2001 Subaru Outback Base review from North America

Left us stranded on the Interstate 90 eight miles from Canastota NY due to alternator failure. Was able to pull the car from the throughway and make it to nearest NAPA store, where we bought a mechanically defective (late in Saturday afternoon) alternator.

Miraculously made it back home. Few words of appreciation for NAPA.

Had no problems exchanging the defective (bad bearing) alternator bought in the US for good one in Canada.

That was about the only thing that went wrong during my term with that car.

The other issue was with the driver’s window seal. Very annoying whistle at highway speeds.

Have had three Legacies; 1990, 1992, and 1995, and one Impreza, a 1999, prior to purchasing this 2001 Outback.

Always been enthusiastic supporter and advocate for Subaru products. Their 2.5 liter engine changed everything.

That was my first one. Did not like it from the day one.

Bought it in the first week of May in Toronto Canada.

The weather was anything but hot at the time, which is very typical for the city.

Despite that, the engine started to ping on my way home.

Filled up with premium, erased keep alive memory of the computer to reset knocking map to factory settings. There was no effect on the engine ping, whatsoever.

Checked the heat range of the spark plugs and even replaced them for safety sake.

Connected scanner and drove it around watching the temperature. Never got hotter that 98C.

Sorted out higher that normal temperatures of the combustion chamber due to the lean mixture, because fuel consumption figures were way higher than those, claimed at www.fueleconomy.org.

Let it finally go and just drove it with the radio blaring.

When the winter kicked in, the fuel consumption rocketed up to 15-16L/100km of city driving.

Sold it and never going to look back.