I have my Forester for 4 years under lease and had it serviced by a Subaru dealer on time every time. At 98 000km I was informed that the head gaskets were leaking and need to be replaced. This was done at a a Subaru service centre. I contacted Subaru Australia to be told that this is "normal wear and tear"...... Sorry Subaru but that is complete rubbish. After 40 years of driving and having owned multiple cars 98 000km is not "normal" for head gasket replacement - frankly it is either a design fault or my car was a lemon.

I have no com...Read more

When I bought my XS Premium, I was slightly disappointed at the plastic like instrumentation. Would have loved the Red Tacho of the XT. Also the metal skin of the car seemed very thin and the doors would close with a 'clang' and not a 'clunk'.

Having said that, there is nothing else negative to say about this car. It is a beautiful car to drive. The missus and I recently travelled to 7,000km trip to SA and back with 4 adults and the drive was great. It sat us comfortably and even after a long days drive, I came out of the driver's seat...Read more

I purchased a new 2012MY12 2.5LX Forester and everything was fine until my clutch completely wore out after 26,000kms and to add insult to injury am told by the Subaru Service Centre that I will have to wait around 4 weeks for a part to arrive from Japan.
At the time of failure I had been towing a box trailer with a known load of 320kgs and a total weight of 620kgs including the trailer. The distance travelled was a total of approximately 10kms along predominantly flat roads and then backed into my driveway.
On a previous occasion I had towe...Read more

This is my first Subaru, a 2012 Forester Diesel, and bought it because I always believed they had an exceptional reputation.

I was wrong.

1. Power steering sometimes won't engage on startup and unable to steer for a few seconds, potentially an accident.
2. After 60k kms, I'm having alternator issues. Been stranded twice already as the battery gets drained after 30minutes of just listing to the radio with engine off. The alternator wasn't charging battery properly.
3. Worse of all, it stalls too often when accelerating from idle. This is...Read more

We test drove a number of 4WD around the same price bracket as the forester. In terms of handling nothing matched the forester. It really is nice to drive and felt a lot more powerful than many others. It basically glides uphill which made it stand out from the others. The downside is the fuel consumption, interior is not the best, audio and Bluetooth are very average. However anyone who likes music will usually invest an a new system. It would be better with more leg room in the cabin too (I'm 6'5). Despite these issues we are very happy with ...Read more

This car is great value for money...very spacious, good driving position, relatively smooth. Likes a drink, though.

The biggest incentive to drive economically are the awfull thrashy noises coming from the engine when pushed.

It is let down by a poor attention to detail. e.g. Interior plastics are hard and feel CHEAP! The audio system is equally CHEAP and NASTY. Actually looks like something you would expect to see in a bargain bin at a CheapAsChips store! It does the job, but really detracts from the perception of quality of the rest of...Read more

I bought mine second hand with around 18,000kms on the clock and have put on another 15,000 or so and the cat has never missed a beat.

There is some feedback around about these cars being expensive to maintain - rule number one would be to never take the car to a Subaru dealer for anything. What ever extra value you think you are building into the car when you have an "all subaru serviced log book" will be far less than it actually costs to you get the servicing in the first place. These are simple cars - any decent qualified mechanic can se...Read more

Having owned a 91 liberty for several years my partner and I were confident with the Subaru brand but feel that the xs premium is a disappointment... Earlier in the year we had also purchased a new vr lancer and had been extremely impressed with the technology and the price. We had therefore assumed that the technology in a 24k car should be a baseline in regards to Bluetooth, trip computer, range etc. The forester was obtained as a lease so the purchasing and test drive process was a little different to normal. From the time we picked it up we...Read more

Never ever buy a subaru the quality and service is shocking.

I purchased a subaru from eblen subaru in adelaide in 2008.

Faulty accelerator switch first year.
Within 9 months i experienced random aceleration but they couldnt find anything and suggested if there was something wrong it would show a faulty accelerator switch.
Eventually the switch did fail and was replaced. Since then i have experienced no random acceleration. The switch probably periodically failed and explains why the problem couldnt be detected.

Failure to honour extended warrantee.
When i purchesed the car we believed we had 5yrs extened warrantee that covered the same issues as a normal warrantee. ...Read more

When we got pregnant with our first, it sounded the death knoll for my wife's little Celica. We shopped around testing everything from Klugers to Dualis(es?). I have a (really) old liberty, which has made me appreciate both reliability and that additional security and handling that the hallowed symmetrical four-wheel drive can impart. So I kept at her until she bought it.

Our first is now two, the car is running like clockwork, and if it initially felt large, ungainly or unsporty, I recall that we bought it for safety and practicality. Havin...Read more