Expected life of discs and tyres on subaru

[cdp88]

Good morning all

I am new to subaru ownership, in fact yet to take delivery but hopefully it will arrive soon, and I wanted to check people's experience with tyre and brake disc life. I appreciate that these will vary from car to car and driver to driver but was looking to get a general indication. I am salary packaging the car so it helps if I know what will come up so that I can include it in the budget.

I am getting a new liberty with 2.5i engine and the standard dunlop tyres. I drive about 10 000 km pa mostly urban driving going to work, shopping etc. I was planning to keep the car for 3 years at this stage. I will get the tyres rotated and aligned at least annually. The question is whether I am likely to need to replace either of these items during my 3 year period of ownership.

I'd appreciate any thoughts from other members.

[kiwigene]

Short answer is, if you are only doing 10k pa, you will not wear out tyres or brakes in three years.

But as you say, driving style is the most significant determining factor.

[GONEWALKABOUT]

if you mean new liberty as in you are the first owner, then you wont need to replace the pads or rotors.

I still have original pads and rotors on my 05 outback with 95k km, all normal daily driving behaviour. For me they are starting there last legs a couple of weeks ago.

[cdp88]

Thanks all for your advice.

I'm looking forward to taking delivery. I'm still tossing up whether to get servicing done at the dealer or at my trusted local independent mechanic. With the capped price servicing and warranty I think I should be safe to go to the dealer.

[HyRax]

There's nothing wrong with sticking with Subaru Servicing, and their new capped pricing finally brings them into line with other brands, however they still have a bad tendency to let rookie mechanics work on your car.

Be wary of them forgetting to re-fill your oil, or forgot to screw the oil cap back on properly, etc. This is good practice with any mechanic, but make sure you go through the worksheet presented to you before you pay it, and ask them if they came across any issues or concerns (even if you expect none). It keeps them on their toes and can give you a clue as to whether you are being treated as a customer or just another number.

As for third-party mechanics, as long as they are MTA certified, you are fine and any new-car warranty remaining is unaffected.

My personal recommendation is for a brand new car, to stick with the dealership for at least the first year, maybe two. Nit-pick the car to death - any rattles, squeaks, etc. If buying secondhand, go to a third-party mechanic you feel you can trust.

Also consider doing some or all of the servicing yourself. It's not hard, you learn something new and for most people, it's fun and you save money.

[Manaz]

they still have a bad tendency to let rookie mechanics work on your car.

This is hardly unique to Subaru dealership workshops, or to dealership workshops in general. Even non-dealership workshops that are big enough to have apprentices will be doing this - it's simple economic sense, get the guys you're paying the least amount of money to do the "basic" work. They should of course be supervised, the level of supervision varies (and again isn't directly related to the dealership or non-dealership status of a workshop).