Which 08 Outback To Get

I live in Colorado and bought a '07 toyota 4 runner and it is AWFUL in the snow. Had a '97 Outback and was great until it started to fall apart after 3 years. Am thinking of buying another Outback. Any suggestions on what trim package to get? My '97 was good up in the mountains, but had no power. I need power going up mountain highways in snow.

Many of the guys like the turbo, but I enjoy the NA 3.0 in my Legacy - both engines, as I'm sure you are familiar, are the same in the Legacy and Outback.

love my XT.

Get some snow tires or a minus sized tire & snow wheel package for your 4Runner. Itsa helluva lot cheaper than a new vehicle.

If you live in colorado get the turbo. Driven mine out there a few times and having a turbo in the mountains is without a doubt the way to go

Oh yeah - apparently when you drive in regularly snowy/rainy conditions, the stock tires are a no go. So I'd recommend including in your negotiations to have the tires swapped for something more desirable. They're okay for me as I only have weekend winter exposure in the mountains, but for you, it's probably constant.

+1 on the H6 30R. Good choice for the snow.

 

Info HERE

He wrote "I need power going up mountain highways". Turbo is better on higher elevations.

 

Krzys

 

PS Try different tires on your 4 runner. It is cheaper than trading in your truck so soon and OE tires on Outback may not be good enough for you in the mountains.

I lived in Colorado Springs for 22 years before moving to KS last summer. I put in 2 seasons of 50+ ski days before I moved with my XT. I'd definitely have to recommend going with the XT as it has more than enough power for pretty much everything Colorado can through at you(e.g. gone from the I-470 I-70 interchange to Vail in under an hour).

 

As for the stock RE92 tires, frankly I had no problem with them. They weren't the greatest tire but had more than enough bite for me in the winter. The main reason I replaced them is because I burnt through them in about 10k miles like many people have.

 

As for the '07 4 runner, I don't mean to be a jerk but I have to say this. I have buddies with 4runner's ranging from the early 90s to the new '08 and I have never seen them have more trouble then me in the snow. So unless you have bald tires or were stupid enough to buy the 2WD model in Colorado, I'm guessing you should just invest in some new tires and learn to drive in the snow. Also AWD doesn't help you stop faster on snow and ice so the 4runner will beat out a Subaru in stopping on ice because it’s heavier.

... the 4runner will beat out a Subaru in stopping on ice because it’s heavier.

 

Never heard of inertia, huh? It takes more traction to stop something heavy than to stop something light, you know...

 

Ben

Never heard of inertia, huh? It takes more traction to stop something heavy than to stop something light, you know...

Never heard of friction, huh? An increase in weight will increase the amount of energy dissipated by friction. So given the same coefficient of fiction, mu, on both cars the heavier one will stop faster even though it has more momentum. I know physics, go figure.

...given the same coefficient of fiction, mu, on both cars the heavier one will stop faster even though it has more momentum.

 

 

That statement is fiction.

Never heard of friction, huh? An increase in weight will increase the amount of energy dissipated by friction. So given the same coefficient of fiction, mu, on both cars the heavier one will stop faster even though it has more momentum. I know physics, go figure.

 

if the CoF is zero, then which will stop sooner ?

 

So given the same coefficient of fiction, mu, on both cars the heavier one

will stop faster even though it has more momentum. I know physics, go

figure.

 

Since mu is a ratio indicating how much of the downward force is translated

into frictional force, your conclusion is completely nonsensical. i.e. Any two

objects of different weights but having identical values for mu and identical

speeds would stop at the same time and distance. This is, of course, due to

one of Newton's laws of motion: F = M*A.

 

For two different objects having identical speeds and coefficients of friction

but different masses the decelerations would be:

 

F1 / M1 = A1

F2 / M2 = A2

 

Since mu defines the the frictional forces (Fx) as being proportional to the

masses (Mx), the ratio mu is F / M and we get:

 

(mu * M) / M = A

 

mu1 = A1

mu2 = A2

 

But the mu values were originally stated to be identical, so:

 

mu1 = mu2 = A1 = A2

 

In other words, the deceleration is exactly proportional to mu, so the same

mu means that they MUST have identical decelerations, entirely regardless

of their respective masses.

 

As far as your claim about "knowing physics", you just clearly demonstrated

that you couldn't even pass a freshman high school physics course (F=M*A).

Did you guys say mu?

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/hopup1_1992_8496999

Thank you spider for the remedial physics lesson and yeah I'm a moron sorry about that. I've got to stop trying to answer threads using physics and math especially while intoxicated but then who would you have to point fun at, ridicule and use as an excuse to unleash verbose explanations of the workings of the world.

 

As for the threads original question I still stand by my observations in post #9 except for the "so the 4runner will beat out a Subaru in stopping on ice because it’s heavier" part and you can also ignore post #11 as well.

+1 on the snow and tire package for the Toyota. I was very close to buying a 1999 4Runner from a friend - these trucks are unbreakable. If you definitely want to go for a new ride being an Outback get an XT. Turbo power in the mountains is hard to beat.

I live in Colorado and bought a '07 toyota 4 runner and it is AWFUL in the snow. Had a '97 Outback and was great until it started to fall apart after 3 years. Am thinking of buying another Outback. Any suggestions on what trim package to get? My '97 was good up in the mountains, but had no power. I need power going up mountain highways in snow.

I had a little better luck with our 97's, the last one was sold with 189,000 miles on it.....

 

The Gen III 2.5i is slightly more powerful (175 vs 165hp) than the model you had. Good snow tires makes an immense difference for any car.

 

Are you buying new, or used?

You read about OutBacks where their tails want to swing out on Ice.

 

I'm not sure it's the best winter car?

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11267

 

I remember Consumer reports saying something similar about the rear wanting to come loose from the road

You read about OutBacks where their tails want to swing out on Ice.

 

I'm not sure it's the best winter car?

 

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11267

 

I remember Consumer reports saying something similar about the rear wanting to come loose from the road

 

I am sure this is somewhat to do with the limited slip rearend the outbacks have. If one wheel spins in the snow or something, the differential locks and thus the rearend of the car will want to kick out.

 

Limited slip is great to have but you have to be careful with it in the slick stuff.