First off, my Outback is a 2019 2.5i. It is the lowest level base model. It was the last year before the mandated engine cutoff at idle. I promised 3 years ago to report if I'd had any trouble with it.

As of yesterday I have 152,540 miles on it with not a mechanical wrench touching it for any drive train or mechanical repair. At 100K miles I had the transmission serviced and fluids replaced. Last Friday I had the original pads and rotors changed out. I went with all 4 wheels, but could have likely driven with the original rear brakes for another 6 months or year.

2 months or so ago, I did notice that my drivers side DRL was flickering.When I had it in for an oil change I asked them to look at it and replace it. The service rep came back a few minutes later and explained that the DRL was an LED that required the entire headlamp assembly to be replaced. I told him OK, replace it.
He then explained that the LED was new to the line from model year 2018, and that they had never seen one fail. And for that reason didn't have one in stock. He went on to say that the headlamp assembly cost $494. My eyebrows went up a notch.

Long story short, I left that day having had a word with the service manager, and telling him that I'd drive it forever without paying $500+ for the DRL. Let the thing fail.
Fast forward 2 weeks and the service manager called me at home to set up an appointment to replace the headlamp assembly. He had prevailed with Subaru and they picked up the total cost. Which came to $777 and change.

My driving experience with it has been phenomenal. It is simply the best driving thing on the road in [bleep] winter weather. And I hear and see a lot about the offroad capability of the Outback. I wanna say that my true offroad experience is minimal with it, but I have put many miles on it on unimproved north woods fire lanes. I only had it for 8 weeks when I took off cross country on 75 miles of Oklahoma oil patch 2 tracks, fording streams and driving around obstructions.

I routinely get 30 mpg with 87 octane regular. I drive the thing like I stole it, but I do keep up with it's maintenance. I wanna say it's more reliable than most things out there.
And i wanna say that it's done more off road type of stuff than 80% of 4WD trucks and more than 95% of jeep wranglers

Maine lesbian jokes aside

I've wanted one but always held off due to the boxer engine head gaskets.

A 2019 with 152K , 50K a year is some serious driving.

My olf Forster outperformed CR-V’s and Rav-4’s off road by a significant degree. It was also relatively maintenance free. My daughter now has it.

Our 2001 just gave up the ghost. I bought it used to have a spare ride on hand and that thing was a trooper. I named it the Antelope Assault Vehicle. It made the trip over Red Rock Pass down into the Centennial many times to cruise the dunes for antelope. The middle differential finally took a [bleep] and I gave it to the salvage yard.

That I believe. Especially the lifted trucks that are parking lot princesses.

When we lived in Montana, we had a Subaru. It was a great car/wagon.
We put studs on in the winter, felt pretty safe in that car. We put 375000 miles on it before we traded it in.

We have a 2013 Outback and it is an oil burner, and started after about 20,000 miles, even though I changed the oil every 5,000 miles. It goes through a quart every 12 to 14 hundred miles. I have also had to replace all the wheel bearings, and have had several other recurring problems that are fixable, but shouldn't happen, like intake runner actuators. It only has 119,000 miles on it. I wish I had bought a Toyota.

The head gasket issues are what kept me from buying one. Happy with my Rav4 that has over 250K miles on it, needing only brakes and routine maintenance. Recent sole drivetrain issue was a rear u-joint that required replacement of the whole driveshaft - $1100!!

Other than that, it's been bulletproof.

My first Subaru was a 2013 Outback. Bought it new and put well over 150,000 miles on it. Took it in really rough country quite often. Sure footed, excellent gas mileage, maintenance free. It had a Maytag under the hood but utilized it’s power effectively and efficiently. Never turned a screw on it. It burned a quart of oil about every 2000 to 2500 miles. I never changed the oil a single time the entire time I had the car; I just added a quart when it got a quart low. I did change the filter every 8000 miles. It was a great car.

I decided to trade it in on a new 2019 Crosstrek. I loved the new Crosstalk so much that I bought another new one 2 months later. I drive the heck out of both of em’. Neither of them burns oil like my first Subaru did. They both have Maytags under the hood as well. They each have about 35K miles on them right now. They’ve been absolutely maintenance free like my first Subaru was. I change the oil and filter on them every 10,000 miles. My Subaru’s have all been great cars.

All jokes aside.......

Probably a good vehicle with limitations of course

My step-mother is a Subie fan. Has had several. All have been reliable.

Locally a friend of mine has basically a race car Subaru. Big turbo, stiff ride, gutted interior and it goes like a raped ape. All the little kids love hearing the BOV work too.

Typically I heard 3 complaints about Subs -

1. Noisy at start up, clatter
2. Headgaskets are their own meme
3. Clutches can be a PITA to replace as you need to drive a pin out from the top down, back of the engine. Don't remember model tho....

The head gasket issue was a real thing, and eventually caused problems for some owners. Subaru's reputation continued to build through the years that added up until an engineering mod fixed the problem.

From what I can see, and from my own experience, they are quickly becoming the most common car on the highway. Subaru's loyal customer fan base is really something. And good reason for it.
My wife was badly injured in a snow caused car crash in 1983. From then until we bought the first Subaru, she'd stay home if 6 flakes of snow fell in the county. And this even in the years we had our Suburban. Eight months after I bought my Outback, she bought hers. Snow isn't even a consideration now when she feels like driving 90 miles to see the grandkids.
The capabilities and handling of the Outback in bad conditions engenders an almost cocky sense of confidence. And with as many as are on the road, if there were serious mechanical issues, they'd be broke down everywhere.
I've seen exactly one on a flatbed in the 3 years I've been driving mine.

What year did they fix the head gasket issue?

I had a 2005 Subaru Outback, that I drove until 2020. Had the head gasket changed in 2016. Needed it again in 2020. Best car ever as of now. I dogged that 4 cycl. Sold it at 214000 miles and got a Toyota Camry, glad I did, gas milage improved. Loved that Outback though. Carried a lot of stuff including 10 bags of 80LB coal and never missed a beat.

Couple weeks back my truck was in the shop for a long while, dealership gave me a forester as a loaner. I can’t believe people pay money for these [bleep] things.

Different model for sure, but holy balls. Wind blew it all over the road, so squirrelly on packed snow I could’ve gone faster with my old 2wd half ton and some weight in the bed.

That being said, my son did have an 01 outback sedan that was pretty fun in the snow. Might just be model dependent?

I had a couple Foresters. Older models, ‘98 and a ‘00.

First one lasted a year before it was totaled. Second one I ran for a few years. Thing was falling apart. Clutch, brakes, wheel bearings, starter, radiator, drive shaft/u joints, (and likely more I can’t recall at the moment) replaced and then finally a head gasket. It was pretty easy to work on and parts were cheap and available.

They’ll haul dogs, camping gear, etc….just fine. Even a couple deer, camp, and a buddy. Decent fuel mileage to boot. Mid 20’s. Great dirt road rocket and good in the snow.

All in all, not in a hurry for another wagon though. They were cheaply built, ugly as fugg, and lacked the usefulness of a truck.

What I've seen over at the local comm college automotive shop with Subarus is the head gasket issues and the timing belt. They are an interference engine. Don't know how many have been seen in the automotive shop, usually owned by college staff members, that the timing belt went and the engine was blown. Of all the good things I've ever read about them, I personally wouldn't buy one, new or used.

Its almost like you have to drop the engine, to do anything beyond an oil change.

That being said, a relative bought one that had been traded in at the Subaru dealership in Louisburg WVa, and it had 40 K on it and needed something. His son was service manager at the time, and told his dad he could buy it for $1200. It was a Subie BRAT, and this was back in the early 90s of so....Kay had been injured in the Army after 16 yrs of service and got a Medical Discharge, he highly disabled. He drove that BRAT all over the place in Southern WVa, it seeing alot more dirt roads and fields than any paved road. He used it to herd cattle on hillside pastures, in all sorts of weather. He could have had his son take it to work and have the maintenance done for free but he never bothered. He figured that it was a $1200 car, so he just drove it like he stole it.

When he had it to where it was registering 170K, he had never done anything to the engine but change air filters here and there...when it needed oil he just added, which wasn't often. Hadn't changed the oil in 130,000 miles. It was chuggin still and he was up in Beckley at the VA and went over to the bank while there.. he comes out and some guy has his head in the open window.. Kay walks over and asks what the hell is he doing?

Guy says he's been looking for one of these, and can't find one. Would Kay consider selling it? Kay tells him everything is always for sale if the price is right. Guy says he just got out of the Army, is needing a car as he's borrowing dad's truck all the time. But he only has a budget of $1250 to spend on it, but he could do that in cash, now.. as his money is right in the bank Kay had just come out of.

Since he was a vet, Kay figured what the hell. Sure I'll sell it for that. They go into the bank, guy takes out the cash, Kay signs over the title, calls his wife on the bank phone to come up to the VA to pick him up, and asks the new owner to give him a ride over to the VA, which he does.

Wife gets up there an hour later, and asks did something happen to the BRAT, because she didn't see it... Kay tells her YUP it got sold.
What do you mean it got sold? A young guy fresh out of the army needed a car, and had $1250.00 cash, so I sold it to him for what I paid for it, 130,000 miles ago...time to tell Chuck I need him to be on the look out for another at the dealership getting traded in..

Kay's driven nothing but Subarus since he had that one...He's got a couple Outbacks in his back yard, that have shot engines....but each one has like 350K plus on them....and Kay is not one who changes his oil much. Little buzzards just keep on running for him...

I owned a 2004 Outback, it had multiple issues and I offed it with 87k on it. Issues included wiring,headlights failing, cracked alternator, loose fuel line that was fixed under a service bulletin,transmission module. It rarely snows here but when I took it to WV one time it was not anymore competent on snow then a good
front wheel drive vehicle. It is still alive as of 215k but the owner has put a ton of money into it.

Just a few months ago I looked at 2 Ascents thinking that had to be an upgrade over that POS. I was wrong, seats are undersized, all materials inside were plastic and looked cheap and I could not get a good comfortable seating position. Both of these were 40K + and they were certified pre owned.

+2 ... Inquiring Minds...

Tell me this is not a real advertisement

A person has to be different to own a Subaru.

I have a 2014 a Premium 2.5L with 112K miles.
Headlamps go out about every 10.000 miles. I have a 4Runner with 90K miles and on my second set of lamps.
Mine burns zero oil, but some burn oil like crazy.
My cat shield rattled, so my repair guy added screws where the welds failed.
I need to do the plugs, but one of them takes hours and a pound of forearm meat to get out.
I do filter and oil every 8K or so, Air filter every 25K. Original brakes.
Overall it is a good car for the mountains around here. I get 30mpg on summer fuel. Get 27 in winter.
I was thinking of selling it, but it is probably a good car to keep.

All the Subaru’s in Texas have Beto O’Rourke bumper stickers!!!

I bought one because it was available when I needed it. I had the head gasket, timing assembly, water pump all replaced when I bought it. Have not had any issues, dependable and great in the snow, just do not wish to be filmed driving one! I drive a 5 speed and with size 15's it is way too small for me , but it works for now. It is paid for , which is a blessing.

Orion2000 and WYcoyote;
Top of the morning gentlemen, I trust the day in your respective parts of the world is looking to be decent to you and you're well.

Here in rural BC we see a lot of AWD SUV's and 4x4 pickups. The roads are steep, the ditches sometimes terminal if you go off the road and road conditions in winter often interesting to say the least. Just to get out of our yard, the driveway is 105yds long and there's a 100' elevation change. In winter it can be a luge run...

My good wife bought a 2009 Forester with the 2.5 non-turbo in maybe 2014 with 100,000km on it. From the research we'd done the head gasket issue was supposed to be solved during the 2009 model year.

It was flat out amazing in snotty, slippery snow and ice. She could stop on the driveway, then slowly roll away and in my Dodge 4x4 with new snow tires and limited slip rear there's no way I could. We started taking it out when the conditions were really terrible as it was much more forgiving and easier to drive. She drove it to Vancouver in an absolute blizzard where there were multiple cars in the ditch past Hope.

The thing was not maintenance free however and we did the timing belt at 160,000km and shortly after the radiator too, but I always suspected the shop broke the plastic intake on the radiator when they did the timing belt. Anyways something to watch for.

A different shop did the plugs for me shortly after we bought it and it was time for sure. As mentioned one of them is a bit tricky to get out. I did them a second time myself shortly before we took it in to get the head gaskets done.

Hers was fairly hard on brakes too, compared to the Corolla and Jetta she drove before that.

At 225,000km we noticed one cylinder head leaking and since our daughter and son in law needed an AWD we had it done and sold it to them - for less than we paid to have the whole thing done - because that's sort of a parent thing we figure.

It's not free to have done as they pull the engine, replace the head bolts/studs - forget which - mill the head because they warp and that's the problem, then also do the water pump while they're in there as it's hard to get to. The YouTube channel Car Wizard had one that he quoted $3500 to do the work and most comments said that was very reasonable. It was an '09 too by the way - Impreza with the same 2.5.

My wife decided not to get another Subaru as she wanted to try a hybrid and they didn't have one out then, so she bought a 2019 Rav4. It's perhaps not quite as good on slippery roads as the Forester, but gets much better economy. She's had zero issues with it thus far, as in none, but it's only 3 years so we'll see.

Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there.

All the best to you all as we head into the Christmas season.

Dwayne

My wife bought a turbo Impreza because she loved the speed.
At 160k the turbo tanked and ruined the crank and heads.
Finding a new longblock has been challenging.
I would not categorize it as a long lasting vehicle but she had fun.

Been a while since I read the article, but IIRC they had 3 different designations of the 2.5 motor that could potentially be prone to oil pooling in the area of the haed gasket and causing issues. I think I read they were all phased out by 2011-2012 and any newer motors should have an engineering change to improve oil drainage from the area.

Note that even among the potentially problematic motor series that problems were not common enough to make these cars much less popular. These were the years that made their rep for reliability, and saw their explosion of numbers on the highway.

Note that these cars are in full production and they sell so quickly that dealers cannot keep them on the lot. It was around a year ago that the dealership where I bought mine emailed me and offered to buy it back. On my next service visit I noted 3 used Subaru's in the showroom. An Outback, a Crosstrek, and an Impreza. Not a new car on the lot anywhere.
At 3 years old with now 153,000+ miles I wouldn't sell mine going into winter for what I paid new for it.

And I'm not saying that the Subaru is for everyone. I'm an industrial maintenance guy and I know that there are those out there who could screw up an anvil.

Edit; I recently saw a fork broken off of a 42,000 lb rated Taylor forklift. I'm sure that there are guys who would only use a Taylor forklift to load crates of marshmallows.

Correct

John,
Glad your Outback is treating you well. Bought the wife a 2020 Ascent after doing a good bit of research. My biggest concern was/is the CVT "transmission". So far it's been flawless but I'm still nervous about it. Does your '19 Outback have the CVT?

Last Subaru I saw was just a few days ago. In front of me, it had two bumper stickers;

- Billionaires Should Not Exist
- Bernie Sanders (right below it)

Some hippie commie guy, or them, or they, or it, driving.

No joke.

Too bad you can’t run those Fuggers off the road.
Ought to be a bounty on them. 😡

We’ve had 3 Legacy sedans, 1 Outback and 1 Impreza (for our son). They have all been good for dealing with the highway traffic conditions (18 wheeler trailers whipsawing into our lane of traffic) and winter weather we experience here, and they are cost effective. My wife and I don’t run them as long as many of you, and we usually trade them off after about 8 years with about 80,000 miles on them, and we don’t have to write a very large check for another one.

Our latest one is a 2017 sedan that had the CVT go out in 2-1/2 years with 27,500 miles on it. The shift would move and the engine would run but the car would not move. The dealership changed a wiring harness and that didn’t fix it. The service advisor called HQ and they said they knew the issue and were sending out a rebuilt CVT. It was replaced under warranty and, shortly thereafter, we got a notice that Subaru was extending the warranties on the CVTs to 10 years/100,000 miles. In October of 2021 the shift lock assembly was replaced because the lock was not releasing and it took multiple tries to get the key to turn in the ignition. The service advisor said that she wished they would just do a recall on it but that Subaru does a lot of warranty extensions to avoid doing recalls. Although the car technically was out of warranty, it was replaced under warranty. Shortly thereafter we got a letter saying they extended the warranty to 8 years/unlimited mileage. A couple of day ago we got a warranty extension to 15 years/unlimited mileage on the electronic parking brake connector lock tab. When we decide to get another car, we are going to investigate other brands now that AWD is more common in lower priced sedans than when we first started buying Subarus.

One of the other ones (the Outback, IIRC), had the O2 sensor go out twice. Once it cost $400 and the second time it happened Subaru treated it as a warranty claim. I think this was a known bug by the time we needed the second one. I don’t remember anything about the 1998 sedan.

Our son ran his 2011 Impreza like he stole it. He made multiple cross-country trips. He started needing to add oil every 1500 miles after it turned 100,000. He sold it to a friend at about 105,000 miles when we handed down a 2012 Legacy with 50,000 miles on it. The Impreza is still going strong 3 years later. Our son is at about 105,000 on the hand-me-down Legacy. His two cars have only had routine maintenance and brake pads and a couple of rotors (his fault). They live outside in some pretty tough weather.

There are a lot of Subarus on the road around here, and nobody can draw any assumptions about one’s political leanings or association preferences unless someone advertises them with bumper stickers.

I have a Subaru pressure washer. Seems ok.

Don't y'all buy those rattie-ass Subaru's (ain't no good) . My 2018 Outback only has 30,000 miles without problems & get upper 30's miles per gallon on the open road. MY SON-IN-LAW run the piss out of his 2017 Outback with sorry maintance ,I guess he has had the oil changed once or twice 70,000 miles. Well he had a muffler problem.but he has a cabin up 9 miles of rutted & rough !! DON'T BUY UM !!!!

Its for real

Although I like the dog ones much better

Yup
153000 flawless miles

Wife has been driving a 2014 Outback we bought new. In the 167,000 miles she has driven that car it has only needed brake pads once, a battery once and a idler pulley replaced. It has been the single most reliable car I have ever owned. I am religious on maintenance so it has been babied in that department. Just replaced it with a new 2023 Outback. 2014 will be going to our youngest daughter once she turns 16. I can't say enough good things about our experience with our Subaru Outback. Put a set of studs on them and they are second to none in my opinion in the snow.

Wife has been driving this one daily since we bought it with 9900 miles on it. No issues at all at 85000 now, and outperforms most "trucks" in 6" or less of snow while getting 32 mpg. Not an Outback, but a Subaru nonetheless.

I had one of those I bought new. I'd still have it if I didn't need to tow something that would have been way too heavy for it.

It was great in snow. Really great. Wish I could have kept it as a third vehicle.

So reliable you'll never need a man. That's an add they ran in lesbian magazines when I was studying marking in MBA school.

My only problem with Subarus has been with, the drivers primarily in Oregon, that get in front of you and do 45 in a 55 or 65 zone and then as soon as a passing lane comes up and you try to pass the floor it and are doing 80 plus to stay ahead of you. If they manage to stay ahead they are back to 10 to 20 under the limit and if you try to pass they floor it again. I'm not sure what makes them think they are Oregon states official pace car.

My former neighbor used to work for Subaru corporate in California before he joined the mass exodus and moved to Idaho. He loves Subaru and that's all his family owns. He can tell you anything about them. He almost had us talked into one at one point.

My brother has owned a few legacy sedans I believe and has one now. He swears by them on the snow. He says if the roads are bad he has the wife park the suburban and take the legacy. I just don't fit in one like most cars my knee is either in the dash of banging against the oversized center console.

Bb

I was working Operations on the Elk Complex fire in Siskiyou County, California in 2007...

Bad year on fire and no rental trucks available when I flew in... SO... I got issued a Subaru Impreza WRX.

The boss sent me out to run the ring road around the fire (150+/- miles (IIRC) of logging roads around that fire).

I ran that that damn rental Subaru like a raped ape... air-born Baja chit.

FUGG IT WAS FUN.

Damn thing held up pretty well. and I abused the crap out of that car.

I have no idea on longevity, but for what they are (AND brand new)... damn impressive.

I have a 2019 Outback Limited 4 Cyl. It just turned 32,000, no issues at all so far, I'm getting around 26 MPG with it. Nice interior, great radio, a lot of room, I think it's good in the snow. I doubt I'll get that 100,000 miles out of the brake linings. I never did with any car I've owned so far.

I sold a few months ago, a 2011 Honda Accord with 254,000 miles on it. Had a couple front end repairs due to terrible Michigan roads, no motor or transmission work at all. Never changed spark plugs. That was the best vehicle I ever owned by far.

I had a 2004 Honda Accord and liked it. I would have bought a 2014 Honda Accord if it had been available in AWD. But it wasn't.

So I got the Outback.

Talus drove his Forrester through a guard rail and off a cliff
Car was totaled but he and px were not hurt!

When I moved to Utah in 1980 from west PA

Loaded my '78 (ish) 4x4 wagon in the back of our rental truck

Used it here for several years then sold it...very sure footed

Lesi's didn't know of of yet.........

just for fun

https://bringatrailer.com/2014/08/23/nicest-weve-seen-1978-subaru-gl-1600-4wd/