Faults:

I got less than 35k miles out of the OEM tires.

I have had a rear wheel bearing go bad at 97k miles.

Check Engine light has come on 3 times since I owned it. Once for a bad sensor. Two times I was told it was a loose gas cap. The cap was tight.

General Comments:

I have been very pleased with the overall performance of this car so far. In reading some of the bad reviews from this site, I would have expected a lot more problems than I have seen.

I have kept up with the scheduled maintenance and so far have had only a few problems. Nothing unexpected with over 100k miles on the car. I am hoping to get another 100k out of it.

My last car, 1988 Mazda 626, had 170k miles when I go gave it to a relative. They drove it for 2 years before selling it. I had to replace an alternator and a transmission on this car. The trans was at 94k miles at a cost of $2,400.00 (1994 pricing). So only having one wheel bearing go on the Forester is not so bad.

Faults:

Wheel bearings went out at 4 times between 30,000 and 90,000.

General Comments:

Very dependable car, except for the wheel bearing problem. We will never purchase another Subaru.

Faults:

Poor paint quality was the first thing I noticed.

Poor tire wear quality even after appropriate rotations, balancing and alignments.

Check engine light constant until I had to change a block sensor in the gas tank. Nobody except Subaru knew what that was, but was a very high-priced item.

Road noises coming from rear after speed balance and rotation. Turns out wheel bearing needs to be replaced at 57,000 miles. Seems I'm the lucky one compared to other posts.

Brakes wear out faster than any car I've ever driven. This is another high-priced item.

General Comments:

I drove a Honda Accord LXI for 11 years and outside of normal wear and tear spent less than 2,000 in maintenance in 11 years. I only purchased the Subaru because I was tired of the color of my Honda and I wanted a mini-SUV. The Forester had great safety reviews, which was a major concern.

Very unusual and high-priced maintenance on this car makes me want to dump it. Every time I take it in to the dealer, I can't get out with less than $500 in repairs. For a 6-year old car with 57,000 miles, I've had it.

The best thing I can say about this car... it handles great in the snow.

Faults:

The list is long.

The rear brake pads have had to be replaced every 50,000km.

Both head gaskets started to knock at 60,000km, I was told it was a loose heat shield and a that few rocks had gotten underneath the shield. At 125000km the engine blew and the block cracked, the entire engine had to be replaced which of course was not covered by warranty. A portion was good willed.

While they were fixing the engine the drive shaft fell apart, so that too had to be replaced.

Right driver's wheel bearing went, $600.00.

Fuel line and coil were next, 2000km later, $800.00.

There are 150,000km on my car at current, in the past 25,000km I have spent over $5000.00 on breakdown repairs (and that is with good will). It would have been well over $10,000 without the good will, never mind the money spent on preventative maintenance which I won't get into.

General Comments:

Winter driving is a dream, add 4 snow tires and you are off!

Overall the car handles well in all weather conditions, if you can get over the fear that it might blow up on you.

Put additional money away for roadside assistance because you're going to need it.

The dealership service department in my experience is fantastic, so good that with all the breakdowns and unnecessary repairs I still take it to them.