concerns with new outback

[nodiseos]

I am about to buy my 5th soobie, a 2005 Outback LL bean, left over from last year from a dealer and well below original invoice. I have 3 concerns.

 

1. One is that several reviewers said that the A/C is horrible - and I live in a *very* hot place. Is this a real concern?
   
2. Another is gas mileage in the real world can be as low as 16mpg. Is this for real?
   
3. The LLBean has power passenger seat - - does this make putting an amp for the stereo in this car an impossinbility?

My other option is to get a 2006 but it would be the 2.5i ltd as the llbean is too pricey.

 

Thanks!

[see_obxt]

Hey and welcome. 1) the AC is actually really good. The temperment of the auto setting is what is in question. Search on (HAL). 2) If you are getting a turbo you will get 19 city 24 hwy. This is close on my turbo. If an H6, it will be better by a little. If a 2.5i, a lot better. 3) There are several options. Search through the interior forum. Later...

[klaus]

I am about to buy my 5th soobie, a 2005 Outback LL bean, left over from last year from a dealer and well below original invoice. I have 3 concerns.

 

1. One is that several reviewers said that the A/C is horrible - and I live in a *very* hot place. Is this a real concern?
   
2. Another is gas mileage in the real world can be as low as 16mpg. Is this for real?
   
3. The LLBean has power passenger seat - - does this make putting an amp for the stereo in this car an impossinbility?

My other option is to get a 2006 but it would be the 2.5i ltd as the llbean is too pricey.

 

Thanks!

1) I have a 2006 and I can't complain. It's been hot only once and it could be for other reasons, but generally I just manually adjust it and don't make a big deal out of it

2) YES, it's true... the city mileage is horrible... Mine is around 17 MPG (this is kind of a regular city driving with average number of red lights, not stop and go, and I am not aggressive). Highway is north of 23 (he, he, I managed to get 33 at one point but it was slightly downhill).

3) can't answer.

[NYCFish]

#3. Are you speaking of a subwoofer? If so, it is mounted under the power driver's seat.

[StringFellow]

I am about to buy my 5th soobie, a 2005 Outback LL bean, left over from last year from a dealer and well below original invoice. I have 3 concerns.

 

1. One is that several reviewers said that the A/C is horrible - and I live in a *very* hot place. Is this a real concern?
   
2. Another is gas mileage in the real world can be as low as 16mpg. Is this for real?
   
3. The LLBean has power passenger seat - - does this make putting an amp for the stereo in this car an impossinbility?

My other option is to get a 2006 but it would be the 2.5i ltd as the llbean is too pricey.

 

Thanks!

 

1. A/C works just fine. The "auto" can be annoying at times, but there is a post here on how to best use the automatic climate controls.

2. I average about 19-20 on back roads and about 24-25 highway.

3. Your question is very vague and requires more details. Installing a sub is quite easy, but adding other stereo add-ons could be a problem. This is quite common for most cars these days that have the climate control and radios built into the dash design.

 

Regardless of the know issues, it is one hell of a car!

-S

[FameMax]

I work at a Subaru dealer in MA, have been for sometime.

 

1. AC is fine.

2. The mpg is around 20

3. Why are you buying an L.L Bean? Because its "loaded" and cheap?! If you want to spend the same amount of money, get the same options, more power, and better looks go find an automatic leftover 05 XT Limited. There are PLENTY out there, call around to like 4 or 5 dealers I bet you turn up like 5. The XT is much more fun to drive then the L.L Bean, and options/mpg/price are the same! But you can get the XT with black leather and personally I think sliver dash with black leather looks better then tan leather with plastic wood trim

[ilh]

I recently had an 06 LL Bean loaner. On my mixed city/highway commute, I usually get about 21-22mpg in my LGT. In the LL Bean I got about 18-19mpg. The 2.5T is much more fun than the 3.0.

[Garandman]

My other option is to get a 2006 but it would be the 2.5i ltd as the llbean is too pricey.

There's also the 3.0R, hard to find but it's the H6 without leather or sunroof. I paid $26K at Manchester, NH Subaru with a few minor options.

 

I log all fuel usage and just tallied the log with 4,544 miles on the car. We do this on all the company cars because for one thing, people seem to be kind of "selective" about how they calculate their fuel economy. For example, I have two friends with Suburbans - one says he "averages" 18mpg, the other 14mpg. You can see similar deviations here with the turbos. We want to know exactly what it's costing us.

 

In 4,268 miles of driving I used 215.2 gallons of fuel, for a combined average of 19.8.

 

The worst tanks recorded were 16.5 (11.1 gallons for 183.5 miles) and 17.5 (9.6 gallons for 167.5 miles).

 

The best tanks recorded were 25.1 mpg (the last tank - 10.0 gallons for 251.4 miles), 21.2 (14.9 gallons for 315.5 miles) and 21.1 (11.3 gallons for 238.6 miles). When I reset the tripmeter for highway driving the average is much higher, but I haven't had any tanks with just highway driving so far.

 

I live in a Boston neighborhood and my driving is mixed between "pure" city (2 mile trips to the grocery store or gym, with cold starts); commuting on 2-4 lane roads like Route 1A or 60; and rush hour commuting on routes 90, 93 and 128. 90 has some slowdowns for tolls. 93 is usually pretty clear with speeds between 60 and 80 mph. I have Nokian RSI snows that currently have 11/32nds tread depth and are usually inflated to 35psi. On our Honda Accord V6 the Nokians got 1.1-1.3 lower mpg than th stock Michelin Energy MXV4+. We just put Mobil 1 in at the 3500 mile change.

 

I''ve usually been alone or one passenger, but have delivered some gear or taken my kids. i haven't done any long uninterrupted trips yet. I removed the crossbars from the roof racks and keep them in back. Almost anyone who lives in the suburbs would get better average mpg, I'd think.

 

Others have noted a mpg increase for the first 10K miles, but so far the trend line is pretty flat. It doesn't help that I still like to put my foot in it. Or that it's currently 11 degrees....

 

I work at a Subaru dealer in MA, have been for sometime.

 

1. AC is fine.

2. The mpg is around 20

3. Why are you buying an L.L Bean? Because its "loaded" and cheap?! If you want to spend the same amount of money, get the same options, more power, and better looks go find an automatic leftover 05 XT Limited. There are PLENTY out there, call around to like 4 or 5 dealers I bet you turn up like 5. The XT is much more fun to drive then the L.L Bean, and options/mpg/price are the same! But you can get the XT with black leather and personally I think sliver dash with black leather looks better then tan leather with plastic wood trim

The dealer I bought my 3.0R from had three XT's, and was extremely aggressive on pricing them, had I been interested.