[allenfinne]

Took delivery unexpectedly Wednesday, got a a call mid afternoon, "Hey, your Solterra is in, you still interested?" I had originally ordered a premium back in the early spring. The GM of my dealership (Subaru of Little Rock) made that call within an hour or two of two Solterras being delivered. Sealed the deal 4 hours later and drove it home that evening with only 90 mile range. The dealership having had no real time to top off charge between arrival and taking to shop to detail for delivery. I ended up with the second car of the two, a limited, as the person that had ordered it passed on it. I liked the overall option package. Both were Harbor Mist with VINs last digits in the 7xxx range. Plate on door indicates 5/22 manufacturing date. Traded in a well kept '12 Impreza.

First impressions after a couple days. Overall, I love it. Feels solid on the road, handles well. Fit and finish are great. Gets up and moves when I need it to. Had a guy in an old beater try to merge into me from an on ramp on the interstate yesterday (what us it about a new car that says OPEN SEASON let's rumble?) No room to go left onto next lane, guy immediately behind me so no good option to brake hard. Room ahead, so tapped accelerator and got out of the tight easily. My biggest gripe so far, can't quite find a driver seat comfortable spot that lets me see heads up display and feel I am not perched on a stool and a very very quirky, may or may not, link up iPhone to multimedia experience. The first, I'll find a spot- the second not a deal killer but over time not a happy place for me. I take a lot of work calls in my car and grew very used to my Impreza hands free just working. At 2 1/2x the price of my Impreza when new, the hands free and multimedia should just work. That said, overall I am very pleased with the purchase.

 

[BinPNW]

Thanks for the review! For the iPhone linkup, were you trying wireless or wired?

 

[n6nl]

And were you simply doing Bluetooth or were you using CarPlay.

Latest hints for Wireless Apple CarPlay: once configured, I walk up, open the car, climb in, press brake and touch power, put on my seatbelt, look over to the display and wait for it to get to where it says “Welcome, YOUR NAME” on a pop-up (30 seconds or so), only then press brake and shift into Drive or Reverse.

 

[poodlemaster]

And were you simply doing Bluetooth or were you using CarPlay.

Latest hints for Wireless Apple CarPlay: once configured, I walk up, open the car, climb in, press brake and touch power, put on my seatbelt, look over to the display and wait for it to get to where it says “Welcome, YOUR NAME” on a pop-up (30 seconds or so), only then press brake and shift into Drive or Reverse.

OK. I walk up open the door, climb in touch the brake and press power. I wait for nothing and am halfway down my drive by the time your name will have popped up.

 

[allenfinne]

And were you simply doing Bluetooth or were you using CarPlay.

Latest hints for Wireless Apple CarPlay: once configured, I walk up, open the car, climb in, press brake and touch power, put on my seatbelt, look over to the display and wait for it to get to where it says “Welcome, YOUR NAME” on a pop-up (30 seconds or so), only then press brake and shift into Drive or Reverse.

OK- I think I have made good progress.

1- Deleted my phone profile in the car.
2- On my iPhone, forgot "Solterra" under bluetooth devices & power cycled the phone for good measure.
3- Hooked iPhone up via wired usb, powered the car, waited a moment, a short time Apple Carplay popped up on the infotainment display, iPhone prompted me at the same time that a new Carplay device was found.
4- After another moment was prompted if I wished to connect wirelessly or usb only, to which I chose wirelessly.
5- Tested playing music from my phone, my phone contacts were present, made and received calls. Turned car off.
6- Upon turning car back on, infotainment system boots and a moment later Carplay connects, Powered down car and repeated cycle multiple times and it worked every time with an occasional prompt from infotainment system default profile not loaded. If I "dismiss " it, a few seconds later Carplay pops up.
7- One last time to confirm from a cold start all still worked, power cycled the car and my phone. Powered the car, Carplay connected.

Over the last day or two I had tried deleting the profile, forgetting the car under bluetooth on the phone and not had any luck. The difference this time was rather that trying to connect the first time while setting up via Bluetooth as my salesperson had done with me the day I picked up the car, I tried connecting it via wired USB the first time Interesting observation- under bluetooth devices "Solterra" shows up, but shows not connected. Wired USB is not connected either, but Carplay works, a bit of a head scratcher. But for now I'll take the win.

BTW, I assume N6NL is your call, 73 de W5SQK

 

[n6nl]

One of the reasons I think that CarPlay doesn't always connect properly is that if your iPhone is in range of, and connected to another WiFi system (like your home) and you put the vehicle in D or R before the entertainment center finishes booting and CarPlay handoff, the system won't look again for the phone until you put the car back in park. At least that seems to match up with what the symptoms are.

At the dealership, CarPlay was the easy part.

The Solterra app, which I had already installed, read the QR code fine from the entertainment system display, but required multiple "kill task" actions against it in order to get through the four or so main steps where you are allowing/signing up for/whatever the 30 day hotspot, 3 year trials, etc.

Luckily, by killing the app and restarting it, and having it re-send the authorizations a couple of times, we managed to get it all working for me.

Frustrating a bit, but eventually working.

Hey does anyone know what happened to the part of the app where you can remotely park the car (over Bluetooth) while standing next to it? The demo has the person spinning their finger on the control on their phone screen to slowly move the car in or out of a tight space.

I guess that isn't enabled in the US version of the app.

See "Remote Park", starting at 0:30 in this video:

"73"