subaru forester vs. rav 4

i am a 26+ year Toyota driver who made the mistake of buying a 2001
Subaru Forester. After five years, five oxygen sensors, three wheel
bearing replacements (they shattered while driving) and two transaxle
replacements (all fell OUTSIDE the extended warranty) I realized that
not only had I never heard of such failures in any Toyota, but that I
could probably go out to Ebay and find any Toyota truck with less than
100K on it and get another 20+ years and 200,000 miles out of it doing
only scheduled maintainence.

I did like the looks and AWD of the Forester, but I have really found
the 2006 Rav 4s to be very nice too. Can anyone tell me of experience
with later model Rav4's? Any feed back would be appreciated.

On 1 May 2006 15:10:25 -0700, "jjohnson04@nts-online.net"
<jjohnson04@nts-online.net> wrote:
[color=blue]
>i am a 26+ year Toyota driver who made the mistake of buying a 2001
>Subaru Forester. After five years, five oxygen sensors, three wheel
>bearing replacements (they shattered while driving) and two transaxle
>replacements (all fell OUTSIDE the extended warranty) I realized that
>not only had I never heard of such failures in any Toyota, but that I
>could probably go out to Ebay and find any Toyota truck with less than
>100K on it and get another 20+ years and 200,000 miles out of it doing
>only scheduled maintainence.
>
>I did like the looks and AWD of the Forester, but I have really found
>the 2006 Rav 4s to be very nice too. Can anyone tell me of experience
>with later model Rav4's? Any feed back would be appreciated.[/color]


Not sure what your problem is or how you use it but Subarus are
usually very tuff critters and you have to really abuse one to tear it
up. The Toyota may be a bit more refined but not any more sturdy and
for regular off road usage, the RAV will fair the same or worse
because they are not built for that at all.
-----------------
The SnoMan
[url]www.thesnoman.com[/url]

my subie got 35K the first 6 months (highway driving and dirt & gravel
graded offroad) because I was at that time a Hospice RN with lots of
rural territory to cover. After that first 6 months it was mainly in
town driving. I live in West Texas which is flat prairie and very
little snow, I was not rough on it at all.

I have heard on newsgroups (the Subie ones) that Subaru has fixed the
design of the wheel bearings and these problems (all the models pre
2002) have been a lot better. Other than wondering "what's going to go
wrong next" I really have liked my Subie a lot. I really love the way
it handles.

On 1 May 2006 18:39:31 -0700, "jjohnson04@nts-online.net"
<jjohnson04@nts-online.net> wrote:
[color=blue]
>my subie got 35K the first 6 months (highway driving and dirt & gravel
>graded offroad) because I was at that time a Hospice RN with lots of
>rural territory to cover. After that first 6 months it was mainly in
>town driving. I live in West Texas which is flat prairie and very
>little snow, I was not rough on it at all.
>
>I have heard on newsgroups (the Subie ones) that Subaru has fixed the
>design of the wheel bearings and these problems (all the models pre
>2002) have been a lot better. Other than wondering "what's going to go
>wrong next" I really have liked my Subie a lot. I really love the way
>it handles.[/color]


I owned to for a total of ten years in the 80's until I had twin and
out grew them (I already had a child before they were born). I really
liked them and they were very sturdy cars and they older ones had a
low range and adjstable suspension too and would take more of a
beating off road too. I have seen some of them with 300K on them.
-----------------
The SnoMan
[url]www.thesnoman.com[/url]