Here's the review:
First off, we had a fabulous car buying experience with our dealer. We X-plan'd the car, so it was down to the trade-in, which we ended up getting a good deal more for it than we expected (which surpassed most of the online true-price estimators). The $1k rebate along with the $750 brochure coupon helped get us a deal we were very happy with. Rod and Nickole took great care of us the whole time...
Now, to the car:
We love it! It is quite, smooth riding, and very comfortable. We are coming from a 2005 Forester, which is 20 inches shorter and about 1000lbs lighter (give or take), so we expected the driving experience to be very different. The steering is lighter in the Ex, but feels pretty good. The biggest surprise was how the Ex felt like a smaller car to drive. Then you look around you and realize that you are sitting in a large vehicle. It is very easy to drive despite its bulk. The only issue we have is that it barely fits into the garage! Man, is it a tight fit.
Fit and finish is very good. There was a small scuff on the rear bumper at delivery, but while we were signing the paperwork, the body shop buffed it out and you can't tell it was ever there. Panels look to fit together nicely.
MFT is working well. Only had one issue that seems to have corrected itself. After the first loading and indexing of our 32gb flash drive with 2800+ songs, when the car was turned off then restarted, it said the flash drive was disconnected. Though, that seems to have rectified itself. I did find that if you went under the Options menu and then re-indexed the drive (which only took a few seconds, so I don't think it was a full reload, but more like a remount of the drive), it worked fine. My wife reports that it worked fine all day, so who knows.
All of the other MFT functions are working well. We are trying to learn it, but man, is it a steep learning curve
The ambient lighting is the coolest useless feature ever.
The interior is very comfortable. The front seats are great, with plenty of adjustments, and just the right amount of cushioning. The seat coolers work great, if not a bit noisily on the high setting. The steering wheel heater has already been enjoyed by our friend on his test drive of our car. The rear A/C blows like a hurricane, and it is nice to have the control afforded to the back seat passengers. The bucket seats in the back are sweet, and make the car for us. Being able to move them fore and aft is a sweet feature. With the 3rd row empty, we can move the buckets all the way back and it is nice to have so much room. The flexibility is a big plus for us, especially since the 3rd row won't often be occupied.
We have experienced the control-less dome lights and sleeping baby problem. We'll have to figure something out for that one...
The automatic high-beam headlights are taking a bit of getting used to, but it seems to work quite well. We haven't had the opportunity to have it self park, or keep us from drifting in our lane. The collision alert function fired one time as we (meaning I) came up rather quickly on a car that was turning. It caught us by surprise, but worked well. The cross traffic alert fires every time we back out of the garage, see as how close the side of the car is to the wall. The power mirrors are also helpful in getting the car in.
In our time on the highway, we didn't hear a peep out of the A-pillars. No odd wind noises, creaks, or rattles.
We plan on getting as set of all-weather mats, rear bumper protector, clear bra, tint on the front windows, and maybe running boards. We say maybe on the running boards because it seems that in the past 2 months, our son has grown just enough to be able to negotiate climbing into the car on his own.
We'll be keeping track of mileage and posting on
fuelly.com, so look for the Gray Ghost there
I'm tired and can't think of anything else to say, so if anybody has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.
Happy driving