Hi, just joined the forum having placed an order for a 2018 2.0 SE Premium XV.

I’ve owned 3 Forresters in the past but my last 3 cars have been Skoda Yeti’s.  These last 3 have served me well but I’ve been faced with a dilemma of wanting a petro 4x4, automatic that is not yet available from Skoda (Karoq) or from many other manufacturers I’ve investigated.

I had a good test drive in the XV which demonstrated the technology well and then was able to drive the car down some pretty awful roads and overall I was impressed with the build and ride quality.

I’m sure I’ll have loads of questions but also hope to be an active forum member, I’ve been a member of the Briskoda forum since I got my first Yeti

Cool. What colour did you get? I seen a red one at my local dealers and it looks well cool. We've had a couple of foresters in the past and the XV is very impressive in the snow etc. I would say the only thing that lets it down is its not got a low box.

Nice, again what colour? 

I have a 2013 in white diesel

@Norrie, @Dogconker

thanks for the reply and welcome, we decided on Pure Red.  Not seen this in the metal only a sample but various YouTube videos make it look really good. We’ve had a lot of “Grey” cars etc., but the last few cars we’ve selected have been more “interesting” e.g., Muscavado, Jungle Green.

Really looking forward to taking delivery and then deciding what to do about things like the tyres.  Our first two Yeti’s we did the annual winter/summer change over but the current car we had fitted with CrossClimate’s, these have proven to be very impressive.

17 minutes ago, ernieb said:

@Norrie, @Dogconker

thanks for the reply and welcome, we decided on Pure Red.  Not seen this in the metal only a sample but various YouTube videos make it look really good. We’ve had a lot of “Grey” cars etc., but the last few cars we’ve selected have been more “interesting” e.g., Muscavado, Jungle Green.

Really looking forward to taking delivery and then deciding what to do about things like the tyres.  Our first two Yeti’s we did the annual winter/summer change over but the current car we had fitted with CrossClimate’s, these have proven to be very impressive.

I don’t know about the new XV but mine came with Yokohama Geolanders, which whilst on the pricier side at around £120 a corner were very capable and lasted me 50k miles before needing a change. The geolanders are all season so you may find you dont need to change them straight away.

anyway, this is mine, all dechromed from today, picked a caravan this morning.

 

 

 

@Dogconker,  that looks very nice and reminds me of the farm, near Peterbough, that we used to store our caravans.  Not that we caravan nowadays as we have a share in a lodge in Derbyshire which we use for 10 months of the year.

The demo car had Bridgestone Duelers H/L Sport fitted and the dealer thought that is what I’d get the 1.6 XV in the showroom had Yokohama’s. I seem to remember that out first Forrester had Bridgestone tyres which were impossible to use in the wet.  Maybe that is not the case now?  I think we’ll have to wait and see what gets fitted but the information on your experience is useful and appreciated, I’d rather not spend the money to replace new OEM tyres unless it’s reallt necessary but the roads we use in Derbyshire can be a bit tricky especially during December/January. Michelin now recommends  for the XV (225/55 R18 I think?) the Crossclimate SUV?  

27 minutes ago, ernieb said:

@Dogconker,  that looks very nice and reminds me of the farm, near Peterbough, that we used to store our caravans.  Not that we caravan nowadays as we have a share in a lodge in Derbyshire which we use for 10 months of the year.

The demo car had Bridgestone Duelers H/L Sport fitted and the dealer thought that is what I’d get the 1.6 XV in the showroom had Yokohama’s. I seem to remember that out first Forrester had Bridgestone tyres which were impossible to use in the wet.  Maybe that is not the case now?  I think we’ll have to wait and see what gets fitted but the information on your experience is useful and appreciated, I’d rather not spend the money to replace new OEM tyres unless it’s reallt necessary but the roads we use in Derbyshire can be a bit tricky especially during December/January. Michelin now recommends  for the XV (225/55 R18 I think?) the Crossclimate SUV?  

It’ll probably come fitted with Geolanders, they were purpose designed for the XV by Yokohama, i think pretty much every new XV over the last 5 years came with Geolanders, theyre not bad, ive found them to be quite capable on and off road and in snow and ice, a little noisey on dry road though at speed, and they can feel a little unsettled at high speed on long sweeping bends, but despite that, mine has never lost grip and I’ve tried 😳

i drove mine through a heap of snow back from manchester a couple if years ago and can honestly say they were fine, never felt any doubt that incould get around in them.

Plus pretty good at speed on a dry road

the XV is even quite good if you get caught oit by a tornado in Stoke! Thoigh that was my wife’s car

 

 

 

The red looks amazing you will not be disappointed. As for tyres I fitted.deddicated winter ones and they've been fantastic. Not sure what the Geolanders would have been like.

 

Norrie.

@Dogconker, thanks for the info and videos, I’d certainly be happier with the Yokohama, I had these on one of  my Forresters and they performed well enough.  I could do with saving the expense of a new set of tyres.  It’s strange though that the demo car had Bridgestone tyres which were on 18” rims the XV in the showroom was Yokohama on 17” rims.  A quick look at the Yokohama web site and what’s fitted OEM for Subaru sadly only shows 17” for the XV.

@Norrie, we have to wait till the end of May to see ours for real, unless they can pull the delivery forward.  To be honest, as I’ve said, on our first two Yeti I’d change to winter wheels and Dunlop winter tyres which performed extremely well. I’m just not so keen now on storing and changing the wheels over twice a year.  It also proved to be pain guessing when it was the right time to make the change.  It’s undoubtedly the best option.

8 minutes ago, ernieb said:

@Dogconker, thanks for the info and videos, I’d certainly be happier with the Yokohama, I had these on one of  my Forresters and they performed well enough.  I could do with saving the expense of a new set of tyres.  It’s strange though that the demo car had Bridgestone tyres which were on 18” rims the XV in the showroom was Yokohama on 17” rims.  A quick look at the Yokohama web site and what’s fitted OEM for Subaru sadly only shows 17” for the XV.

@Norrie, we have to wait till the end of May to see ours for real, unless they can pull the delivery forward.  To be honest, as I’ve said, on our first two Yeti I’d change to winter wheels and Dunlop winter tyres which performed extremely well. I’m just not so keen now on storing and changing the wheels over twice a year.  It also proved to be pain guessing when it was the right time to make the change.  It’s undoubtedly the best option.

The XV doesnt come with 18” rims, if youre having 17” it’ll come with Geolanders, sounds like the dealers have made up a special, a dealer not far from use made a “sport” version to boost the chance of selling it

i haven’t found the tyre has let me down yet regardless of what gets thrown at it. It probably isnt the best tyre out there for snow etc, but for what we usually get I’ve never found it to struggle even on hills

@Dogconker, my order is for the 2.0i SE Premium Lineartronic and it’s definetely 225/55 R18.  It was one of my concerns as I’d have preferred 17” wheels as I figured the ride would be better.  However, the test/demo convinced me that the bigger wheels were OK on the new Global  Manufacturing Platform, reportedly 70% stiffer with body less role and  better overall stability.  Doing a bit of the “google is my friend” research shows that the US has Falkens and that Australia has Bridgestone on the 18” wheels. So the UK might be Bridgestone. It’s so confusing even the dealers did not know what would be fitted.  Not as confusing as with my previous Yeti purchases where it was pot luck what was fitted and there was usually at least three varieties shipped.

4 minutes ago, ernieb said:

@Dogconker, my order is for the 2.0i SE Premium Lineartronic and it’s definetely 225/55 R18.  It was one of my concerns as I’d have preferred 17” wheels as I figured the ride would be better.  However, the test/demo convinced me that the bigger wheels were OK on the new Global  Manufacturing Platform, reportedly 70% stiffer with body less role and  better overall stability.  Doing a bit of the “google is my friend” research shows that the US has Falkens and that Australia has Bridgestone on the 18” wheels. So the UK might be Bridgestone. It’s so confusing even the dealers did not know what would be fitted.  Not as confusing as with my previous Yeti purchases where it was pot luck what was fitted and there was usually at least three varieties shipped.

Looks like theyve changed the spec with the new one, so might be different wheels and tyres then, certainly nearly all new XVs in the last few years were on Geolanders, hopefully you’ll get a decent tyre. The new XV is supposed to be a firmer ride anyway, not sure how my XV is pretty bumpy

aDogconker, I hope so but if it’s the Bridgestone Dueler Sport then they are definitely spec’d as a summer tyre.

On 3/3/2018 at 5:08 PM, Dogconker said:

It’ll probably come fitted with Geolanders, they were purpose designed for the XV by Yokohama, i think pretty much every new XV over the last 5 years came with Geolanders, theyre not bad, ive found them to be quite capable on and off road and in snow and ice, a little noisey on dry road though at speed, and they can feel a little unsettled at high speed on long sweeping bends, but despite that, mine has never lost grip and I’ve tried 😳

i drove mine through a heap of snow back from manchester a couple if years ago and can honestly say they were fine, never felt any doubt that incould get around in them.

Plus pretty good at speed on a dry road

the XV is even quite good if you get caught oit by a tornado in Stoke! Thoigh that was my wife’s car

Recognise that first snowy video location as starting off at Aviator way near the airport heading the back way through to Wilmslow via the A34?

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Hatchi said:

 

It is, I used to visit Costain Construction’s offices there from time to time, then one day that snow happened.

Born in south Manchester and only moved away in 2015 so know it pretty well. In fact the ancient woods I used to play in as a kid has just made way for tons of concrete and the bypass which will eventually connect with the airport link road.  Progress they say ?

I’ve had an update for the dealer, build is on time with an expected dealer ETA of mid May.  Really getting frustrated with the wait.  Just having to replace my second windscreen on the this car, under two years old, and it’s due it’s first service in 900 miles so will probably have to get that done before it’s gets PX’d.  With the service and windscreen excess charge I could have bought some goodies for the new XV!

Contacted by the dealer today, pickup on Thursday 3rd May. 😀

Ooh, must be getting excited! No sleep for you tonight! 

Make sure you get some pictures when you pick it up! 

1 hour ago, Swayze88 said:

Ooh, must be getting excited! No sleep for you tonight! 

Make sure you get some pictures when you pick it up! 

Yes very excited and I’ll get some pictures, thanks. Ernie

Collected today the dealer transferred my plate without any issues and went through all the controls etc., did a really great job.

I drove home best part of 20miles. What a great car, soooooooo pleased. 😀 just a quick photo. It’s going to take a little time to get used to the technology.

3 hours ago, ernieb said:

Collected today the dealer transferred my plate without any issues and went through all the controls etc., did a really great job.

I drove home best part of 20miles. What a great car, soooooooo pleased. 😀 just a quick photo. It’s going to take a little time to get used to the technology.

Nice one, I would update mine but sadly the new XV won’t pull our caravan. 

There is a lot of tech in the new ones, but they’re a great drive. Not seen a red one like that before.

Thanks, understand about towing weight modern vans are so much heavier than the ones we towed.  The current XV will tow1400Kg but that’s without any safety allowance, we always tried to keep ours well below the max but never had caravan movers and permanent beds to consider.

2 minutes ago, ernieb said:

Thanks, understand about towing weight modern vans are so much heavier than the ones we towed.  The current XV will tow1400Kg but that’s without any safety allowance, we always tried to keep ours well below the max but never had caravan movers and permanent beds to consider.

Yeah my van weighs 1500kg max but the car will pull 1600kg. 

Looks nice yours though. I don’t go fir colirs though, black or white for me haha!!

16 minutes ago, Dogconker said:

Yeah my van weighs 1500kg max but the car will pull 1600kg. 

Looks nice yours though. I don’t go fir colirs though, black or white for me haha!!

The last few cars we’ve had we’ve been more adventurous, it must be my age. In fact the current white is a pearl and is the only ‘standard’ colour that’s a no cost option.  Your diesel will also have more torque and at much lower revs.