4th May 2007, 11:59
I purchased a 2000 Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon December 1999; it is still my primary car with 81,000 miles on it. It has a manual transmission, with heated seats. All warranty work has been done on the car by the dealer.
My issues have been foremost, fuel injectors. There is only one original fuel injector left. Two injectors under warranty and one out of pocket. I now have them cleaned yearly, and so far for 4 years I have not had one fail. No oil or fuel leaks. I am now afraid to have the timing belt replaced.
Next, the clutch issues. I still have the original, but it shudders, it gets better and worst. Twice the clutch has hung up and burned until I could get the car stopped and free up the clutch.
Rattling of the exhaust shields has been annoying, but easy to fix by bending them and I had one of them welded back into place.
I need to replace the exhaust pipe from the catalytic convert to the muffler, it developed a hole in the last few weeks. Occasionally there is a sulfur smell when the car is hot, but it's been there on and off for 7 1/2 years.
The OEM tires lasted a long time, the new tires are better than the OEM tires. I have had new brakes once, the rotors were still good. I average about 23-24.5 MPG.
I have had one alignment done, it could use another, but it's not bad. I didn't notice a problem either time until I hit a nasty pothole. I hit the roof on the last one.
I'm a big guy, I can sit in the drivers seat for a long time and be comfortable and adjust it. I love the heated seats. I do find the passenger seat less comfortable, but my wife is good with it.
The finish has been disappointing. I have a lot of paint chips, in the front from road debris and in the back from loading and loading in the hatchback. There is one spot of rust on the driver's roof pillar.
I like the car, it's great in the snow or rain, it holds the road well, gets better mileage than an SUV and can handle everything on dirt and country roads comfortably. I will however, not get another one, I really don't like the changes to the new Outback as far as appearance.
2nd Jun 2007, 14:06
I bought a 2000 Subaru Forester in Nov. 2004 with 61,000 miles. I drive a lot and now have about 131,000. I've always driven manual transmissions, but now and then the clutch on this would "shudder", especially in first gear. I figured I was doing something wrong, or it was the shoes I was wearing or something. Then about 3 months ago the clutch died and I had to have the car towed to a repair place. (I had bought it from a Subaru dealer, but had only bad experiences with them for maintenance, so took it to a private place owned by friends-of-friends.) After they replaced the clutch, it still "shuddered", mainly in first gear, so I took it back once and they didn't notice it and said it should "drive out" in a few hundred miles. I'm ready to take it back in and have them get into it and maybe put in a new clutch. But reading all this weird stuff about clutches, now I'm wondering what to do. Any ideas are welcome. (I had 3 Miatas until I moved here to the mountains just east of San Diego. I'll go back to a Miata as soon as I can - never another Subaru. One thing after another, in addition to this stupid clutch problem.
8th Jun 2007, 10:14
I am the original owner of a 2000 Outback Wagon, soon to hit 100k miles.
Read some of the comments... have to say I've had only what I would consider "normal" problems with my BuBu.
Paint is flawless (except for where my son threw a rock at it) I've had some warping in the front brakes, but no more than in my previous cars.
The only "complaint" I would make would be the double sun-roof...the poorly designed drains became clogged and started backing up into the car; 2 different dealers were willing to charge me $1200 to fix the problem, but a screw driver and 2 hours on a Saturday morning fixed it for free.
Having driven this car for 7 years... and I'm pretty hard on my cars... I don't think I'll ever buy a different vehicle. Who else makes an AWD wagon that's fast as balls, handles great, gets 23 MPG, and handles mud like a champ...all while carrying a full compliment of construction tools in the back?
19th Jun 2007, 16:51
2000 Subaru Legacy Outback, bought in 2005 with 172k miles and is now passing the 200k mark. Had to have head gasket work done to it, because of an oil leak, one week after I bought it. Replaced spark plug wires, both headlight bulbs, front sway bar and the knock sensor and added some freon since then. For the shear amount of miles, the fact that it still drives like new and that I've had to do almost nothing to it for how much I drive it, I would recommend a Subaru to anyone and I will definitely own another.
31st Jul 2007, 19:32
About 2 weeks ago, I purchased a 2000 Outback wagon limited, fully loaded 4-cyl automatic. I'm the second owner and the car is in immaculate condition... seems very well taken care of.
But when I accelerate from a stop with any speed (if going super slow it shifts normally), the transmission lurches a little going from 1st to 2nd and then A LOT from 2nd to 3rd. The rest of the shifting is smooth. Some of the other comments here have mentioned a slowness in shifting from park to drive - there's a minor delay in that shift, too.
This is my first Subaru and I love everything about it except for this issue. Going to take it to the dealer for an official opinion in the next few days.
Any comments?
8th Mar 2007, 15:29
I have a 2002 Outback Sport. I just dropped it off at the dealership repair shop for the second time, due to a gas smell in the cabin that I first noticed in January, when it was very cold. I noticed it on cold starts (only on the coldest days), but it would persist for hours. And the odor would come through the heater vents when the dash vents were on. I first took it over in February and left it for two days. They said they didn't smell any gas, but did notice a head gasket leak, which they repaired. They tried to give me the line about the "cold weather" additives in the gas being the cause, but that is supposedly only on start-up and only for a minute or so. They gave it back to me with strict instructions to return to them immediately when I smelled gas, which I did. This time, they also smelled the gas, but only under the hood. They didn't see any leak, but showed me a bulletin from Subaru, reporting that others have had the same issue, and that changing the O-rings on the fuel injectors has seemed to work. Also checking the clamp on the fuel line, but the O-rings were usually the problem. I haven't gotten my car back yet, but if the issue turns out to be something other than the O-rings, I'll post again.