AndrewForesterXT

I don't have the Hybrid model but I do have the last Turbo (& last fast in UK available it seems) XT Forester. An 2016 plate. Yesterday I had Halfords around to install my 5th (!) battery within 6 years of ownership. Every winter it's the same story. Doesn't start after leaving the car for 4-5 days. I've been driving for over 20 years and never had to change a car battery EVER before and my driving pattern has been similar with my previous 3 cars at least. The only thing I can think of now is that indeed an after market part that WAS fitted by the dealer were front parking sensors. They are terrible and often beep when starting the car for no reason. Perhaps there is a parasitic draw but I'm really not sure as with a new battery the car is fine for a year until the next winter rolls around. A parasitic draw should I think cause similar problems in summer, during which I have even left the car for 10 days at an airport and started fine when picking it up. I get the impression once the car battery is dead a couple of times in a row, or at least doesn't have enough energy left to start it is game over for the battery and will never charge fully again (whether on long drives or left on a charger). I recharged it fully last Friday and on Saturday went for a 2 x 40 min drive (yey it started fine then) and had a nice walk in a country park. By Wednesday it was already dead and not starting. We had some bad winds at the beginning of the week but temps were not freezing. The car hasn't iced up for several weeks. That battery was installed September 2020. This is the last battery I will buy for the XT. If it becomes problematic again I will get another car. Tesla valued my XT at £16,000 which is more than I would pay for a constantly troublesome not starting car. But Teslas are effing expensive cars and ALSO have 12v batteries. However I am thinking the big advantage with an EV is the lack of big power needed for a start so regardless of what happens it should be more reliable to at least be able to drive. Sure I don't drive much (30K miles over 5 1/2 years), but it should be able to deal with 0-5 degree temps for 4 days after a full charge. There is no way I would chance leaving this car at an airport during the winter months. Even with this new battery. My experience has been quite terrible battery wise and it seems going by threads here and on the subaruforester.org forum that I'm not the only one OR that these problems have been solved with the newer models. The OEM 390CA battery was a joke and according to the dealer was fine when it wouldn't start after leaving 2-3 days! I've been replacing the initial battery with 650CA or 550CA models but they don't seem to last much longer after 1 year once I run into a few non starts and then they are done. A battery tester indicated on the last 650CA model that was replaced yesterday that fully charged had 450CA available. That is still more than the OEM battery (!) so why it still doesn't last 4 days minimum at not even freezing temps I don't know. It seems bizarre. Maybe there is just a gigantic (more than usual) draw on car starts. I don't get it.: The car, when starts to be fair is excellent. Only the terrible audio quality in the 2016 model really lets it down further. But the not starting thing is such a big deal, I just don't want another Subaru anymore. It has really put me off. The only solution IF I were to want to keep this car that I can think (other than driving every 2nd or 3rd day - which is a ridiculous thing to HAVE to do I think) is making my garage more accessible (converting from 2 doors to 1) and putting the car on a battery charger every time I come home with it. ---- I just saw the 0-60 acceleration figures on the NEW facelift Hybrid "sport" model. Another bleedin' joke I must say! "Sport" 0-60 in 11.8 sec. Really? And still not much better MPG wise than my XT. Sure, the emissions are less and that makes VED affordable but there is little benefit to the driver with these new models, which is why I never bothered getting a new one. Getting a (costly to the environment) new car just so that my emissions are a bit lower on the few miles I do and be as slow as an old Fiesta seems nonsense. I thought for a second when I saw "sport" advertised today that things might have improved acceleration wise but definitely not. So the new e-Boxer has the same problem as my 2016 XT model with problematic batteries, doesn't deliver much more MPG (less than 2MPG as stated) and is as slow as a snail. No chance for £40K.