Faults:

Just the fuel lid, but went back to the dealership and they fixed it right away. Other than that, nothing has gone wrong.

General Comments:

This car is the best car I have ever driven. I use and abuse cars. I had a 1999 Mercury Mystique and it couldn't handle the wear and tear it was getting. This Subaru is just unbelievable. I mean it is great on a sunny day, great on a rainy day, great on a snowy day. It responds very well, great on turns, great on rough terrain, and great on hills. Mileage isn't that bad for a AWD small SUV. I get about 20mpg in the city and 26mpg on the highway, with hills; I'm sure the mileage would be better on flat highways. I am a wide guy and fit perfectly fine in the driver's seat. The rear seats have good room. The sunroof is great... almost like a convertible. My friends have driven the car and they all loved it. They are say they are getting Subaru's from now on. One friend has a 1999 mustang svt and he says the Forester has better handling than his mustang. Awesome car, awesome performance... Just awesome!

Faults:

There are a few things that could be improved,

It needs bigger storage compartments, the glove box is nice and large, but the other compartments are too small to be very useful.

Too much plastic in the interior.

It needs an armrest on the driver’s seat.

It would be nice if the dome light stayed on longer after closing the door.

General Comments:

I have had the vehicle about a month now, bought it used from a dealer, so far no problems with it. It has plenty of power for a 4-cylinder engine, controls are well laid out, seats are comfortable, good legroom. Fairly quiet on a rough road, about what you would expect from a small vehicle. Overall I am satisfied with it.

Faults:

Subaru Forester: I mostly like the Forester and are extremely happy we got it, but there are a few small little things that would be wonderful if they were changed. Such as, the drivers seat has automatic moving chair, and it would be nice to see it on the passengers. The husband also has difficulties with the position of the rear view mirror, it seems to be a bit in the way, kind of right in the middle and blocks the view. Also, I find that the finish around the stereo and the heat etc dial scratch extremely easy, as well as around the outside handles. And it def. helps if you condition the leather, that is important.

General Comments:

Glad I bought it, I want to upgrade to the Tribeca when we have some kids, love subaru. It is def powerful, the automatic made our necks hurt, lol. We have the manual, and you go fast when you want and go slow, it follows your mood, and I love it!

Faults:

The car is perfect.

General Comments:

I love the car. It gets great gas mileage and handles very well. My wife has a 2005 Nissan Altima; but we prefer the Forester many times over. The Forester has sufficient power for entering the highway and is very comfortable on long road trips. It is spacious enough for family, pets, and hauling building materials and lawn and garden supplies. I wish that I had purchased a Forester earlier, this car is great!

Faults:

The drivers exterior door handle became loose.

General Comments:

Excellent storage capacity.

Acceptable gas mileage for an SUV--about 27mpg.

Standard amenities-fog lights, weather radio, cruise control; competitors required options packages for these.

Faults:

Nothing other than some squeaking noise from the instrumental gauge panel. I fixed the noise by putting some weather strips behind it.

General Comments:

I bought my car in Sep 04. At 11,000 miles now and 1 year from the purchase, the car runs perfectly and it had 0 problems.

The engine is peppy especially after break-in miles and revs good. The automatic transmission is very smooth and refined compared to my Nissan Sentra. When flooring the accelerator pedal, the engine revs fast and the transmission shifts smoothly unlike my Nissan that I can feel jolts from the automatic transmission shifting hard.

The car handles like it's on rails and doesn't feel tipsy at all when going fast into corners. A+ handling.

All Wheel Drive - great in heavy rains and snow!!! It feels so sure footed on snow.

The seats are comfortable for long trips.

THE BAD - The factory stereo sounds like it's in water. I replaced the head unit and front speakers with Alpine products. Spent $150 on a head unit and $50 on front speakers. It sounds like 5x better now than the factory stereo. The OEM front speakers were cheap paper speakers.

Road noise - good until 65MPH, but at 80MPH or above, the wind noise gets bothersome. I've found that the door panels have no noise deadening materials when I did the speaker upgrade. Even my sentra had them! I don't know if this is because I have the base X model. I'm going to put some dynomat and see if it helps with road noise.

This car made me a Subaru fan! Will buy another Subaru when the time comes.