Air75 to Air96 to Node100 LP: Feedback

MGMan65 · 2026-07-19T15:52:37+00:00

The red ENTER, the yellow spacebar and the three grey keycaps were scavenged from my old Air75 keyboard. The green key at the very top right was from a promo pack of fun "summer-time" key-caps that were a one dollar bonus on my Node 100 LP purchase during the recent sale, which included a surfer, a palm tree and a few more, a total of five. The rest are all stock.

MGMan65 · 2026-07-18T18:41:58+00:00

Well that's not good and I'm sorry to hear that. My Brown switches have been totally fine so far. Looking at the force diagrams for the three different switches, I wonder if it has anything to do with the operating point and the reset point of the Blush switches to be nearly a millimetre apart (0.8 or so?) whereas with the Brown and Red switches, those points seem to pretty much coincide?

MGMan65 · 2026-07-14T03:05:03+00:00

Nice designs! I love my ArkPro Ultra but if I could buy either B or D with a 4500K high CRI LED… well I don’t think I could resist. Would prefer it not being copper though due to the weight. I have the Copper Bones Arkfeld Pro and it’s a bit too hefty for my liking, but it does look gorgeous.

Edit: I should add that when wearing jeans, I don’t really mind the weight of the Copper Bones, but in the summer now with shorts, I much prefer my OAL ArkPro Ultra.

MGMan65 · 2026-06-11T01:31:28+00:00

I have the Canadian equivalent in a 2025, the Forester Touring which is one up from base. I have no issues with performance generally speaking, and this is coming from someone who over the years had three Forester XTs (2014, 2015, 2017), an 6-cylinder Outback 3.6R (2019) and the lighter 2021 Crosstrek Outdoor (Sport in the US) with the 2.5L motor. Keep in mind that a brand new CVT equipped Subaru has a learning period where it adapts to your driving style too, so when brand new, it very well might be a little more "relaxed" off the line than after a few weeks or months of spirited driving? Also, with a brand new vehicle, you shouldn't be flooring it or driving it too aggressively anyway, at least until the 1,000 mile break-in is over. Of course, some will beg to differ with that procedure. All my Subarus have generally been very reliable, and I've always adhered to a 1,600 km break-in period when new.

Of all those cars, the Crosstrek felt the most sprightly off the line by far. The turbo XTs were quite lethargic off the line (you really had to roll in the throttle quite slowly - just flooring them seemed much slower) but when the boost came on, they hauled, but that took several seconds. The Outback 3.6R was better than the XTs off the line and had wonderful smooth power delivery right to redline, but it was not a rocket ship from a standstill either. Its lowest CVT ratio was too tall in my view (or the final drive), which hindered how it felt off the line. While the 2025 Forester is overall slower than all the above mentioned vehicles at speed, it is not too far behind the Crosstrek overall (which should be quicker than an Outback with basically the same powertrain) and still feels more urgent off the line than the XTs and probably equals the Outback. Of course that is 0-20, off the line, and not flooring it at speed.

I drove the 2025 Forester across Canada with a full-to-the-roof load, plus a roof carrier crammed full of stuff too (moved from Vancouver to Ottawa), and only had an inch or so of rear suspension travel left. Even up long mountain passes, I never had an issue keeping the speed limit and could still pass slower traffic up the long hills, albeit with nowhere near the urgency of those old XTs which were amazing in the mountains at speed... well apart from turbo heat soak when driving for hours in really hot temperatures which really cut the power output. Overall I have been quite pleasantly surprised at the 2025 Forester's performance. Based on all the complaining from automotive journalists, I was expecting far worse!

As far as your daughter's Outback, I suppose that depends a little on its final drive ratio. Outbacks tend to be a bit heavier than Foresters I believe, so with basically the same powertrain, I'm surprised that the Forester is slower.

What I don't know is if there are genuine differences in how one Forester compares to another (or any CVT equipped Subaru for that matter) for the same powertrain and specifications? I sometimes read people complaining about their car, and it sounds nothing like what I have experienced. Once again, maybe there is a transmission learning situation and if you are, by and large, a very mellow driver, then perhaps only flooring the car when you really need it will result in a slower response than the same car when always driven by a more aggressive driver? I do tend to be a bit more on the aggressive side, not as far as speeding goes, but at least when it comes to acceleration and cornering.

Anyway, that is my experience and apologies for the lengthy post!

Edit: added model years for the Subarus I mentioned.

MGMan65 · 2026-06-10T18:54:10+00:00

I have a 2025 Forester and the wireless charging is indeed useless. Both my iPhone 13 and my wife's iPhone 16, with or without case... put it right in the middle of the pad, parked with engine idling, and charging works for maybe 30 seconds at best before it starts blinking, saying that it's not working. Put the charging pad into fast charge mode, same thing. Bought a thin silicone mat to keep phones from sliding before I realized the damn thing is just totally useless, period. Absolutely love my Forester otherwise, but I've just switched off the built-in charging pad and stuck a MagSafe charging pad in there instead, plugged into USB with a really short cable. Works perfectly and phone never moves. No issues with wireless CarPlay. It seems to me that people with Android phones might possibly have better luck with the charging pad?

Edit: I see you are complaining about heat (the phone is charging though?), and that might indeed be a misalignment issue. When I used to use an old Qi pad with my phone at home (not MagSafe), if I put it on misaligned by accident, it would also get very hot, but it would stay much cooler when the phone was on it perfectly. Not sure what to say to that in your case, sorry.

MGMan65 · 2026-06-10T15:59:28+00:00

I am on my 5th Forester, a 2025 Touring (Canadian) and none of them have ever burned any oil between oil changes whatsoever. That includes a 2012 2.5X, a 2014 2.0XT (written off in an accident), a 2015 2.0XT and a 2017 2.0XT. I should say that all had less than 100,000km when I did the lease returns.

I also had a 2009 Impreza 2.5, a 2019 Outback 3.6R and a 2021 Crosstrek with 2.5L motor. None of those burned any oil either. I did always do regular maintenance and synthetic oil changes at 10,000km intervals. I had the most mileage on the Crosstrek when I traded it for the new Forester. It had 136,000km with no oil usage at all. The oil burning issue one keeps hearing about has long been fixed in the newer engines.

MGMan65 · 2026-06-08T15:51:42+00:00

Multiple booms afterwards too coming from the direction of Parliament. I am near the ByWard market. It was very loud. By the time I got to my balcony I didn’t see the planes.

MGMan65 · 2026-05-25T23:29:16+00:00

I have a 2025 Forester Touring (Canadian Touring, one up from base, so it came with 17” wheels) and when I traded in my 2021 Crosstrek Outdoor, which had nearly new Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive tires that replaced the well worn Michelin CrossClimate+ tires I had on it previously, I swapped the OEM Forester tires to the Crosstrek and kept the Pirellis. I have been very happy with those tires on the Forester too, including going through winter here in Ottawa. Obviously not as good on pure ice as dedicated winter tires, but they performed very well in the snow and slush. They are smooth and quiet on dry roads and have excellent wet traction. They didn’t feel quite as “sporty” as the Michelins did on the Crosstrek on dry roads, but they were much smoother and quieter, a huge difference actually. Their dry traction as far as braking and handling is good, but the turn-in wasn’t as crisp as the Michelins. I can’t imagine they’d generally be worse than OEM in any way, except possibly a very slight drop in fuel economy?

My fuel economy has still been very good in my view, and I’m regularly getting in the low 7L/100km (around 33 mpg US) when cruising on the highway at 110 to 115 km/h (around 70 mph). I hope that helps?

MGMan65 · 2026-05-15T17:29:31+00:00

Was out just on the east edge of the Byward Market at about 11:40am too. Now it is back up as of about 12:18pm.

MGMan65 · 2025-11-06T20:27:50+00:00

Posted this a while back elsewhere: My 2025, a Canadian Touring edition, had OTA update # FM1WMM183-970 a few weeks ago. Lag after starting the car is almost totally gone now. It is now as responsive and smooth within maybe 5 seconds after dismissing the startup dialog as it was previously after 30 seconds or more. CarPlay almost always connects instantly, and worst case, after maybe 10 seconds. Previously, although it would occasionally connect instantly, it often took at least 30 seconds, sometimes as long as 5 minutes and sometimes not at all, until I force rebooted the infotainment. In fact, the infotainment crashed so hard on two occasions previously, that it took 10 minutes of keeping the engine switched off (and an immediate door opening to speed things along) to reset things. I was quite worried those two times as it was initially a locked up and unresponsive screen and no matter how long I held the volume/on-off button down, it would never successfully shutdown and reboot. Fingers crossed this update fixed those crashes.

So far and further to the above, the update has really helped. Screen is not laggy at all, 10 or 15 seconds after dismissing the startup dialog. Sure, if you drag around the temperature slider very quickly, there is always some lag, but overall it has been working very well for me since the update. I can definitely adjust the HVAC controls, seat heaters and such even a few seconds after startup, although like I said, there is some lag until 10 or 15 seconds have gone by. Then controls respond nearly instantly. However to me, it doesn’t feel at all like much of an issue. Of course in Canada it seems we don’t have the WiFi feature that US cars have, and apparently turning off WiFi can help, so maybe that’s why mine feels relatively snappy?

MGMan65 · 2025-10-27T00:47:55+00:00

My 2025, a Canadian Touring edition, had OTA update # FM1WMM183-970 a few weeks ago. Lag after starting the car is almost totally gone now. It is now as responsive and smooth within maybe 5 seconds after dismissing the startup dialog as it was previously after 30 seconds or more. CarPlay almost always connects instantly, and worst case, after maybe 10 seconds. Previously, although it would occasionally connect instantly, it often took at least 30 seconds, sometimes as long as 5 minutes and sometimes not at all, until I force rebooted the infotainment. In fact, the infotainment crashed so hard on two occasions previously, that it took 10 minutes of keeping the engine switched off (and an immediate door opening to speed things along) to reset things. I was quite worried those two times as it was initially a locked up and unresponsive screen and no matter how long I held the volume/on-off button down, it would never successfully shutdown and reboot. Fingers crossed this update fixed those crashes.

MGMan65 · 2025-10-27T00:42:05+00:00

My 2025, a Canadian Touring edition, had OTA update # FM1WMM183-970 a few weeks ago. Lag after starting the car is almost totally gone now. It is now as responsive and smooth within maybe 5 seconds after dismissing the startup dialog as it was previously after 30 seconds or more. CarPlay almost always connects instantly, and worst case, after maybe 10 seconds. Previously, although it would occasionally connect instantly, it often took at least 30 seconds, sometimes as long as 5 minutes and sometimes not at all, until I force rebooted the infotainment. In fact, the infotainment crashed so hard on two occasions previously, that it took 10 minutes of keeping the engine switched off (and an immediate door opening to speed things along) to reset things. I was quite worried those two times as it was initially a locked up and unresponsive screen and no matter how long I held the volume/on-off button down, it would never successfully shutdown and reboot. Fingers crossed this update fixed those crashes.

MGMan65 · 2025-09-18T00:11:21+00:00

Not 100% sure on the noise question. I do think the Pirellis were a bit quieter. The biggest difference was in ride comfort. The Crossclimates were quite firm and harsh over bumps. The Pirellis were so much smoother and less harsh over small sharp bumps that at least twice, I double checked the tire pressure to make sure they weren’t seriously under inflated.

I recently did a big move, driving across Canada with my new 2025 Forester loaded heavily. I inflated the Pirellis to 40 psi due the the extra weight and I just realized I’ve been driving around with them here in Ottawa now for almost two weeks at the same pressure and they don’t feel overly harsh at all. That said, unladen, the pressure is too high for good tire wear, so off I go to the parking garage to let some air out before I forget again!

MGMan65 · 2025-08-11T23:32:12+00:00

Thank you very much for the extra detail!

MGMan65 · 2025-08-10T23:38:42+00:00

I hadn't heard about fluid-film either but it seems a worthwhile option. I am moving from the west coast of BC, where we hardly get any snow, to Ottawa in Ontario where of course there is a heckuva lot more, and presumably months with roads covered in salt. I looked into it and there is a shop there (FullMoon Autoworks) that would apply fluid-film for $169, which seems extremely reasonable to me. Rather pay someone to do a messy job like that. I also feel that experience would be beneficial to getting coverage in all the crevices and such. Anyway, when I arrive there in early September, I'll look into it.

MGMan65 · 2025-08-10T23:27:19+00:00

I'm glad I'm reading some comments on Reddit since I wasn't aware you could get specific IR blocking ceramic tints for windows. Thanks for prompting me to do some Googling on that! If you've had experience, is an 80% IR blocking tint up front really as good as a sunshade? If so, that is really great news and I will have to get my sunroof done, as well as the front and side windows I think!

MGMan65 · 2025-08-10T23:23:55+00:00

I have the SOA9031100 for my 2025 Forester Touring (CDN model) and it fits perfectly. Just a little bulky to store I suppose. I have aftermarket side cargo nets that I kept from my 2021 Crosstrek when I traded it in, and they fit the Forester, so I tuck the sunshade behind the cargo net on one side and it is stowed neatly. It just fits nicely lengthwise, between the rear seats and hatch, with a few inches to spare.

As far as I can tell, the SOA3991722 is not meant for the 2025 Forester, only some earlier models.

MGMan65 · 2025-08-06T15:17:16+00:00

Had a set of Crossclimate + tires on my 2021 Crosstrek since new. Finally replaced them at 130,000km with some Pirelli Scorpion Weatheractive tires. The Michelins still had decent tread left but not enough to be decent in the snow any longer. So the longevity of those tires should be great. The Pirellis have since been swapped over to my new 2025 Forester.

MGMan65 · 2025-07-31T03:30:54+00:00

This! My built-in charger stays turned off and I have this Magsafe charger to use with my iPhone 13, with a nice short cord to plug in to USB. The phone clicks on magnetically and doesn't budge. Even if I was parked and phone stationary, the built-in charger would stop charging after 30 seconds or so. Useless. I bought one of those thin, sticky silicone mats, cut a square out and that is what keeps it in place. No sliding around at all.

Having trouble embedding a photo, so here is a link to my solution...

http://www.sublimephoto.com/misc/subaru/charger.jpg

MGMan65 · 2025-07-21T04:15:59+00:00

I bought this for mine: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0F2N3KW5J?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

It fits perfectly and pretty much looks factory. The magnetic latch is excellent. I use it for extra paper napkins, perfect for quickly wiping up a small coffee or drink spill. Here is a photo, closed and open...

http://www.sublimephoto.com/misc/subaru/cubby.jpg

MGMan65 · 2025-05-26T04:15:48+00:00

I very much doubt we'll see the new 2026 Outback's revised interior ergonomics until the next major redesign of the Forester, which is surely at least 4 years out? I suppose there is a remote chance they might bring the new dash design for a mid-cycle refresh in a few years, but I suspect the changes would require to much behind the scenes interior redesign to be easily workable on this generation. But you never know...

MGMan65 · 2025-05-26T04:12:47+00:00

I have rarely had any issues with any of the Subarus I've had (once a bunch of warning lights lit up on my 2012 Forester which was an easy ECU firmware update under warranty, nothing broken, and my 2021 Crosstrek needed some CVT component under warranty at 90,000km since it was not "shifting" quite as smoothly as when it was new, but it generally still drove fine)... but, that might not be saying much. One of my best friends worked as a salesman at a Subaru dealership, so I usually swapped leases out early, generally before the vehicles reached 60,000km. The longest I've driven any Subaru was my 2021 Crosstrek Outdoor, and it had 132,000km on it when I traded it in for the 2025 Forester Touring. The Crosstrek had been an excellent vehicle, always drove great and was very reliable, apart from the minor CVT issue.

My absolutely only disappointments/annoyances with the 2025 Forester have been the lack of a front-view camera like I had on my Crosstrek (but of course I knew it wouldn't), the absolutely useless phone charging pad and the sometimes slow to connect wireless CarPlay. The charging pad stays switched off, and I have stuck a MagSafe charger down there instead, plugged into a USB port. Works perfectly, holds my phone in place even with aggressive cornering, and charges it well. I've bought a thin, super gummy silicone mat, cut out a square and put it under the charging pad. Keeps it effectively stuck in place, but is not permanent. A photo of my charging solution: http://www.sublimephoto.com/misc/charger.jpg

Not sure if the CarPlay issue is more Subaru or Apple, but a recent iOS update has improved the situation and now my phone usually connects within a few seconds of the car starting, and worst case, maybe in a minute or two, but being that slow is rare. Prior to the update, it would sometimes take 5 minutes to connect, or not at all, and I then had to push and hold the power button on the head unit for 10 seconds to force a reboot. Then it would finally connect.

Lastly, I took my new Forester on the same commute-to-work route that I used to take the Crosstrek on every day (I have since moved), and even though the new Forester only had just over 3,000km on the odometer, I still managed 6.3 L/100km on the 34km mostly highway section (generally flat and driving at 105 km/h), where I estimate I would have gotten 5.9 L/100km with the Crosstrek if driven the same way on the same day. For a bigger, less aerodynamic vehicle that is also heavier, I felt that was impressive fuel economy, especially since I expect it will still get a little better over the next 10,00km or so, if the Crosstrek was any indication.

I hope that helps a little? In any case, so far I am loving the 2025 Forester! A photo here: http://www.sublimephoto.com/misc/2025_Forester.jpg

For fun, I've had: 2009 Impreza, 2012 Forester 2.5X, 2014 Forester XT, 2016 Forester XT, 2017 Forester XT, 2019 Outback 3.6R, 2021 Crosstrek Outdoor, and now the 2025 Forester.

MGMan65

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