What a piece of crap. I have never been so disappointed in a test drive in my life.
When I went up to Carlsen I was 75% sure that this was going to be the car for my family (replacing a 91 Explorer with 250K on it). The styling was great, very FX35-ish but when I drove it - jesus this thing does nothing well.
The brake pedal is soft and vauge, the engine feels gutless. I drive a 2000 Outback Sport (2.2Liter) every day and the B9 felt very slow.
The handling is frankly awful; I took the northbound onramp to 101 from Seatport at ~45MPG and the thing felt like it was close to flipping or at least going into terminal understeer.

I am so disappointed.

On the plus side we drove a Legacy GT (2.5 Turbo) and was very impressed. Great car there... it may be the next buy

 

they should have invested in bringing more STi models to the US market, that trying to jump into the SUV world

 

It is the ugliest car subaru has come out with in a long *** time... uglier than even the baja.

 

See I like the Baja. B9 It is an SUV. There are only a handfull that will actually handle well. It obviously is a flop. I have yet to see one on the road.

 

well wait till next year, they are gonna turbo the thing. And as far as the handling goes i dont know why it felt like crap. I have never had a customer complain on a b9 test drive. it's double wishbone in the back and coilover setup in front. If you want come drive it over here in downtown subaru :P haha jp .. buh yea go with a rx400h, save da enviroment.

 

Sounds like it handles similar to a Jeep Cherokee.

 

I was following one in the wild (Bodega Hwy.), and he had less body roll than the Acura MDX who we were following. At least until we got to a legal passing zone. Then he floored it, and passed the MDX. Then he ran pretty solidly through the rest of the twisties, which I admired.

He finally stopped at a lookout point along Highway 1, and we chatted for a little while. His comments told me that he knew what he was doing with this vehicle, and gave me his fair evaluation after over 1K miles of ownership. He thinks that they could/should put a turbo in it, since it does need a little more pep to climb the hills where he lives (out near Yosemite), and it downshifts into third when he feels it should stay in overdrive.

He loves the handling of his 'beca, and didn't have ANY complaints in that dept. His only other complaint was with the steering wheel controls, that when he is cornering, sometimes he hits a button and loses his radio station...

 

Do note the TWO subaru salesmen are defending the B9, lol


truth is, if you took any on ramp at 45mph in any SUV i'm impressed.

I'm sure for an SUV it's probably pretty nice. It will never handle like any of the other cars subaru makes, cause they are cars.

-Gagan

 

it is an SUV, it is not supposed to handle like a car.

 

the forester is supposed to be an SUV right? those things can hang with our imprezas.
:wink wink:

 

I love Subarus. End of story. My next car will probably still be a Subaru.

 

My Ford Explorer with I-beams and a solid axle leafspring rear suspension handles better.

Big cars don't scare me, I have a C-prepared Camaro.
I think the we are gonna buy either the FX35 or the Saab 9-X7

 

I do that kinda **** in my turbo deisel. i believe its how well you know your verhicle and what you are capable of. But yes the car does have some effect on driving.

 

if you are looking into the saab 9-7x, you can shoot me a pm too

 

the tribeca is a stupid looking car!

and if i see that damn television commercial for it with that f**king annoying a** song again, i will have to kill somebody!