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.)
They made a questionable change, got called on it, and got into a huff about it. I think what surprises me the most is that it’s Subaru! Not exactly the reaction I would have predicted from their outdoorsy, doggie-focused image.
Remember, the Brands are nobody’s friend, no matter how much their marketing department tries to convince you otherwise.
Go on the TFL channel and search Subaru.
They haven’t been given a press car in nearly a decade after they gave a fair, but mildly negative review on a previous gen Outback.
This is exactly the kind of reaction I’d expect from Subaru. They’re up there with Ferrari in term sof fragile pettiness and overly conscious about their perceived “image”, which is laughable because the world generally doesn’t see companies the way the companies see themselves.
Oh Subaru. I like my mother’s Forester, with the one exception of the Head Gasket leak at 70,000 miles. Otherwise it is a great car.
HG failure at 5-digit odometer prevents it from being labeled a “great” car. That’s darn near inexcusable in today’s day and age. Unless it’s something silly like the Focus RS getting the wrong HG at the factory which was a fixable and widely-fixed issue, HGs should last into six-digit odometer territory on a consumer-grade vehicle.
Agreed. The sad part is she barely drives it, it is a 2012 so just under 6K miles a year. She maintained it at the dealership.
Subaru just got back to me on what type of plastic they are sticking all over their vehicles: LOVE = low-olefin vinyl-ethylene
Love. It’s what makes Subaru a Subaru.
Is that why they keep making them ever more repulsively hideous?
Primitive is great stuff and tons of people race in rallies with their impreza skid plates
Subaru knows what they did. That’s the kind of indignation that comes from being ashamed at having been caught out.
It sounds like Subaru thinks they are above criticism. Well, nobody is. Ford rightly takes a lot of criticism for its numerous recalls. GM apparently has cheap interiors based on the comments I’ve seen here. My experience with Toyota has been decidedly mixed. None of this means that the cars are bad, but the makers do deserve to be called out for their failures. One of the things that has helped me in my life is that I’ve encouraged significant people to tell me when I do something that bothers them. I might not change because they said it, but I definitely won’t if they don’t.
The only times I don’t criticize someone/something is when I don’t think they have the potential to do any better or when I don’t think they have the emotional maturity to receive criticism.
Yes, when it is FAIR & HONEST criticism.
Too many times journalists seem to overlook things because of the brand – like how god awful the quality is on German cars because German brands seem to give away a lot of great perks – or they interject their biases and do the opposite, like having an axe to grind with specific carmakers.
Reminds me of the plastic skid plate” lower engine cover” on my 22 klr 650. I was a little flabbergasted to see plastic on the bottom of an offroad bike. Apparently you have to upgrade to the adventure model to get a metal skid plate. Switched it out for a reasonably thick aluminum aftermarket unit that works well.
Subaru is charging anywhere between 35k-40k for a Crosstrek Wilderness. The least they could do is provide a real skid plate, considering the only other hardware that they seem to include for the price increase is a transmission cooler.
Subaru, your Wilderness trim is being marketed as legitimately beefed up crossovers that can handle at least slightly more than the typical Subaru. Please don’t be dicks about this. You may seem immune to criticism with a very loyal fanbase, but you don’t want to end up with the “writes checks that can’t be cashed” ridicule hoisted upon you. Subarus have gotten their cred for being more capable than they appear, a noble trait. Now that you’ve gone fucking nuts with the cladding and marketing, you’d better back it up.
Subaru should have responded the same way GM always responded to criticisms about the C5’s interior quality. They didn’t respond, because they knew they were still going to sell every single one of them with a hefty profit margin.
Didn’t Subaru get mad at TFL once and stop sending them cars for a while? Seems like a common denominator.
It’s fairly well known among journos.
And it’s OK, any brand can give or not give cars to whomever they’d like.
But you’re not about to tell me, of all people, what a skid plate is.
I am about to tell you, of all people, what a skid plate is, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. I mean, what are you gonna do, smash my face into the keyboard?
A skid plate is 78b96n,myhv kglojfhtrnyjgmbtredsfgytgufyhtr6junretghbnyrdetsfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfxx
how dem keys taste?
To not understand why the piece would upset Subaru is obtuse. Their reaction is ridiculous to an equal degree. Too much poop slinging, but you got your clicks and engagement.
I get why they’d be upset, but my philosophy when receiving criticism is not to be upset at the critic but rather to consider ways that I can improve.
I think that you’re misapplying some otherwise sound logic. I do agree with your philosophy, but I don’t think it reflects the situation at hand.
Subaru put on an event where you get them media coverage in exchange for you getting content (which maintains journalistic standards. There’s a relationship there, unlike in a purely journalistic outlet like Consumer Reports.
So, when you write a fair review and then follow it up with a sorta sucker punch pile-on piece – especially without giving them a heads up as I understand – that sours the relationship.
The piece is totally in scope for Autopian audience but I would argue nearly meaningless to the vast majority of Crosstrek buyers (as you mentioned)…but come shopping time, it will be served to the potential buyers. Most won’t care, but maybe it adds up and the negative light affects sales?
To me, when people act out when you’ve sort of put them in a position where emotions take over…they are in the wrong, but is it really surprising? It’s just kind of uncomfortable.
Seems like you left meat out on the counter and are now writing a petty piece because the dog ate it.
I’ve never, ever written a sucker punch piece; I write well thought-out articles that put my audience first. I’m an engineer, and I’m always going to tell you about the hardware, whether it’s good or bad.
The company’s response actually was a bit surprising in the context of the multiple decades of experience my team has in this industry. With that said, if you read the first Exhaust Leaks, it’s not unheard of!
As I said in the lede of this article, this isn’t meant to be a petty blog, it’s just a fun story. I don’t have a petty bone in my body, which is why I made this a restricted, members only story written way after it happened; it seemed to fit well in our new “exhaust leak” series. (That’s not to say your opinion isn’t valid; I asked a lot of people prior to publishing this if it seemed petty, and they said no, but I’m not surprised someone disagrees).
Again, it’s no surprise that an automaker would be less than pleased at a critique; but that’s just not the way to respond, especially since it’s not a big deal; it’s just the “skid plate.” But this company is kinda known to respond this way to journalists, so perhaps I should have known!
Sucker punch in the sense that the relationship with them extends beyond journalism and is a business relationship.
They provided something for you to create content of in exchange for a review to generate (hopefully positive) attention for their product.
The title of your piece has “punch”element due to it depending on emotionally charged word choice to suck in readers. From what I understand, the people that provided you everything for you to create your content felt that they weren’t warned about the piece that “punched”, hence the “sucker punch” factor.
You bring up the engineering piece. When you were briefly an engineer for a fraction of a vehicle life cycle, you might have come across engineering development, which is where the product is tested against its engineering targets.
While your comments on the skid plate are totally valid, in engineering data is much harder to come by than criticism, and this is part of the issue.
Subaru spends a lot of effort to develop and market a product to make money. They validate it against their targets. And then you write a piece that, again, makes a lot of sense from a logical perspective. But, you didn’t even validate your claims beyond observing some push pins falling out during a Subaru-funded media event.
You stand to make a couple hundred dollars from your piece. The piece is entertaining but ultimately irrelevant to most buyers. But it has a real effect on Subaru’s sales, I’d imagine.
And so, you wield a disproportionate power in the dynamic. You got them to act out and react in the complete wrong way – great. Still not into it.
The concept of vehicle and system level functional objectives is trivial, and something I have deep insight into, not just from my time at an OEM, but from the hundreds of engineers and executives I’ve interviewed and worked with as a journalist.
It’s something I addressed in my piece, but it’s not really relevant here; my story is about how this compares to other underbody protection referred to as a “skid plate.” In that context, it is pathetic. Everyone knows it.
I’m reading this as “only write positive things if someone invited you to a press event.” My philosophy is: be nice and respectful to everyone, but write for your audience always.
That I’m not the only one on this automaker’s “black list” further proves that this isn’t a me issue.
(Also, we pride ourselves in never punching down; and we’re not doing so here. We are not more powerful than Subaru lol).
If you only ever give positive reviews when provided a car, then I’d argue you’re not a journalist, but an extension of the PR team. And not reliable to readers.
Indeed, Landy. Indeed.
This here. I wouldn’t consider a Subaru to take off-road but I know a lot of people who would. This is another example I can give them that Subaru marketing is misleading and overstates the abilities of their vehicles. A Subaru can be a great vehicle. It can travel on graded gravel roads. So can my Honda. It can not and should not be on high-clearance 4wd trails and should be properly called out as such.
I’m not suggesting that you only write positive things if someone invited you to a press event. Not even close to it. That is not a logical conclusion to draw from what I’ve written.
I am asserting that it is not especially enlightening or entertaining to know that when put in a position where they felt wronged, a Subaru employee did the wrong thing. It’s tepid content.
You are not more powerful than Subaru – and I did not suggest that you are – but you do have a disproportionate effect on their business compared to the effect of them blacklisting you.
I don’t think it (it being Subaru’s reaction) is a “you” or Autopian issue either. Your choice to report on it is what I question
Oh, that’s an entirely valid viewpoint. I asked multiple people about this topic before publishing this article, so clearly I had questions about whether or not this would in any way seem petty. I created the Double-E rule (all stories must be Enlightening or Entertaining, ideally both) here for a reason, so that matters to me.
While I’m not thrilled that you see it as petty, it’s hard to please 100% of readers, and Mike F.’s post below tells me we probably got this one right to the majority. This story is giving readers insight into the journalist-automaker relationship, which often involves some form of punishment for outlets that correctly write criticisms about a vehicle (and if my original article couldn’t be further validated, just look at this post showing a Crosstrek Wilderness owner’s mangled skidplate, and all the commenters telling her to upgrade to aftermarket). This dynamic is super important for readers to understand as they’re flipping through their favorite car reviews.
But again, if it reads petty to you, that’s entirely valid; I appreciate you letting me know, and for being part of this community.
Perhaps Subaru is responsible for the way they act.
It’s a family joke that the TourX has serious off road capability due to its 0.8” of additional ground clearance.
the skid plate though is quite serious. At least by my on-road standards.
Of course, it does have to come off for an oil change. And that sucker is heavy. Sigh.
Didn’t read the article, but I did surmise the gist from another non-member comment. Skidplates . . . Good stuff. This is more of a housekeeping question: Are you guys on a progressive rollout timetable for total site percentage of member-only content, or am I only imagining the subscription content creep? Feels like reading good old CNN.com and finding large percentages of articles only serving as paywall bait. That’s just business, I guess.
New question. What was the best year for cars? I am torn between 2003 and 2013.
I think there is still the same amount of non member content as before, they’re just adding some extras we can see.
Also, I really recommend joining. The website works so much better without the ads.
Between those two, 2003 is far and away superior for two reasons:
2003: “Some of these new cars have this weird thing called rev hang, I hope it doesn’t catch on…”
2013: “Since rev matching is literally impossible, we will install auto-blip that can’t be disabled.”
2003: “Check out the sick MP3 stereo I had installed in my base-model 2003 Civic! They say in 5 years, car stereos will be able to connect to an ipod wirelessly! I’m very excited to keep this vehicle for 12.8 years without missing out on upcoming developments in audio-visual technology!”
2013: “Surely the customer will want Bluetooth calling, but not Bluetooth audio. The ports for audio are AUX and SD, because we know USB will never be used for this purpose. This is the final advancement in technology, forever, so we can embed this directly into the panel that controls your adjustable dampers and traction control modes”.
The BRZ/GR86 has a metal plate (with an access hole for the oil drain). I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it officially referred to as a skid plate and it’s too thin to qualify, but it’s more of one than that Crosstrek has.
I felt like the FRS skid plate was pretty beefy for it’s job, which was basically to protect a very very low engine from random stuff in the road but mostly snow and ice. There was other plastic cladding underneath to protect other bits (which are again super low) – I ran over a piece of steel plate on the highway once that smashed one such piece of cladding. The fuel lines underneath were totally fine and the replacement part was like $20.
Would any of that hold up to a couple bashes on some rocks? Probably not.
If I had a car that was marketed to go over rocks, I’d expect the FRS/BRZ/86 aluminum skid plate as the bare minimum.
I replaced the factory plastic belly pan on my Maverick hybrid with a beefy aluminum one. I wasn’t worried about damaging it off-road but rather from road debris. I’ve hit a cooler lid, truck retread and a piece of aluminum extension ladder in previous vehicles that did significant damage to the underside of said vehicles. It’s cheap insurance.
I ran over a retread in my Mazda3 and it jacked up the front bumper but luckily avoided any other damage. Road debris is no joke
I also replaced the plastic underbody pan on my Z with an aluminum one. Mostly because it’s lowered on coils and even a medium-size rock would be a danger to the oil and transmission pans. I know it’s worth it because that thing is dented up to the point where I can barely get the oil door off. It’s due for a replacement.
Years back my dad ran over a pipe wrench-crowbar combo (~1.5ft long) in his accord on the highway, fell from a work truck that dumped its unsecured tools. It punched a hole in the passenger floor board and dragged under the car at 70 mph till he could pull over. I can’t even imagine what that would have done to the block of that J35 had it hit 4′ farther forward.
I’ll just say that I’m loving this “Exhaust Note” thing. It’s nice to see the kind of stuff you guys deal with that we normally never hear about.
Agree 100%.
Same. I also like giving DT somewhere to vent a bit – both of the stories so far are testaments to his knowledge and professionalism “on main,” so it’s nice to have a place where we can all say, “yeah, that was horseshit, you’re right.” Everyone needs to hear that now and again.
It definitely puts light on what some other publications must have to do to keep the access they have!
Thank you! I wasn’t sure at first because I didn’t want to appear in any way petty by disclosing some of the weird stuff we deal with (I ran this by a few readers just to be careful in that front), but I’m glad it’s being taken as intended: insightful and light-hearted.
As much as people like to pretend they are above it, gossip is so satisfying! Worth the price of admission.
GM made an awesome factory underbody tray for my old Cruze. Drive through a 5 inch puddle at 40 mph and keep the engine bay dry awesome. Then they hacked most of it off in a recall because oil change mouth breathers were slopping oil down the block and the tray was catching it. Apparently a few fires resulted. Someone who worked at a dealer parts counter figured out the Buick on the same platform had the original tray, now with a different part number. People who wanted the original found ways to make it happen. That new old design tray earned its keep.
GM being too stupid to include an access panel for the oil filter to drain straight down so it doesn’t stay on the tray.
The oil filter was a cartridge on top of the engine. All the oil drained back pretty quickly. Easiest car I’ve ever changed oil on with a oil extractor. Filling was easy with quarts but slightly harder with a 5 quart jug. Still easy not to spill. The tray recall was due to service people being sloppy, not any mechanical issue.
My 2008 Tacoma is the easiest I have ever done an oil change on. Filter is up top with a housing that has a 1/4″ nipple to put a hose on. Feed that down to your drain pan and no spillage. Skid plate has a cut out to drop down and no mess, no fuss. Or burnt engines
2022 Colorado diesel – cartridge filter on top, just be mildly careful pulling it out and no drips. Cutout in the skid plate for the drain plug. It’s a ZR2 so no need to lift it to crawl under. Super easy.
Transmission and transfer case were easy until I put aftermarket full coverage skids on..
I thought it was love that made a Subaru, a Subaru. Hypothetical PR Person has as much love as the skid plate has metal.
I hit a chunk of ice/snow in my car, crumpled the original “skid plate” and replaced with an aftermarket heavier aluminum one.
And colleagues laughed at me for putting a decent skidplate onto a small hatchback. But it’s still flat, smooth, and looks decent when I check the underbody.
Like most replacement parts, always look if there’s an upgrade option.
I guess I’m surprised the Forester gets that flimsy jank. I know the 2015 WRX gets a pretty gnarly heavy duty skid plate thing down under the engine and it’s obviously not an off road thing there.
I added an aluminum skid plate to my Prius v.
Probably not a huge improvement over the thin plastic pieces it came with, but I’ll still feel a hell of a lot better with the proper plate if I ever get stuck running over a shredded truck tire on the highway or something.
My Focus has a plastic one, and it actually fared pretty well when I did run over a tire chuck at 65. Tore the lower parts of the bumper cover at the angles, but the plastic underbody cover did surprisingly well.
Silly boy, that wasn’t a skid plate – that was a S.K.I.D plate. You know, as in Stream (as in air) Kinetic Interference Diverter.
What, you thought they expected that to deal with rock, logs, deep ruts and other off road obstructions? Silly, silly boy.
Seriously, though, my RAV4 has the same kind of plastic tray under a surprising (to me) amount of the area under the car. But then the RAV4 doesn’t have the pretense of being an off roader.
The plastic trays on the RAV4 are there almost purely for aerodynamics. I used to work for the company that made them.
I’m sure the Crosstrek’s are the same, except they think they can technically call it a skid plate because it’s “beefed up” over a regular old lower bumper.
You might be joking, but I absolutely took one of those off a 2013 Explorer earlier today. It blocked the oil filter and drain plug, and had a warning that it had to be reinstalled after service for proper cooling.
The RAV4 has a small removable panel for accessing the oil filter and drain plug. Which the quick change places seem to have problems resecuring properly, based on my experience.
https://www.autonationparts.com/parts/ford-lower-shield-db5z9910494a?origin=pla&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22802133064&gclid=CjwKCAjwisnGBhAXEiwA0zEOR-rU7Y6fKtHwgi8UUZXVtNiLc9IAXDSeqi7DKXCjZS3x0zX-4NqqahoC57YQAvD_BwE
This thing definitely does not have access panels. Zoom in on the first product picture and you’ll see what I’m talking about with “proper” cooling.
If your skid plate can’t stop a 9mm slug fired from close range, don’t call it a skid plate.
Of course, you just know someone(s) caught hell back at Subaru secret HQ and they had to pass on the love. You-know-what rolls downhill.
Do you also propose that body armor manufacturers should test by how well it protects from a low-speed scrap from a jagged rock?
Two points:
Yes, there are some a few bolts holding the plastic shield on, as mentioned in the article (see quote from the YouTuber). And yes, it likely was adequate for the majority of people who buy this product, as I mentioned in this and the original article.
It’s nice to know that Subaru PR people subscribe to The Autopian. 😉
And/or their cultist followers
There is an old saying in the newspaper field “never argue with a person who buys ink by the gallon” . Now this was before the internet. Journalists have power, many abuse it, I spent 30 years in newspaper and software and saw it. I never saw our Autopian writers abuse their authority but I have seen it in many major newspapers I instructed.