Passat Alltrack vs Subaru Liberty X

[FSI 220]

No offense to Subaru fan boys ( why are you here if there are any here )

Because when we grew up and needed the big SUV - Subaru offered the Tribeca...

and then, when the second car was due and thought that Liberty GT wagon would be the perfect step after the my98 WRX and 05FXT... they gave us something so hideous that even makes the Tribeca look like a bikini model

[Inego]

Because when we grew up and needed the big SUV - Subaru offered the Tribeca...

and then, when the second car was due and thought that Liberty GT wagon would be the perfect step after the my98 WRX and 05FXT... they gave us something so hideous that even makes the Tribeca look like a bikini model

Where's the nodding smilie? Although I never even considered a Tribeca.

[VAG newbie]

Had city emergency brake in the Mondeo. Saved us a few times but made the wife complacent, so she still ran up the arse of a HiAce in the rain while putting on make-up/eating breakfast/doing something else totally unrelated to the task of driving - as 99% of women tend to do. HiAce was undamaged, Mondeo had $1800 in damage - yay!!!

Fully agreed. I think it is useless. Sometimes the alarm beep will make you (or wife) panic, and step on the accelerator rather than brake causing bigger damage. It will be useful, though, for those that turn into a stunned mullet when they panic.

The difference between 5 star NCAP & 4 star NCAP may be as little as a seatbelt reminder light. You are far better off having a look at the daigrams of the dummies & seeing which parts of the body are green/orange/red.

True. We went and saw the new Outlander yesterday (they have the FCM, similar city safety stuff), but the panels feels like tin can. Even though it has 5 start ANCAP, it didn't offer a lot of reassurance.

This is simply BS unless she is an amazon. I've been Mr.Mom for extended periods when both my kids were little. SUV is not a requirement & is a bit of a pain to be honest. I didn't experience any back issues or access issues with our various traditional sedans/wagons. The biggest aid was when we had the Avensis Verso with the sliding door. That was unreal in tight carparks (observe fat-arsed people trying to bolt their kids in place if the gap between the cars is a bit narrow). I'd suggest your wife do pilates or yoga & strengthen the core (will help the pelvic floor muscles too). Also, sit on the seat while you bolt them in.

Again, I fully agree with you. But I can't convince my wife. We were trying on the B-class once (which is also higher than normal cars), and she actually fell and got herself stuck between the sits while trying to buckle the kids seatbelt. I had to pull her out! (She is only 55kg, 164cm tall, so she is not fat, in case you wonder how she got stuck)

What colour exterior are you looking at?

Don't really care, as long as the interior is beige. However, my wife is leaning towards a more female color like red, which unfortunately Passat doesn't offer. they only offer funeral colors = grey, dark, grey, silver, dark, silver, black and white! Autumn brown is the color we'd pick if we go with alltrack. Liberty X do offer more color though.

Does not the Alltrack come with KESSY?

No they don't. VW reserved it for Skoda. That's the only way Skoda will survive in OZ with the pricing they have for VW and Skoda.

Reverse sensors? Rear camera? Guidelines that respond to steering inputs? How many aids do you need to carry out a simple reverse park?

Park assist 2! It's not for me, for my wife. She really can't reverse/parallel park. The space has to be 10m wide for her to park it confidently.

Wagons + Kids work really well together. Have you looked at a Skoda Superb (wagon or hatch) with 4-motion?

I already own a Superb, so my wife doesn't want another one. Besides Skoda doesn't have RVC and third party one is too expensive and unreliable. I personally am leaning towards a standard FWD passat wagon as we don't really go off road and the raise height is a bulls**t anyway. This will save me $1800 and with a higher grade leather.

[VAG newbie]

Going on what you've said my pick would be a Diesel XC60 (I think you said you had one already). Has all the safety requirements and diesel and is a SUV. I wasn't trying to be an idiot by asking that question, just more along the lines that I personally wouldn't consider the Liberty X to be comparable.

Exactly! My wife is very happy with her current XC60, so I think most of our requirement is based on her current need. We thought of extending the the lease for an extra 2 years, but this will take out my joy of buying a new car, so I told her the maintenance cost will be too expensive as the car will approach 100,000km soon.

Because of the change in FBT, XC60 is becoming too expensive for us now, (Roughly extra $3-400/month out of pocket!) and the dealer is very reluctant to negotiate on factory order cars. Unfortunately with beige interior, we have to factory order, so we'd be expect to pay RRP, which I hate! Apparently Volvo don't do corporate discount either. They just offer 5 years free service.

After all these researches, we have come to an conclusion. If we want to save money, we have to sacrifice on some of our preferences and based on need. A budget SUV that comes with everything has to be Japanese or Korean. If we want something European, we have to pay the price, or give-up on the SUV and get a Wagon.

Now even looking into the New Santa Fe. With corporate pricing, i can have the top of the range Highlander for less than $50k on road!

[brad]

[QUOTE=VAG newbie;886270]True. We went and saw the new Outlander yesterday (they have the FCM, similar city safety stuff), but the panels feels like tin can. Even though it has 5 start ANCAP, it didn't offer a lot of reassurance. [quote]
We had an Outlander at one point. 2.4 CVT. CVT was very noisy by 40,000km. 3rd row implementation was very Heath Robinson.

Again, I fully agree with you. But I can't convince my wife. We were trying on the B-class once (which is also higher than normal cars), and she actually fell and got herself stuck between the sits while trying to buckle the kids seatbelt. I had to pull her out! (She is only 55kg, 164cm tall, so she is not fat, in case you wonder how she got stuck)

LOL
Mine is 164cm / 49kg. They get stuck in some funny places.

I would also like to say that the Avensis Verso doesn't have sliding doors. Obviuosly I was so sleep deprived at the time that I imagined it.

Don't really care, as long as the interior is beige. However, my wife is leaning towards a more female color like red, which unfortunately Passat doesn't offer. they only offer funeral colors = grey, dark, grey, silver, dark, silver, black and white! Autumn brown is the color we'd pick if we go with alltrack. Liberty X do offer more color though.

Wouldn't outside colour have more effect than inside colour? You learn something new every day.

Oh well, if your wife isn't a confident parker then I can understand you wanting to assist as much as possible. I live near Hurstville. There are some very interesting parking techniques in the Westfield there - mainly they rely on hearing a "bang".