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In addition to your comments, I think Subaru's all-wheel drive system has been switched to electrical instead of mechanical, making it worse. There are roller t

In addition to your comments, I think Subaru's all-wheel drive system has been switched to electrical instead of mechanical, making it worse. There are roller tests on youtube which show Subaru AWD being outperformed by Ford AWD systems.

ben7799 2y ago
They have different AWD systems in different vehicles and for some vehicles there is more than one system depending on which transmission you purchased. (At least when there was a choice) Mine is electrically controlled (and many Subarus are) but it's still connected full time. IME driving other electrically controlled non-full time systems what you feel in those are the electrically controlled clutch packs completely disconnect the rear wheels and the AWD is 100% disabled until the traction control system kicks in. Then you get a brief moment where the car feels out of control until the clutch activates the AWD. The tradeoff is that system that completely disconnects the rear wheels results in those vehicles (E.x. Honda/Toyota) getting much better fuel economy than Subarus as they operate as front-wheel drive almost all the time. I have never been in any Subaru that behaved that way. And a roller test is not where it matters anyway. Roller tests are contrived. Where you feel the difference between permanent AWD and part-time AWD is medium and high speed situations where the vehicle starts to lose control. Most people will never put any family crossover/SUV into a situation anywhere close to the roller tests or hill ascent tests. All of this seems to become completely meaningless with EVs being the future.
olyjohn 2y ago
The CVT in combination with the terrible traction control also kills any chance you have of getting out of a stuck situation. Subaru's AWD system is now mostly just marketing. So it's basically on part with most AWD systems, because most of them really are a joke.
- ben7799 2y ago
  I'm curious which exact model/year you had and how you got stuck. I've never even gotten anywhere near close to getting stuck in 12 years. But I'm not a Subaru offroad enthusiast. It seems like lots of people really want to use a Subaru for situations where they should have gotten a mountain bike, dirt bike, ATV, etc..
- Melatonic 2y ago
  I have a CVT in my 2017 H6 Outback and the traction control is very easy to turn off. Two buttons and both the traction and spin control is off and now it is just AWD with a limited slip differential in the back (feels pretty similar to my 2006 Outback H6 which had no electronic traction control). You can wheelspin all day if you want or feather the throttle or whatever - offroad driving has been amazing
- asa400 2y ago
  I know this is a Subaru hate thread on a site that knows basically nothing about cars so I’m spitting into the wind here, but this is just untrue. I’ve had 3 Subarus over a 20 year period of time, driven the hell out of all of them in snow and dirt, worked on and modified all of them, and the traction control system on my most recent one is categorically, objectively better than either of the prior two. It makes about 100 more horsepower than the earliest one and still gets better fuel economy, at least in part because of the CVT, despite weighing probably 600 pounds more. The CVT works perfectly fine for anything that isn’t doing the Rubicon trail. The AWD is one of the few remaining permanently fully engaged systems, unlike basically every other manufacturer. You can hate on Subarus for the stuff they’re actually bad at (fuel economy, infotainment, wind noise, head gaskets in the EJ series engines) without having to make stuff up.
  - snowingsnow 2y ago
    I have a 2014 forester. First time it snowed I slid off my driveway and one tire was off the ground. Had to get towed by a friend because that one wheel kept spinning. I thought the brakes were supposed to stop that automatically. Didn’t happen. Second time I tried to drove through a small patch of snow I lost all traction and had to dig out all the wheels and rock it. It was 2” of melting snow over a 50 foot by 10 foot patch. Any ideas why? I’ve just avoided driving in the snow for over a decade. I really don’t see the hype vs my reality.
    - hmmm-i-wonder 2y ago
      Sounds like a wrong tire problem, not an AWD problem to me. My parents also had a 2014 Forrestor. They parked it next to my shed when they went on a cruise one winter, and it crawled itself out of a 2 foot snowbank without shovelling it when they got back. That thing was a tank in snow and I definitely abused it when I had the chance. For the 'tire spinning in the air', sounds like the other tires must have been spinning too so there wasn't anywhere to transfer the power to, but I'm only guessing.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago

ben7799 2y ago

They have different AWD systems in different vehicles and for some vehicles there is more than one system depending on which transmission you purchased. (At least when there was a choice) Mine is electrically controlled (and many Subarus are) but it's still connected full time. IME driving other electrically controlled non-full time systems what you feel in those are the electrically controlled clutch packs completely disconnect the rear wheels and the AWD is 100% disabled until the traction control system kicks in. Then you get a brief moment where the car feels out of control until the clutch activates the AWD. The tradeoff is that system that completely disconnects the rear wheels results in those vehicles (E.x. Honda/Toyota) getting much better fuel economy than Subarus as they operate as front-wheel drive almost all the time. I have never been in any Subaru that behaved that way. And a roller test is not where it matters anyway. Roller tests are contrived. Where you feel the difference between permanent AWD and part-time AWD is medium and high speed situations where the vehicle starts to lose control. Most people will never put any family crossover/SUV into a situation anywhere close to the roller tests or hill ascent tests. All of this seems to become completely meaningless with EVs being the future.

olyjohn 2y ago

The CVT in combination with the terrible traction control also kills any chance you have of getting out of a stuck situation. Subaru's AWD system is now mostly just marketing. So it's basically on part with most AWD systems, because most of them really are a joke.

ben7799 2y ago
I'm curious which exact model/year you had and how you got stuck. I've never even gotten anywhere near close to getting stuck in 12 years. But I'm not a Subaru offroad enthusiast. It seems like lots of people really want to use a Subaru for situations where they should have gotten a mountain bike, dirt bike, ATV, etc..
Melatonic 2y ago
I have a CVT in my 2017 H6 Outback and the traction control is very easy to turn off. Two buttons and both the traction and spin control is off and now it is just AWD with a limited slip differential in the back (feels pretty similar to my 2006 Outback H6 which had no electronic traction control). You can wheelspin all day if you want or feather the throttle or whatever - offroad driving has been amazing
asa400 2y ago
I know this is a Subaru hate thread on a site that knows basically nothing about cars so I’m spitting into the wind here, but this is just untrue. I’ve had 3 Subarus over a 20 year period of time, driven the hell out of all of them in snow and dirt, worked on and modified all of them, and the traction control system on my most recent one is categorically, objectively better than either of the prior two. It makes about 100 more horsepower than the earliest one and still gets better fuel economy, at least in part because of the CVT, despite weighing probably 600 pounds more. The CVT works perfectly fine for anything that isn’t doing the Rubicon trail. The AWD is one of the few remaining permanently fully engaged systems, unlike basically every other manufacturer. You can hate on Subarus for the stuff they’re actually bad at (fuel economy, infotainment, wind noise, head gaskets in the EJ series engines) without having to make stuff up.
- snowingsnow 2y ago
  I have a 2014 forester. First time it snowed I slid off my driveway and one tire was off the ground. Had to get towed by a friend because that one wheel kept spinning. I thought the brakes were supposed to stop that automatically. Didn’t happen. Second time I tried to drove through a small patch of snow I lost all traction and had to dig out all the wheels and rock it. It was 2” of melting snow over a 50 foot by 10 foot patch. Any ideas why? I’ve just avoided driving in the snow for over a decade. I really don’t see the hype vs my reality.
  - hmmm-i-wonder 2y ago
    Sounds like a wrong tire problem, not an AWD problem to me. My parents also had a 2014 Forrestor. They parked it next to my shed when they went on a cruise one winter, and it crawled itself out of a 2 foot snowbank without shovelling it when they got back. That thing was a tank in snow and I definitely abused it when I had the chance. For the 'tire spinning in the air', sounds like the other tires must have been spinning too so there wasn't anywhere to transfer the power to, but I'm only guessing.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago