After a week or so of driving the Subaru, vs. the Saturn, here are a few things you won’t read about in Car & Driver:
- The hood is much shorter. This gives better visibility (even with the scoop), and lets me park a lot further forward. I have still not figured out how to park as far right as I used to. even though the car is no wider.
- Unlike the Saturn, which had a long, broad hood, and a trunk, there’s no good place on the Subaru to stack stuff (incoming mail, sprinkler supplies, sections of the newspaper, groceries, boxes of soda). This is, I suppose, a good thing, but it’s a bit irksome at times, since we are seriously short of stacking surfaces in the garage.
- The Saturn had flip-up headlights that went dark (but didn’t flip down) when you turned off the motor; instead, a chime would, er, chime. The Subaru headlights go dark when you take out the key and all, but there’s no chime (and, obviously, they don’t flip back down). Result: I keep finding myself driving home in the afternoon with my lights on. The only way I notice it is when I can’t see the clock display because it’s dimmed (because the lights are on). This is not, I suspect, what they meant by “daytime running lights.”
- No antenna to go wubba-wubba-wubba when I drive up into the garage before the door is completely open. No antenna to be whipped back and forth, and possibly destroyed, by car washes. No antenna onto which to put little antenna bongles from Carls or Jack in the Box.
- The cruise control is non-persistent. It turns itself off when the motor is shut off, so I have to turn it back on again to use it. I’ve never quite understood that. It has a lever control, like the van does, but the on/off is on the lower-left console, which is an annoying thing.
- I’ve loaded six CDs into the CD player. Woo-hoo! Alas, it doesn’t remember the position last played on each CD, so if I change, it starts over from the beginning. That makes a great deal of sense, but is nonetheless annoying. Especially if I toggle between radio and CD (on commercials) and accidently hit the wrong button.
- The gradations on the speedometer are less fine than on the Saturn, so it’s tough to say when you’re really on a given MPH. On the other hand, 73 MPH seems to be (I kid you not) straight up on the gauge (“12 o’clock”), which is, ah, very convenient.
- The positioning of the clutch is still a bit weird. If I sit close enough to foot the clutch all the way in without stretching, then I’m too close with the other foot on the accelerator. If I’m fine on the gas, then I’m toeing the clutch in. Weird. I’m adapting, though.
- I dropped by the dealership yesterday to have them remove the annoying dealership badge they’d glued on (despite my request to the salesguy, who, to be fair, pointed it out to me). Now I just need to get a specialty license plate holder, and I can cease to advertise for the dealership. Oh, and a license plate. Well, I have until Thanksgiving to do that part.
The car rides well, and drives well, and I enjoy it very much. I’m figuring out how to deal with the sluggish response from a dead stop, and how not to let the turbo send me down the road at 95 MPH. The car is, amazingly enough, still clean and uncluttered inside. I am a happy camper.
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The Clutch/Accelerator layout is based on how the Italians design their lay out.
Carl’s Jr. and Jack in the Box?!? How very Californian. *Grin* Since Carl’s is a new thing in the region, I have always thought it meant “Bad food in gas station…”
The Cruise-Control thing must be a Saturn concept. The Celica, Jimmy, and Explorer all need(ed) you to turn them on every time you restarted the car. The Celica’s was in the center console; The Jimmy’s was on the everything stick, and (a nice thing) the Explorer’s is on the steering wheel.
It is nice that Burt doesn’t drill holes through your car body to mount dealer advertisements like some dealers do. My Stepfather always wrote it into the contract that the dealer would have to order him a new car if they put dealer badges on it.
Dodges do the same ‘reset-from-restart’ on the cruise control.
However, with all four of the cruise-related buttons on the steering wheel in thumbing position (on, set, accel, coast), this isn’t really a problem.
Certainly isn’t for me, at any rate, since the last time I set the cruise was in… February?
Yeah, well, some of us drive for a … well, drive to a living.
I’ve never cared for the cruise control controls on both sides of the airbag. The small module on the Saturn on the right side of the steering wheel or the small stick that both the Subaru and our Toyota van have are just fine.
The Saturn has a distinct on-off switch, as did Margie’s old Acura.
One thing the Subaru does have that the others don’t (Margie’s Acura did) is an indicator when the CC is actually engaged, vs just turned on. That can be really handy.
Silly Italians.
Carls isn’t just in gas stations hereabouts, but that’s a lot of their outlets.
It seems that I only use Cruise Control at night after Gaming (long non-curvy drive with no traffic).
Now you need to move the huge box o’ stuff that you emptied out of the Saturn and put it in the Subaru so Kitten will feel at home in the back seat.
You mean there’s a Carl’s in the Denver area not in a gas station?!?
Must be in the south where you all are (along with all the Texas chains like Chevy’s). Like I’ve said before, once you get south of Hampden everything changes.
So, did you get the new car up to 95, and did Jackie see you wizz by her whilst doing so?
It seems that I only use Cruise Control at night after Gaming (long non-curvy drive with no traffic).
Now you need to move the huge box o’ stuff that you emptied out of the Saturn and put it in the Subaru so Kitten will feel at home in the back seat.
You mean there’s a Carl’s in the Denver area not in a gas station?!? Must be in the south where you all are (along with all the Texas chains like Chevy’s). Like I’ve said before, once you get south of Hampden everything changes.
On Havana just above Iliff, by Margie’s office (so it’s just above Hampden 🙂 ). But, yeah, most of them are gas station adjuncts (bleah).
So, did you get the new car up to 95, and did Jackie see you wizz by her whilst doing so?
Not that she’s mentioned, or I’ve noticed.
But one reason I use CC on the drive to/from, is that it’s way too easy for me otherwise to take it up to 90. And even easier now.
quirky:
Love the note about removing the dealer’s badge.
For years, I’ve taken the plastic frame license-plate advertising thingie and removed it, turned it round so that it is fitted to the back of the license plate.
Why?
The plate doesn’t rattle against the body. The edges don’t get bent. The plastic frame is blank and the plate more visible. Also most plates these days have sharp bare edges which can scratch the finish.
Now if they just made screws that didn’t rust in 100 days. Those nylon replacements are junk.
ps: I like the Toyota cruise control, but there always seems to be a speed where it pulses rather than maintains. Just different for each car/engine I suppose.
Dealer badges are (or at least used to be) pretty regional. In LA, they were nearly unheard of. Margie ran into them a lot more when she was in N. Carolina and Indiana. When we came to Denver, we found all the dealerships doing it.
So with both of our last two cars, we’ve explicitly requested that the badge be left off. And in both cases, the shop it it on anyway, and the salesman arranged to have it removed.