Your car is an amazing vehicle. Talk to an enthusiast, mechanic or sales person and they can spend hours telling you about all the intricate technology and gadgets incorporated into the vehicle. This is true for even the cheapest cars available these days. All of the technological advances, however, can't hide one key thing - the most important area of the car is where the tires meet the road.
Depending upon your vehicle and tires, the total area contacting the road may be as little 4 by 4 by 1 inch if you count all four tires. That small contact area will support a car weighing a thousand pounds or more. The key to getting a smooth ride is to making sure the car balances correctly on those four contact areas.
When the balance goes out of whack, the ride becomes rough. When it is the front tires that have a problem, your steering wheel will vibrate and shimmy. There are two common causes of this. Either the tire is out of balance or you've bent a rim. Let's take a closer look.
The second cause of steering wheel shakes at high speed is the bent rim. This is much more common than most people would expect. How do you bend rims? It is pretty easy. You could hit a pot hole. You could hit a sudden upwards elevation change on a street that is being worked on. Hit it fast enough and you can bend a rim going over steel plates...railroad tracks...the list is nearly endless.
The bad news is there is no quick and easy fix for a bent rim. Well, actually there is - buy a new rim. The problem is a new rim costs good money, particularly if the dealer has an exclusive deal on the rims. You could try getting the rim re-finished, but it rarely works and can actually weaken the rim in some cases. In short, it is best to just pony up and pay for a new rim if the shaking bothers you enough.
Subaru has news for you. There’s little to distinguish the 2011 model from its 2010 counterpart. Up front, the grille and swept headlights work together to create a cohesive look that draws your eye down the side of the vehicle. Details like large insets for fog lights, flared fenders and boxy side-view mirrors help give the Forester more of an SUV flavor than other compact high-riders out there, and while we miss some of the wagon aspects of older Foresters.
Inside, there are includes the decorative swath of silver trim helps to brighten the cabin, the cockpit is still a little dark for our tastes. The driver is treated to a well-sorted steering wheel with controls for cruise, hands-free calling and the stereo within reach, and the set of somewhat plain gauges are easy to read day or night. 2011 Subaru Forester uses an engine that’s considerably more advanced than its predecessor. The old engine’s belt-driven, single-overhead cam design has been replaced with a chain-driven dual-overhead cam setup for better efficiency. The change helped net the engine an extra one mpg in the city on the EPA’s cycle. Additionally, the four-cylinder uses a marginally larger bore and longer stroke, tweaking displacement from 2,457cc to 2,498cc and helping to deliver an extra four pound-feet of torque 300 rpm sooner than the old 2.5-liter engine.
The new engine is still bolted to the same four-speed automatic transmission that Moses brought down from Mount Fuji. Whereas the 2010 Forester was saddled with the company’s characteristically tractor-esque rumble from under the rounded hood, the 2011 hums along with a fraction of the racket. The 2011 Forester still provides hilariously excellent driving dynamics given its lofty ride height thanks to a pile of DNA borrowed from the lovable WRX.
