Hmm...I actually have a very different experience of after sales for my second Subaru, which is the current new Forester turbo.

My first Forester was from 2009 till 2013. Nothing to shout about at MI during my 3 year warranty period. Well then again, there was nothing wrong with my car during the whole warranty tenure. So just regular servicing at the old MI HQ back then.

But with the new Forester I actually had pretty good after sales treatment from Subaru MI. 8 months into ownership and my engine BLEW. That's right, new subaru DIT engine. Same as the one in the coming new WRX.

There was some slight issues already. But it was not regular. But the engine knocks (very loudly) when accelerating at low speeds or up gradients from low speed and loses power for half second. For example from traffic lights or up a bridge from a merging lane. Not during high speed pushes. During very normal accelerating scenarios.

Research, research online...found Australians also facing same issues. Initially aussie owners found that the air intake clamps seem to be the culprit. But apparently Subaru sent engineers over to Aussie to test and figured out that it was the engine tuning issue. So new maps, new spark plugs. Problem solved.

Subaru MI replaced my whole engine. Brought in from land of rising sun, gave me an XV to use (which they offered me after I mentioned how I needed a high riding car for my work) and now I have back my Forester and loving the new engine with the brand new tune. No more problems. And apparently they are applying this new tune update to the WRXs as well according to some of the Aussies.

Another FXT owner that I met also had the knocking problem, but his engine did not blow. They also gave him a courtesy car while updating his tune.

The engine replacement under warranty was really no fuss at my end. Only needed to hand over the documents to them for the car registration update and reinspection, which MI handled everything. Whole process including testing, inspections etc. took about just over a month from the day it was decided that the engine needs to be replaced.

All the while the attitude I got from MI was generally good and friendly.

For my previous Forester, my review of MI after sales would be neutral.

But this time round, I think they are trying hard to please and making changes and I am happy with the way they took responsibility and dealt with the problem. Of course not the record breaking award winning red carpet service, but definitely much better than some other car brands that my company owns.

Yah that sounds frustrating. But I can see their efforts to improve the after sales recently. I believe they are really trying to penetrate the market. Whether they succeed or not is a different discussion. But I honestly am quite glad with their improvement and hope they continue to improve.

I mean even with the DIT engine problem, which I expected anyway. New engine and all. Now that they figured it out the DIT engine with their CVT is really really something. At first I thought damn....CVT.....sure feel sluggish even compared to the ancient 4At on the previous forester. But I am never happier to be proven wrong by subaru. Its lovely. During the month that I did not get to drive my Fxt, i really felt lethargic each time I needed to drive. Life is good again now

Golf gti was overpriced in the first place in my opinion.

I would think the wrx 2015 with CVT would be tagged around low 240ish k and possibly with some early bird discount like when I bought the Fxt, which was 10k. Till today they reduced the discount and replaced with some free stuff.

I feel you should give wrx a go. After all it is more powerful than gti with awd and definitely more practical in terms of space. As in another thread sleepwalker mentioned about putting down more than 200hp on 2wd and compared to awd is a different world. And also as he mentioned, if you move to sti its a different universe, which I totally agree.

This post has been edited by joker98: Jun 14 2014, 03:31 PM