Well, I have had it a year now, time for an update.
The facts:
Ordered late January 2016; built February and delivered Easter (March) 2016 with 4 kms on the odometer. Currently has 33,2xx kms. Lifetime average fuel consumption is at 8.7l/100 kms. More on the vehicle itself here
https://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=95997.0 With the exception of a couple of short trips to Powell River, all the kms have been on Vancouver Island. It has been to Holberg (about 20 kms short of the Cape Scott Provincial Park parking lot, as far north and west as you can drive on the Island), Zeballos, Gold River, Tahsis, Bamfield plus some other out of the way places.
Quick summary: no issues to date and no buyer’s remorse.
Has had 4 services, and no warranty repair work. Other repairs/modifications:
New floor mats from Findways (more here:
https://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=95593.msg1201580#msg1201580)
New tires on the labour day weekend, Nokian WRG3 (more here
https://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=96389.0)
New fog light lens, used a Rock Auto part rather than the OEM (more here
https://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=97362.0)
Needs a new windshield, will be waiting till winter is actually over!
Now for what people really want to know, what is the good, the bad and the meh.
First the bad (since that is what everyone seems to like to focus on
):
The worst thing is the head unit
At this trim level it comes with the satnav option as well as the higher end audio system. What bugs me:
- Sat nav logic is mindboggling
Two examples: traveling from Victoria to Campbell River, approximately half way the Inland Island Highway (No. 19) becomes a controlled access freeway with speeds up to 120 kph. At this point you can also take the old highway, 19A. And that is what the satnav told me to do, for two exits. Once it realized I was sticking to the freeway, it recalculated my time to destination and it was 36 minutes faster than taking 19A that has speeds of 50-90 kph. The other weird one is whenever a gravel road is included in the route, the speed for the time to destination seems to be calculated at 20 kph for the gravel section, making that function useless.
- Address entry for the satnav is much too specific. Tried to enter a friends who just live outside city limits, so searched for Port Alberni but it could not find the street. Had to indicate the Regional District they are in first. Would be better if it would search near a town, not just confined to the municipal boundary. What happens when I don’t know the RD or municipality name?
- Poor layout of some controls, having to go a couple of pages deep to get to do simple things like stop navigation. Another example is that the screen dimming is not tied into the rest of the instruments and takes 4 pages before getting to where you can change the brightness
Only good thing is that a long press on the on/off button kills the screen but not the music.
- If using a USB stick for music which I do a lot; if you delete a file it is still on the stick and the head unit still sees it, so will play the song at some point. Only way around this I have found is to re-format the stick and re-load the music. Not a problem on the RAV or the replacement head unit I had in the ’09. Another little pain thing.
- Needs bigger buttons to stab at, like what is on the home page. Almost impossible to use the touch buttons on most roads around here due to jiggling hand/fingers. Rather poor use of the large screen area.
- The 100 page User Manual that is specific to this head unit notes some advanced audio settings, like an equalizer and automatic volume adjustment for speed (loved that on my ’09!). But these are not available when the satnav is installed. Dealer says it is something to do with not enough space for the firmware to have those and the satnav
- As noted by no-san, the inclusion of buttons for apps that are not available in Canada.
I do have to admit, unlike what I was told, the update to the maps I did this weekend were free, not the $250 that had been mentioned when I bought it. This may be a change in policy from Subaru, or the dealership not knowing what it really was.
Other negatives, in no particular order:
- What is with that rear cargo light location? The ’09 had it in the roof, just ahead of the hatch opening and it provided lots of light. But now it’s on the passenger side wall, about 3/4 up from the floor and window. I got the side mesh package holders and when there is anything there (I have my first aid kit stored in this spot) the light is completely blocked. Useless. But not as bad as the RAV that has it’s in the door that swings open so lights up the ground well, but nothing to the interior.
- All black interior from windows down, something to break that up would have been nice. Of course knew that going in, and the huge sun roof helps along with all the glass.
- Difficult to have a full size spare tire. Other markets, like Australia, do have full size spares but the cargo floor needs to be elevated to do that as the well is not deep enough.
- Both the center stack cubby and center storage bin are smaller than the ’09, and in the case of the center bin less configurable.
- Disappointed that there is no rear seat flip out table like the ’09 had, in addition to the flip down armrest.
- Last, but not really least, is that there has been absolutely no follow-up from Subaru. On anything. No thanks for buying this, no questions about what I like, or don’t like. Nothing. From a customer relationship perspective I find this rather strange. Toyota is constantly sending stuff to my wife, like spring and fall service deals.
Positives, also in no particular order:
- That power delivery! Wow, just wow.
- Fuel consumption. Compared to the ’09 at 9.3 and the wife’s RAV at 11.3 (
), the 8.7 is pretty decent, especially for the power and torque you get.
- Quiet. More quite than the RAV by a long way actually. But should be at the Limited trim level.
- Real buttons/knobs for the HVAC and volume/tuning for the head unit, plus other functions (heated seats, etc)
Not much reliance on touch screens/buttons for interacting on key operations.
- Decent ride. I was expecting much harsher with the combination of “low” (for Subaru) profile tires and the sporty suspension the XT gets, but has not been an issue. Still very good on rough gravel and just soaks up washboard like it wasn’t there.
- X-Drive works very well, especially the hill decent control part. Also useful in stop and go traffic as it remaps the initial throttle response to be much less touchy; wish it was like that in normal mode.
- Traction remains excellent. With the torque it is possible to break all the tires free under certain conditions, but you really need to work at that.
- Overall simplicity of the interior. This I like as compared to some of rolling computers that are out there. I just want to drive, and focus on the driving as much as possible, so simple is good for me.
- Can flip the rear seats flat without having to remove the headrests, so the rear releases are truly useful, unlike the RAV where the headrests need to be removed first.
- Some elements of the EyeSight system, notably the adaptive cruise. I use the cruise control now way more than I have on any other vehicle.
- The sound from the audit system is the best I have had in any vehicle. Makes long drives much nicer.
- I appreciate the self-dimming inside and outside mirrors.
- I also appreciate the keyless entry/push button start. No fumbling for a fob, let alone a key.
- The weird Subaru way of doing things. The eccentricity of Subaru appeals to me for some reason; I can see that it would annoy a lot of people but not me.
Meh
- Reliability. So far no issues, but I wonder about the long term (10 years; 300,000 + kms) reliability, especially the fancy electronics and the CVT.
- The CVT. It works well, gives good fuel consumption, does not drone like some do, has the multiple transmission modes (at least 9 options), is well suited to the engine, but just seems disconnected from the driving experience.
- Handling. Is better than the ’09 and much better than the RAV. Corners flatter, with good speed and no drama. But like the CVT, just seems to be some level of disconnect with the road. I blame this mostly on the steering that does not do a good job on communicating what the front wheels are doing, seems sort of vague.
- Eyesight. As I noted above, the adaptive cruise is good, and so far the pre-collision braking has been fine although not seriously tested. I could do without the lane departure warning, I end up turning it off in the rain and on gravel roads most of the time. The rest is meh, take it or leave it. Fortunately it is generally unobtrusive in its operation.
Overall I am really enjoying the XT and am happy with the purchase. Lets see what the next 12 months bring!
