Why CVT's are awesome

[ultrarunner]

I was not the one to make the comment but find some truth to it...

Last night I met a two ladies walking their dog and they stopped to introduce themselves... said they bought a home nearby... and were looking to buy since they became married... I learned one sells Subaru and I thought of this thread... I asked her how business is and she said great... she is the go to person for people in the community car shopping...

Then I started to think about half the Subaru owners I know are LGBT... so who knows.

 

[Garandman]

....but could you please clarify why lesbians buy Subaru in particular ?//

From the previously quoted article above.

...This search for niche groups led Subaru to the 3rd rail of marketing: They discovered that lesbians loved their cars. Lesbians liked their dependability and size, and even the name 鉄ubaru. They were four times more likely than the average consumer to buy a Subaru.

Subaru is Japanese for a six-star constellation, ironically called "The Seven Sisters" in the West.

The Seven Sisters also referred to a group of prestigious Eastern all-women colleges: Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, Vassar College, and Wellesley College. Barnard and Vassar are in NY, Bryn Mawr in PA, and the other four in MA. (BTW Vassar is now Coed and Radcliffe was absorbed by Harvard). So it was a combination of value, practicality, and [initially inadvertent] social appeal. BTW one famous Wellesley graduate: Hillary Clinton.

An Army buddy has a 2013 Outback, their second. They bought the extended warranty and the CVT transmission failed just before 100,000 miles. Good thing as it is a very expensive repair. The dealers seem to want to put in a new replacement for $7,000 although I believe rebuilds are available.

 

[Renze]

Ha ha similar as why YMCA of the Village People became the national Anthem of the LGBT community.. it stands for Young Mens Christian Association but somehow they had different ideas of young men coming together...

 

[ovrszd]

Ha ha similar as why YMCA of the Village People became the national Anthem of the LGBT community.. it stands for Young Mens Christian Association but somehow they had different ideas of young men coming together...

Good one???

 

[hutchman]

Pretty much older for the most part... been there done that when it comes to being an early adopter.

1930 Model A Ford is the first car I owned and bought it at age 12 and paid for it in full with money I had earned... still have it.... many more A's and T's...

For 20+ years my daily driver and college and career is the 1972 Plymouth Valiant I bought for $800... towed 1 yard concrete gondola's with it... too many to count.

My "New" car and only new car I ever bought is a 2002 BMW 325iT that I was able to get a special deal when I was working in Europe at the time... brought it home as a souvenir.

Currently my collection is about 50 vehicles from 1905 newer.

I grew up around the car business and am happy to leave the latest and greatest bells and whistles to those with money to burn...

Also am certified as a California Lemon Law Arbitrator and have seen first hand who gets stuck when technology doesn't live up to the promise.

Anyone remember the GM 8-6-4 cylinder engines or the Diesel Oldsmobile?

The there are the supercharged cars or the Ford Fiesta debacle with the dual cone automatic... can't give those cars away...

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/201...-ford-but-too-late-for-consumer-reports/?_r=0

Yes! My neighbor always had Olds 88's. He got the diesel one once. I'm convinced that engine is what hampered other American cars from going diesel. Had they implemented a solid product back then we would of had lots of American cars like the Mercedes 240/300D, VW Jetta (the poor diesel rabbit couldn't get out of it own way though), Volvo (can't remember model), and Peugeot 504's, etc.

 

[hutchman]

My wife had major surgery a year ago and was complaining about driving stick shift. I ended up getting her the 2016 Subaru Legacy 2.5I Premium. We didn't get the eyesight feature but it has about every other option.

I'm a Ford guy but I compared the Legacy to everything in its class and it got better fuel economy than most of the others that were 2WD so I took a chance on it.

I'm fully aware of the gay/lesbian marketing. In fact when we got it I emailed a good friend and told him not to send me any purple teletubbies or rainbow stickers to put in the back window!

This has the CVT with the fake 6 speed flappy paddles. About all I've found the paddles good for is gearing down at stop lights or holding the car back driving down steep grades on the Interstate.

We had a few pretty significant snow storms (for this area) and I couldn't be more impressed with its performance. We have a pretty steep hill right at the end of our driveway. With the F150 in 4WD I could usually just go straight up it or back up a bit to get a little run at it.

The Legacy just climbed it every time with no drama at all. No run at it needed. One time neighborhood kids were sleigh riding on the hill and had it pretty slick. The Legacy didn't even notice.

I've heard others rave about Subaru AWD and just dismissed it. I never paid attention to the symmetrical aspect of their system (no torque steer) but I'm a fan of it now after reading up on it and experiencing the performance for myself.

I just took it on a trip to KY. Two adults going on avg +5/6 over speed limit (so 76mph) with AC blasting and it got 33.6MPG and that is paper/pen method. In town it's been getting 25-26mpg. Not as good as my VW TDI (pre-scandal) but not bad when you factor in diesel premium and the fact one is AWD.

I like the CVT so far and think we will be seeing more of them in order to meet emission/mpg standards. It keeps the engine at the sweet spot.

This is my first Subaru so it remains to be seen how it will hold up. We keep vehicles a long time and then usually hand them down to children etc., so I guess I'll find out.

I never paid attention to Subaru before but after learning about their CEO and philosophy, growth, etc., I find them to be pretty interesting company.

 

[hutchman]

Forgot to mention ... doing from neutral to drive takes a little over one second. A few times at a long stop light I put it in neutral and when the light turned green is when I noticed it ... I had a tendency to drop it in drive and start to mash the go pedal before it engaged in drive. I'm used to it now but it caught me off guard a few times.