2.0D

A great car completely ruined by the uncomfortable ride

First thing, I don´t own this car, but I had it for a whole day to test drive it. I am looking for something a big bigger than my current golf, the higher driving positions of these SUV interest me, I live is Switzerland, we have plenty of snow so the AWD is interesting too. I need something reliable and I always like something a little unique. The XV should fit the bill, but the reviews are not great.

I picked up the car, the dealer handed me the key, said see you later and off we went. We drove out the garage and within 100 yards, my wife said that the constant bumping/oscillating from the suspension is bothering here, remember, this is Switzerland and the road´s are like snooker tables. Sure enough, on a perfectly smooth road, around 50 to 70kph, the car seems to bump around on every tiny undulation, after 30 mins, my stomach was churning and my wife wanted to return the car. We turned back to the garage.

What a shame, everything else about the car was good. How Subaru could put decide on such a suspension setup is beyond belief. The garage (Konstantines Subaru in Oftringen) has around 35 XV all sitting on the forecourt and I bet he hardly sells any with such an unsettled ride. I was really hoping the reviews were wrong and it was only bad on the UK roads, but no.

Another annoyance is the rear camera, what is that for??? When reversing, you see where you are going, the same as you do in a mirror! The only difference is, when you look at the screen, you won´t see car´s coming from the side, or children etc, and there is no audio noise from sensors, very poor design.

Still sitting at home dissapointed. Quashqai seems to get really bad reliability reviews on this site, ASX forum is full of complaints about the car, I think I will wait and try the new Civic 1.6 diesel.

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