This 2007 Subaru is the 5th Subaru station wagon I have owned and I love them. Except this one. The car was purchase in June of 2013, it has new all season radial tires on it and is in pristine shape. It took me at least a week to feel comfortable driving it at highway speed on good roads. My husband and I are both professional drivers and have driven all types of commercial trucks, buses, and vans in bad weather and NEVER had an accident! (40 years of driving) My husband has also race cars and is quite capable of driving a car sideways in 2 wheel drive at over 80 and not wrecking.
The first snowfall I was driving in about 1/2 inches of slush and could not safely drive more than 40 MPH on the highway. The car felt as if the wheels were wobbling and I would lose control if I went any faster. I never had this happen in any of my others and drove in much worse conditions. I also noticed if there was a dip or rut of any kind in the road that the car felt like it was all over the road like an over weighted truck, although it was just me in the car. Again in Dec, I was on a small town road and wanted to test the traction of my car, since I hadn't been able to do this in a controlled environment yet. I turn a left hand turn at approximately 10 mph in 4 inches of dry crunchy snow and gave the car just a slight throttle. The back end of the car swung completely around at 90 degrees and I had to take evasive maneuvers to bring the car under control before it turned completely around. When I tried to steer into the slide, the car swayed and it had no effect on the turn at all. I did not touch the brakes. In order to straighten the car out I had to give it some throttle, at that time it started wobbling and took off straight and then abruptly to the right.
I can usually do this in a car, and have the car crab sideways down the road. Not lose the traction in the back and swing around. At this time I wasn't sure if it was me or the car. In Dec 2014, and Jan 2014, my husband had the same type of problems on both snow covered roads, slush and on wet pavement coming over a dip. He almost wrecked the car when it began swaying from side to side, like the wheels were about to fall off. We discussed selling the car because I was afraid to drive it. Anytime we drove in ice snow or bad weather, when we need our car, it was unsafe to drive it.
On Jan 30th my husband was driving on a slightly snow covered road, at approx 35 mph, slowed down, started to speed up slightly and he stated "the car just took over "and no matter what he did it was going to speed up or slow down and he was not able to take normal evasive maneuvers to keep from crashing the car. He said that it was not like anything he had ever experience and could not figure out what had happened. He raced cars and understands feeling of spins and control. He said the car veered off the road and crashed into a ditch. We have taken the car to a body shop and will be contacting Subaru for some computer diagnostics and to see why this car decided to DRIVE ITSELF.
I believe we need to get more people together to make Subaru recall these cars! They are dangerous.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
This 2007 Subaru is the 5th Subaru station wagon I have owned and I love them. Except this one. The car was purchase in June of 2013, it has new all season radial tires on it and is in pristine shape. It took me at least a week to feel comfortable driving it at highway speed on good roads. My husband and I are both professional drivers and have driven all types of commercial trucks, buses, and vans in bad weather and NEVER had an accident! (40 years of driving) My husband has also race cars and is quite capable of driving a car sideways in 2 wheel drive at over 80 and not wrecking.
The first snowfall I was driving in about 1/2 inches of slush and could not safely drive more than 40 MPH on the highway. The car felt as if the wheels were wobbling and I would lose control if I went any faster. I never had this happen in any of my others and drove in much worse conditions. I also noticed if there was a dip or rut of any kind in the road that the car felt like it was all over the road like an over weighted truck, although it was just me in the car. Again in Dec, I was on a small town road and wanted to test the traction of my car, since I hadn't been able to do this in a controlled environment yet. I turn a left hand turn at approximately 10 mph in 4 inches of dry crunchy snow and gave the car just a slight throttle. The back end of the car swung completely around at 90 degrees and I had to take evasive maneuvers to bring the car under control before it turned completely around. When I tried to steer into the slide, the car swayed and it had no effect on the turn at all. I did not touch the brakes. In order to straighten the car out I had to give it some throttle, at that time it started wobbling and took off straight and then abruptly to the right.
I can usually do this in a car, and have the car crab sideways down the road. Not lose the traction in the back and swing around. At this time I wasn't sure if it was me or the car. In Dec 2014, and Jan 2014, my husband had the same type of problems on both snow covered roads, slush and on wet pavement coming over a dip. He almost wrecked the car when it began swaying from side to side, like the wheels were about to fall off. We discussed selling the car because I was afraid to drive it. Anytime we drove in ice snow or bad weather, when we need our car, it was unsafe to drive it.
On Jan 30th my husband was driving on a slightly snow covered road, at approx 35 mph, slowed down, started to speed up slightly and he stated "the car just took over "and no matter what he did it was going to speed up or slow down and he was not able to take normal evasive maneuvers to keep from crashing the car. He said that it was not like anything he had ever experience and could not figure out what had happened. He raced cars and understands feeling of spins and control. He said the car veered off the road and crashed into a ditch. We have taken the car to a body shop and will be contacting Subaru for some computer diagnostics and to see why this car decided to DRIVE ITSELF.
I believe we need to get more people together to make Subaru recall these cars! They are dangerous.
- Billie W., Farmington, WA, US