We put 500 miles on the new Forester this weekend, driving up to Canton NY for a college tour at St. Lawrence University. I very clearly see the benefits of Adaptive Cruise Control now. It's a fantastic tech that takes cruise control to a whole new level of convenience.

Now match Adaptive Cruise Control with Active Lane Departure Assist... and on highway driving the car can literally drive itself for miles. I'm not saying you should do this, because it seems crazy. And it doesn't work nearly as flawless as my buddy's Tesla, but I swear you can let go of the wheel on the highway for even more than a moment, and not freak out doing so.

And this is a FORESTER! for crying out loud. Just a freaking Forester. It's a sign of things to come, IMO.

 

I think Honda has made their adaptive cruise control standard from the Civic up.

Side note, it's a huge mistake for luxury companies to equate luxury with tech for this exact reason.

 

My biggest complaint with ACC is that it leaves plenty of room for cars to leapfrog and fit in front of you.

 

Yeah, it's amazing. Even the old version on my car. I use it all the time and all I have to do is steer, makes my commute so much better!

That's the only downside yea, but if you set the distance to 1 out of 3 it stays close enough that most people dont try to cut in front.

 

The ACC distance is driver configurable. At least it is with this car.

To your point, though... you still need to pay attention. Until 100% of the cars on the highway are self-driving, no one car can be self-driving 100%. Thirty years or so from now, things will be vastly different, I wager.

 

You shouldn't be using cruise control in stop-and-go traffic during your commute.

 

I don't.

But on the expressway, in light traffic, passing several cars/trucks, even set on the tightest following distance, it still leaves more than enough room for someone to leapfrog in front of you. And if you try and speed up to close the gap, it actively brakes to keep the preset distance.

And then, said leapfrogger slides in front, and since they had to gather far to much speed to pass and fit in, slams on their brakes to avoid plowing into the car that was previously in front of you, causing everyone to have to further slow down. But they got one car ahead.

 

Wait out those impatient bastiches. Not everyone behind you is like that.

 

Yeah I hate when that happens, but luckilly its pretty rare. The thing I hate though is when somebody slowly merges in front of you, the car won't notice until you are very close to them and then itll hit the brakes hard.

 

Rochester--

Any mods planned for the wife's new car?

While I figure a cat-back exhaust isn't in the plans, I can't be the only guy here who does little things like LED lights, less wimpy horns, clear bra type applications etc. to the spousal units car.

Isn't the OEM WRX sway bar a common mod on the Forester platform?

 

Honestly, no. It's still very new, and we're adjusting to having a car payment again first. Being the Touring Edition model, it's already top-of-line, irrespective of the engine. And the 18" wheels are really, really nice. Love the design, so I've no plans to get another set.

Insofar as handling mods like sways... the seats in this car have no side bolster support, so if it handled better, I'd be sliding all over the place.

LED lights... no doubt, yes.

 

Did you get it new? If used, I'd think you could have gotten another used G for less. My wife is looking at used QX60s. Those Suburus really seem to hold their value.

 

The G is not a one size fits all solution.

That said, I finally got out on a road trip with my wife's MKX, and it seems to get worse fuel mileage on the highway than in the city

 

Yep. 2018 model, delivered with 16 miles on the odometer. We have two teenage daughters each still in HS, and both playing field hockey... so there's still a strong need for the utility of a Crossover as the family car.

I know I'm talking a lot about this Subby here, but it's the big automotive thing going on right now for me, it's a surprisingly excellent car, and this is just a chat thread afterall.

 

Hey all, I just bought a 2011 G37x with 76K miles, and since it is used there are a few pieces that are bugging me a bit, and I didn't really want to start a thread for a simple question. That question is, where can I buy the small chrome plastic piece that is attached to the center console lid surrounding the button to open it? I've looked on Infiniti's parts website and it doesn't list a separate part # for that, just the full lid. I would go to a pick and pull but I don't have one near me. Any suggestions?