My verdict: Modern Subarus are simply annoying

I am torn between two models; Subaru Forester 2014 and Toyota RAV4. How do they compare in terms of reliability, performance and maintenance costs?

I mostly drive on rural roads which are not tarmacked. Thanks. 

Evans

Hi Evans,

If you drive regularly on untarmacked roads, then the RAV4 is the better bet. The Forester is well known for having weak(ish) stabilizer links so you will be replacing them frequently if you do the rumbly stuff often.

Reliability favours the RAV as well: modern Subarus and their electric steering systems are just annoying. If it has SI-Drive, that could be a potential annoyance as well.

Performance goes to the Subaru for reasons too obvious to repeat here and maintenance costs... well, once the steering issue is sorted and you ignore the stabiliser links, they will be just about even. Read between the lines.

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Branding is not always a big deal

Baraza,

I'm curious to know the manufacturer of the buses operated by Easycoach. Unlike other operators, theirs aren't openly branded. As an afterthought, do you think there is an apparent reason to that?

Martin.

Hi Munialo,

Easy Coach operates Mitsubishi Fuso trucks that have bus bodies mounted on them, the FM line to be specific. Some time back they had FH bus-trucks as well but it seems they gave that up somewhere in their history.

The lack of branding could be one of two things: either personal preference by Easy Coach themselves or a stipulation from the truck dealer. You'd be surprised at how strict some of these franchises are about their branding: Scania seemed to have prerequisites about logo/badge placement according to the chassis model, while it appears like anything goes for these other fellows. It's really hard to tell.

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I disagree with you on the Pathfinder

Hello Baraza,

My experience is the antithesis of the article you wrote on the 16th about the pathfinder.

Mzee bought a pathfinder from Nissan Kenya in 2015. For all the trips we make to Ngelani, which a range rover cannot simply hack or a Prado, the pathfinder slices the terrain like knife through butter.

Mark you Stony Athi is a cakewalk vis ngelani. The ground clearance is legend, no rattling, no rotor or calliper problems.

We have never had a single issue with the car, except when a thief stole its 100k spare tyre.

Our experience with yours is like day and night on the same car!

Hello,

Well, I'd sincerely like to know what kind of terrain you are talking about that a Pathfinder (the name is apt, no?) will tackle but a Prado won't. Let's not even discuss Range Rovers and their new-fangled Queen Mary vents that allow it to drive underwater.

Anyway, different strokes for different folks. If your 5-year old Pathfinder is outdoing itself, then bully for you. That doesn't seem to be the case for a lot of other people, so I daresay you are the exception, not the rule. I do have to ask about that spare tyre though... 100k? What is it made of? Kevlar?

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Air suspension’s future is short-lived

Dear Baraza JM,

Motion, Performance and Accuracy, our new mantra, makes me wonder if motion is only restricted to fuel propulsion. If not, would the huge high dam in the Orient being touted to alter earth's motion, ever so slightly, interest this column? If so, check it out and advise if we need to calibrate and probably send us new coordinates.

I hone my trade next to a tyre repair shop and have noticed that the repairman readily fits size 14" tubes to size 15" tyres once the corresponding size runs out.

How do a size 14" tube sit in a size 15" tyre (cars)? Wouldn't it feel like a famished fellow trying to extend an empty stomach just to prove he isn't hungry. From the face of it, it looks okay and the guy dismisses it as so, but am alive to the fact that small flaws are magnified to monumental proportions once wheel revolutions reach top speed. Doesn't this trick negatively affect the feel, bounce and control of the vehicle at a reasonable speed?

 Anyway, it is clear that advancement may one day render the human race extinct or so I imagine. We are advancing towards every mortal owning a motorised or non-motorised means of travel. Essentially all these 'means' are wheeled on pressurised air. Further, modern vehicle transmission, suspension and braking systems are embracing air as their medium.

Oh and I also learnt that the future trains will be running on a cushion of pressurised air rather than conventional wheels. Would we entrap enough air away from its natural habitat to an extent that will affect the atmospheric pressure?

Well if that's far-fetched, would we one day be gasping for air as adequate and potent amounts are unavailable as non-core purposes take substantial amounts away rather than breathing?

R. Mwangi

Hello R

When you say "our" new mantra, who exactly are you referring to? The Motoring Press Agency has as its mantra: Motion Power Advancement; the motion part denoting movement and dynamism - constantly creating paradigm shifts and "disrupting" (I don't like the contemporary usage of that word). Power is fairly obvious, with power comes ability, influence, control and dominance. Advancement is what it says on the tin: moving forward; positive growth even. I don't know who else uses the initials MPA both as the main moniker and as an alliterative war cry apart from my posse, and our chant is certainly not "Motion, Performance, Accuracy". So who exactly is "our"?

Motion is not restricted to fuel propulsion per se, but it is certainly dependent on the expenditure (or is it consumption) of energy. What the Three Gorges Dam in China is doing is creating inertia on the globe, from Newton's Second Law of Motion. Listen, I don't really want to get into the details of how exactly this is happening - not because I don't understand it, I actually do - but because I don't think anyone else is interested in the finer workings of classical mechanics and frames of references.

That is university-level physics, second year to be exact; but the short version of that little anecdote is the Chinese dam is going to slow down the rotation of the earth by 0.06 seconds because 39 trillion kilograms of whatever is not insubstantial. We won't need new coordinates, but you may need a new watch one hundred years from now.

I have no idea how your fellow tenants fit 15" rims onto 14" tyres but if it actually happens, I would imagine the process is very similar to a middle-aged person steadfastly rejecting the notion that weight gain past age 30 is a clear and present problem and still tries to fit into the jeans they wore back in university when youth was infinite, hangovers were non-existent and the body was made of rubber and magic. Tyre rubber is extremely tough which is why I am wondering how on earth a 15" camel could fit in the 14" eye of a needle outside of religious texts. You will have to give me some time to do some research on this, but I sure as hell will not try it practically. Have you ever see a tyre that has taken upon itself to reject draping itself over a rim? The outcome could be fatal for anyone lurking around there when it happens.

Humanity may be advancing in some ways, but the finer workings of this are mostly anthropological, so we stick to motorization. Personal mobility is currently widespread but methinks this will be dialled back somewhat with the advent of the twin technologies of autonomous vehicles and ridesharing.

Rather than everybody having their whispering, levitating Jetson-mobile, I predict more driverless buses and supersonic passenger trains amidst the various pods that Mercedes-Benz will inevitably invent for those with more currency credits than others.

Pneumatic wheels may be on the clock, as well as air suspension, despite your claims. My apologies for laying waste to your soothsaying, but you really need to keep up with what is going on out here. There is something invented by Michelin called a "tweel" which is an airless wheel, but is not solid rubber.

Instead, there are many little mini-spokes within the wheel which support the mass of the vehicle via tension on the upper side and compression on the lower side since they are flexible. This essentially makes the tyre maintenance-free since it won't leak or burst or even flatten. However, I am not so sure about the treads, at one point they will wear out and you will need to replace it. Look up what a tweel is and be amazed.

Air suspension may be all the rage right now but that too will go the way of internal combustion. It sounds wallowy in theory but it's not very responsive; at least not as responsive as the magnetorheological magic that Audi, Cadillac and Range Rover have been using for some years now. With ever-improving roads and our lives slowly detracting us from nature, the need for air suspension is becoming superfluous and unnecessary. Better handling is taking priority over floaty drives. So don't expect air suspension to last that far into the future.

Future trains may be suspended on air, though, but not for the reasons you think. Having it floating on air and powered either by a plasma jet or magnets means it will require a lot less energy to get it moving and to wind it up to the stratospheric speeds that will surely be its mainstay. The air cushion has nothing to do with comfort (despite use of the word "cushion"), it is to minimize the friction that arises from the rolling resistance that ground contact creates. Most vehicles motivated through traction have this as a limitation, which is why since the 1920s, man has always fantasized about levitation in his movement.

There are two problems with levitating transport, though: braking and handling. Try turning or stopping a hovercraft and you will understand why this technology is still in its infancy.

I don't know if we will trap enough air for our transport needs to thin out the atmosphere, but never say never. That Chinese dam is playing around with fire at a cosmic level; something nobody ever imagined would happen (which is why they built that dam), so I will not dismiss your concerns.

However, once upon a time the US military seriously considered firing up thousands of ground-bound rockets with enough power to reverse the rotation of the earth just in case the Soviet Union started throwing nuclear missiles, at them so that as those missiles flew one way and the earth went in the same direction, the net effect would be zero and the missiles would fall back down on the Russians' heads. That is madness at an unprecedented level, but there are minds that actually considered that. This implies there are minds that will think up insane and grandiose methods of replenishing the atmosphere if we happen to suck it out of existence.

Have a good week!