2002 Subaru Forester, One Owner, Looks And Runs Fine, No Reserve, Ice Cold A/c on 2040-cars

Auto blog

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Lexus tops JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study again, Buick bests Toyota

It shouldn't surprise anyone, but Lexus has once again taken the top spot in JD Power's Vehicle Dependability Study. That'd be the Japanese luxury brand's fourth straight year at the top of table. The big news, though, is the rise of Buick. General Motor's near-premium brand beat out Toyota to take second place, with 110 problems per 100 vehicles compared to Toyota's 111 problems. Lexus owners only reported 89 problems per 100 vehicles. Besides Buick's three-position jump, Scion enjoyed a major improvement, jumping 13 positions from 2014. Ram and Mitsubishi made big gains, as well, moving up 11 and 10 positions, respectively. In terms of individual segments, GM and Toyota both excelled, taking home seven segment awards each. The study wasn't good news for all involved, though. A number of popular automakers finished below the industry average of 147 problems per 100 vehicles, including Subaru, (157PP100), Volkswagen (165PP100), Ford/Hyundai (188PP100 each) and Mini (193PP100). The biggest losers (by a tremendous margin, we might add) were Land Rover and Fiat, recording 258 and 273 problems per 100 vehicles. The next closest brand was Jeep, with 197PP100. While the Vehicle Dependability Study uses the same measurement system as the Initial Quality Survey, the two metrics analyze very different things. The VDS looks at problems experienced by original owners of model year 2012 vehicles over the past 12 months, while the oft-quoted IQS focuses on problems in the first 90 days of new-vehicle ownership. Like the IQS, though, the VDS has a rather broad definition of what a problem is. Because of that, a low score from JD Power is no guarantee of extreme unreliability, so much as just poor design. In this most recent study, the two most reported problems focused on Bluetooth connectivity and the voice-command systems. The former leaves plenty of room for user error due to poor design (particularly true of the Bluetooth systems on the low-scoring Fords, Volkswagens and Subarus), while the second is something JD Power has already confirmed as being universally terrible. That makes means that while these studies are important, they shouldn't be taken as gospel when it comes to automotive reliability. News Source: JD PowerImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Jeremy Korzeniewski / AOL Buick Fiat Ford GM Hyundai Jeep Land Rover Lexus MINI Mitsubishi RAM Scion Subaru Toyota Volkswagen Auto Repair Ownership study

Check out the 2017 Subaru Impreza live from New York

We just attended the reveal of the 2017 Subaru Impreza. While we don't have any more details ... yet, we do have live photos and video of the car to tide you over. Subaru will unveil its brand-new 2017 Impreza sedan and hatchback at the New York Auto Show on March 23. The reveal will finally tell us whether the company's designers will bring the sharp styling from its concepts to the road. From what we can see in this teaser, though, the production car won't be quite as forward thinking as we'd like. View 11 Photos Subaru has released a single teaser image of the front end, and we can already see that the headlights look like fairly conventional units. In the conceptual models, LED running lights came to a sharp point that drew the eye to the grille. It was certainly a more interesting design than in this photo. The new Imprezas are the first models to use the Subaru Global Platform, which underpins all the company's upcoming models. It's 70- to 100-percent more rigid than the current chassis and has a 40-percent increase in impact energy absorption. A lower center of gravity and reduced body roll should improve the handling. Subaru also promises the 2017 Imprezas have a more spacious interior and upgraded in-car tech. Subaru's concepts made the new Impreza look exciting, and we still hope some of that translates to production. The hatchback arrived first wearing silver at the Tokyo Motor Show. A red sedan then added a trunk to the honed shape at the LA Auto Show about a month later. Related Video: 2017 SUBARU IMPREZA TO DEBUT AT NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW ? Reveal on March 23, 2016 ? Completely redesigned for 2017 ? Sedan and 5-door to debut March 10, 2016 – Cherry Hill, N.J. – Subaru of America, Inc. announced today that the all-new 2017 Impreza will debut at the 2016 New York International Auto Show on March 23, 2016. The Impreza has been completely redesigned inside and out, from upgraded in-car technology and a more spacious interior to its sleek new body design. The updated model will include signature Subaru features such as Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive and award-winning safety technology. Both the sedan and 5-door model will be unveiled at the press conference scheduled for 12:20 p.m. ET on March 23, 2016 at the Subaru display following a speech by Fuji Heavy Industries president & CEO, Yasuyuki Yoshinaga. About Subaru of America, Inc. Subaru of America, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. of Japan.