1984 Subaru GL -10 from North America - Comments

Well, what can I say. This car has been nothing, but a headache and a money pit.

Nov 18th (210,000km) -bought car.

Dec (212,000km) -Car would not accelerate and lost power going up hills. Losing antifreeze, gaining oil??? Replaced transmission modulator chip. ($600)

Jan (214,000km) -Dead of winter, car takes 1/2hr to warm up and if you let it go for 31min. coolant spills out everywhere. There's no overflow tank for coolant. Neither cooling fan is working. I, concocted a pop bottle to use as a overflow bottle and then replaced both fans. ($450). Driver's side window will no longer roll down, didn't fix that-instead I just go through drive-thrus back wards.

Feb (216,000km) -Car will not keep heat and stalls at every red light or when I turn a corner. Figured out I must keep RPMs up at all times and make sure I have 3 bars of heat before moving it. Placed cardboard in the front grille to try to keep heat. Also, radio will not switch stations sometimes.

Mar (218,000km) - Fan belts blew. Brand new from Jan. ($150)

Apr (221,000km) - Car starts smoking out of hood. My oil leak has now become the river Nile flowing down my drive way. Replaced all seals and head gasket. ($1500)

May (224,000km) - Radio is completely in-operable and stuck on a country station.

June (228,000km) - A distinct squealing coming from my back end. Brakes, boots, shocks, etc. (I can't even remember it all) replaced for all four tires. ($1100)

July (231,000km) - I can hear a clunking in my back end ever time I step on the brakes when backing up, I think to myself "self, I'll fix it next month".

Which takes me to now...

Aug (235,000km) - Car is sitting in my drive way and not about to move anytime soon. The CV joint on the drivers right front side has cracked completely and I can only make left handed turns. Cost for this repair... $1000. I can't justify this hunk of junk anymore. Yesterday I went and bought myself a new vehicle. It's called a bus pass.

This is a very expensive and time consuming car to fix, all parts must be brought in.

Unreliable.

Good on gas, when you can afford it after all the repairs you've got done.

Good gosh! The car is 21 years old, it's unreliable because it's worn out!

It is however, old enough to vote and drink!

Oh for crying out loud, this thing is obviously only fit for scrap and most of the fixes you've tried sound like ill-informed guesses. For instance, why replace the transmission modulator when the oil in the coolant / overheating means you've obviously blown a head gasket?

I'm sorry I can't honestly believe your survey of this vehicle. Because I cannot see anyone spending $3,800 on a car that already had 200,000km on it and a point when its blue book value had reached near scrap value.

Also all your fixes as a previous comment says sound like ill informed guesses, you obviously had a blown head gasket, what would the transmission modulator have to do with the the cooling system.

The thermostat was probably stuck open leading to the long warmups and cold stalls. And the fans probably had their hookup connectors corroded and where perfectly fine just no longer getting current (common problem).

I recently picked up an '84 GL wagon off EBay for $300. It wouldn't pass Va. inspection due to rust & exhaust issues. However, I live in an area where inspections aren't required, so I didn't hesitate to buy it. It's got exceptionally high miles, but seems to run great, and still gets 26-28 mpg. A/C blows cold too!

The only downside is that it isn't a turbo model, so the already small engine seems soooooooo sluggish. I definately wouldn't consider pulling out in front of anyone. Is there any way to add a turbo unit to the existing engine?

I'm not complaining whatsoever about the car overall. For the price I paid, it was an incredible deal. With a little "TLC", I strongly feel that I'll get another 75k-100k out of it before it's completely junked.

I have a 84 Subaru. It has 154,000 miles. The car is rusted to hell. But never has let me down. I drive this thing every where. The 4x4 works great. I have 4 wheeled this thing many times. and it always comes home in one piece. The engine has pretty much no power. But that's expected with an engine that puts out 69 horse power. But if you keep it wound up it will go up any hill. I think this car will last me another 5 years with out any repairs. I haven't done one repair to this car. It is loud, because there is no muffler, but, I love it.

8 months ago I bought an 84 Subaru GL wagon for $150. It had 334000 miles on it.

Now after replacing a control arm (my fault) it has 358000 miles on it. The damn thing doesn't seem to want to break.

I love this car and I beat the crap out of it. It feels great and always is there for me when I want to go home. It has never left me stranded.

Yeah, there have been small things like when you said your fans quit working, so did mine, but for me I actually investigated instead of taking it to a shop, and luckily it was a fuse and one of the turn signal bulbs went out, but that's about it.

I love this car and I'm sorry you don't like yours, but please don't turn other people away from them just because you don't like yours.

"I love this car and I'm sorry you don't like yours, but please don't turn other people away from them just because you don't like yours."

So what's he supposed to do? Lie about his experience with the car so the car won't get it's feelings hurt. Screw that. Tell the truth, which the guy did. The other positive comments on this site provide plenty of defense for the GL's reputation and I'm sure that they are generally good cars, but to ask the guy who had a lemon to be nice about it is ridiculous. Sorry, this isn't meant as an attack. Just instruction on how open forums are supposed to work.

I bought a 1984 GL from the owner who was stuck with a blown head gasket and had to have the vehicle removed from her apartment parking lot. The vehicle had 100,115 miles on the clock and that was 1999. I bought a salvage engine from a Brat. I am an experienced shade tree mechanic, but I did have a dreadful time with the clutch and pressure plate which I decided to purchase (for reasons of cost) from a local clutch/friction re-builder. I should have gone to the Subaru dealer or at least done some research. Be warned, there are several different production changes on the clutch assembly; the unit I installed destroyed the input shaft to the gearbox and I had to replace the gearbox. Luckily, the salvage dealer took pity on me and gave me a very good price for the gearbox, and the clutch re-builder gave me some minor consideration. The car is an underpowered toad, especially by today's highway gran prix standards. On the plus side, it is economical to run, tires are cheap, good mileage, and I have done virtually no maintenance in the last 8+ years. I am now going to have to replace the front CV joints, do a brake job all around and do some cosmetic and electrical work. The only very expensive parts seem to be the rear brake drums and if I do need new items, I will search e-bay. I have no complaints with the vehicle. Understand that I did replace the original Hitachi (?) carburettor with a Weber DGV. My original investment including the car, new tires, the carb, the engine, gearbox, and sundries came to about $600. I do not consider that bad for a car that has given good service for 8 years. I use it strictly as a spare vehicle for use when my or my wife's car is in the shop, etc. I have not put but about 35,000 additional miles on the car.

Hello all, I am the original poster of that ad 4 years ago now. Guess what... I still have the car, though not running LOL. Just as one of the first comments said "what should I expect, the car was old enough to drink and smoke", I totally agree. It may have been quite something in its day, but not when I got a hold of it unfortunately.

As well, many comments stated that the fixes were "ill-informed guesses", I will have to let the Subaru Dealerships know this as it was taken ONLY to ACTUAL Subaru Dealerships... if "ill-informed guesses" is all that can be said about Subaru's mechanical aptitude, then absolutely nobody should be purchasing a Subaru.

Anyway, it was my first car, it taught me a very valuable lesson... don't buy anything that was created in the same decade you were LOL.

To those considering 1984 Subies and older: I've had both the 1977 wagon and the 1984 GL wagon. Both are excellent cars. The big difference between the two was where I got them from. The 77 I bought from Craigslist and the 84 I bought from a Subaru mechanic. Guess which ran better.

The old Subaru's are meant to last if treated well. My advice for those looking to get an old Subie is to have it checked-out by someone who specializes in them. Even if you take it to a Subaru dealership, you may find that many technicians from the older Subie days are retired.

Another caution is to be sure you can get repair and replacement parts. I found slim pickins for parts for the 77 wagon. By 1984, Subaru had ingratiated itself into the American market, so much more parts are available.

I've heard the '84 called the Golden Years of the American Subaru. (Which is right before the major changes in the models came in 1985 -- the super-boxy GL that everyone complains about.) Find a Subaru-head (like in gearhead) to check out any older one you're fixing to consider. These are the same kinds of folks that would have been into "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Volkswagen" during the late 70s and early-mid 80s glory days of the VW bus and bug. The dude who wrote that book wrote one for the early Subarus. (Those early Subarus have the same engine design, btw.)