Moved to Seattle in August for school, decided not to trash my MINI (how there are SO MANY MINI's here is completely beyond me, the dealers must make bank on replacement windshields and suspension) and took it home to keep my parents' garage company until I go back. I ended up buying an 03 Subaru Forester (N/A automatic 4spd, YAWN) which I absolutely love (die hard Subaru, and MINI of course, fan for life) but man do I miss the whine of the supercharger when I downshift into second and blow by that honda civic! I'm looking forward to visiting home in a few weeks solely so I can drive it.

 

I will trade you my 93 E34 touring for your Forester.

 

Sorry to see that you left your MINI home- there's lots of fun to be had here in the Puget Sound. There's a very active local club- psmini.org- plus tons of fun twisty roads. Not sure what you mean by making bank on suspensions- the roads here are in so-so condition but they're not that bad. Both my wife and I use our R50's ad daily drivers and haven't had any more suspension trouble than the control arm bushings fail, which happens to all of them.

Val

 

I was getting some crazy rattles (especially with the convertible top) and driving down the 405 is hell in it. Everything rattles and knocks!

 

As much as I love BMW I love subaru more haha. and I need the AWD for winter roadtrips.

 

LOL so glad I don't have to deal with that kind of stuff. Every Sub I've been in feels really tinny. HOWEVER, their AWD systems are top notch!

 

Really? thats interesting. They all feel very solid to me. Except for some of the very old ones. They definitely aren't a thrill ride like the MINI (except for the turbos, I LOVE driving turboed subies) but they are definitely a good reliable vehicle IMO. and maybe I won't get so many speeding tickets for a while