AWD is is joy

I hired this car for a trip to Kruger National park in order to test it with future purchase in mind as I had previously tested the Impreza but was looking for something a bit more roomy.

We were 4 adults with luggage on a 2000K trip over 4 days, so it was roomy enough and lived up to my expectations on that point.

The interior was nice enough for everyone to be comfortable for the entire trip, with a decent stereo and aircon, but not really nice as in "this is a really a luxury car".

The 2.0 automatic that we tested was a bit underpowered when we wanted to overtake on the highways, but obviously sufficiently powered to handle the inside of the Kruger National Park where the speed limit is 50k/h. Still for a family car it was in general sufficient and also had an acceptable fuel economy (although nothing spectacular).

However, where it does stand out is in terms of handling. The AWD is truly a joy (as it was in the Impreza), and we had plenty of opportunity to test it in the Park.

The third day we were a bit tired of the standard tarred roads as we felt we needed a change, so we decided to take a chance and go down an unmarked dirt road...which soon turned into a dirt track.

The car had no problems and the handling was as firm as it had been on the better roads.

25K later we run into a less than hospitable elephant next to the "road". We stop the car to get a better look, but the elephant is in no mood for that and starts moving towards us. As he is less than 30 metres from the car I decide that it is time to get out of there, put it in gear and put my foot on the accelator.

The car simply starts accelerating despite the rough terrain - and although the speed limit is 30k/h on the dirt roads, I have every intention of breaking it with the elephant hot on our tracks, and decide to keep going at 60k/h over terrain that is best suited for a 4x4. The car showed no signs of losing its grip.

After 10K we unfortunately had to turn back as the car could not do a 30degree, mega-bumpy, rocky climb...trust me I tried it, despite that the car was obviously not designed to handle this sort of thing, as I did not want to risk another encounter with an angry elephant.

Luckily it was gone when we returned to the same spot, but the car had proven its point that even when it was pushed it still handle superbly. It never lost its back end and always kept going in the direction I wanted it to - and this was even with 4 adults and luggage.

One thing about the car that did annoy me, however, was that as this was a right hand steered car Subaru had also reversed the stick-controls (something Mercedes also have a tendency of doing). I can't count the amount of times I started the wipers when I just wanted to indicate a lane switch...