Great little car, all in all

We bought a 2001 Subaru Impreza Outback as a replacement for a 1996 Subaru Loyale, and it was miles ahead of the Loyale in every area.

The Impreza Outback handles well, feels more substantial than competitors of that era (including the Civic and Corolla), and has been very reliable (1 unscheduled repair in 6 years).

The negatives? The back seat is very small, and can barely take two child seats (we have learned this first hand). The cargo area is very small for a wagon, and small compared to the Mazda Protege 5 and Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe. $ for $, it is also more expensive than the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Mazda, and Toyota/Pontiac. The last issue was a surprise - it gets well under 30 MPG on the highway (27-28 MPG)... might be a unique problem to our car, but the dealer has said it is typical.

We have owned 5 Subarus over the years (between my parents and now my wife/I, and loved each subsequent one more than its predecessors. Hard to imagine buying anything else, even though there are more AWD competitors out there than ever! We'll trade up to a Legacy for the next one, mostly for space reasons.