Faults:

It was a pile when it was given to me, by my brother in-law, for work done on a Honda Accord. Instead of money!?!

General Comments:

Bad tires, rear window broken, new plugs and wires, it runs like a top.

So I spent $125 and put new tires on it with a big screwdriver in my garage, figured it would eat them.

I set out to kill this car, drove it everywhere; pastures, corn fields during harvest, muddy minimum maintenance roads (wish it was 4WD).

My wife totaled it while I was out of town (not her fault; the insurance company told me it was total anyway. We agreed over the phone $1000 and I kept the car).

Three sheet metal screws, 1 new tire and a little solder on the radiator. IT'S ALIVE! Best car I've ever owned!

Just bought an '89 with the ECVT automatic trans, for $200, on the way home. We got noticed. This man had a 92 with a bad engine (don't believe it); $100 and I still have to go get it.

Do the math, I have less in all 3 cars than the insurance claim.

Anyone know how to become a Subaru dealer (I'm serious)?

Faults:

I replaced the clutch after we used it to pull a stump in the yard. Rather than tension it and set the brake, my wife slipped it. Not the cars fault. Also, the manual explicitly recommends against towing trailers with a Justy. I have. A lot. Heavy ones, too.

The interior hasn't held up well, but I ran seat covers from day one because I hate sitting on vinyl seats so it's not an issue.

The valve cover gasket starts leaking about every 20K miles.

I've replaced the muffler twice. I just used a universal replacement muffler and adapters after the flange. No problems.

General Comments:

I bought this car new when I rolled my 89 Justy end over end. It had about 130K miles on it. The door mounted seatbelt did their job and I walked away with little more than sore muscles.

The mileage is pretty good. It still gets about 33-35 around town. My best tank was 40mpg on a controlled 55mph run. It also does better on Premium than regular as far as the mileage goes.

This car has done anything and everything I've ever asked it to. I've pulled a trailer with the lumber to build a 12 x 16' shed and a 12 x 20' deck, a 14' boat, a Triumph Spitfire, a stump (with subsequent clutch replacement). I've hauled ladders strapped on top, a 5' desk inside. Pretty much abused it in every way imaginable and it keeps coming back for more.

It has more pep than one would expect. It actually seems to prefer 75mph to 45 mph. It does get a little twitchy when you approach 100mph though.

A little more cabin space, esp legroom would be nice, but if they still brought them into the US I would probably buy another.

My Justy is a 2 wheel drive, but that hasn't been much of a handicap in the snow. I went up the mountain to my brothers in the snow one day and had more trouble with stuck trucks blocking I-26 than traction. I ran out of steam on Saluda grade in one particularly steep section and just spun around and took another run at it.

Faults:

Keep in mind that I wasn't exactly gentle with this vehicle.

Had to replace the spark plug wires and spark plugs around 45,000 miles.

Had to get new tires around 47,000 miles. The tires are incredible hard to find. I believe they were 13s and might have had some other unique measurement for width or something.

Engine started smoking around 65,000 miles. I had to replace the valve cover gasket. After that it was fine for a while, but began smoking again about 10,000 miles later.

Had to replace the spark plug wires again at around 60,000 miles.

At 91,000 miles the clutch died. The whole death process only took about a week. The vehicle would only be worth around $250 but the replacement clutch would cost $900 so I let the Justy go to that junkyard in the sky.

General Comments:

I was really hard on this vehicle since it was the first vehicle I owned. I am amazed it lasted as long as it did. Three people learned to drive stick on this vehicle as well so that clutch had some beatings.

The vehicle had a surprising amount of power for only being a 3 cylinder. When more people were riding with me the horsepower did go down quite a bit.

It handled better then any other car I have driven in the snow. The ability to switch it into 4 wheel drive was excellent along with its narrow tires.

It had excellent gas mileage of course.

It isn't very comfortable, but it was very reliable, had excellent gas mileage.

You could probably pick one up for much less than $1,000 and it would be fairly reliable and excellent in the snow.