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Old 21st June 2012, 18:52   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by suhaas307

Taking out that wonderful 2-liter boxer-4 motor and replacing it with a diesel engine is absolute sacrilege!

Sure, it would have made good 'business' sense, but it's like Audi offering the 3-liter V6 S4 with a CVT multitronic instead of the much better S-Tronic DSG!
For a purist yes you could look at it that way. But from a sales and consumer requirement point of view specifically in India, that would have been a good move indeed.
Sacrilege perhaps but I would have certainly considered such a vehicle had it been available at the time in that avatar!
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Old 21st June 2012, 23:12   #17
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

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Originally Posted by shankar.balan View Post
If they had indigenized production through CKD assembly or whatever and plonked the Optra 2 litre diesel engine into it
I am sure they couldn't have plonked a normal inline engine in to the engine bay which is designed for a flat boxer engine. When they were selling it, petrol CRV was still doing decent numbers, so petrol engine itself was not the only reason for failure.
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Old 22nd June 2012, 04:28   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Guna
I am sure they couldn't have plonked a normal inline engine in to the engine bay which is designed for a flat boxer engine. When they were selling it, petrol CRV was still doing decent numbers, so petrol engine itself was not the only reason for failure.
The vehicle was way ahead of time for a relatively immature, developing market. Add overall poor marketing and positioning of the Forester.
GM's general trust and after sales servicing issues until Karl Slym popped up with the Chevrolet Promise and such.

India's idiotically enduring, unreasoning love affair with all things Korean and Japanese- for better or for worse, until death do us part sort of attitude.

There could have been any number of reasons really.

All I was indicating is that for me personally, the Forester would have been even more desirable in Diesel AWD. I would have simply driven it more.

Petrol was always a bit expensive to run. In April 2004 My old Gypsy once returned an FE of 6 kmpl to Ooty and back with partial AC usage. Imagine how much I spent on fuel for an 800 km round trip! In excess of 125 litres at a price of 42 odd Rupees per litre!

Even last year I had rented a brand new top spec AWD AT Subaru Forester in the UK for about a week or ten days on my holiday. We traversed the length and breadth of the land in it, pretty much, perhaps not quite from John O' Groats to Land's End, but from the North Yorkshire Moors to Dover! It returned a miserable FE even on those roads. I shall have to consult my notes for exact figures but I do remember topping up the tanks rather alarmingly often indeed!

It might not be considered very posh or politic to be interested in controlling FE and be obsessed with fuel prices, especially when lurking about in a debate of this sort amongst a bunch of petrol heads, but then, between you and me, I frankly have many more things which I would like to spend my doubloons on, rather than just fuel.
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Old 22nd June 2012, 07:55   #19
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by shankar.balan View Post
It might not be considered very posh or politic to be interested in controlling FE and be obsessed with fuel prices, especially when lurking about in a debate of this sort amongst a bunch of petrol heads, but then, between you and me, I frankly have many more things which I would like to spend my doubloons on, rather than just fuel.
Actually, I think we are justified to talk of better FE, simply because this non-renewable resource is key to our passion, and we must stretch it as much as possible - not use it all up today & have nothing for tomorrow !
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Old 22nd June 2012, 13:11   #20
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by shankar.balan View Post

India's idiotically enduring, unreasoning love affair with all things Korean and Japanese- for better or for worse, until death do us part sort of attitude.
Shankar

The Forester is a Subaru which is, ahem, Japanese

This just goes to show that even a Jap car with American badges may get the boot.
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Old 22nd June 2012, 13:18   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by suhaas307

Shankar

The Forester is a Subaru which is, ahem, Japanese

This just goes to show that even a Jap car with American badges may get the boot.
Yes thanks, I know. Also am aware that Toyota owns it by some circuitous route.
I was seeking to illustrate the need for a Diesel given our cheaper diesel price.
Also instead of launching it as a Chevrolet, they should have considered launching it as Subaru itself.
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Old 22nd June 2012, 13:30   #22
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guna View Post
I am sure they couldn't have plonked a normal inline engine in to the engine bay which is designed for a flat boxer engine. When they were selling it, petrol CRV was still doing decent numbers, so petrol engine itself was not the only reason for failure.
Subaru had actually engineered a 2 liter horizontally-opposed common-rail turbo-diesel with VGT. It churns out 150 horses (thereabouts) and an incredible 350 NM of torque. This was back in 2007. The Legacy, Outback and the Forester were powered by this engine. And surprisingly, even the Impreza! The Forester & Impreza's diesel avatars went on sale in 2009.

By then, Chevrolet had dug the Forester's grave in India, I guess.

Quote:
Originally Posted by shankar.balan View Post
Yes thanks, I know. Also am aware that Toyota owns it by some circuitous route.
I was seeking to illustrate the need for a Diesel given our cheaper diesel price.
Also instead of launching it as a Chevrolet, they should have considered launching it as Subaru itself.
Toyota assembles Subarus, is what I'm aware of. It's a partial partnership, in which Toyota has a stake of 16.5%
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Old 22nd June 2012, 13:55   #23
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

I have had my eye on a particular Forester in Pune for quite some time now, & ready to take the plunge. Don't know what kept me waiting-probably a miracle-which I have with the spike in petrol prices.
Chevrolet Forester AWD
KMS: 56,000
YEAR: DEC 2003
2 previous owners
Manual Transmission
Silver color
Petrol fuel
No insurance
Vehicle is in good condition (actually some aspects are in excellent condition)
ASKING PRICE: 3.75 lakhs
I am sure I can negotiate for a much lower price, but how much? Forester users\experts please guide. Also let me know what to look out for while checking the vehicle & what kind of costs should I expect to incur. Thanks.
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Old 22nd June 2012, 15:07   #24
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by shankar.balan View Post
Yes thanks, I know. Also am aware that Toyota owns it by some circuitous route.
I was seeking to illustrate the need for a Diesel given our cheaper diesel price.
Also instead of launching it as a Chevrolet, they should have considered launching it as Subaru itself.
Subaru brand which is created by Fuzi heavy industries was always Japanese, just that Toyota bought stake from GM only recently.

Last edited by Guna : 22nd June 2012 at 15:27.
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Old 22nd June 2012, 15:49   #25
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I saw many of these Foresters all over the place in Australia. Very popular there.
An excellent utility vehicle all in all but I just cannot understand why these manufacturers dont even give them a fair chance to succeed in a market like India!
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Old 23rd November 2012, 16:47   #26
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guna View Post
I am sure they couldn't have plonked a normal inline engine in to the engine bay which is designed for a flat boxer engine. When they were selling it, petrol CRV was still doing decent numbers, so petrol engine itself was not the only reason for failure.
All chevy could do was badge replacement, I don't think they could do
this level of CUT AND PASTE !! Well atleast now there is a boxer diesel
and we need Subaru itself to arrive here.
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Old 23rd November 2012, 19:30   #27
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

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Originally Posted by WRXXX View Post
All chevy could do was badge replacement, I don't think they could do
this level of CUT AND PASTE !! Well atleast now there is a boxer diesel
and we need Subaru itself to arrive here.
Now that Toyota holds the stake which was once owned by GM, they can bring it easily but that is highly unlikely as the Toyota itself has many cars which can be potentially launched here. This wan't the case with GM hen they were selling all re-badged vehicles
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Old 23rd November 2012, 19:48   #28
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

OT:

My daily drive here at Nairobi is a petrol Forester AT and while the driving experience is pretty exciting, I must say that with the kind of cabin space this thing has (5 people are actually a squeeze), I m not surprised it didn't do well in India, on the utility front.
But yes, for a person looking for something like the Yeti, this vehicle, with a diesel engine and an AWD system, would have been the ideal competition.
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Old 24th November 2012, 11:19   #29
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by n.devdath View Post
OT:

My daily drive here at Nairobi is a petrol Forester AT and while the driving experience is pretty exciting, I must say that with the kind of cabin space this thing has (5 people are actually a squeeze), I m not surprised it didn't do well in India, on the utility front.
You are right.
It was expensive and lacked the outright performance for enthusiasts.
It lacked the back seat comfort for the chauffeur driven type (who would have been the majority of the buyers with the kind of pricing it was tagged with)

Did you drive the current generation Forester or the previous gen which was sold in India? It will be nice if you can share your experience.
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Old 26th November 2012, 11:36   #30
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re: Forester Owners: Servicing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by n.devdath View Post
OT:

My daily drive here at Nairobi is a petrol Forester AT and while the driving experience is pretty exciting, I must say that with the kind of cabin space this thing has (5 people are actually a squeeze), I m not surprised it didn't do well in India, on the utility front.
But yes, for a person looking for something like the Yeti, this vehicle, with a diesel engine and an AWD system, would have been the ideal competition.
People in India are always looking at "value for money". While the forester itself is a solidly built utility vehicle, the term "utility" and the extra-ordinary work by GM to pitch it as a premium SUV obviously didn't go well. People in India I would say can easily identify what is worth and what is not.

For example look at the pricing of Renault Duster (~12L for loaded non-AWD diesel), people do not mind paying that price. All in All Forester in that trim was an over-engineered/over-priced(because of its CBU nature) automobile for Indian requirement.

But those of us who have it, perfectly understand what it is meant for
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