Last year we bought a
2001 Subaru Legacy L wagon. It replaced a 1990 Toyota Tercel that had soldiered through 300,000km and was ready for retirement. The Legacy was an ideal upgrade for us, being a roomy wagon with a manual transmission and, hopefully, engineering to match Toyota's.
The Legacy was built by Subaru to escape from the "quirky Japanese car" stigma they had achieved through years of building quirky Japanese cars. Just google image search for "Subaru 360", "Subaru BRAT" (or Brumby), "SVX" and "Subaru Spare Tire" and you may see what I mean.
Despite efforts, the Legacy does come equipped with quirks, if you're going to buy a used one. Subaru uses a horizontally opposed pancake engine in their larger cars, which puts the cylinders on a flat plane instead of straight-up-and-down or in a vee pattern. This design means a low center of gravity on the engine, with excellent balance. However, it also means that gravity is always pulling one side of the combustion chambers down.
The second and third generation legacy suffers from premature
head gasket failure. In the second generation this is an internal leak, so you won't see any fluids dripping from the motor, but it will consume coolant due to the leaks, possibly leading to an overheated engine and costly breakdown. The third generation problem is an external leak, so you will get coolant and oil leaking out of the engine onto the hot exhaust, which can get stinky fast. External leaks are not as dangerous as internal ones, since it's less likely for exhaust gases to introduce themselves into your coolant, and less likely to overheat, but it can still happen.
If the motor overheats, it can warp the heads, wrecking the engine. The best way to deal with the head gasket problem is by replacing the head gaskets with modern versions. Subaru has addressed the issue, and will offer warranty repair if the motor / car meet certain requirements (service intervals, service parts, mileage). Ours was well beyond those requirements. We paid about $1500 to have the head gaskets replaced at the dealer, but that cost included sending the heads out to be machined flat again. The end result is a like-new motor that will not leak again.
Another design flaw is the rear tailgate lamp cluster. This is a large plastic lamp assembly that covers the entire tailgate. The gasket to seal out the weather will shrink and crack, allowing water to enter the cluster. We've had to deal with two blown tail-light fuses, and sometimes (but not always!) opening the tailgate will drip water into the cargo area. The fix for this will be to remove the cluster and replace the gasket with silicone sealant (a weekend job, but will need to wait for warmer weather).
Our last big issue is with the clutch. When the car is hot the clutch will sometimes shake. I think this is a warped flywheel. It's a creature comfort problem and we just live with it.
So, to summarize, here are the pros of owning our Subaru:
- Carrying capacity. It's a wagon, can carry all our snow gear (or lumber)
- All wheel drive
- 5-speed stick shift lets you pretend to drive a rally car
- Predictable handling remind you that it's not
- Comfortable
- Ideal road trip car- cruise control & A/C
Here are the cons:
- Head gasket failure
- Leaking tailgate
- Shuddering clutch
- Terrible CD player
