trev0006

Subaru AWD

turbo_4_life

iTrader: (4)

Subaru AWD OWNS

flipmode

iTrader: (3)

repost

meilers

Holy crud, the B9 vs the Volvo was a disaster -- my wife's been pining after that Volvo, but there is NO WAY I'm going to buy one now seeing it handle so poorly.

I still think our Legacy GT Wagon is an incredibly impressive handler; I've been able to fool quite a few "performance car" drivers in a turn with that sleeper, and it is stock. With my modified WRX (springs, strut bars, sway bars, endlinks, various bushings, 17" wheels, 225 tires) I've never been through a corner, street or track, without gaining a few inches (or a few dozen feet) on other cars. Subaru AWD is best-in-class, period.

STi-owns-evo

iTrader: (4)

This test is probably extremely bias. It was meant to show Subaru AWD vs the comptetition.

So, to market, I bet the tires on each car were probably very different. This makes a huge difference in the roller test and the handling tests, wet and dry.

Also, in all the tests except for the roller, the cars were driven by Subaru sales reps.

Also, notice there was no Audi cars? Audi basically invented AWD and have always been top notch with their AWD system. I think Audi's system kills Subaru's.

So, I'd definately say it's good to fool incompetent people, but if you know anything about those tests, you can tell they're definately bias.

meilers

Subaru is infamous for putting extremely lousy tires on their cars (RE92s, anyone?) so I don't think tire bias was a problem. I know the Volvo SUV comes with nice Michelins, and almost all cars come with the same level of moderate, multi-season tires from the lot.

Even if the cars were driven by people who wanted to make them look bad, which seems unlikely, you can't fake the huge amounts of body roll and plowing in corners that many of those cars did on the slalom test. The Volvo SUV looked to be mere inches from a rollover, and that is a $42,000 car with a highly-touted anti-rollover stability control system.

Audi didn't invent AWD, by any means; believe it or not, that is a WW2 technology developed by the US for Jeeps, but it dates back to tractor designs of the early 1930s. I've driven Audi Quattros in very hairy conditions (I took one on a test drive with 3 inches of unplowed fresh snow on the ground) and they are certainly very nice, but they come with a 3800-lb car attached to them. That extra 600 pounds really helps the car stick!

the-one1

As much as I like the Subaru AWD , the traction test do look biased.

mulcibre

iTrader: (14)

I would have liked to see the audi system in action. Also, the mitsubishi AWD. I feel those two are probably closer competition to subaru than the others were.

vitaliko

i would really like to see comparison done between the latest gen. quattro(found in rs4) vs sti vs evo

ps. there's another video on the internet somewhere which has all these car drive up a snowy hill, noone beats the audi but then again no subies in that either

HomerJay

iTrader: (3)

Here's a comparison without bias.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/06/...vs-subaru-awd/

93Impreza

Yeah, I've seen that one too. The Audi killed them all but like you said - there weren't any Subarus. Audi and Subaru are probably both very equal in handeling with the primary difference being level of luxury and cost.

That and I'd be willing to bet the Subaru is more reliable than the Audi.

meilers

That's idiotic. If anything, the traction tests are the ones that would be IMPOSSIBLE to bias. You could bias the handling tests by just driving the other cars poorly, but the roller test is an industry-standard test that does clearly show the Subaru symmetrical systems' advantage over hybridized/part-time approaches.

All of you with your "Audi, Mitsubishi" whining -- why would you be so hesitant to believe that Subaru can put together a great AWD system that works in many different conditions. Don't you ever DRIVE one of them?

meilers

I love that one. Man, it kicks *** to see a little station wagon tackling a 30-degree slope that would give even 4x4 trucks a scare. I took my wife's Legacy GT wagon from Eugene, Oregon to Mt. McKinley for some skiing just after 3 days of snow, and made it with no trouble at all; plenty of trucks, SUVs, Volvos and other types of cars in the ditch the entire way there (including an Audi TT quattro!) but I had no problems, even without chains.

HomerJay

iTrader: (3)

I was out flyfishing and the guide took me out to a remote spot in his Range Rover and it was pretty isolated and no cell phones worked there. The lady who worked at the lodge came looking for us because I had a phone call. When I saw her drive her little outback toward us, I was pretty shocked.

meilers

My brother had a 1992 Subaru Loyale wagon (also sold as Liberty?) in which we explored the entire northwest, from Mt. Hood and the Olympia National Forest to St. Helens and ice caving in Idaho. We took that thing and its 5 inches of axle clearest down roads that even the Forest Service Rangers wouldn't go on with their Jeep Cherokees. That thing had 272,000 miles on it when he sold it, and still ran like a champ.