The Subaru Outback promises much, and delivers a lot - of problems. This car had a lot of miles on when I got it, but had a full service history and I purchased an extended warranty.
Persistent complaints were made regarding smells from the transmission, squeaking from the dual-mass flywheel, and coolant loss; the dealer responded by replacing all the alloys under warranty, and the flywheel once, which failed to cure it. All existence of the coolant loss was denied until after the warranty expired, upon which a blown headgasket was diagnosed along with leaking input shaft seal on the gearbox causing the oil smells (all this after a timing belt service).
Subaru of America have acknowledged a problem with the headgaskets on the 2.5 SOHC engine; their solution is to extend the warranty to 8 years or 100,000 miles as long as "Subaru Coolant Conditioner" is put it. This is better known as Stop Leak, and shows just what a reprehensible approach to customer care Subaru take. Subaru UK denies there is a problem; the trade disagrees, with a typical trade value for this car of only £1,300 (retail of £6,000).
In addition to this, the car is rusting around the windscreen frame and on the tailgate. This is not the result of stonechips or accident damage, but is coming through from behind.
They are competent and fast when they work, though very poor on fuel. Comfort is subjective of course, but I found that most passengers found the ride vomit-inducing, the ventilation inadequate despite the twin sunroofs, and visbility poor. As a driver, I found the front seat absurdly low for the type of car, with no thigh support and terrible shaping.
It does tow well, with a dual range box.
You have to use the right tyres to get the handling right on it. The wrong sidewalls will make the car understeer like it's riding on crossplies.
What do you expect from a "high" mileage car? Perfection? What if the owner beat on it before and "supposedly" took care of it?
What are you talking about? Post GM Subaru? What is that? Subaru is a japanese company, or at least I had thought. Being part of GM only makes the deal crappier IMO.
"vomit inducing ride" BS, total BS. How can a car be vomit inducing? Did you quote someone prone to car sickness while you drove through some twisties?
RE:fuel mileage: I don't know what happened over in the UK, but my Subaru Impreza (2000) is great on fuel. Not a super commuter, but its fun to drive and gets decent mileage.
My Subaru Outback wagon was supposed to be the car that lasted me for 200,000 miles, instead the vehicle was a nightmare that wouldn't stop. The car basiclly self destructed at 96,000 miles. I did regular maintenance and drove reasonably. Almost immediately this car, when going uphill for more than 3 or 4 miles would loose power and run super hot. I noticed it would always be loosing coolent so I took it to the dealer and he couldn't find anything wrong with it. In retrospect I don't think they bothered to investigate this. At 60,000 miles the head gasket blew, cost me 800 bucks, dealer paid the other 800.00. Coolent problem wasn't solved. At 96,000 it happened again and the radiatior needed replacing. Had repaired, AGAIN, and then all the valves on one side of the head bent while driving home from the repair. Add this to electric seat warmer that burned out, power mirror driver side died, visors that never stayed in place-dealer couldn't fix that either and seats that were like sitting on rocks-I was done! After trying to talk to my regional rep. about what a lemon this car was-he basiclly told me to get lost-horrible company rep. I wrote Subaru president about my car-no reply. 6 mo. after my car self destructed Subaru did admit to a problem with the head gaskets, too late for me and looks like many others. Would never touch another Subaru with a 10 foot pole and told anyone thinking of buying one not to. Worst car I have ever come across. Looks like I was not alone.
1999 Legacy Outback Limited Wagon w/5 spd manual transmission:
I bought my Subaru new and changed the oil every 3k-5k miles (very easy access). At about 40,000 miles, I replaced the oil pump. Since then, I've replaced multiple wheel bearings (right front three times), alternator, exhaust manifold, O2 sensor, CV boot, fuel filler tube, front brake calipers, clutch (at 70k miles), antenna motor, and had rattling heat exhaust shields removed. At my last 30k service, I asked the service dept. about oil dripping from the rear seal. They said this was normal for an engine with 90k miles. This may be normal for Subaru, but not for my former cars from Acura, Toyota, and Ford.
At 125k miles, my Subaru Outback rides well and has no rattles, but I've decided to replace it since I have no confidence in future reliability and don't feel like investing in fixing the oil leak.
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