Discussion: Subaru O'er Owners

For any Subaru O’ers owners – if you are interesting to have Subaru badge of ownership. It is cool thing to put the badge on the back of your Subaru. Go check at http://www.subaru.com/badgeofownership/index.html Click on the blue box (Order Your Badge of Ownership) and please make a comment and add orienteering icon in (Suggestions for Future Lifestyle Icons:) . Hoping the Subaru will make the O’ icon soon.

I'm surprised it's not already there! One of the local Subaru stores once sponsored orienteering in Western Australia but withdrew their funding a couple of years ago, claiming lack of return for their buck or some rubbish. Never mind the fact about half of orienteers in WA own Subarus (myself included)!

Oh sweet! I want! I wish there was a horseback riding or orienteering option but I guess outdoor sports will have to do, plus I qualify for the 100k and soon the 200k :-) I also wish it was magnetic instead of adhesive but maybe I can adhere it to a magnet and then put it on.

Cute!

...shame it's US only, eh. :(

Do O events in the US resemble a used Subaru car lot like ours do?

Yes.

...Badge of Ownership...shame it's US only...

A naked and desperate ploy to generate brand loyalty. And to turn climate change into a fun "club" activity.

I can't believe US orienteers would fall for such commercialism. I guess Subaru figures other countries are smarter. Boycott the Badge!

I guess Subaru figures other countries are smarter

Yeah! We're completely independent and rational consumers over here! *quietly ignores the two Imprezas in the driveway*

True story: Several years ago I bought a used Subaru from a nearby shop that specializes in buying high mileage Subaru trade-ins from dealers, replacing the head gaskets and cooling systems and reselling them.

A few months later we were at an O meet in a city 2 hours away. Our kids were very young, so after running we were hanging around the playground watching them play when I see another orienteer (who I'd never met), also with young kid on playground, walking around our car looking at it. Then he comes over and says "Is that your car?" Me: "Yes" Him: "Huh. That used to be my car. My wife put that dent in the fender. Where'd you get it? I traded it in last summer!"

Some of us like our cars, Clark.

Chilton you seem disgusted that a company is commercial and trying to generate brand loyalty? Shock, horror, who would thought i company would ever do such a thing, what a terrible trick on the consumer.....

Subaru is the unoffical Vermont state vehicle

Ever consider that some of us may be loyal to the brand due to our positive experience with it (and negative/less positive experience with others) and not just advertising shtick? I've already been planning for several years on my next car being another Subaru. I love my car and will stick that badge on with pride.

I found a dent and some blue paint on my white Subaru on the weekend. I know not from where it came. I only hope the other car came out worse.

boo, US only

100K+ and 200K+, huh? Don't these guys have any confidence? I'm approaching 300k+ with my (1st) Pontiac. (And I obviously won't be making any Pontiac dealers happy by being a repeat customer...)

@lazydave: Clark is apparently slightly unbalanced on all topics involving the motor car, arguing that everyone should inconvenience themselves hours at a time in order to use public transport whenever possible (not, whenever sensible). (Despite this he still appears willing to use airplanes to travel to the US west coast and to Europe, ignoring the fact that flying to California is of the same order of magnitude of environmental vandalism as driving to California - yes, Clark, we could argue in more detail about which is worse, but I am not going to because they aren't so different.) Therefore, anything an automobile company does to increase sales is anathema to him.

@tRicky: why would you own a white Subaru? Isn't the point of owning a Subaru that it isn't going to be white for long, even if it starts that way? :)

White ones don't show road salt, though I have a notion that they don't salt the roads much in Perth.

Anyone happen to have a 1990's 2.2 liter or 1996-99 2.5 liter engine for sale? One of my Subaru's needs a replacement.

...slightly unbalanced...

Yeah, I guess anyone who questions the car culture is indeed crazy. As if there are no other options, even tho the bulk of the world's population seems to still live without a car.

My complaint in this thread is only that so many orienteers have expressed such joy upon learning of this badge program. A transparently promotional program that encourages boasting about driving mega-milage, and dumping more cars than any of your buddies into the environment.

In light of recent climate change impasses, do you really want to participate in such blatant, in-your-face anti-environmentalism.....?

...Global talks on climate change opened in Cancún, Mexico in late 2010...the measures adopted in Cancún are likely to have scant near-term impact on the warming of the planet...[and] fell well short of the broad changes scientists say are needed to avoid dangerous climate change in coming decades...

These days driving is worse than a trip to Mars...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/feb/14/mars...

Well, the primary reason wny I don't drive a Subaru is that better fuel economy is available from other brands that don't insist on making all of their cars have AWD.

fossil - sure do, but I suspect the postage would be more than the engine. :p

um, yeah, not to mention that there was an Australian version of the 2.2 liter for the phase 1 years.

I guess I should say anyone within a day's drive of here...

"My complaint in this thread is only that so many orienteers have expressed such joy upon learning of this badge program. A transparently promotional program that encourages boasting about driving mega-milage, and dumping more cars than any of your buddies into the environment."

Umm... surely the high mileage thing requires that the 100k or 200k be done in the same vehicle, i.e. it is tied to keeping the car running and therefore not dumped into the environment. I basically agree with you, Clark, that it would be better if people had a more utilitarian attitude towards their personal vehicles (although if the "love" part makes them attentive to preventative maintenance and therefore keeps cars out of the junk heap longer, good) but even I think you're slightly unbalanced when it comes to cars.

I was thinking the same with the mileage. Better to have one car for 20 years with a few 100k miles on it than to go through several cars in the same time, each with less than 100k miles. Of course, best if we could all manage without cars at all, but that's just not practical for most of us in the US.

If you're someone who wants a car, I see nothing wrong with a placard that says "I'm happy with this kind, I chose well". On the other hand, if somebody had a badge that said they were on their 17th Subaru, you'd have to question why they kept going for them. (I think my father had something like nine VWs, but that was over a very long stretch of time.)

...but even I think you're slightly unbalanced...

Yeah. Thirty years without a car definitely gives one a different perspective. And to most Americans, mesmerized by our car culture, I'm sure my willingness to forgo a car in my life seems crazy. But there's a few of us in big cities that agree on the advantages of a car-free lifestyle; we call you folks "cagers," because we only see you peering out from inside your metal cages...never outside, walking, talking, socializing. It's true in the city too. In my upscale neighborhood, all I see are garage doors opening, SUVs gliding in, doors closing. Don't even know what most of my neighbors look like from the chin down.

Take another look at that badge. The big numeral on there represents the number of Subarus you've driven into the ground. While I agree with you and Taco-C, that numeral seems to encourage the opposite: ownership of many, many Subarus.

fossil,
try this website:
http://www.car-part.com

I applaud Clark for his ability to get around without a car. Convenience is what makes us fat and lazy. More walking and biking would make us all more fit, our nation more secure, the air and water cleaner.
I remember when feet lived in Boston how he ran to get around, always impressed me.

re JJ and 100k badges, yeah, big deal 100k miles, every Volvo I have owned was over 200K, many of them got there before I bought them!.
Present elder is 407K '89 wagon, but is "in the shop" awaiting my attention this spring.

Harrassing and insulting people who drive cars (calling them "cagers", etc) isn't going to change the culture. It just pisses people off. What is needed is encouragement for people to get their cities, towns, employers, and schools to make it easier to get around without a car, and then encouragement for people to take advantage of these things. We're not going to eliminate cars any time soon, but we can make incremental changes in how much we drive and how we commute, grocery shop, and socialize. Insults and claims of moral superiority are counter-productive.

"Take another look at that badge. The big numeral on there represents the number of Subarus you've driven into the ground. While I agree with you and Taco-C, that numeral seems to encourage the opposite: ownership of many, many Subarus."

Until someone offers at least anecdotal evidence that someone has intentionally plotted to kill their Subaru before its time or bought multiple concurrent ones for the ego boost of that number being larger, this strikes me as a purely theoretical problem, unlikely to have real world effects.

The people who have owned a large number are probably the people who like to always be driving a new car, and who therefore typically trade theirs in for the latest thing after two years or so. The ones that they discard then move into the used car market, where they are bought at a lower price by people who then drive them for a long time. This behavior of trading in relatively new cars is probably more predominant for certain brands. Subaru may or may not be among those -- I would tend to suspect that it is not. But in any case, those who have owned the most specimens of a particular brand may well not be "driving them into the ground". I'm the kind of guy who does buy new cars and drive them into the ground. I bought no cars when I was in my 30s.

Do you have to provide proof of purchase for your number or can you order whatever you want?

enjoy the view from your high horse chilton?

I know several rally drivers who have literally driven multiple Subaru's into the ground. They usually manage to separate the two after a while. My WRX is on its second engine; do I qualify for a 1 or a 2?

Rally driving is a different thing altogether. (I wonder if the cars would last longer if you wrapped then in ductape starting from when they're brand new...)

Do I sense a potential thesis project here??

fossil,
try this website:
http://www.car-part.com

Wow, thanks, Jeff! I'd done a little poking around but so far not discovered this one. Looks quite useful. A friend at a repair shop said he'd done a search and come up with nothing. But who knows the extent of the search system they use? I see lots of both types here.

Um, I wonder what would make attempts to promote orienteering "naked and desperate"? New brandname for a national federation, logo, website??

Just as well my federation has an awful logo and a terrible website. But I do confess that I have been guilty of portraying orienteering as a "fun, club" activity. And to the extent that you have to be reasonably healthy, orienteering involves eating good food. Which has to be brought to my supermarket using non-renewable and carbon-producing energy sources. I believe some crops are even tilled and harvested with mechanical devices, and more energy goes in than comes out. I know that I should have a vege garden irrigated with rainwater off the roof, and the hoeing etc would help my upper-body fitness.

I also have to admit that I have a Subaru (only my first) and I use it to go orienteering. Just as well that most of the electricity used for my computer comes from renewable energy. In fact only about 50 words of this post came from fossil fuels.

I'm off to do the grocery shopping now. I'm going to take the car, used to use my mountainbike, but I worked out that it was costing me $1-2 per km to run.

But is all that bicycling really so good for the planet?

http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/~ulrich/documents/ul...

Grab a McMeal and get behind the wheel my friends. :)

For the benefit of those who don't want to take the time to skim the study, the McMeal is presumably intended to increase the planet-benefiting effect on one's total lifetime energy consumption of merely being sedentary by reducing longevity even more than sedentary lifestyle alone.

Sooo, as well as $1-2 per km continually replacing bits on my bike, there's the energy cost of the extra food I must consume, and the energy cost of EVERYTHING I do during the extra years I will be alive. Clearly the car wins hands down.

And yet I LIKE biking, and orienteering. So I've resolved to trade these things off by driving more. Such as to orienteering and the rides of my MTB club. Actually my Subaru is the most economical vehicle I've had since the 1300cc cars I had in the 70's, maybe I need a thirstier one.

I own a white Subaru because it was the cheapest secondhand Subaru I could find at the time :-)

(by about $10k)

Sooo, as well as $1-2 per km continually replacing bits on my bike, there's the energy cost of the extra food I must consume, and the energy cost of EVERYTHING I do during the extra years I will be alive. Clearly the car wins hands down.


With all the injuries I've suffered from cycling and orienteering I'm likely to die earlier than any car loving motorist anyway (odds are I'll be run over by one).

Michael,
$1 to $2 per kilometer for wear on the bike?!!
Is your route down a cliff?

Sexy comes standard?!?

Here's an event we can all do together!

For those that want to participate in their Subarus or other gas-guzzling behemoths, just grab your phone, turn on the ignition, and call us up!

And I can't imagine a more perfect event the moral superiors! You don't have to go anywhere! Just pick up the phone! (And if the phone call demands too much energy to support your philosophy, then get one of these and feel completely guilt-free!

This link works better...

Thanks, fixed it. I was missing just one little = sign!

Coach: yes quite often. I live on an earthquake fault scarp. Hughmac: I reckon we need a thorough analysis of ice skating.

Damn they don't have an O-logo already. I was stumped for a present for Stix. This would have been perfect. Our trusty subaru clicked over the 150000km on his b'day on 15 Feb. I thought it worthy to blog about: http://www.marshmoments.socialfx.net/ Went for trusty Birkenstocks as a present in the end.

Michael,
$1 to $2 per kilometer for wear on the bike?!!

Just had a look at the mileage on my road bike and according to these numbers I'd have spent $33k to $66k on my bike in the past seven years. The bike cost less than $2k so I can't imagine I've made that many repairs to it.

@gruver: agreed. And curling.

I fear I am the anti-Clark, although I don't disagree with his philosophy and lifestyle choices. I have just evolved a very different life. While he abhors the internal combustion engine, I seem to have 19 of them: 4 cars (one of them a pickup, but no Subarus, and no ownership badges), a utility vehicle, lawnmower, brushmower, 3 chainsaws, 2 rototillers, 2 tractors, lawnmower, brushmower, clearing saw, weedwhacker, power washer. At least I don't use them all at once. If I were going to be into brand loyalty enough to have a badge, it would probably be for the chainsaws. But I'm not.

He mentioned being housebound recently for a while in a 450 Sq ft apt. That is smaller than my bedroom, and I don't think I could stay in there for long.

From here, none of the things Clark seems to like are convenient, including public transportation (an hour's drive to the train station), shopping, restaurants, libraries, etc. (7 miles +). I like all those things, too, but there are trade-offs.

Here I have beautiful views, fresh air, plenty of wildlife (bears, deer, coyotes, bobcats, birds of all kinds, beavers, otters, etc.), a trail run on my own o-map outside my door, a well equipped gym 100 meters away. All winter daily snowshoe walks with the dog. Many days, in fact, I don't personally get in a car at all.

Hold on there sport !!
I've already laid claim to the title of "anti-Clark"
although it seems I will have to increase my supply of engines to keep pace with you.
But seriously...
Clark, we've got a meet this Sunday. Take the train out and enjoy the day with us.
Cheers !!

there are trade-offs

Out in the middle of San Francisco, on top of a subway line, we have not just beautiful—mindblowing views, two raccoons live in our backyard and a few coyotes, in the park, there are five O-maps (and growing) within running distance, all on transit and one of them "my own", and there's certainly no shortage of gyms. I wouldn't bring this up if we weren't gearing for a snowshoe outing this weekend.

Turns out there are at least 22. I forgot a couple. A couple of them really need to go. Haven't used them in years.

I draw the line at raccoons.