LOYALE SAFETY

I had a '90 Loyale for some years, and weathered one moderately severe accident well. The car is fairly tough, handles well. Mine was a sedan, had plenty of trunk space and got decent gas mileage.

The Loyales are not Subaru's best car, though, to put it mildly. The

2WD models had no real advantage over any middle-of-the-road 2WD sedan or wagon. The 4WD models were at least Subarus , but they suffered from lack of power (engine was rated at 1.8 liter/87 HP), boring design, limited features, and (worst) engine problems. Mine required about $2,500 worth of engine work at around 110,000 miles to fix broken/deteriorating valve lifters and head gasket stuff. I'm a farenatic about regular oil changes and regular maintenance (anyone who drives off-road where AAA doesn't come had better be careful about that) and had owned the car since it was at 7K miles, so I'm pretty sure nothing I did or didn't do led to the problem.

Perhaps some of those problems were fixed by 1993, but I'd take a good, HARD look at this deal and see whether you might not do better for yourself with a different car.

That's rather sad, because the predecessors to the Loyale, the 1980s-era Subaru GL line, was an excellent car. I drove one for years (my first Subaru, first car after college), took it into the Canadian Northwest Territories and Yukon once for a memorable road trip, took it onto sandy beaches, dunes, jeep trails in National forests, the works. It came through like a champ. I had to rebuild the automatic transmission at

130,000 miles, as did other owners who had automatics, but that was really the only weak point on these cars. Most owners got the stick shifts, which were rumored to be indestructable.

I finally replaced it only because a drunk plowed into it while parked by a road at 2:30 AM one morning. :( Otherwise, I'd probably still have it, possibly with a new engine by now. ;)

After my husband was in an accident with my 1998 Subaru Outback Sport a couple of months ago and it was totalled (the usual end for this car; they don't break), we had to go car shopping. I saw a bunch of older, high-mileage Subarus still available, some of them quite cheap. I decided to get a newer car rather than putting my money into rebuilding an engine and fixing problems to get a reliable vehicle, but you appear to have picked the second route. :) So why not take a look at some of the other, better Subarus?

I had a '90 Loyale and someone backed into it, slowly, and basically totaled it. They just aren't worth much, and knocking out both headlights and bending the hood was enough to make the repair more than the car was worth. Loved the car, however, and found a mechanic who fixed it off the record.

As for crashes, they have no safety equipment like newer cars, and they are very lightweight, but it seems the safety is in the fact that they are very crushable. Subarus have always been known as "safe" cars, and I would think if you got hit the body would soak up most of the impact, which is good in a crash. Wouldn't want to get T-boned by a Hummer or big SUV, however.