@ok4450 - shh. . . but actually there were many fights and tears over the purchase of this house. :0
Help! House on the 3rd steepest city street in the COUNTRY - 34% grade - AWD? hp.? performance tires
Volvo was the first to offer seat belt and anti lock brakes. But the safety features that they have now are offered by others as well. There’s no point in paying extra for a Volvo. Like many in that neighborhood, my money is on the Subaru…
Here I thought they were as safe as any car made, including Volvos.
Subarus seem to do well in every category they are in while Volvos only does well in the overpriced market. Looks like Subaru gives the best bang for the buck. That’s probably why there are so many in the neighborhood. Could it be that everyone else is wrong and just Volvo owner’s are right. That Volvos are the safest cars is an illusion. There are others just as safe, including less expensive Subarus.
Although I caution all the time against using part time 4 wheel drive on pavement, that is really only meant to apply to normal driving on pavement. In this situation with a steep straight hill on brushed concrete and no possible ice, any 4 wheel drive with a low range would be fine.
Also , don’t think horsepower, think good low rpm torque. Any of the old Wranglers with the straight 6 would be ideal. You want a car that can crawl up this hill.
Yep, more to think about but at least we’re down to two. The Subaru does not have as much variety in trim packages and options but is definitely a good value. For example, only black leather or upholstery is available in some trims and I hate a dark interior. I’m not against Subaru at all, not in the least, but I do want to really love the car as it’s been awhile since I had a new one. It needs to do the job and be pleasure to own. I’m already sold on its being a good fit for our problem, no argument there. It makes sense.
Other “steep” streets in our immediate neighborhood can’t hold a candle to ours. Ours is the mother of them all.
@dagosa - thanks for the link!
What do your neighbors drive? Are they ok?
@Barkydog - well, one neighbor is much lower down and only needs to come up about 1/4 of the way. He has an old small pick-up and his wife has an older Audi. When they come and go they cheat and illegally use the dirt road entry to the park to back into to avoid reversing up the incline or climbing the incline to exit their driveway - the dirt path is conveniently just opposite their driveway and is relatively flat. Our next door neighbor’s driveway is also only about halfway up. She has an older Honda and comes barreling up like a maniac and can’t stop for pedestrians; she overshoots her driveway, coming up 2/3 of the way and then throws it into reverse and backs into her driveway.
In February, a young woman in an older Mercedes turned into the Honda lady’s driveway head first and then tried to turn around by reversing up the incline. Of course, her Mercedes couldn’t do it and she found herself wedged onto the neighbor’s brick retaining wall as instead of reversing up the car steadily slipped forward. We had to use our AAA to get her free. She was blocking tow truck access as it’s single lane and ended up as our guest for several hours until finally she was freed by weighing her trunk down with 100lb bags of rocks.
They’ve told me many juicy stories about all the mishaps up here as they’ve been around awhile. The tip top neighbor’s driveway is actually at the very top past ours (where the motorcycle got stuck this weekend) but they haven’t used it in the 28 years they’ve lived there. They cheat and park with their illegal and totally bogus “Reserved” parking signs at the top on the other side of the park/retaining wall. There are about three public parking spaces up there and her and her husband seem entitled to steal two and are militant about anyone parking in “their” spots. In reality, they have no access to their own driveway, which is almost impossible to turn into from the top, just above ours.
@dagosa - The videos are awesome! Thank you! How did you find these? I thought I had Googled just about everything under the sun at this point. This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say - that many cars, if they have to stop, which is always likely, cannot do it! You win the prize for research!
UTUBE will give you a plethora of the exploits of the Subaru. Volvos have shown to have been expensive long term money puts. Subarus are not immune from repairs but give service as a manufacturer in all models equal to any made according to CR. In overall ratings including performance and reliability, they are the number one car maker of AWD cars. Their drive train being inherently rwd bias by design, has the edge in reliability and erformance to Volvos…my neighbor had Volvos and they work very well on the mountain roads. But, he leases them and replaces them every three years to avoid repair problems.
the only solution is a burro. or maybe a mule train for heavy loads and family outings…
@dagosa - agreed, but too bad Subaru has lost all sense of style. They used to have beautiful editions: L.L. Bean, etc. with gorgeous colors and light interiors. Those older models still look great on the road! For the current model year, outside of the Outback, which is very big for city driving/parking, they have horrible colors inside and out. Black, white, silver, red, blue. No neutral or warm colors. Great, if one’s designing a new flag. Ugly silver gray interiors or black. Black interiors on the upgraded models; so in their top of the line Forester they offer zero choice. No choice! All black inside - the carpet, the headliner, the seats. One can’t even pay more to get better or chose a light interior.
The Crosstek, obviously the one they’re pushing hardest now, lags far behind the Forester and Outback in ratings but has all the nifty choice and personality consumers today love and demand.
Do you think the Crosstrek has what it takes to get up and down here? I was going to configure a Forester XT but it disappoints in lack of options in every trim.
When my mom bought her 2015 X5, she picked it up at the factory, and was offered a tour of the factory, and four hours’ on- and off-road instruction, for her and a guest.
In exchange of helping with the drive home from SC, I got to be her "guest!"
I do not know what your finances are, but BMW’s driver training center was both fun as heck AND educational. If you did similarly, you could explain the situation, and get an hour or two of insinstrion tailored to your situation.
Even if you don’t get a BMW, you could probably get “dual instruction” locally–s/he could probably train you, in your car, on your hill.
And please don’t interpret what I’ve said as questioning your skill set: to the contrary, you have to have a solid competency in basic driving to “get” much out of an “advanced techniques” lesson.
Bottom line: it will definitely be fun, an probably helpful, to get “off-road” type training in your car and on your hill. I would suggest you give it a try. You’re never too old to learn!
@BlackMountainDreamer
One thing the Subaru will never have going for it, is the Volvo logo.
Gotta admit.I’m a Dagoholic.
Here’s one more car that, I think, uses a Torsen center diff. Audi A4 Avant. Just don’t look at the A3, which uses a part time system
This afternoon, I got a suburban Subaru dealer to allow a test drive of the Crosstek up here and it performed really well. We came to a full stop 1/3 and 2/3 of the way up and stopped while reversing up the incline as well. It did not feel powerful but it didn’t falter either. We chose the smaller model because we know the Forester can do this, no problem.
The options are weak and the technology systems (navigation, etc.) and sound are pretty pathetic but the car seemed just fine performance-wise. On the 2nd run we shifted into manual mode, and climbed up in 1st, which kept the rpm’s low, just over 2000. I felt this was easier on the engine than when the salesman went up in D the 1st time and hit 3400. It’s a contender.
Those videos demonstrate the problems of climbing an unpaved hill. The less sophisticated AWD systems can only shift a portion of their torque to the rear wheels, not enough to push the vehicles up the hill with the front tires slipping. This is different from a paved road, where the front wheels will be less much likely to slip, unless you step on the gas too hard too soon. A good AWD system like Subaru uses is your best bet. The Volvo XC60 is nice, but not very reliable and no safer than many other modern vehicles. Volvo developed their safety reputation decades ago and have been milking it ever since. Unfortunately, the reliability is very poor.
Exactly. There are reasons why common place cars are common and maybe less appealing. Many don’t want to be one in the crowd of buying a car you can’t find in a parking lit because their are dozens that look like it…like a Corolla. That’s where the poor sales record of some cars offers the exclusivity some buyers want. SAABs, Volvos and Mecedes have their nitch. A good friend of my wife had for years driven SAABs provided for her by her husband who wanted to " keep her safe"; forget it was always shod in all season tires and she lived in a hilly area where AWD would offer more security then the SAAB. She finally, on her own, decided to lease an AWD RAV after riding around one snowy day with my wife in her boringly same grey/green AWD RAV. She discovered…there are differences and sometimes it’s worth while trying to find your car in a parking lot among all the other “lemmings”.