Skywater, 2014 Subaru Outback Premium

Having test driven numerous Subaru vehicles, originally prompted by my parent's search for a new car, they finally got one!
Introducing Skywater!
Skywater is a 2014 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium with a 6-speed manual transmission. One of the few that was left in the US. Thank you Hodges Subaru for giving me the US inventory list so I could find her.

It's spacious. The rear seats lean back very nicely and tons of leg room, which is nice on long rides in the back. Heated seats and the adjustable lumbar / seat hug is very nice in the driver seat.
On the negatives though, the infotainment is very basic and connecting a device via Bluetooth is kind of obnoxious as it involves the voice command system.
There is more body roll than I would like, I wish it was more like the 2014 Subaru Legacy I had driven, just flatter with more feel.
Skywater provides a rather cushy ride. It is also very quiet by Subaru standards in terms of road noise.
When you properly rev it you will get the Subaru boxer sound.
It's a good car if that is what you need, probably one of the best. But, owning a 2014 Subaru BRZ myself, the 2014 Subaru Outback is too soft.

Anyways, pictures:
(Photo-bombed by Champ the border collie)

Moving and Towing

Upon moving one of the fun things was loading up Cagalli Yula on the trailer.
Being a Subaru BRZ she has a rather low front lip and it protrudes a fair bit past the front wheels.
In order to load her we stacked wood boards at the beginning of the ramps for the car carrier and then drove up very slowly, this was in order to lift the nose up just enough to clear the lamp.
We did similar for the dismount from the car carrier.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the car on the trailer behind the rental truck:

Even More Test Drives of the Subaru Product Line

2014 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited

The H6 provies much better power, when comparing Outbacks with automatic transmissions, than the H4 (EJ25), though I don't find it nearly as zingy as the FB20 or FA20 engines couples to a manual transmission nor does it have the punch of an EJ25 with a turbo, but, I think it shows and shows well that it is more powerful than the EJ25 with no turbo coupled to an automatic transmission.

I do not think that the suspension was any stiffer than the 2014 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited with a CVT transmission that I drove previously, however, it felt significantly more responsive and communicative.

Another (Semi-Extended) Test Drive, Chevrolet Spark

My fiancee and I were in Miami, FL for a friend's wedding and had a Chevrolet Spark as our rental. My guess is between 2013 and 2014.

This car is pretty tiny by US standards, certainly on the exterior dimensions.

The interior is all plastic, so much plastic. The doors are very thin and have little interior cladding, the instrument cluster is very small and compact, and the infotainment system has some of the silliest menu screens ever (like telling you you're on Bluetooth for the music you're playing with a Bluetooth connected phone and includes a large Bluetooth graphic along with a large phone graphic which take up enormous real-estate for no good reason).

Engine wise the pickup is okay but nothing to write home about. When you floor it it can get out of its own way otherwise it is very much just a car with no thrills.

The handling was okay, you can late brake while taking an aggressive left at 40-30 MPH, shave off lots of speed, and in no way be scared or feel unstable. So, it has that going for it.

One key point of complaint was that the boot and the hatch for it were very small and the privacy cover was terribly flimsy and ill fitting. Don't look to this car for good trim or fit and finish.

I'd conclude by calling it cheap and adequate for A to B driving.

Fairlane Club Of America National Meet 2014

Driving home from running an errand I noticed a lot of trailers and classic looking cars parked in parking lot of a hotel near where I live.
Previously there had been Mustang meets there.
So, I grabbed my camera, walked across the lot, and inquired as to what was going on.
Turns out the Fairlane Club Of America National Meet 2014 was going on, so, I decided to take some pictures.

Lots of old cars, many in really good shape, primarily Ford Fairlanes (as the club name would indicate).
Lots of American muscle, Cobrajet engines, a few Boss engines, some supercharger, and even one that was a modern block with a Roush supercharger with coil packs for the ignition system.

Anyways, here are the pictures...

Test Drive of Subaru CVT with Paddle Shift

Subaru recently announced the 2015 Subaru Outback and stated there would no longer be any manual transmissions, only CVT transmissions with paddle shift manual override.

While I love manual transmissions and would prefer to have them I recognize that at some point I will likely end up with something else, whether or not I want to, due to the general trend away from manual transmissions.

To date, my favorite automatic I've driven is an Audi A4 (B7) which had a wonderful manual override on the 6-speed automatic transmission, i.e. it had a fair amount of bite on downshifts and did not nanny gear changes too much.


Today I test drove a 2014 Subaru Outback Limited (CVT).

In manual mode it is fairly good at not nannying shifts and lets you choose which gear you want to be in, for the most part.
For example you can shift up to 4th gear, but not higher, when doing up to 30 mph.
You have full discression on down shifts but there is very little initial bite, even when you dump two gears. My guess is this lack of bite is due to it being a CVT transmission and not having true ratios like a traditional automatic transmission (with torque converter or double clutch).
I would say acceleration is smoother and better in automatic mode than in manual, the ability to keep the engine in its most efficient range is best.
Also, as compared with the 2014 Subaru Outback with a manual transmission I drove this feels significantly less connected to the road and there is less feedback. In some ways this is true across all automatic transmissions, but even more so in a CVT transmission.



Note: for those who don't know a CVT is a continuously variable transmission which means it has no truly fixed ratios and changes to keep the engine in the optimum RPM range.

Ceras Victoria (Honda Prelude), Salvage (Part VII), Scrapping

Ceras Victoria finally heading to the junkyard.

In the driveway after being pushed out, I may have forgotten it was in gear and this made things difficult at first:

Ceras Victoria (Honda Prelude), Salvage (Part VI)

Last bits of the car removed that we wanted to keep.

ECM removed:

Ceras Victoria (Honda Prelude), Salvage (Part V)

Fiancee and I took out the dashboard.

Steering column cover removed:

Community Day!

Community Day! Oh the joys of working for the Federal Government!