No stock tire is ever really good but they did the job for 30K miles. He has new Yokohamas on there now and damn they look good on it.
What do you mean? They wore out fast and were whitewalls? Arent tires rated by wear & traction & top speed? I thought there were wear ratings and other ratings besides size on the sidewalls. I did have a car with cheap tires that wore out faster than I thought they should have, but they were cheap.
Apologies, I have not been a car person for 30 years, things may have changed…
Add, I recently replaced the stock michelin whatevers with michelin whatevers at my Honda dealer. I said just put on whatever came with the car. Its a 16 yr old accord, the tires werent worn, but showing signs of age like dry rot/crazing.
Stock tires are nortorious for not lasting long. 30K is considered extremely good mileage.
Fair enough, the car has only about 35k miles (in 16 yrs). I dont drive much, obviously. I suppose it depends on use as well
Strangely I had to replace the front brakes years ago, maybe 15k miles?
How do you like it, a few days later?
For our Solterra, so far (about 2 weeks of driving):
Pros:
- Drives and handles really well — best-feeling Subaru I’ve been in, at least, especially compared to the underwhelming Crosstrek (which always had trouble accelerating and merging). I love the Solterra’s balance of weight (low center of gravity) and low-end torque. It accelerates and corners well, and feels fast without the obnoxious sounds of the WRX.
- Subjectively, I much prefer its drive feel compared to Teslas and the Hyundais and Kias we tried. It just feels lower and heavier to the ground, which is probably an entirely subjective preference coming from other Subies. Compared to the other EV SUVs, it feels less at risk of tipping over during fast turns… some of the other ones felt more top-heavy, but that’s strange to me because aren’t their battery packs almost always in the floor of the vehicle?
- The infotainment system is a little better than the gas Subarus. I think it’s from Toyota. It’s still a janky piece of shit compared to Android Auto, of course, so we never use it except for settings.
- The safety & driver-assist features are awesome, especially the active cruise control with lane-keeping assist and the 360 backup + crawl cameras that automatically activate.
- The charging situation is… fine. Not the best, not terrible. About 70kW on a DCFC, maybe 900W at home. A lot better than the Leafs of old.
- We took it on a bumpy/sandy dirt road the other day and it did great (though probably any car could’ve handled that). X-Mode helped a little during a slippery part. I do wonder how the AWD drivetrain of this car (electronic brakes? not sure) compares to the old viscous coupling ones in the gas cars.
- It has much more cargo room in the trunk than my car. It also came with roof rails & crossbars, and we were able to put a giant roofbox on it to hold two folding kayaks.
Cons:
- Not having a rear windshield wiper sucks. Apparently this was a semi-common design choice among EVs? It’s stupid, IMHO, not just for rain & snow, but all the dust & mud buildup that inevitably happens in dirty areas like ours (lots of volcanic dust). There is an aftermarket snap-on one for $500, the GeckoWiper, which also works for Ioniqs and other cars.
- In-cabin storage is quite lacking. There is no glovebox for some mysterious reason, and there is a giant empty space under where the shifter normally is, but it’s just a flat platform and not very usable. The cupholders don’t fit our Big Dumb Cups. We got cupholder extensions, but even those are too shallow so we had to get raisers for them.
- The remote app sucks… it has a 1.6/5 rating on the Google store and half its features don’t work at all (like the remote key, or adding other drivers, or saving your profile). At least remote climate control works, thankfully (for starting the AC or heater from your house).
- No frunk (front trunk), since that’s where the engine compartment is.
- The charging status isn’t easy to see. When you plug it in, a green light comes on and the dashboard briefly displays an ETA, but then it disappears in a few seconds. To see it again, you have to unlock the car. The app doesn’t work very well, and ChargePoint chargers can’t see the time remaining. So it remains kinda a guessing game whenever you’re charging, like you have to just wait until one app or the other tells you it’s stopped charging — if the notifications are working. Other EVs in the lot had charging indicators both on the charging port itself and also on the ChargePoint charger display (I guess the Solterra isn’t communicating its SoC back to the charger properly?)
- The center console and shifter area plastic trim is made with shiny reflective material, a sort of glossy “piano black” that horribly reflects sunlight. The glare is unbearable even with sunglasses. I will be getting some matte/vinyl covers for this (available on AliExpress) to cover that part up.
- The wireless Qi charging pad is useless, at least for our Pixels. Finicky, hot, and slow even when properly positioned. We tried it for a few min and then switched back to a cable, but now that’s extra storage room that we can’t use
I might just cover the charging pad with something (rubber? aluminum foil?) to prevent the charger from even trying. It mostly just heats up the phone without providing much power. (The Magsafe-compatible magnetic chargers work much much better, since the alignment can be properly assured.)
CX-7 acceleration could easily be measured with a sun dial. 
Or, in your case, age not lack of usage. You should be replacing them after seven years no matter how much treadlife is left due to dry rot issues. Older tires can be unsafe.
So far, I’m really really liking it. Keep in mind that I’m not comparing it to other modern cars so much as to a 2006 Camry. That said, it rides so smoothly and is so quiet. The dashboard is pretty complex, but I’m finding my way around it. Charging isn’t too bad: I did a 500-mile round trip with about 36 hours of home-charging in between legs, and I only had to pay $35 at fast-charging stations to complete the trip (and could probably have done with less, but I was cautious).
I’m still unsure which app will be best for finding good charging stations. I’ve got five different ones downloaded (Chargepoint, A Better Route Planner, Chargeup, EV Connect, and MyHyundai), and can’t really tell which I’ll settle on. Hopefully I won’t have to keep going back and forth between these and Google Maps.
I’m also unsure whether a L2 home charger is necessary. I think it’s going to be a couple thousand bucks to install, given my really wonky house, but am not sure on that yet.
Overall, though, it makes me happy every time I get in it.
Try PlugShare, because it’s crowd-sourced (and works across charger brands, and has a lot of good filters and a scoring system based on availability).
We’re really enjoying the EV life so far too. It’s just so much more fun than a gas car, if slightly inconvenient for trips.
6 years driving EVs and I still feel this way.
Good to know! Does it have an accurate map system? I’ve used two fast-chargers, and have run into two difficulties:
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An app directed me to a Hyundai dealership, but when I got there they had the spaces blocked off and only made them available to folks who’d bought a car from them –a detail not mentioned in the app.
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An app directed me to two different large spaces (an apartment complex and a community college campus), and I drove around for a long time looking for the actual chargers.
I’d love an app that sends me to the exact location of the charger, with community feedback about whether it’s really available.
In PlugShare, you would customize the filters to exclude things you don’t want. For example, I filter only for the plugs my car has, exclude dealers, Rivian, and Tesla locations, and filter it only by a PlugScore (availability) of 5/10 or higher.
It’s not perfect but good enough. To find the exact charger, yes, you should be able to zoom in further and/or look at the customer photos and details. It’s the notes from other users that are especially helpful (and you can contribute your own notes if you find a situation not as described).
Like any mapping app it will never be perfect, but it’s the best one I’ve found so far!
Plugshare also allows you to filter by “restricted access” chargers, for example at an office or school where it’s restricted to student or staff use.
I think it’s the best app.
We tested the Hyundai Tucson and Toyota Rav4 PHEV a year ago, and thought the Hyundai was far superior.
In what way? You would buy the Toyota for reliability but yeah, I got a Toyota Highlander Hybrid and I like it a lot but it’s not a “fun” car.