LOYALE SAFETY

[cale]

Hi-
I am looking into buying a 1993 loyale, and I was wondering how they
hold up in a crash. Thanks for your help.

 

[Catherine Jefferson]

Hi-
I am looking into buying a 1993 loyale, and I was wondering how they
hold up in a crash. Thanks for your help.

I had a '90 Loyale for some years, and weathered one moderately severe
accident well. The car is fairly tough, handles well. Mine was a
sedan, had plenty of trunk space and got decent gas mileage.

The Loyales are not Subaru's best car, though, to put it mildly. The
2WD models had no real advantage over any middle-of-the-road 2WD sedan
or wagon. The 4WD models were at least Subarus <wry grin>, but they
suffered from lack of power (engine was rated at 1.8 liter/87 HP),
boring design, limited features, and (worst) engine problems. Mine
required about $2,500 worth of engine work at around 110,000 miles to
fix broken/deteriorating valve lifters and head gasket stuff. I'm a
farenatic about regular oil changes and regular maintenance (anyone who
drives off-road where AAA doesn't come had better be careful about that)
and had owned the car since it was at 7K miles, so I'm pretty sure
nothing I did or didn't do led to the problem.

Perhaps some of those problems were fixed by 1993, but I'd take a good,
HARD look at this deal and see whether you might not do better for
yourself with a different car.

That's rather sad, because the predecessors to the Loyale, the 1980s-era
Subaru GL line, was an excellent car. I drove one for years (my first
Subaru, first car after college), took it into the Canadian Northwest
Territories and Yukon once for a memorable road trip, took it onto sandy
beaches, dunes, jeep trails in National forests, the works. It came
through like a champ. I had to rebuild the automatic transmission at
130,000 miles, as did other owners who had automatics, but that was
really the only weak point on these cars. Most owners got the stick
shifts, which were rumored to be indestructable.

I finally replaced it only because a drunk plowed into it while parked
by a road at 2:30 AM one morning. Otherwise, I'd probably still have
it, possibly with a new engine by now.

After my husband was in an accident with my 1998 Subaru Outback Sport a
couple of months ago and it was totalled (the usual end for this car;
they don't break), we had to go car shopping. I saw a bunch of older,
high-mileage Subarus still available, some of them quite cheap. I
decided to get a newer car rather than putting my money into rebuilding
an engine and fixing problems to get a reliable vehicle, but you appear
to have picked the second route. So why not take a look at some of
the other, better Subarus?

 

[Rick Courtright]

I am looking into buying a 1993 loyale, and I was wondering how they
hold up in a crash. Thanks for your help.

Hi,

As far as actually "surviving" a crash, I'd put 'em in the same league
as other small cars of their class--remembering there wasn't that much
"crash safety" stuff in that segment (air bags, ABS, the kind of stuff
you'd have found on "bigger" or more expensive models) back then.

As far as the "economics" of a crash, I don't think I'd place a dollar
value much over $1000 on one today. My '90 4wd wagon is as close to
"perfect" as one could expect for its age, as far as the body and most
of the drive train's concerned, but at 360k miles, I blew the engine.
It's been sitting in the garage for over a year now, as I go back and
forth on the economic sense of dropping even a "junk yard" engine into
it and putting it back on the road (functionally, it would make sense,
but w/ three other cars around here, and only one driver, that's a low
priority!) It wouldn't take much of a bump to "total" it economically.

Rick

 

[Sheldon]

Hi,

As far as actually "surviving" a crash, I'd put 'em in the same league
as other small cars of their class--remembering there wasn't that much
"crash safety" stuff in that segment (air bags, ABS, the kind of stuff
you'd have found on "bigger" or more expensive models) back then.

As far as the "economics" of a crash, I don't think I'd place a dollar
value much over $1000 on one today. My '90 4wd wagon is as close to
"perfect" as one could expect for its age, as far as the body and most
of the drive train's concerned, but at 360k miles, I blew the engine.
It's been sitting in the garage for over a year now, as I go back and
forth on the economic sense of dropping even a "junk yard" engine into
it and putting it back on the road (functionally, it would make sense,
but w/ three other cars around here, and only one driver, that's a low
priority!) It wouldn't take much of a bump to "total" it economically.

Rick

I had a '90 Loyale and someone backed into it, slowly, and basically totaled
it. They just aren't worth much, and knocking out both headlights and
bending the hood was enough to make the repair more than the car was worth.
Loved the car, however, and found a mechanic who fixed it off the record.

As for crashes, they have no safety equipment like newer cars, and they are
very lightweight, but it seems the safety is in the fact that they are very
crushable. Subarus have always been known as "safe" cars, and I would think
if you got hit the body would soak up most of the impact, which is good in a
crash. Wouldn't want to get T-boned by a Hummer or big SUV, however.