Ok...I thought it seemed like I wasn't quite going as fast as what my Speedo was showing. I got the GPS out this morning and as it turns out, the speedo shows about 5MPH faster than I'm actually going.

Anyone else have this issue and more to the point, anyone have any luck getting the dealer to do anything about it?

 

Well...if it was JUST the speedo difference, it wouldn't be THAT big of a deal to me. However, if you consider the extra milage it racks up, that IS a big deal to me.

Take this as a for instance:

You drive 55Mph for 2hrs a day = 550 Miles per 5 day week.
Your OD indicates 60Mph for 2hrs a day = 600 Miles per 5 day week.

In a year, that works out to 28,600 actually driven, but 31,200 miles on the OD.

That's a big deal to me. Over the life of the car, this could be 10-20K miles difference!

I figure if we can put a man on the moon and do heart tranplants, someone should be able to figure out how to make a speedometer that is accurate....especially on a $30,000+ car. Is that REALLY too much to ask?

 

go to the dealer but there are tsb's where it says its normal. so i dont think u will get too far

 

My STI reads 5 mph high. I also used my gps, but I also used my gps for a 300 mile trip and the gps & odometer both said 300 miles. I don't think you have to worry about extra miles.

 

Dropped it off this evening for that and a couple other things...I'll let you know what they say. I for one don't see how that could possibly be considered "normal" and now that I think about it, I don't think it's legal either. I'll have to bone up on the odometer laws, but I think they're required to ensure it's at least somewhat accurate for mileage reporting issues.

Scott, I hate to just flat out say you're wrong, but you're wrong on this one man. If you're speedo is off, then absolutely your milage will be off. They only use a single speedo cable or pickup or whatever they use these days to drive both the speedo and OD. The odometer picks up milage based on a calculation from your speedometer. I really can't see them NOT giving us something as simple as a cigarette lighter yet installing a second speed pickup on the tranny just for the hell of it.

Anyway, I'm not trying to jump down anyone's throat about this, so sorry if I've offended anyone. I'm just a little miffed that they could think recording more mileage than you actually accumulate is in any way normal. I guess I'm getting ahead of myself here because my dealer has yet to even look at it.

Take care and have a great evening...I'm signing off for tonight.

 

its normal..

this is why police cant pull you over for doing 5 over and if they do it wont hold water.

something as small as tire size can throw it off

 

Agreed...a tire size can throw it off. HOWEVER - The car now has 800 miles on it. It's still wearing the rubber that I drove it off the showroom floor with and the rubber that Subaru mounted on it in Japan.

It's not normal in any way to be off that much. I've owned a lot of cars in my time and if the original tire sizes are used, it's usually within 1-2Mph + or -.

 

UPDATE:

Got it back from the dealer last night. As expected, they claimed it is within tolerances and refused to do anything about it...with one exception. If I could PROVE to them that my Garmin GPS is accurate with a certificate of accuracy from the manufacturer, then they'd do something about it. I'm sure this is just something they think I won't bother with doing and they think this will get me off their backs about it. I have already contacted Garmin about getting a certificate from them, so we'll see where this will lead. I'm also thinking about finding somewhere where we can put it on rollers and get the mileage that way. As I said, I'm not willing to just accept that my new $30,000 car adds 2-3K miles per year on the OD than it actually is driven.

 

told ya, it is normal, all cars do it

 

it is

 

Whatever.