Apologies for the delay between updates but the XV has been laid up for the last week or so while I get around to sorting out a squeaking wheel. Welcome to Week 10.

Run by: Isaac Bober
Travel: 3640km
Fuel consumption: 7.0L/100km (7.0L/100km official)
List price: $36,990 (+ORC)
Service Costs: Nil
Week ending: 10 October.

Read our full review of the Subaru XV

OKAY, THE PLAN was to take the Subaru XV on a fishing trip on the last weekend of the school holidays but a horrid grinding sound coming from somewhere underneath the car put paid to that. And with no time to properly check it out, I just parked up the XV and left it alone for a week or so. But something has to be done and while I’m thinking, if I can’t find the source of the problem myself I’ll have to take it into Subaru for them to look at.

There’s a problem with that, though. The nearest Subaru service centre is more than 50km away from where I live and I’m not keen on driving the car all that way when it sounds the way it does. Rock meet hard place, er, literally and metaphorically.

I got one of the wheels off but couldn’t find anything; I’m thinking there might be a rock caught in the brake caliper, although god only knows how that could have happened. I’ll work my way through the rest of the wheels over the weekend, but if I still can’t track down the source of the problem then I’m going to have to put it through a little pain and suffering and take it into Subaru.

Apologies this isn’t a more exciting update, but I’m hoping to have the XV back up and running next week so that I can put it up against the supposedly ‘trail rated’ Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. Despite all the Cherokee’s fancy off-road gadgetry, I’m pretty confident the XV, which most buyers might not consider as an alternative (but they should) will keep up. Stay tuned.