Faults:

The beeper for unlocking the doors died at around 30000km.

The paint is not very resistant to stone chips.

The rear left bearing started to make some noise about two weeks ago.

General Comments:

The car handles quite well espacially now that I've installed a bigger rear anti-roll bar.

The engine strains a bit to pull the car because this is a heavy car for its size. You got to drive very carefully to keep the fuel consumption down.

The interior is a bit small to use as a family car and the plastics are easily scratched.

I haven't had too much troubles with it, but I'm a bit nervous because my father has a 2004 2.5TS and he's had a bunch of problems with it (replaced the engine, replaced the rear brakes at 50000 km, the paint is chipped to an unacceptable level for a 3 year old car and the exhaust system will have to be replaced soon).

I've tried three different dealers, and they all have very ordinary service. They don't make the owning experience nice.

Faults:

Body/paint are not the highest quality - they show wear somewhat easily.

General Comments:

This is a generally well-built, reliable car that is a lot of fun to drive and offers a lot for the asking price. That said, the dealer service is extremely expensive and has not been 100% honest. In addition, the operating costs are high. Gas mileage is not good; I know that the car is all-wheel drive, but I have found the fuel economy to be quite poor in city driving. In today's energy crisis, Subaru should be doing more to improve this. In addition, the car was hit at low speed while parked and was seriously damaged. This raised some questions in my mind about body integrity. My first two cars were Volvo 240s. One time I was rear-ended in one of the 240s, and there was positively no body damage. This is not so much Subaru's fault; I think that the construction of many of today's cars is questionable, particularly the bumpers.

Faults:

First problem is the car doesn't like to go into reverse a lot of the time. Have to put car in neutral let clutch out, then push clutch in and try again. Usually works, but very frustrating. I always wonder in the back of my mind what would happen if I needed to reverse quickly to avoid an accident and couldn't get it into reverse! Dealership tells me that this is normal operating behaviour.

Second problem. Got stuck in some major stop and go traffic, starting smelling terrible hot metal / hot rubber smell. Once out of stop and go, smell disappeared. Took to dealership, was told it was the clutch getting too hot and is also apparently normal operating behaviour as well.

Third problem. When taking off in first gear, after car had started moving and is past point of stalling because of lack of gas, the car makes a shuttering movement - like it's going to stall. Best way to describe is - feels like you're taking off in second gear and not giving enough gas. Haven't ventured to the dealership to try and explain this problem yet, but dreading that I'll get the "normal operating behaviour" line again.

General Comments:

Overall, despite all of our problems, I love my car. Sporty and lots of fun to drive - when it's working properly. Sick to say, but I'd buy another despite the nightmares I've encountered with this one.

Has anybody else had any of these problems or did I get a lemon?

J