If you’re an automaker who just read a critical review of your product, you’ve got a few ways you can respond. The boss way to respond is the way a German automaker once replied to one of my colleagues when he wrote a critical review: “Hey, we saw your review and we regret that you didn’t have a great experience. We’d love to send you another vehicle to review.” That’s confidence. Then there’s another strategy you can take: You can get upset at the journalist and question their credibility. That’s how a certain Japanese automaker responded to an article I wrote.
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One bit of context that David left out was that the Wilderness models used to have a real skid plate. The Forester Wilderness that I drove in 2021 had a big all-metal plate that I was only able to put a scratch into.
Apparently, there was some major world event that happened in early 2022 that allegedly forced Subaru to switch suppliers. Somewhere along the line, the design of the plate was completely changed, and now we have these terrible excuses for “skid plates.”
Great addition, Mercedes!
This is really the skid plate on all of the Wilderness models now?
Woof. I would really hope that Subaru wouldn’t put this onto a 45k Outback Wilderness.
I wouldn’t think Subaru would source skid plates from either Russia or Ukraine? Because that’s the only major world event in early 2022 that I can recall
It must have been 2022… My nephew got a 2022 Outback Wilderness, it had that same plastic toy underneath. We replaced it with a real skid plate shortly after. He also put a skid on the rear differential. Good kid…
I don’t recall if the full set was standard or not. I think the front was standard in aluminum, and on the Outback at least, it bolted over top of the one nearly identical to the one we see for the Crosstrek. Subaru did (does?) offer additional steel skid plates for the transmission, rear differential, and fuel tanks. These might have been standard in Canada along with the front.
My 2024 Outback Wilderness (bought in June 2023 oddly enough) did not come with any of these skid plates due to the major world event. It did come with the aluminum foil covered plastic guard like we see on the Crosstrek. I ditched this immediately for a full set of Primitive skid plates. I searched for OEM to start with and was able to find the OEM fuel tank plates, but otherwise stock was difficult to come by.
Man, that is so disappointing. (Especially since it’s fun to watch Crosstreks show up at the off-road park and climb over everything.)
The only car magazine I wish I’d kept was a special issue of England’s Car magazine, that had a long article detailing the retaliation from car makers for their reporting, and repeating the reporting. A Renault having a tire come off the rim in a slaom (with a clear photo of it happening), the maker that didn’t advertise for 7 years, until the offended person had moved to a new role, etc. A lot of petty bitching about good reporting. They need our eyeballs more than you need their dollars.
I knew it was Subaru just from the article title. They get very huffy and take away their toys with any semblance of criticism. Heck, they’ve blacklisted several reviewers, notably TFL (specifically their offroad section) after it failed to climb an offroad trail that it wasn’t designed for, and they even said as much in their initial review.
Subaru is an overrated cult. Stop giving them money, folks. There are better options, and they don’t have failure-prone CVTs, engines many shops don’t want to work on, difficult spark plug access by design, a fussy and overrated AWD system that has low tolerance for tire height differences, cheap paint, some of the thinnest body panels in the industry, an interior that’s a riot of textures, colors, and materials that don’t hold up to wear while feeling chintzy, and – more of a recent development but one that has snowballed for the last couple of decades – deliberately ugly design.
The only thing thinner than this skid plate is Subaru’s skin.
I wonder if that skid plate or Subaru’s notoriously-skinny body panels are thinner.
> forego
No. Forgo. Please.
Agree with you 100%. If you are going to market a vehicle as a real off roader, then give it a real skid plate. Or at least offer a beefed up one as an accessory.
You can also tell a lot about someone by how they accept constructive criticism.
This whole “what is and is not a skid plate” thing reminds me of Crocodile Dundee:
Crocodile Dundee 4K – That’s Not A Knife
I’ll automatically guess Subaru.
Mitsubishi would never.
Since it is Subaru, would that make it a CVT (Conspicuous Vanity Tantrum) automatic guess?