Carl,
Methinks Dr. Rasty got the ONE good unit Ford produced that year... my sister, sister-in-law, and several other acquaintances have or have had Explorers over the last 10 years, varying years amongst them. They have registered NO complaints on the Internet about them. Probably cuz the Ford dealers, where they spend SO MUCH of both their time AND money, don't provide Internet access in the customer waiting areas. But in defense of the Explorers, nobody I know has rolled theirs over with a blowout. Yet...
No car's perfect. Dr. Rasty doesn't even own a Subie, so I fail to understand what axe he has to grind here, but even if every single one of us who posts here had ALL the problems he mentions, in the grand scheme of things, considering even that the total number of Subies sold is minuscule compared to Toyota Camries or Ford Explorers or other popular makes, we'd hardly prove the marque unreliable.
Of the various people I've known personally who've had Subies, the one who just hit 150k miles on his is the lowest mileage owner. Many have/had over 200k, mine has 360k (that's miles, not kilometres, and, don't forget, it blew up last week and even Dr. Rasty couldn't say anything bad about the miles it's gone!) I think you'd be hard pressed to find many Explorer owners with that kind of mileage. I don't think I know anyone who could stand one that long (F-series owners being the only Ford owners I know who stick with their vehicles until some big numbers show on the clock. Well, if their ignition switches don't burn them up?) So even though my inputs are strictly anecdotal, I think the rants from a non-owner are unwarranted.
Rick