1994 Subaru Loyale AWD Wagon review from North America

When I bought the car I had to replace the muffler, front brakes, and ball joints. Mostly routine maintenance problems occurred when I first purchased it, they're only noteworthy because the previous owner (s) neglected this car terribly and I'm sure the spark plugs and fuel filter and rad hoses and such were the original factory parts. The AWD switch doesn't work as a toggle, I have to hold the button down. I never bothered to fix it cause once the AWD is on it will stay on till you release the accelerator. The thermo-switch for the radiator fan burned out recently.

The biggest problem I had was with the chassis of the radiator fan. The oil filter is in such a place that it rubs against the support covering the fan. Once my oil filter burst and sprayed my engine oil all over the undercarriage of my car. To fix this I replaced the oil filter (changing my oil in the process) and removed the radiator fan and took it to a grinder. I ground off only a few millimeters of the part that was rubbing against the oil filter and then made sure it was bolted down tightly when I put it back in the car. They still nearly touch, but I haven't had a problem with it since.

I bought this car at a police auction for $200.00 Canadian in Calgary. It had 289,000 Km on it and I put roughly 500 dollars into it getting it fixed up (exhaust, ball joints and brakes). I had no information as to where the car came from or who owned it last (police auction) but according to the stickers on it it came from somewhere in the Rockies in BC (Vernon I think it was) and who ever owned it last did not take very good care of it. The exhaust pipe looked like the end of Elmer Fudds rifle when it would blow up.

The car doesn't have a lot of pickup to it. It's not very peppy and doesn't' accelerate very fast. But living in Southern Alberta the AWD is a dream on snowy days on the highway. I've put nearly 30,000 Km on this car in just under a year and It still goes. I don't know if this car will ever die, I wish I had had it fresh off the lot brand new. With proper maintenance I think this car would last for 50 years, too bad they don't make them anymore.

It also leaks oil which tends to collect on the exhaust which smells bad when it burns off, but to no adverse affects on the car itself. And it takes a good 10 minutes to warm up in colder weather once you start it, revving at around 2500 RPM before settling down to let you know its ready to go. Very noisy when it does this, there's a clicky noise.