Out of sight, out of mind… Fitting an ISOFIX childseat to the Subaru XV revealed a small fit and finish miss. Am I being too picky?
RUN BY: ISAAC BOBER
TRAVEL: 8800KM
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 7.2L/100KM (7.0L/100KM OFFICIAL)
LIST PRICE: $36,240 (+ORC)
SERVICE COSTS: NIL
WEEK ENDING: 16 JANUARY
READ OUR FULL REVIEW OF THE SUBARU XV
THIS IS ONLY a short update as next week our Subaru XV heads back to Subaru HQ, so I’ll write a longer piece wrapping up my time with it next week. And, to give you all a heads-up, the Subaru XV will make way for a 2015 Mitsubishi Pajero … yep, the Pajero is getting long in the tooth but it’s a got a loyal following.
I’ve talked about some of the XV’s interior plastic marking easily before but, in general the quality of the materials used is pretty hard to fault. Everything lines up nicely, nothing squeaks when you drive across rough surfaces and, if the interior of my parent’s 1998 Outback is anything to go by, it’ll take a stack of abuse and still look presentable in 10 years.
All that said, it was while playing around with a Maxi-Cosi ISOFIX child seat that I spotted something less then excellent when it comes to fit and finish. Look, in the grand scheme this is a pretty small thing, and if you don’t have an ISOFIX compatible childseat you’ll be unlikely to ever notice this ‘miss’ by the motor trimmers. And these little minor detail misses aren’t unique to the XV, I’ve noticed them in other cars too.
Take a look at the picture and you can see that once you fold down the cover flap for the ISOFIX mounting point, the cut-out is left unsealed, meaning you can see the leather and the foam underneath it. This exposure could lead, and quite easily too, to the leather on the seat tearing. If the XV was actually mine, I’d have a go at edge trimming the opening to the ISOFIX mounting point, just to be sure I wouldn’t risk ruining the seat.
In other XV news, some shorter drives in the last week have pushed up my average consumption quite a lot compared with my usual weekly average of 6.8L/100km. That said, 7.2L/100km in a car that was lugging around the whole family last week up, down and around the Blue Mountains isn’t too bad at all.
