I like your reply... I am a
I like your reply... I am a new first time Subaru Forester XT 2.0 owner. It was the power of the turbo coupled with the safety crash test performance that really sold me. Now the bean coutners have eliminated the only Subaru I was interested in. THe mantra of a safety first orientation and performance isn't dead hereis not truthful in my estimation and neither is the service at least at my dealer.
We are looking into new vehicles now so we have to decide whether we want to get the last turbo Forester, the 2018 XT, or leave Subaru for Honda, or Mazda or somewhere else. It is shameful that Subaru blames the customers for not buying these models and falsely claims that the manual is too expensive as is the XT engineering-wise when they are keeping them for the WRX for the time being. I would have liked to buy an XT with the WRX STi 305 hp 2.5L and I would have liked the manual option too. Instead of using the profits from sales to improve the product, they have blamed customers... I wonder if the 7 seat Ascent will replace the 10-12% of lost Forester sales and more importantly the bad opinion of one-time Subaru customers. They should be researched what turned customers away, especially those who actually became first time Subaru owners.