Xs or xt

Gidday OO

OutbackOiler said:
Well I have been lent an xs overnight to see how I go with all the family, was worried about the size with 3 kids and 1 being a teenager. It's ok on power when full of people, easy to overtake on highway. Being an auto it is a little sluggish and i am worried about it fully loaded on big trips with the added possibility of a trailer, I wish I had a turbo to drive up here just to compare but townsville is all about cruisers, hiluxs, commodores and falcons. Anything else and they think your odd and using indicators is downright offensive plus the right lane is reserved for toyotas, not that I am bitter or anything 😊. I think we can pull the forrie off with the family. Just not sure about the turbo or not.
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Look, it's not going to perform like a twin turbo Liberty ... Just ain't going to happen :iconwink:.

It will sure as hell be an adequate performer.

Really depends on what you want to do in it ...
IMHO, "family transport" and "screaming wheelie, milk-bar hoon boy racer" don't fit comfortably in the same book together, let alone in the same sentence or paragraph ... :poke: :rotfl:

Thanks everyone for your input, also how do you guys find them towing?
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I have towed my loaded 7x4 trailer up and down the Cape Otway and Skenes Creek Roads with my '93 Impreza more times than I can remember. Maybe a hundred times? The 1.8L Impreza was heavy as heck, and gutless to boot, with poorly chosen gear ratios, and bad ECU programming that Subaru changed in the 2.0L version released in 1994 (?). I had to row it along in 2nd 3rd and 4th on the steep uphill bits with the trailer weighing in at maybe 3/4+ ton. Never once did it look like losing the plot. It just did it.

Compared with my '93 Impreza, my MY06 Forester weighs 20.5% more (unladen) and has 59% more power and 53.8% more torque, with a very flat torque curve - basically flat from 1800 to 6200 rpm. The torque curve of the Impreza was usable from about 3800 rpm to 6000+ rpm, but was very 'peaky'; like driving a car with a very high lift, longduration, full-race camshaft, if you know what I mean.

The gearing and ECU programming of the Forester is almost infinitely better, and one can drive it all day in LR with Subaru's blessing! LR tends to have a bit of a whine to it, but that's to be expected. The vLSD at the back also helps in off-road situations. Maybe the vLSD is not the perfect solution, any more than the 1.196:1 LR is - but they sure as hell beat the crap out of not having either of them.

I have only towed my trailer behind my Fox a couple of times, and it now weighs about 50-80% more unladen than it did before I had it rebuilt and fully enclosed. I wasn't even aware of its being there!
 
Ratbag said:
IMHO, "family transport" and "screaming wheelie, milk-bar hoon boy racer" don't fit comfortably in the same book together, let alone in the same sentence or paragraph ... :poke:
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Not until the XT was released but then that's exactly how it was described in almost every review.
 
G'day again ST

Ratbag said:
IMHO, "family transport" and "screaming wheelie, milk-bar hoon boy racer" don't fit comfortably in the same book together, let alone in the same sentence or paragraph ... :poke: :rotfl:
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stilson said:
Not until the XT was released but then that's exactly how it was described in almost every review.
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One is either in it alone driving like a milk-bar hoon boy - in which case one is putting one's family at risk of not having a Dad around ...

OR:

One is putting one's entire family at risk by driving it like a milk-bar hoon boy while they are in the car with one ...

I don't see any winners in either situation - a non-zero sum game (see Games Theory).

Everyone loses ... :(
 
I don't think the ability of the XT makes every XT driver an accident waiting to happen. Nor should it persuade someone from buying one.
 
pezimm said:
I've been running around 11.5L/100km in a more city oriented circuit... On the highway, it's about 10.5L/100km.

Pedro.
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I agree with the above on my 05XT. Even though I have modified mine to about 200kw at the engine, the good ECU tune still gives that economy.
And I never need to top up engine oil in between servicing.
Best was over 600km to a tank, country drive with 3 passengers plus luggage.
 
Ratbag said:
IMHO, "family transport" and "screaming wheelie, milk-bar hoon boy racer" don't fit comfortably in the same book together, let alone in the same sentence or paragraph ...
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the XT is all of those things that's what I love about it.
drives offroad check
haul a 7 piece outdoor setting check
mid 13s on the quarter mile check

In the 7 years I've owned it I've only had 1 speeding ticket for 9kmh over. Not saying I'm an angel either I've been up to 230kmh in it on a private road...
If you are easily corrupted by power, best to stick to a non turbo...
 
On the auto, you can still drive it in semi manual mode (forget the name) where you can tell the system which gear you'd like it to be. I think this would be useful to get a bit more performance out of it.

I have an XS manual forester, came from a 2002 automatic ford taurus, which had nice power from it's V6. I'd say the forester has equal or better power, wayyyy better if I wait to shift until later in the RPMs.

At times I wish I had an XT, but not often at all and definitely not while off roading. Usually downshifting a gear will solve any power issues.

If you're going to do towing, make sure to get a add on transmission cooler.
 
towing in the xs will have it kick down a lot down to 3rd from 4th, which can become very annoying. with cruise control on my xs not towing still loves to kick down at the first sign of a slope/hill. i suspect due to the extra power in the xt this would not be as big of a issue.
 
Since the accident I have had to close my business and hand back the outback, I just want to make sure the replacement does the job and keeps me happy.
 
Gidday Lefty & OO

lefty said:
If you are easily corrupted by power, best to stick to a non turbo...
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I confess ... :iconwink: :lol:
The last ticket I got was now over 10 years ago, but it has taken me a long time to learn any kind of restraint in this regard.

I passed up buying an E-Type Jaguar in the early 1980s because I knew that my licence wouldn't last 5 minutes ...

OutbackOiler said:
Since the accident I have had to close my business and hand back the outback, I just want to make sure the replacement does the job and keeps me happy.
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OO, the N/A 2.5L donk has plenty of grunt for everything that one needs it to do. If you want more grunt, that's a different matter altogether.

Crikey, even my old 1.8L Impreza would have been fine for me had it been wrapped up in a Forester body with decent clearance and approach/departure angles!

SWMBO's Fox is an MY10 with the sports shift auto. It is very easy to go faster than one is allowed to in it ... Same with my MY06 DR 5MT.

Sorry to hear that your injury has caused you so much financial damage as well as the damage to your good self :(.
 
Ratbag said:
Sorry to hear that your injury has caused you so much financial damage as well as the damage to your good self :(.
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Had a safety catch give way on a truck cab, I was working on the a/c unit and got crushed between the guard and the front wheel, money comes and goes I am just happy to be alive😊

Adapt and overcome
 
Same here, mate. We have both been very fortunate to be here still.

I have had some pretty brutal surgery done to me over the last 11 years.
Just glad that it could be done, and that the things that needed removal/repair could be fixed.
Some people have problems that cannot be fixed.
I am very grateful that mine could be.

It all comes at a cost, of course - BUT still beats the crap out of being dead!
 
Funny thing is the long term damage I have is because I lifted the cab with my left arm enough so that I could get out (for those that don't know the cab over trucks that don't have hydraulic assistance usually require 2 people to saftley lift it). I have damaged my shoulder from the lift which I have been told by one of Australia's top thorasic surgeons "you have acute bursitis, acute tendonosis and degradation of the ac joint, sorry there is nothing that western medicine can do for you".

One more car question, do both these models have the same ride height?
 
It sure can be, trust me :twisted:
As long as it's done sensibly & in a safe & controlled environment :iconwink:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
OutbackOiler said:
What sort of Kms have you guys got on your XT's and have any of you blown a turbo ?
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Mine is an 07 with 212,700km and owned from new. No blown turbo and does not use any oil. Only concerns I've had was the replacement of the secondary air pump exhaust valve under warranty at 104,000km (all these 06/07 XT models will suffer from that - and now the pump itself is noisy but it only operates from cold for the first 30 seconds - they tell me a new pump is $2000 so I'm not changing it) and new airconditioning compressor (that had seized) at 196,000km - a very expensive exercise at $2800. Otherwise it almost feels and looks new and is still on its original brake pads and struts.
 
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Gidday Guzzla

I think that owning a turbocharged car from new is a bit different from buying one s/h ... For obvious reasons.

BTW, our usual mechanic, Ross, completely overhauled the air-conditioning in Roo1 for about $550 (IIRC). That included re-con of the compressor and replacement of all seals and parts to be compatible with R134A refrigerant (OEM was R12), and re-gassing with R134A.

Yours being a 2007 model, it would already have been R134A, so $2,800 seems a tad high to me :( :(
Is there something specially expensive about the air-con compressor for the turbo or the more modern models generally?
 
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