2010 Outback Sport

You mean the Impreza Outback Sport?

These are very nice cars.

I've never seen an Impreza Outback Sport that would not be well cared for by its owner. Never!

They may be a bit more expensive but age extremely well. I guess because they're somewhat scarce to begin with and people don't sell them later on. There is never a flood of used models for sale in 5-6 years, like with the Civics, and Corollas, which is good. You can keep driving it for years without an image problem.

If your going to be towing or driving in moutainous terrain, or just plan on keeping it for a long time don't hesitate to have a transmission cooler installed as soon as possible. Its the best 200$ bucks spent, ...ever! Takes the heat off of the transmission, indirectly also off of the engine and the front differential.

Quality wise I think the Tribeca and Impreza are the best Subaru products, but they're all good cars.

Coming from Toyota, learn to monitor the tire pressure so it does not deviate between tires, and rotate them frequently. AWD's are sensitive here.

I like to do an early oil change at 500-1000 miles, but that's me.

Basia

I did. Sorry for the omission.

As do I, but I had two dealerships tell me not to do the first change until 3,000. Hmm.

I drove an Outback Sport for 7 years, a 1998 model. It had the 2.2 L 4 cylinder boxer engine and automatic transmission, probably as close to what you're getting as was available in 1998.

Unfortunately in 2007 it was in an accident that totaled it at 165K miles, but my insurance company (State Farm) after examining it paid me almost $1,000 more than the Kelly Blue Book value for this model and year of car at that mileage in "Good" condition. The reason they gave is that the engine and transmission were both in such fine shape that the car appeared to have half or less the miles on it that it actually did.

I'm of the school of Subaru owners who believes in driving them hard (offroad) and keeping them in good shape. However, meticulous maintenance only gets you so far -- a car in that condition after over

150K miles was a very well designed and solidly built car to start with. Everything that I have read, seen and experienced since then suggests that Subaru quality has gone up, not down, in the intervening years.

I expect that you will get many years of use out of your new Subaru. I just hope that you treat it like a Subaru and take it offroad or "on bad road" and let it show you what it can do. :-)

I can't speak to the 2010 model, but I thik you'll be happy....

My wife's car is a '97 "OBS", owned since '02; and it's one of the most reliable cars she's been seated in. It's at 175 K miles now, and she 's willing to keep it 'till it dies big-time"

PS: in this newsgroup "alt.autos.subaru"; we do have a shorthand

OBS = Outback Sport or "Impreza Outback" (the little one) OBW = Full-size (Legacy-based) Outback Wagon" Put an "L" in there and it's a "Limited" (higher end package; leather etc).

s mentioned by others, make certain you understand how to protect the AWD system when replacing tires, having the car towed, etc. Subarus are not immune to typical problems of all cars. But they are well designed for the most part and safe.

Shoot, I lost faith in their quality in 1999, but that was because of what I saw in US made models.

You bet when I buy a Toyota the first letter in the VIN is a "J".

Me too, but I go ~1500. But, that goes back to the Old Days; now engines are broken in better at the factory and tighter manufacturing tolerances don't really reqwuire it anymore.

But I still do it anyway! ;)

As were all of ours. :-)

Wow. All the J VIN Yotas I've had have been high mileage, high reliability. THe few times I drove a "4" VIN, I had odd problems.

What is the first character in your Soob, although it appears to make less of a difference than on Toyotas...

The newest Toyota we had was a '98 Camry. A J model which never failed us at all.

The OS has a J vin. Do they make any of them here?

Interesting. I know Legacys have been built in (Illinois?) for a LONG time, but it seems to me most of the Imprezzas I have looked at are J vins.

The way I see it, there is a REASON I buy Japanese cars, and I want it to be made in Japan, dammit! The few US Camrys I have driven more than just in passing have had some kind of niggling little problem, like the power window going down, getting c*ck-eyed and jamming or such BS. When I wanted a new car I bought a Scion tC, 1 because it is a nifty little hatchback, and 2 because they are all made in Japan.

OTOH, I had an Ohio built '88 Accord I bought new; my wife kept it after the divorce and racked up 220,000 trouble-free miles on it.

Consumer Reports has often reported little difference between domestic assembled japanese cars vs japanese imports. Also, at one time, the most efficient engine plant Toyota had was in california. My US-assembled OBW doens't seem any better or worse than my 'J' WRX Sportwagon.

So far anyway.