2005 Subaru Impreza Outback Special Edition review from North America

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

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.