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Experience with Subaru's

Here is our experience with Subaru's

Wife drives a 2000 Outback wagon 4-cyl automatic trans. awd (made in Indiana). It has almost 60,000 miles -- no problems since day 1 other than a single bad spark plug at around 39,000 miles. Car has had no other repairs other than normal maintenance.

Our son drives a 1995 Legacy wagon 4 cyl- automatic trans. awd (made in Japan). It has over 130,000 miles -- did have some problems with lights for heater control panel and radio display, but engine and trasmission totally without problems. I replaced front CV joints around 125,000 miles before I gave the car to my son.

I currently am driving a 1992 Subaru SVX 6-cyl (230 hp) automatic trans. (made in Japan). Bought it used last summer with 135,000 miles. It is a fun car and engine and transmission are great. I have replaced wheel bearings and CV's joints, but previous owner was young guy who put on almost 60,000 miles in a little over two years, so I think the car was driven hard.

Also owned an 85 Subaru GL wagon 4-cyl FWD manual trans. that I put over 100,000 miles on over 9 years with no real problems other than the clutch needed to be replaced twice.

I drove the 95 Legacy wagon for first 125,000 miles and it handled slighty better than my wife's Outback (even with new Dunlop performance tires on the Outback). The Outback has higher ground clearance compared to Legacy and thus I would definitely recommend a Legacy over an Outback to anyone who enjoys taking the twisties at higher speeds.

I am sold on Subaru's -- like any car they will need some repairs, but for the money, you can't match the security of AWD, safety, good fuel economy (compared to other 4-wheel drive or all-wheel-drive vehicles), reliability (check Consumer Reports -- almost all Subaru's built in the last 5 to 10 years are on their lists of recommended used cars) and they feel solid and are fun to drive.

An Indiana Subie fan.

Reply to
worzacct
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Ditto. How have you delt with the heater/radio light problem? The light behind the heater buttons lights up sporatically - sometimes pushing a button brings it back on, sometimes not.

Reply to
Dominic Richens

Luckily I has paid for the 100,000 miles (or 6 years) bumper to bumper warranty when I bought the 95 Legacy, so the dealer took care of these light problems at no cost under the extended warranty.

When I puchased the car new back in fall of '94, I had narrowed my choices to the Legacy wagon or a Honda Accord wagon (Honda was still selling Accord wagons back then). The Honda dealer wanted $1000 more for the Accord wagon and it had consideralbly less cargo space behind the rear seat and no AWD of course. So I decided to buy the Legacy and pay an extra $600 back then for the no-deductible 100,000 mile warranty. (I had no previous experience with AWD and kenw that repairs on the AWD could be expensive.) Thus I got the Legacy wagon with AWD and more room and still saved about $400. By the way the last time I checked re-sale values the 95 Legacy was worth about $1000 more than a 95 Accord wagon with the same mileage. So I definitely came out ahead with the Subaru and now I have a hard time considering a vehicle without AWD.

Reply to
worzacct

How are repairs on AWD compared to other autos. I am currently looking at the Subaru Outback and have been wondering about repair costs?

Conrad

in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net at snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net wrote on 1/31/04 1:03 PM:

Reply to
Conrad Fox

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