Subaru Foresters

Lots of ??

Buying a 2nd hand Forester is no different than any other car - be careful. I bought my '98 with 80 000km - now up to 140 000km. Don't be too concerned with the No of Kms - ie. a country car with more kms is probably better than a low km Sydney car.
Problem areas are clutch judder - mines does this a bit, but it is caused by clutch plate material and a new one doesn't necessarilly fix the problem
Some early models had a problem slipping out of 1st gear on over run (downhill) - Subaru fixed mine out of warranty - no charge
I have heard of some problem with rear wheel bearings - no trouble with mine.
If you intend going bush with extra weight the self level rear susp can pack it in if pushed - the rear end will sag if the air assist fails as the springs are softer.

As far as the GT - if I had some $$ I would buy an auto GT - good power and fantastic 'off road' especially in sand. I'm not aware of any problems with the auto - there is a oil cooler available for the auto trans. You can also get a switch that will manually select 4WD - the auto normally runs mainly in FWD. The XT has far too much power and is heavy on fuel. Downside of Turbo is they need PULP whereas a NA runs OK on ULP - this can be a problem 'out the back of Bourke'!

Other items would be A/T tyres and a sump guard - I used a guard off an older model Subaru.
Join the Suabru Club in your state.
Happy Foresting - I can't wait till June, on another trip up the CSR to Calvert Ra. - all Foresters.

I have an 02 GT manual. It is a pig of a car to drive around town, much like a race car would be. But on the highway, it is another story. Get an auto, they are much nicer to live with if this sort of thing bothers you. This is my second Forester, the first was the non-turbo manual version. I actually liked it better for the around town stuff, but you just can't beat the GT on the highway, I guess that is where the GT comes from . . . Grand Tourer. The previous model was also much better for any slow off-road excursions as it had low range.

Turbo version uses a little more petrol around town, but on the highway it is just under 10l/100km doing about 109kph. I have noticed that the speed of travel on the highway makes a marked difference in the fuel consumption . . . put your foot down in the GT and it will slurp.

The GT does have turbo lag, pretty hard to get away with it when you have a plain bearing turbo. But it is liveable. I suspect an auto GT may mask this a little bit, but my manual does bog down if you are in the wrong gear.

My clutch does shudder and it seems that it will till the day I get rid of it. This is a pain in the ar*e.

I do not consider the GT an off road car at all . . . well formed tracks only. And don't think that a manual GT would be very good in sand.

That is my experience . . . 8-)