I don’t think you would want a turbo on that hill. The power from the turbo is not as smooth and predictable as with a non turbo. You need the smoothness and predictability to help keep traction.
Help! House on the 3rd steepest city street in the COUNTRY - 34% grade - AWD? hp.? performance tires
So last night I read the owner’s manual online because I wanted to know when the L gear will shift into 2nd because I wanted to be sure we would not have the same issue one woman posted (in a Subaru forum) about the L gear being ineffective for hill climbing due to automatic upshifting (I’m assuming she was referring more to a long steep grade with more speed than would ever apply to our situation.) We’ll probably order the Limited but I wasn’t very happy to read about the Forester’s issues with oil consumption and sudden and inexplicable stalling at highway speeds.
You are not happy with reports of oil consumption and stalling so why in the heck would you even order one?
You are not happy with reports of oil consumption and stalling so why in the heck would you even order one?
I’m frankly confused with this whole thing. Something like 15 pages back we diagnosed OP’s problem as a stability assist problem where the angle tricked the sensors into panicking. We recommended that OP turn VSA off, in which case in all likelihood he could continue driving his current car because there’s no reason that even a moderately-powered modern car shouldn’t be able to climb that slope on a hard surface.
OP never did that, or if he did he did not report his results here. Personally I would absolutely explore flipping a switch for free before I explored dropping 40 grand on a new car that I already didn’t like because it stalls and burns oil, but that’s me. 
We feel like we’ve exhausted all the options and, overall, the Subaru seems like the best bet (if not for these quality issues.)
I’ve said this several times but here it is again: the vehicles that had VSA problems up here did not belong to us. One was rented for a month and the others were people who had the misfortune of coming up here and getting stuck. My Nissan Cube manual cannot go up and down here safely. We need a new car that can do this reliably every day.
The Volvo XC60 AWD did not perform well here on the test drive and the new RAV4 AWD was better but the engine gave off a very strong burning smell when we ran it through the same tests. The Subaru did great but it is unfortunate that they’re having some serious quality issues with the new Foresters.
If there is another AWD vehicle less than 180" in length that can double as a family car on this hill please let us know.
If you look hard enough, you will find the same issues reported by somebody for just about all vehicles. The oil issue has popped up more recently, but it is not being blamed on the manufacturer as much as it is on the new 0w20 oil that most new vehicles are using. Anyway, this is actually a rare thing and as long as new cars have been built, there have been a small percentage (less than 1%) that for some reason, burn oil right from new.
I have a 2014 Subaru Legacy with the same engine, the 2.5L, it specifies 0w20, it now has about 17k on it and it has yet to burn off the first drop of oil.
BTW, my understanding is that the new engine have a tighter clearance between the ends of the bearings and the sides of the journals to hold the oil in better. The bearing to journal clearance is the same, just less room at the ends for the oil to flow out so it keeps the oil pressure up when using 0w20 oil. If you use a heavier oil in these engines, the oil can’t flow out fast enough from the bearing and then it gets hotter, resulting in it breaking down into a sludge and ruining the bearings.
If you get a free maintenance agreement with the Subaru, let the dealer take care of it. Once the maintenance agreement runs out, or if you don’t get one with the vehicle, then I recommend that you use either Mobil 1 EP (not any of the other Mobil 1 oils) or the new Penzoil the says “made from natural gas”. These are the true synthetics known as group IV. The others are group III oils.
Car companies love CVTs and Turbochargers because they give great EPA mileage numbers. Real world tests show that they lose that advantage in real world driving. One of the car magazines tested two Ford F150 pickups. One an ecoboost V6 the other a base V8. THe ecoboost got far suoerior EPA numbers but on the road test the V6 got 15.2 and the V8 got 15.4 .
keep your foot out of it and use premium,the numbers are pretty good,but otherwise,why do it?(everybody around here gets 20 mpg on the Ecoboost and Hemis,while I cant average but between 15-16 on my little Dodge V-6,Hmmm)"Most of the Silverado 5.3 s do that good-Kevin
PS-I trust the opinions of those test drivers as far as I could throw em(A certain European comes to mind)
Well, today I ordered a new Subaru Forester Limited after test driving a Mazda CX-5, Volvo XC60, and Toyota RAV4 on the hill and looking briefly at Ford Edge, Acura RDX, and VW Tiguan. All AWD, of course. Hope to have it in a few days. Each vehicle had its positives and negatives. Hopefully, this will serve us well. I decided I didn’t really need the turbo and I didn’t like the all black interior that is the only option on the XT. A lot of the Subaru technology/bells whistles are behind industry standards so the only perk I got really was the leather seating. The upgraded stereo, GPS, and Eyesight weren’t worth the extra price tag to me. I’d do better getting a premium stereo system installed for a fraction of the price and using SmartPhone GPS. The tech items are lame. I never even test drove the Forester, lol. The platforms are all similar so having test driven the Crosstrek we know the Forester can perform as well up here. Everything I needed to know was clear as a bell at this point. Thanks for all the comments! It was very useful and appreciated.
Thanks for the feedback. It’s good to know the outcome once in a while. I think you will be happy with your purchase in the long run.