Two makes that are well known for customer satisfaction, reliability and generally coming high in surveys etc. So do people still have the odd horror story?
Obviously this is in response to VW bashing accusations on the other horror stories thread - there are plenty of Subaru owners here and im sure a few Lexus aswell, so people, are the perceived reputations of these makes justified? Its already been mentioned that VW doesnt always live up to its reputation on occasion - are Subaru and Lexus, to pick two of what appear to be the best living up to theirs?
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I actually have a horror story or atleast what could have become one.
Back in '96, my dad took delivery of a brand new Impreza Turbo 5dr. He loved it to bit and drove the wheels off it to the end. Anyhow, about a week after he took delivery, he had just started it up in the morning and my mum and I were waiting to get in the car ( it was parked against a wall ) and we could hear this high pitched screeching.
Now my dad bless him worked with machinery all his life and couldnt hear it but I could and insisted we lift the bonnet.
Lucky we did - the optional dealer fit ( always was back then ) aircon unit had slipped on its bracket and the belt was happily sawing its way through the cambelt cover - a potentially huge disaster.
Thankfully one call to the dealer and the car was taken away on a lorry and returned the next day with a bunch of flowers.
Now it wasnt really Subaru's fault in this instance but the dealers, but it would certainly have been a bad start to ownership had the belts met. Luckily it was only a new belt and cover.
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I've only driven one Lexus, a GS430 and it came very close to giving me a horror story, but that's only cos there was a police car hiding in a layby behind a lorry when I overtook something that was holding me up. Wax doing about a ton when I went past it.
The only grief I've had with the two Imprezas I've owned is that the clutch is a bit week. Traction control means that something has to slip and it isn't going to be the tyres. Too easy to wreck the clutch, but once you're aware of this then its easily accommodated.
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I read often, only post occasionally
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One thing my dad always used to say was that the Impreza needed strut braces because at over 90 on twisting dual carriageways and hard cornering at lower speeds, you could feel the chassis twisting slightly - a problem that he says his subsequent Honda Integra Type-R never suffered from ( although that had standard braces I think ).
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Presumably to hold the Integra up?
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Presumably to hold the Integra up?<<
No idea what you mean by that whatsoever.
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although that had standard braces I think >>
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Sorry, half asleep :-)
Fine car if you like that sort of thing though ( I dont, too noisey and hard riding ).
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Yes, the early Impreza chassis was not very stiff. The so-called 'Newage' (2000-) is ultra-stiff and the only thing strut braces do on that is to add weight.
If you want some Subi horrors then there are a few -
early open deck 2.5 blocks don't have enought stiffening around the bores and that allows the top of the cylinder to fret the head gasket - major problem, because that causes head gaskets to blow. Affects any 99-02 approx. 2.5 litre Subaru.
Yes, clutches are a weak spot, mainly because of the very high traction afforded by AWD and not helped by poor low-speed (pre-boost) torque on 2.0 litre turbo models - encourages owners to rev the engine when pulling out. Some Legacies (around 2003-05 I think) had dual mass flywheels - some problems with those.
Late model Impreza Sti's have problem with knocking from the racks (they took all the rubber out of the steering to sharpen it up!) and also the inverted damper design seems to be plagued with premature wear and knocking.
Rattle from the back screen on late model Imprezas is due to plastic locating pegs (used during assembly) not being removed - pull the back lining down to access them.
I don't know of any specific dealer horrors, but I don't think the Suby dealers are any better than other brands. They have an easier job than, say, a Renault dealer because the product is well designed and reliable in the first place and the fundamental design is the same across the whole range of cars and has evolved slowly over the years. The technicians can build up experience and product knowledge, without being confronted with something totally different each year. Pity the poor VAG techs having things like turbo+supercharged engines and DSG, Multitronic etc. thrown at them.
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Lexus horror story - too right.
On my GS300, the three auto dimming mirrors used to take about a second to dim when bright lights appeared behind.
Outrageously, by the end of my ownership, they were taking nearly two.
I had to sell it.
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I'm not surprised you took such a dim view of the GS300:-)
I've driven a number of the Lexus models over the years, including the original 1989 LS400 before its launch, and always been impressed; I've also never come across a Lexus owner yet who wasn't in awe of their car's reliability.
The story goes that Toyota, before designing the LS400, bought examples of every major luxury car; its engineers took them apart, studied every component and raised the bar again when conceiving production standards for their new model, including the engine.
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I was in a friend's LS400 (120,000 miles on it), we were doing about 80 along the motorway when he said "can you hear that noise?" I couldn't hear anything, it was whisper quiet but I strained my ears trying to listen anyway.
"Listen he said, can't you hear it now, it's really annoying. What on earth can that be?" I still couldn't hear anything.....
With that, he reached across and clipped the sunvisor back in place, looks like a previous passenger had turned it to the side and not clipped it back in. That was the only noise inside the car, and as far as I know even 2 years later now, it's the only fault the car has had.
I quite like those old 400s, the front end styling of the later ones isn't nice though!
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I've just got rid of my 175k mile LS400 after seven years, never any problems. Replaced it with an LS430 which is superb and more economical, if you call 24mpg opposed to 22mpg economical.
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I had an SVX :/
It ate its gearbox while I owned it, as apparently they all do. The dealer I bought it from told me that it had already had one gearbox.
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Subaru B9 Tribeca.
That thing looks hideous - a complete horror story!
But seriously, I am surprised that the poor economy of the Subaru flat 4 isn't commented on more. It was brought home to me a couple of years back when we drove to Switzerland and back - us in a Merc E320 CDI, them in their standard Forester. I'm sure their fuel tank was smaller, but they still had to stop for fuel twice as often, and we were doing 'only' 38 mpg in a heavily laden car with roof box. And when the snow came, we had just as much grip with snow tyres as their conventional tyres did with four driven wheels. Made me think 'what's the point of the car?'. But father-in-law is clearly happy with it - he's on his third.
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Back in 2005 the german motoring magazine "Auto Motor und Sport" tested the braking performance of a selection of cars from compacts through medium sized saloons, sports cars and SUVs. The Lexus GS430 was one of around 3 cars that failed the test. The reason was that in the course of the test the rear brakes on the Lexus got so hot that the brake pad material started to separate from the metal retainer.
Although I imagine the japanese engineers were pretty quick to modify the brakes it did seem a bit of an oversight to launch a high performance saloon with underdimensioned brakes in a country with no speed limits.
The last time I remember something similar happening was in the early nineties when the then new Mark 3 Golf failed a similar "Auto Motor und Sport" brake test for a similar reason. This caused something of a scandal in the german press at the time, with headlines along the lines of "Germany's bestseller launched with dangerous brakes". I know, this really belongs in the "VW horror stories" thread.
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Why can't they tune the engines properly, they all sound as if they're mis-firing? ;-)
I suspect you will find people for and against any make. It's all to do with balance of probability. Not all Japanese cars are good any more than all French or Italian ones are bad. But the balance of probability is that if you buy the former you are less likely to have problems compared to the latter.
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My father had a 1985 toyota camry diesel. And guess what - the head gasket and cylinder head had problems. But to be fair, these were sorted out early on and since then nothing other than wear and tear. I have known people with indestructable Volvo 940 that have also needed head gaskets - and then they fly to 170,000 miles plus once sorted out.
In fact thinking about it, maybe a head gasket failure is a good thing? Or probably caused by the coolant not being changed frequently enough.
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We've had our Forester 2.0x new from March 2003.
I've had to top up the washer fluid a couple of times, and that's it, apart from air in the tyres and fuel in the tank (never used a drop of oil) - quality engineering!
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I know of one RX 400 (yes the hybrid) that is a complete basket case. Prone to stopping under electric power, failing to engage petrol power, cutting out, and riddled with electrical isues.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Prone to stopping under electric power failing to engage petrol power cutting out..
Sounds like software bugs rather than mechanical faults. No less irritating of course. This is another aspect of modern cars that wasn't even a consideration a decade ago. Even without the hybrid drivetrain and its management system you have ECUs (and therefore software / firmware) all over the place.
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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Just to add to what many of yo already know about Lexus, I had an IS300 for a while and it really was bombproof. Almost too good in a clinical sort of way -- no real character but very very competent
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