Faults:

Alternator, battery, radiator and clutch.

General Comments:

Awesome car. Seriously the best car I've owned. Did over 130k in it and only had to replace the clutch, alternator, radiator and battery.

Did cambelt, WP, idler tensioners, cam seals, rocker cover seals and plugs at 100k.

Did clutch, main seals, trans fluid and diff fluid at 120k.

Was running bigger turbos and a Zerosports sequential controller, and it went hard and gave me NO grief.

Changed the oil every 5k and filter every 10k. Ran 98 octane gas.

Replaced it with a string of unreliable BMWs, and have now bought an '02 Legacy RS30 with 64k on the clock. Looking forward to a few years of trouble free motoring.

Faults:

Had to replace the alternator at about 96000, brakes at about 100000, and EG valve at about 103000. Everything else is still working great.

General Comments:

I love the heated seats, especially on a cold Minnesota morning.

With all the snow we're having, this car goes through it like a hot knife through butter.

Have the sound system with a 6-CD changer, which is just awesome. The heated windshield and outside mirrors come in handy as well.

The only complaint I have about my Subaru is the cup holders. They are absolutely useless.

Faults:

Half shafts were bad when I bought it.

Needed plugs and wires when I bought it.

Head gaskets replaced at 167,000 miles.

Sunroof jammed about a year ago.

General Comments:

This car is amazingly reliable except for the head gasket repair at 167K... a big strike against it, I know, but once that was done, NOTHING serious has gone wrong with this car!

The head gaskets are a well-known problem with Subaru 2.5s, but if you replace them with the latest revision genuine Subaru parts, you're good.

Never needed a starter, alternator, fuel pump, water pump, etc.. that are common 'maintenance' items on most other cars.

The AWD is just about unstoppable in Michigan winters.

The 5-speed and good power make for a lot of fun when the weather is nice. Great handling, and the shifter rivals some German cars I've owned.

The interior has held up very well, no significant wear to the seats or door panels. Body looks great, too.. VERY little rust for a 12-year-old Japanese car in the rust belt.

All in all, this has been the most reliable car I've ever owned, including a few Volvos... The ride, noise level, comfort and overall fit and finish aren't quite up to European standards, but I really can't complain about a car approaching 200k miles that has given me so few problems.

Faults:

Radiator.

Torque bind.

Major oil leaks onto the catalytic converter resulting in scary, but harmless smoke from the engine bay.

Crankshaft problems, resulting in bad timing and terrible MPG, slow acceleration, have to floor it to move. It's drivable, but its days are numbered. I expected more from the 2.2L engine, it appears half-dead at 150K miles.

It's possible someone had worked on it and didn't tighten the crankshaft bolt all the way, resulting in it getting loose and damaging the key.

General Comments:

I don't like frameless windows.

The interior is cheap. The seats are not too bad but could be better.

Brighton is the cheapest they have, doesn't even come with a tach.

Theoretically, a "L" Legacy can be reliable with 2.2L / 5 speed, but this particular auto was apparently abused, and at 150K miles didn't look too good.

Someone apparently put mismatched tires at one point and it resulted in torque bind. If you drive around in tight circles, the car will vibrate, which is solid evidence of torque bind. Had to take a piece off the transmission, grind it to make it smooth again.

On the plus side, it handles OK, grips the road.

All in all, it's basic transportation, nothing fancy, an economy car. If treated well, it should probably run well.

Supposedly the older 2.2L is a lot more reliable than 2.5L with head gasket issues, though in my experience, I haven't found 2.2L to be all that reliable.

It has major oil leaks in several places, dripping onto the cat converter, resulting in very scary but harmless smoke coming from the engine bay at stoplights.