2001 Subaru Outback (20 year Subaru owner!)
Pros:
reliability, economical to own, snow performance (AWD), safety ratings, roominess, comfy ride
Cons:
a little funny-looking, visibility is just a tiny bit limited, poor local dealer service
The Bottom Line:
reliable, economical, safe, comfortable, funny-looking, terrible local dealer
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The first Subaru I owned was a 1980 GL wagon. I've been snowboarding and skiing for over 20 years, and I wanted a vehicle with good performance in the snow. In these past two decades I've been overwhelmingly pleased with the reliability and longevity (as well as snow performance). My family has owned 10 Subarus over the past 15-20 years, and our experience has been the same for each car: they're a little funny-looking and have their quirks, but do they run and run and run! Some of my old Subarus have well over 200k miles and still run without any trouble at all.
My wife wanted this car for safety reasons (generally 4-star crash results) and she thought it had lots of "coolness"; I wanted it for the Subaru quality/reliability. We now have 35,000 miles on the car - it's 2.5 years old - and we're both pleased.
We do lots of camping, winter sports, kayaking, cycling, etc., and this vehicle fits our needs very well. Our Yakima roof rack was easily adapted to the Subaru factory roof rack, and we load it up without any problems.
We've averaged 26.3 miles per gallon driving about 75% highway / 25% in town. So far we haven't had a repair, and if this car is like my other Subarus, we'll go at least 200k miles before any repairs. I'm surprised that the original tires (Firestone Wilderness) are still in good condition; I suspect that we'll get 40-50k miles out of them
Everything about the car is great, but I think it's just a little funny-looking. Also, I think that the visibility is just a bit limited by the narrow windows and position of the rear-view mirror, but I've become accustomed to this, and it's not a problem for me now.
My only real complaint is that our local dealer is awful. They charged me about $400 for the 15k service, which is essentially only an oil change. They are open the (ever-convenient) 8-5 M-F, and the quality of service and responsiveness to complaints are unsatisfactory, too. However, I've gotten around these problems by finding a local, independent Honda/Subaru mechanic who does fantastic work.
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