test drove the manual version etc, I found it to be a a nice drive but it was just way too under powered for my liking..

I like the new RAV4 and its has had better reviews etc compared to the Subaru and id imagine the resale on them will be very good..

But overall id say all 3 cars she is looking at are good choices a all them would give her happy reliable motoring, also the Mazda CX5 would be worth a look as well..

I thought the reviews, roughly, for the Forester and the RAV were much the same. generally they seemed to say theywere uninspiring for a new model and nearly all of them were more impressed with the CX5. The Forester got panned for the seats and lackluster cabin..which Subaru never seem to get right...plus the indirect feeling of the steering. These seemed to be the general complaints.
I can't get escape the fact that i have always felt the RAV was a 'pretty young things' car. The CX5 didn't seem to fare so well off road but the rest was pretty good. The Tiguan got good stuff for the ride and cabin but both are dearer.
The Forester seemed to be good value as they have free on roads, CTP etc at the moment and the dealer was hinting that she could get into the base model manual for about $30k at the moment.
I have not seen to many bad thoughts re the XV and in fact most people seemed to be quite happy with it and in this case were saying that Subaru had done quite a good job with the cabin.
Funny enough the RAV and the XV both have Yoko tyres on them and in both cases the reviewers mentioned the fact that they were no good in the wet. "Disconcerting" was the word used. Probably a newer version of the Geosquealer G900.
Good time to buy a car though. Seems to be a lot of deals getting around.

We have an XV. I drove both the manual and auto. We ended up with thwarted auto. The gearing in the manual was all wrong for the engine while the auto is perfect. It goes almost as fast as my 2.5l forester and it averages 7.2l to the hundred with a mix of driving. A little worse when I drive it but then again I drive it hard.
Very happy with it and personally I'd take it over a new Forester. I'm not normally an auto person but the 6 speed cvt is no normal auto. I'd very nice to drive, responsive and smooth.
I'd highly recommend it..

Well..what you are saying about the gearbox is what EVERY review i read was suggesting.

I wouldn't like to have to replace one though. $$$!

She rang me today after driving both the Forester base model manual and the same in the XV. She has gone for the Forester because of the room and she said that she just felt at home in it.
Quoted $30,990 on the road.