BrainOut!
The mumblings of a Christian autistic husband, dad, IT guy and amateur radio operator - Will Brokenbourgh / AF7EC
Is it Subaru or Everyone?
Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors -- this post is just kind of a rambling mess. Hopefully I'm not starting a bad habit!
Is it just Subaru or are all car manufacturers getting worse? I know, sounds like a 'grumpy old guy' question...
For years we were a Toyota family and, for the most part, our Toyotas were okay. I won't say they were 'great' but they were okay. My wife and I both have some physical issues from past injuries that make it hard to get into certain cars and getting into every Toyota we owned was like trying to fold ourselves in half just to go drive somewhere.
The very last Toyota we owned was for less than a month, and it was returned. It was a Prius (yeah, don't judge, we really did buy it only for fuel-economy and no other reason). We had owned an older Prius for quite a number of years and were generally pleased with it ($20 fill-ups were nice) but it had a design flaw that eventually messed it up beyond our ability to support it. Anyway, driving the used but newer Prius off the lot and we were almost immediately displeased with the performance.
Older Priuses aren't actually that slow
(For those who don't know, older Prius models (from around 2010 to 2014 or so)
actually had a lot of pep! I mean, as long as you were in the right mode (Eco, Power,
EV, etc) the small 1.8 liter four-cylinder engine could either feel like one cylinder
or feel like six cylinders. I remember test-driving it after servicing it last
year and it had absolutely no problem getting up and going, even in
'normal' Eco mode.)
Newer (non-Prime) Priuses aren't that great
Back to the newer Prius -- it was absolutely gutless. There were no mechanical issues
with it, it just was an inferior product compared to the older Priuses. The lack of
power was a safety issue because my wife has to deal with steep mountains during her
commute and needs the power to dodge big-rigs when they drift into her lane. This
newer Prius had horrible acceleration, had this massive glossy bezel around the main
display screen that was angled in such a way that it would blind you from Sun
reflections nearly any time of the day and had this poorly-designed interior piece that
would gouge your leg nearly all the time. We marveled at how poor overall this Prius
was compared to our older one.
Buyer's remorse at 100 percent
Thankfully our dealer had offered a limited take-back policy, so we decided to return
this new 'improved' Prius for something else. We at first thought about a Camry after
renting one for a week, but it also was difficult to get in and out of and it had a very
'mass-produced' quality about it. I mean, yeah, I know, nearly all cars are mass-produced
but this car screamed it! We looked at some other Toyotas but they were all a lot
more than we could afford. We ended up driving away with a recent-model used Subaru instead.
We were somewhat open to a Subaru at that time because I've owned one for a few years and, when it was running, it was a decent car. It was our 'luxury' vehicle when we also owned the Prius, so we'd take the Subaru on family drives and getaways. It was much more comfortable than the Prius and had decently tinted back windows so the little ones wouldn't get baked from the Sun. Unfortunately my Subaru developed an issue during my covid time and I wasn't able to work on it (I was very weak, and it took me nearly two years to mostly recover). Turns out the catalytic converter actually melted in half and made it sound like a monster truck. It wasn't until later last year that I had the strength to put in a new catalytic converter, but after that my car was purring like a kitten, until it decided to freak out when my wife was driving it home. So it now sits -- partially disassembled, until I can afford to start swapping very expensive parts out -- ah the process of elimination.
See ya Toyota!
After driving our newer Subaru off the lot, we were mostly pleased with it, at least at
first. It had plenty of power, even with the 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine. It
doesn't have a belt-driven power-steering pump anymore. It has good comfortable seats
and we sit up high like our other Subaru. Unfortunately my wife started experiencing odd
throttle oscillations after a while. It eventually became too concerning so we took it
to our nearest Subaru dealer (which is about seventy to eighty miles away). They took
a look and gave us a bunch of wishy-washy possibilities but they did flash the
engine computer with the latest firmware, which did minimize the oscillations. We
weren't super-thrilled with how that dealership treated us, so they lost out on future
car-buying customer. We are really not that demanding nor do we have super-high
expectations from most car dealerships -- I guess customer service is a lost art
nowadays. Oh well.
Buyer's remorse at 40 percent -- and rising
While we still have this newer Subaru, we are already talking about trading it in sooner
rather than later. It just has a lot of weird quirks, especially when driving. The
plastic pieces and carpet are very poor in quality compared to our older Subaru. So
bad are the plastic trim pieces that the trim piece that sits on the outside bottom of
the windscreen is bent and contorted like it had been severely overheated. One time
there was a smudge on an interior plastic piece, so I grabbed an alcohol wipe that I
had near me, wiped the smudge and ended up wiping off some of its finish! That, or
it had been covered over with shoe polish or some nonsense like that. Plastic should
not wipe off with something barely-aggressive like an alcohol wipe!
When I was in my first marriage, we would all drive up to Big Bear in California. There was this one house with a detached garage that we'd pass by. On that garage, there was a large sign that said "Don't buy Subaru. Ask an unhappy owner why". While that was in the early 1990's, it seems to ring true even now. It would take some major convincing for us to ever buy a Subaru again.
Is it just Subaru?
So is this a Subaru problem or is this industry-wide? Are car manufacturers trying to
force upsells on people with modest budgets? Are all reasonably-priced cars going to be
poor quality now? Does anyone make truly decent, good value cars anymore? Are things
just going to continue to degrade to the point where we're buying 2000's and early 2010's
cars and leaving the new stuff for the rich folks (who can afford frequent trips to the
dealership)?
Good (value) cars are hard to find
It's pretty discouraging for people with modest budgets who need a reliable car. There
are those who get blessed with a well-maintained used car from a friend or
family-member or still others can plead with well-off family to help them out, but how
about the rest of us? If you are prudent with your funds, you are definitely not going
to sign up for a $300 or $400 monthly car payment that you will barely be able to pay!
I can tell you, in my 30's I made the awful decision along with my second wife to buy
a very used mini-van that totalled more than $500 a month! That was the first, and
prayerfully last time I had a vehicle repoed.
So what's the point of this post? I'm not totally sure. Maybe it's to caution folks
about newer Toyotas and Subarus. Or maybe you could leave a comment and let me know
about your experiences with Toyotas and Subarus. Sometimes a guy just needs to get
stuff off his chest, and what better way than to post to my blog..? Where else can I
whine about all of this without it getting deleted? 
God bless you, and thank you for reading!
About me
First and foremost I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. After that, I'm a blessed husband,
father and grandfather. I do remote computer work for a living although it's mostly
part-time. I'm an amateur radio operator - AF7EC. When I'm not working on the endless
list of house and car projects, I like to tinker with electronics, like to listen to
shortwave radio and write software (mostly open-source) in C, C++, Python and Free
Pascal. I usually run Linux as my main operating system but sometimes I'm forced to
endure macOS and Windows 11 for gaming with my son or testing software. Overall, I am
a big nobody, but always willing to share about Jesus and all that God has done for me
and my family.
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