NY TImes on Subaru, again

nice story. i didn't even need to register when I clicked your link. there's been a lot of office water cooler talk lately (i'm an env. lawyer) about subarus. seems that people are *finally* realizing the waste money/space/gas involved in suv ownership when you're single or married w/out kids, and are really looking at wagons, especially subaru.

Needed to use my registration and then remove the 20 cookies NYT added to Netscape. Not a good Subaru story as gonzo writer is writing about himself. One of these things where you see a Subaru driver next to you and they look like a wack job ;) Frank

My Life, My Subaru Outback XT As told to DANA WHITE

Published: April 22, 2005

As the child of hippies, I spent my formative years crisscrossing the U.S. in a converted school bus while my mother and stepfather shopped for a spiritual home. They eventually settled on Buddhism, which I now practice as well. Given my nomadic childhood, it's not surprising that I've spent the better part of my adult life searching for stability. In some ways I'm still searching, but at least I've found it in my car.

The Outback is my second Subaru. My first was a 2004 Impreza WRX, the souped-up version, but it was too small and looked too much like an economy car. I needed something bigger and, honestly, more adult. I wanted a little luxury - heated seats, a moon roof - and more room to haul my two dogs.

One day I took the Impreza in for service in Salt Lake City and spotted an Outback on the showroom floor. I liked what I saw. The new interior is much nicer than in the past; the 2005 resembles an Audi, only more affordable and more sensible. It has a 2.5-liter turbo engine, so it's fast; all-wheel-drive, so it's safe; and a huge moon roof that lets lots of sunshine in. If you can't have a convertible, it's the closest thing.

Contrary to popular perception, not all Buddhists are into self-denial. It's a question of desire. Shambhala Buddhists such as myself have no problem appreciating the finer things, as long as we don't get too attached to them. Of course, I'm quite attached to my Outback. I didn't say I was good at this stuff.

Subarus are a common sight around here. I live in a subdivision outside Park City, and I joke that the neighborhood regulations stipulate you must have at least one Subaru in the driveway. I lived in Washington, D.C., for several years, and saw plenty of people driving big S.U.V.'s that they absolutely did not need. You come out here to the mountains, where people know what they're doing, and they're driving Subarus and Volvo Cross Countries and Audi Allroads. We want a car that's not going to roll over and doesn't drink a lot of gas.

I've always been fascinated by cars, even if my earliest memories do take place in that school bus. When I was about 4, my mother and stepfather bought it from a school in Pittsburgh. They installed beds, a kitchen and a bathroom and painted it green and white. We called it the Turtle, though riding in it was like being in a boat on the open water.

We had many adventures. One time, when customs agents inspected our bus at the Canadian border, my parents asked me to sit on the bed to disguise the fact that there was pot stashed underneath. I'm not sure what happened to the bus; I think we left it at a commune somewhere.

Later, my parents got into Buddhism in Pennsylvania and followed their guru to Boulder, Colo. We lived in an A frame at 9,000 feet and later in a subdivision in Nederland. My stepfather was really into Audis - for hippies, they had pretty epicurean tastes - and my mom drove a succession of them until her divorce. We moved to Utah to be near her family and bought a boxy Subaru Loyale wagon. It was reliable but square.

I graduated from the University of Utah and got a job as a computer consultant in Washington, D.C.. I married a woman I'd met in Utah. We had an Acura and a Saab. After 9/11 we moved back to Utah. It was my idea - I wanted to be close to my family and to skiing. My wife and I were together for 10 years, but we finally admitted that while we love each other very much, we have some fundamental incompatibilities, and earlier this year we decided to move on. She kept the Saab.

The Outback was my gift to myself after the divorce. There were no negotiations. I got it in red, a color Julie would have never liked - she thinks red attracts the highway patrol. I also got a beige and white interior, which she would have considered completely impractical, especially in mud season.

Yet now that I've got a nice car and my own house and a good career, I wonder, especially with the Buddhist thing, have I settled down too much? Am I diverting too much energy into believing that all this is real? I'll have plenty of time to think about it this summer: I'm spending a month as a seminary student at the Shambhala Mountain Center, a Buddhist retreat in Colorado. Once I get there I'll park my Outback and forget about it. But I know it will be waiting.

Ugh. I stopped reading after "...honestly, more adult."