Me? I’d rather be in a Subaru

AFTER ALL, IT IS TWICE THE DRIVE OF EVERYTHING ELSE OUT THERE ON THE ROADS The new XV is more dynamic, while retaining ability to surprise ‘regular’ 4X4.

Aformer colleague, who hails from the US of A, always used to tell me that All-Wheel-Drive is overkill for a family vehicle in this country. In America and in Europe, where snow, slush and ice are the order of the day for most of the year, it makes sense. But here, where it is clear and dry and roads are seldom slushy, it doesn’t make sense.

That was always his take on what he called a “Subaru fan boy” (i.e. – me).

I have driven 4x4 vehicles in my past and even seriously considered buying one when I lived in Namibia for five years. However, even the gravel roads in that country are so good you can get to 90% of the scenic places in an ordinary two-wheel-drive (in our case an Opel Kadett hatchback).

In South Africa, you can get to amazing places– even off the beaten track ones – in a “normal” car… or so I thought.

About 15 years ago, in the Lapalala Wilderness area of the Waterberg in Limpopo, I came to a left-hand corner on a hill. In my front-wheel-drive VW Jetta, excellent car though it was, the drive wheels started spinning in the loose gravel… and the car began rolling backwards.

Had I been on my own, in one car, I would have had to hike about 8km to fetch a tractor to tow me up the hill. Fortunately, my mechanically clever brother-in-law came up with what we now refer to as the “Third World Traction Control”. He sat on one side of the Jetta bonnet and my son on the other. With the extra weight on the front axle, traction was restored and up we went (admittedly wrapped in an aroma of burning clutch).

Because we liked to go to the bush, I was worried that something similar would happen again. Gravel roads can be very unpredictable, especially after rain, when surfaces are washed away. So I thought about the additional traction that an all-wheeldrive setup would bring. I didn’t want an enormous 4x4 like a Hilux, because I still wanted to feel as though I was driving a car, not a truck.

That’s when I made the acquaintance of Subaru, buying myself a Forester, with the company’s trademark Symmetrical All Wheel Drive system. It took us to places where even the hard manne in Land Cruisers and Land Rover Discoverys raised their eyebrows. Two years ago, we bought another Forester. We didn’t trade in the old one – because it was, and still is, going like a bomb.

We looked long and hard at the whole Subaru range before we opted for the Forester. One of the vehicles we seriously considered was the company’s XV, a smaller AWD based on the platform of the Impreza sedan. It was a really close run thing.

The latest XV is even more impressive than the one we looked at two years ago and the decision would, I’m sure, be even harder than it was then.

The new XV is based on Subaru’s new global platform and it is noticeably more dynamic, in terms of handling on tar, while retaining the ability to surprise the “regular” 4x4s. Fitted with the company’s 2.0 litre four-cylinder “boxer” engine, the XV retains the remarkably low centre of gravity which is one of the hallmarks of a Subaru.

The AWD system has been fettled considerably since the basic system of my 2004 Forester, and now has electronic gizmos like traction control and vehicle dynamics control, which make an already safe car one of the safest you can buy.

All new XVs come fitted with Subaru’s CVT (constant velocity transmission) gearbox which is one of the best of its kind and mimics a normal automatic box, but promises better fuel consumption.

Me? Although our new Forester has the CVT, I prefer the manual in my old Forester and I do miss the direct, lovely-feeling, sixspeed manual which used to be in the XV.

Still, you do notice the improvement in fuel consumption, with the XV returning consistently under 8 litres per 100km in my hands over a week. That’s as good, or better than, most of its direct competitors.

And, when it comes to competitors, I must point out why I prefer the Subaru AWD system to the others out there. That’s because it is full-time. Most other AWDs in “softroader” SUVs are frontwheel-drive until there is a loss of traction, when the rear wheels kick in. Sometimes, that can come too late, and leave you stuck… in my opinion. And while you can lock some of these transmissions in AWD, they generally unlock at speeds above about 40km/h. Which means you are left in a high-riding, high centre-of-gravity, FWD station wagon.

Me? I’d rather be in a Subaru… after all, it is twice the drive of everything else.