Maybe I can offer a little perspective. I ordered a Limited and threw everything on it. My order was the first at the dealer and it was a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to put it together. I was ambivalent about the navigation, but I did not see much in savings if that could be deleted. Last year I purchased a new motor home. I could not find one optioned out to suit me, so I ordered one and added the desired options. I wanted the standard ($0.00) Pioneer radio in the dash. It was an excellent head unit with good radio reception, connectivity to the rear camera and to my phone which I use for navigation. No one has ever seen this RV without the top of the line in-dash unit with all the features. The process for getting the standard unit was wearing me down so I said, "OK, just go with what you have." It turned out to be a really great $2,665 rearview mirror (sarcasm). Apparently, Winnebago went all-in on this custom designed thing and put it in everything that rolled out of the factory. I have a belief that if you try to build something that tries to do everything, it will fail to do anything in an exceptional way. At some point one of the functions will fail completely and affect the operation of the unit as a whole. While I still think it is overpriced for what it is, I have gotten used to what it can do. One key thing is the navigation. When I am flying down the interstate at 80MPH trying to keep 6 tons of house on wheels going in the right direction, having the 9" touch screen Rand McNally navigation system is an asset. While I prefer my iPhone with Google Maps and Waze, there are times when it zones out and the built-in navigation tells me where I am and how to get to my next destination. Fiddling with a smartphone while driving is dangerous and now most everywhere, illegal. What I have learned from 4,500 miles in the motor home is how to use both the built-in nav and my iPhone effectively. I am curious to see how Android and iOS works when connected to the new Subaru. I have a feeling that out of convenience, I may use the built-in navigation more than originally thought. That being said, after years of observing navigation by smartphone, stand alone GPS and built-in systems, when you hear "Turn Right", you are now stuck on the mainline railroad tracks and the Amtrak is so close that you only have time to get out and watch your car reduced to a ball of crumpled metal and cracked plastic.
Before going down to order the car, I was thinking about that ad jingle Burger King ran some years ago. "Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us." Imagine if all Subaru cars started out as a standard model and then you added options a la carte. You would end up spending more and the cars would just trickle out of the factory. The most expedient way is to offer four models with available option packages and hope each car comes out close enough to how the customer wants it. When I first asked if it was possible to just get the moonroof option, the sales guy said that it can't be ordered that way, but they know of places that do aftermarket installations. That idea made my blood run cold. Yeah, I am going to spend north of 40 Gs and have some dude chop a hole in the roof. Right; in a place where it rains seemingly all the time. Then, I thought he was just making this crap up to dissuade me from deviating from the normal option package. Mission accomplished, sign me up for option code 23.
