i know there's already a facebook usergroup for it, but I'm curious to know if there's any other FB20 owners in here in BAIC.

 

I drive a Subaru XV Crosstrek with an FB20. Not the most powerful engine ever, but it's fuel efficient and sufficient for a daily driver. I REALLY like hitting redline on my 5MT

 

Hey man... I thought you were in socal for some reason....

 

Man I thought it was gutless even with the manual when I test drove it... my question... why is it a 5MT?


My wife's forester is a 6spd. Still gutless but it gets out of it's own way and it does pretty good on mpg. I got 32.4 last weekend... and in general I run between 26-28 consistently... not sure how she is ALWAYS around 24/25...

 

We picked up a '16 Crosstrek for i<3dirt (can't tag because it still breaks the webz) .
It's seems sufficient compared to her previous 2.5 OBS, once the CVT figures out what it wants to do.

 

I've been living in the South Bay my whole life (except for military service reasons i.e. training, deployments, etc). What gave you the impression I'm from SoCal?

I love me a manual transmission. I know the Lineartronic CVT is the superior choice, but I'm stubborn and wanted to stick (no pun intended) with having three pedals on my vehicle.

The FB20 isn't powerful, but I still consider it safe enough for merging on a freeway, just barely. Regardless, I still love the rev-happy nature of the DOHC FB20, a big improvement over the mostly-SOHC naturally-aspirated EJ engines which didn't enjoy going above 4000 RPM. And the payoff for being a "gutless" engine is better fuel economy, a tradeoff I'm willing to keep (so far).

I've driven manual most of my life and I feel that CVT's are better in regard to power delivery that most conventional automatics I've driven. The best conventional automatics I've driven are Allison Automatic transmissions, which behave very well in regards to gear choice and shift timing. I've found that conventional passenger car automatic transmissions are very bad in power delivery as well as shift timing and gear choice and leave me wishing to manually change gears in total frustration.

Subaru's Lineartronic CVT felt... linear to me as their trademarked name implies. I've test driven a CVT Crosstrek Hybrid (GP chassis), a CVT Impreza (GP chassis), a HT-CVT Forester XT (SJ chassis), and an HT-CVT WRX (VA chassis) and enjoyed how there was a direct correlation between power delivery and accelerator pedal application rather than feeling the clunky, inefficient, lazy shifts of most conventional automatics.

I hate how most automatics I have to give it more gas just to downshift but consequently also apply more power than I intend due to their programmed tendency of upshifting too much and upshifting too early of an RPM. I especially hate the lack of engine braking on most conventional automatics, though that is expected of any transmission that isn't a manual.