5th Nov 2002, 10:53

I have a 2001 outback and have had the firestone tires replaced under warranty due to a bad radial belt. But only 7k miles later, I have been diagnosed by Firestone techs to have the EXACT same problem all over again! What is up with Firestone? Two sets of wilderness tires and they both have bad radials? Sounds like they are giving up on this tire...

16th Dec 2002, 17:08

My 2000 Outback Legacy has been superb. I too have the Firestone Wilderness tires, but have had no problems whatsoever with them in snow, mud and rocky roads even after 46,000 miles. Of course, they are ready to be replaced now as the tread is about gone.

5th Feb 2003, 02:14

I have the Firestone Wilderness Tires on my 2000 Subaru Outback. They lost their tread about 60,000kms and I slide off the road in wet (rainy) weather. $8000 damage to my beautiful car, no damage to me. I'm shopping for new tires.

3rd May 2003, 13:39

My 2001 Subaru Outback has over 32,000 miles and the Firestone Wilderness tires are performing just fine. They are not as grippy on the snow now, as when new, but overall I am pretty happy with the tires and very happy with the car.

21st May 2003, 20:52

I have 60K+ miles on my 2000 Outback with the original Firestone Wilderness tires. I'm surprised to see negative comments about the Firestones - I haven't had a single problem. They have been great!

28th Sep 2003, 17:07

After 66,000 miles I'm NOT pleased with our L.L. Bean Outback. It's CRAP. I've never had to spend so much money on a vehicle in my life. I didn't, but a BMW, Audi, Volvo or Mercedes because of the expense and amount of scheduled maintenance. All of our service has been done on time and through the dealership, and the car is still falling apart. We can't keep brakes or rotors on this thing. The belt tensioner keeps braking. The sun roof broke. The sun roof leaked and the headliner had to be replaced. The CV boot broke. The battery cables corroded through. The car disabled itself after having a brand new Optima battery installed. For some unexplainable reason the 100 amp fuse keeps blowing... the list goes on and on. I did a lot of research on this, my first Jap car, I talked to a lot of Subaru owners about their cars, I thought I made an educated choice, but now I'm very disappointed and stuck with a car that I absolutely HATE. I'm happy that you nice people are only having tire issues. I'll never, buy Jap crap again. By the way, I manage two equipment fleets (all American made) and have almost no problems. I bought the Subaru because it filled our needs better than anything else at the time.

2nd Feb 2006, 16:08

I own a 2001 Subaru Outback LL-BEAN (automatic). All in all a decent car with a few quirks.

Leather Seat on the drivers side is abraded:

The leather seat on the passenger side abraded after a year. I went to several dealers, one claimed it was due to wearing jeans. Nothing was done or offered to fix this while the car was under warrantee. (This is our second Subaru and my first experience with a new car. I was not impressed by the dealer in our area.) The real cause is that the driver’s seat was manufactured with extra material which was most likely the cause of the abrasion. All in all not a major deal just a peeve on my part as it was an expensive vehicle.

Window noise:

I hear noise through the window seals when on the highway. Out old Impreza had the same issue so I was not terribly surprised.

Comfort:

Some passengers have stated that the seats are not comfortable for long drives. Everyone that has stated this has longer legs then myself. I guess it is made for shorter folk 

Intermittent starting issue:

Since I have bought occasionally on cold/damp days the car does not start immediately. I have to try a few times for it to start. I talked to the dealer. They stated it was due to gas quality. I still do not know the root cause. It happened last month and I had to wait until later in the day to drive the car. I have since had the spark plugs replaced, I will see if the problem occurs this winter.

PLUSES:

All wheel drive - Handles great in the snow in the Northeast.

Heated seats – A must for New England winters!

Storage – Car fits a lot of stuff in the back! Even more with the seats down. I have fit a large double stroller and all the other baby/kid accessories. It also excelled as an outdoor changing table for my kids when they were in diapers!

15th Aug 2007, 12:02

Our 2001 Subaru Outback H6 3.0 LL Bean has been nearly flawless in the 65,000 miles we have put on it.

The only real problem is with the the front driver and passenger window seals (gussets) that we are about to replace, because they have become very noisy.

I am not a fan of Firestone tires, but I have to say that the Firestone Wilderness tires that came on the car new turned out to be trouble free, except for an increase in road noise beginning at about 25K miles, but they lasted 65K miles with no problems or failures and still had more miles on them when we replaced them - I was pleasantly surprised. We just replaced them with Goodyear Assurance TripleTreds, which so far seem to be smooth and quiet with very good traction, and also have an 80K mile wear guarantee. They have gotten very good reviews (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Assurance+TripleTred), and we chose them over the Michelins.

The only thing we really don't like about the car, other than the noisy window gussets, is the somewhat useless retractable cup holder in the dash on this model, although it is good for holding an iPod.

Other than that, it has been a very good car.