Agreed, it's sad that in chasing more market share subaru is making multiple decisions based on marketing and not on engineering. Forcing a CVT from the ideal

Agreed, it's sad that in chasing more market share subaru is making multiple decisions based on marketing and not on engineering. Forcing a CVT from the ideal RPM to entertain drivers seems impressively silly. Kind of like the Golf R, which installed a vibrating/unbalanced motor under the winshield to make a more pleasing vibration. Or the Mustang EcoBoost, various BMWs, and other cars that are using speakers to make more vroom noises to hide the less appealing note of their smaller turbo engines. Maybe the automatic folks should install a manual looking stick between the seats and whenever you move it it kills power for 0.5 seconds.