1996 Subaru Legacy Brighton review from North America

The Subaru has been extremely reliable (just the recommended maintenance -- even with a teenager learning to drive on it, and taking a while to get the feel of shifting gears) until yesterday. I noticed an odd noise and slight loss of power at highway speeds. When I brought it in to the dealer, they spotted a leaking head gasket and a bad wheel bearing. They said the wheel bearing needed immediate replacement, and that the head gasket could wait, but probably shouldn't (they were really good about stating all the options). I decided to do all the repairs at once (apparently when they have the engine out for the head gasket repair, it's very easy to do a fair amount of other stuff).

Overall, I'm slightly disappointed -- I didn't get these very expensive repairs on my Toyota until 200,000 miles -- but if the repairs make the car last another 3-5 years, I will have gotten my money's worth (I bought it new for $16,000 in 1996 and it's now fall 2007)

Handles really well on the highway. I lived in Montana when we had no numerical speed limits -- and on dry pavement, during the day, it would behave beautifully on long (ca. 700 mile) drives at 90-95 mph. Generally, it's a very good highway car. The suspension is a bit soft/sloppy for dirt and gravel roads (especially washboarded ones -- I preferred my Toyota which was built on a light truck body). But I'd strongly recommend it if you do a lot of long distance driving. It's also quite roomy -- I can carry a 6 foot bookcase and still close the back -- and very stable in high winds, even with a canoe on top.

The AWD isn't as good on snow and ice as true 4WD -- but if driven conservatively, is adequate (better than front wheel).