Subaru Problems

I can only guess at Subaru's thinking, but in all likelihood the company made a commercial decision that it wasn't something that would concern owners and that correcting it didn't warrant whatever investment they would have to make to fix something they clearly didn't believe was a problem. Some cars do tramline, that is to follow the road surface, when fitted with low-profile tyres and sporting suspension settings. What your experience shows is that we have a resourceful aftermarket industry that's capable of fixing problems that carmakers either can't or don't want to fix.

The Brumby had a four-speed manual right to the end. It's possible someone has fitted a five-speed to improve highway performance, but it would have been a private conversion.