Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
I read something in this month's Car and Driver that made me think about why I think my Subarus have been appealing to me. First off, they're not "cookie cutter". Nobody outside of Porsche uses the Boxer design, which is both a badge of honor and maybe one of stubbornness. 2nd, I agree that from the factory, Subarus (at least everything outside of the WRX/STi family) are generally soft-sprung, under-swaybar'd, a little shy on braking power, and obviously short on power compared to their contemporaries. But, when you own one of these cars, there is a certain joy when driving them hard; sure, objectively speaking there's nothing to be excited about. But when you start to hustle these HARD around turns, to the point of squealing tires and your wife going "THAT'S ENOUGH!" while you have your devilish grin on, all of the lack of exceptional numbers starts to fade. You can have an absolute blast in the snow - for a day you can be Ken Block sliding around the high school parking lot with your kids screaming in excitement. You can drive it down a 4-wheeler trail in haste hanging the tail out while never exceeding 30mph. And all the while, there is never enough speed involved to kill you, because well, 175HP in close quarters just isn't going to break much more than a bumper cover.
I think that's the biggest area where Subaru is different than most (as a whole). They've talked about it with the new Supra. They talk about it with cars like an off-road 911- chasing ultimate numbers like acceleration and skidpad and stopping like you hit the gate at Cheyenne Mountain may be great on paper, but there is no real joy in this, mainly because to test all of those things you can never do it on surface streets without risk of death or getting Bubba as your next cellmate. But the Subarus are almost 100% accessible to max or exceed any of its performance capabilities, all while never exceeding 65mph. I dunno. I know those of you who shop just based on numbers or looks or "cachet" will likely never own a Subaru, and I'm cool with that. But those of you who have had a Subaru and driven it at the edge of its performance envelope have likely had a good time doing it. Thanks for all the comments, even you Negative Nancy's.
It's usually right around the time that everybody starts loving something that the company loses its way and ruins the very reason people came in the first place. So for that, I'm glad you guys still don't like them.
This is exactly what people mean by "slow car fast>fast car slow." Even my 300 is borderline too much, it gets into reckless driving territory quickly. There is something to be said about being able to drive in a "spirited" manner without being a menace.