For all practical purposes you are right.
Yeah. I've found that most of my Subarus make a bit more engine noise
than the Hondas that I've driven (*lovely* cars, some of them), but not
enough to matter when you factor in road noise when you're going over
maybe 20 mph/35 kmh.
By engine work I meant the real possibility of head gasket
failure (a fairly prevalent and known problem in older engines,
that Subaru seemingly has not resolved completely). If you
think about buying brand new, then maybe you could avoid this
issue altogether as the 2010 Legacy, and Outback, and the
2011 Foresters, have new and completely re-designed engines.
Exactly. You want to avoid buying a 1997 through 1999 year model Legacy
Outback or 1998 through mid-year 1999 year model Forester. Those had
2.5 l dual overhead cam engines with truly serious head gasket problems.
On the other hand, the Legacy and Outback Sport models of those years
had a 2.2 liter engine that is one of the best Subaru ever made -- if
you get a chance to get one of them, it would be a very good car.
The original dual overhead cam engines in the Legacy Outback and
Forester models were replaced starting in mid-year 1999 (for the
Forester) and in 2000 (for the Outback) with a single overhead cam
engine that has some head gasket issues, but not too bad. This engine
model was in use through I believe 2004 before they replaced it with
*another* model that was supposed to have fixed the head gasket issue
completely, but you should check on that.
How do I know these things? My mother owns one of the 1998 Outbacks.
She's an older woman and doesn't drive a great deal, and her local
Subaru dealer is *good*, so they've managed through meticulous
maintenance and some other measures to prevent the problem so far. The
head gaskets on that car will eventually have to be replaced, though.
In addition, my husband and I own a late-year 1999 Forester with the
second type of engine. We finally had to have the head gasket replaced
in the past month. The car made it for eleven years and over 100K miles
before any symptoms showed, however, and probably would have been okay
for another ten to twenty K miles. We just don't take chances when it
comes to maintenance because we drive off-road and don't want an
emergency when we're miles from pavement and AAA.
The Forester probably also would have made it for considerably more
miles before it needed fixing (according to our mechanic) if it had not
been an extremely low-mileage car when we bought it. It had only 44K
miles on it in 2007; the first owners were a multinational who kept it
as part of a fleet for their executives, which meant that it spent more
time parked in the garage than on the road. Apparently age has as much
to do with head gasket failure on these models as mileage, which is unusual.
I also owned one of the 1998 Outback Sport models with the wonderful 2.2
liter engines that I mention above, before we got the Forester. It was
at 160K+ miles and had never needed a major repair, although it had the
rear wheel bearing failure between 50K and 60K miles that was typical of
these cars. It's now gone because of an accident that totaled it.
Apparently that's the usual end for these cars because, so far, nothing
else seems to kill them. I'm *still* bummed to have lost that car.
Haven't seen them rusting any more than other
cars here in the Sierras. I am in Reno, Nevada.
Small world; so am I.
Subarus had problems with rust in the 1980s, but I haven't heard of any
notable troubles with rust on models after 1990 or thereabouts.
Yes it is, I am Polish too.
I'm not, but one great-grandmother had Polish ancestry and traced her
family back to a Polish man and his wife who immigrated to America in
the 1840s. 100% mutt here.
