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wats your apinion of autos of road .thinkin a bit about outback for tripin of road and up the cape . i know they use more fuel but just wonderin what tractability would be like .iv been in a bronko but it had heaps of grunt ..
just thinkin at moment but would have to sell wrx to do that

dibs

autos are ok if you are towing a caravan they are easier to reverse and so on, but I don't like them offroad for one thing the oil lines are susceptible to damage, you lose your oil you lose your drive/cook your box.
also autos can be good off road in some circumstances but I find that if there is a bit of a hump in the road like you are a bit bogged the auto will slip and you can't drive over it.
I prefer a good clutch as you can bounce the wheels over the humps.
you cannot slip an auto if you rev the motor while not moving they generate a lot of heat and will cook your box in a few minutes.

Mine is auto and it takes me every where I want to go and does it quite easily at times. They are heavy power sucking vultures of a thing though and I would much prefer a manual. If you want to do the "getting old" thing and drive with out having to think about what you are doing then they are great for that.

I should have added that an auto will be fine for your cape trip.

well we have an auto Gen 3 wagon, I was not sure at first how it would go off road, I have now had the car for allmost 5 years and in that time we have done lots of beach trips and thats with towing a camper up the beach with my wife and 3 kids.

we have allso none other off road tracks in the bush and so far every were we have pointed the car it has got us there.

Rik.

anyone had issues with towing or heavy work cooking the auto trans?
is a trans cooler factory fitted, or a good idea.
i know plenty of larger cars (Commodores mainly) that have cooked their box just towing a caravan on the open road. Seems to be always when in overdrive, so the torque converter is not locked up.
BTW, my new Outback is a manual.
I might regret not going for a H6 .... once I get over the new car syndrome.

I forgot to say that one of the first things I done when I got the car was fit an external auto oil cooler.
I now have 2 oil coolers just to be on the safe side.
you can get one from suppercheep for about $100 bucks I think.

Rik.

Yeah the outbacks have an 'in radiator' oil cooler. This helps keep the transmission at a constant temperature.

If you do fit an aftermarket cooler, fit it inline before the radiator cooler, so it will take excess heat off the oil if it is really hot, but return the oil to the transmission at engine temperature, regardless of driving condition

Suparoo wrote:Yeah the outbacks have an 'in radiator' oil cooler. This helps keep the transmission at a constant temperature.

If you do fit an aftermarket cooler, fit it inline before the radiator cooler, so it will take excess heat off the oil if it is really hot, but return the oil to the transmission at engine temperature, regardless of driving condition

"In rad" cooler's are pretty common factory fit, the L autos had them too (at least the auto radiator I have has the cooler).
In rad coolers don't cut the mustard under real load though, best to add a remote cooler for heavy work. has anyone cooked an auto tho????

I run a huge external cooler and have bypassed the radiator all together.

only downside is the box takes longer to come up to temp. Subaru autos are smart though - they wont let the converter lock up until the box is at temp (slipping converter creates heat)

only takes about 5kms for my box to get up to temp and when its working hard I know its running as cool as possible

I have killed an auto in my liberty on the last trip back from QLD , we were towing the camper , only just made it back home.

Mike

What size is you cooler and where have you mounted it Dane.

Mike

Mine came fitted with an external cooler from the factory. I got rid of it and fitted a bigger one. It never went through the radiator even from new unlike the earlier ones. The one I fitted is abour 300x250mm which is about twice the area of the standard one.