Re: I Finally Got To Drive My Subaru Somewhere

On 6/16/2021 10:28 AM, John McGaw wrote:
> For various reasons, not all of them pandemic-related, the 2018 Subaru 
> Outback 3.6 Touring I purchased in January of 2018 never got further 
> than 35 miles from home. Well, on Saturday I finally drove up north to 
> take care of some serious family matters. After completing ~1125 miles I 
> have a better feeling for the car. First off, the mileage while not 
> stellar, was not horrible either at 26.8mpg overall with maybe 75% being 
> at high speed on major highways but sometimes it degenerated to gravel 
> roads (and badly-maintained county roads) in the SW PA 'gas patch.'
> 
> I have determined also that the built in navigation really sucks. It 
> gives you three choices based apparently only on time and distance but 
> never warns about the pitfalls of any of them. It gives 'accurate' 
> directions but almost never 'good' directions and will gladly divert you 
> to a gravel road from a county road if it will shave 5% off the distance 
> and will put you on that crappy county road even if a perfectly good 
> highway route was available that is only 5% longer. Up until now I had 
> been unable to get Android Auto to work (reasons unknown) but in 
> desperation I tried again on my way home and it worked perfectly and 
> gave much better results even though I was using it blindly. I hereby 
> apologize to all those who have posted that Android Auto is superior to 
> the inbuilt. I was definitely wrong.
> 
> Oh, the seats are comfortably enough even for someone as old as me, 
> visibility is good except when driving straight into the sun with bugs 
> splattered on the windshield, handling and stability are excellent, the 
> cruise control is exemplary, the lane keeping can get annoying, and the 
> noise level is good. The newly-installed replacement Michelin 225/60R-18 
> Michelin CrossClimate2 SL tires were excellent even in some blinding 
> downpours in West Virginia with never a trace of hydroplaning.
> 
My cars range from 1960 to 2002, so I can't directly compare. But all of 
the navigation systems I have used let me set priorities, like "shortest 
distance" or "fastest" for its route choosing. Is there a chance that's 
where things are going wrong?
Bob W