Comments on: Subaru Safe & Reliable

By: AndyM

AndyM — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 04:37:43 +0000

Hello i have beee reading all the great comments here on Subarus, and am seriously thinking of purchasing a Subaru Forester My04 – my06 model for around the $14 to 17k mark for an XT Luxury. I realise i need to keep an eye on the oil colour, the regular service history, and underneath to see if its gone, off road, but what else should i be looking for. If i am getting one around the 110k to 130k kilometress mark should i need to be looking for timing belt replacement etc?

I also noticed a major service was $2500 from one pundit above. Question is what are major service marks and are they all that expensive. (40k, 100k 150k etc, and what do they do at each one.?) and if you don’t do 5000k every 6 months do i still have to the oil regardless?

all tips i’d be greatful.

ta Andy

By: Steven Bloxham

Steven Bloxham — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:59:48 +0000

subaru’s reliable? You bet…
I only buy used Subarus that need their head gaskets replaced. I get them for a song and they seem to last forever. My 1st head gasket job was a bear but after that I can do the whole job in 3-4 hrs. It is one of the easiest h-g jobs in the world. Regardless of what a shop says, a h-g job on a Subi is a pieceof cake!
Everything is right on top (the alternator, the a/c compressor, the starter, the cam and crank sensors, the map and the maf sensors. Everything is simple to work on and if you live within an hr of a good u-pull-it type of wrecking yard they are awfully cheap to keep on the road.
Tweeking them tohave more power isnt the best idea, in my opinion if you want a fast one just get a wrx or an sti or a stock tubo 4 cyl. Actually I’m going to try a simple nitrus injection system in my95 Legacy and my Forester just for fun. I know Kia and Ford are working on a similar ethanol injection system as suggested by MIT and Dr. Heywood’s team. This is about the only mod that is logical.
In stock form the Subaru is hyper reliable and the few failures that do occur are well known and ez to fix.
And cheap too. Shops differ, but they have a reason to differ.
I live in the mountains of California where we had over 600 inches of snow this last season. Our old Legacy (95)and our 01 Forester do better than a Jeep. its quite humorous to drag a big heavy Ford or Chevy pickup out of the snow. With my little Forester I’ve made a monkey out of a lot of big SUV owners. It’s pretty funny.
MPG is in the low 20′s, nothing to write home about but the low cost of repairs more than makes up for it.
Plus: the Legacy and Outback are American made with American made parts. Higher % USA content than even the Ford or Chevy trucks. Want American made? Then Subaru is the way to go.
Reliable? Yep, but learn to fix them yourself (and how to read a $65 OBD2 reader) or find an honest repair shop. (good luck with that one!)
AWD in Subi’sis something else and the automatic transmission is tough as nails. It will eventually fail but you will be at 200k miles when this happens.
Even my SVX (bought a garage kept one for 1900 dollars and its quite a car, better mpg than the 4 cylinder ones I own believeit or not) and even the svx uses the same transmission. Automatics may cost 1mpg but the ‘feel”and reliability make up forit.
if I want a smooth quiet road cruiser you can’t beat an older Lexus LS400 or the Subaru SVX that we just picked up a few months ago, they are both cheap, reliable and smooth as silk, but for all around general purpose use, the regular old (any 95 to 2003 are just fine if you are careful to avoid the dohc 2.5 engine … …still a good engine but much harder to do a h-g job on) awd Subaru’s just can’t be beat.

By: Tauhid

Tauhid — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:43:07 +0000

I just buy Subaru 2010 liberty 2.5i crv and don’t know how much realiable the car will be. Because I run every week 700 mile. Can any one give me advice. Thanks.

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:02:27 +0000

I just got a wrx 99 and the motor and gearbox through in the towel after 700kms but i like the car and have just put another motor in and im in the process of getting the box done i would jut like to know how many hours labour can a mechanic charge to remove the box split the box replace the centre diff and bearings at the rear of the box put it all back togeather and put box back into the car i have paid for all the parts

Thanks
Brett

By: matt

matt — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:02:53 +0000

This makes me sad i just recently wrecked my 04 subaru wrx. I miss that thing so damn much!

By: zi

zi — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:41:41 +0000

I have a liberty 97 AWD. Bought it 8months ago. The car is fantastic, never let me down and it has 195,000kms on the clock. Everything has been awesome.

This morning i left it for a major service at subaru and my bill is $2500 :O woww, now this is a shock

I didn’t buy german to that i could afford maintainance at a dealership but it seems like Subaru’s part are as expensive as Beemers.

$1300 Major service
$700 New radiator
$500 front brakes and rotors

I’m never buying a second hand car ever again.

By: FrugalOne

FrugalOne — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:59:20 +0000

Subaru are a good product, but at the end of the day they are NO BETTER than any other of the Japper made product, all be owned by BigT [tm.F-0] soon enough.

Pity the brand has been butchered by the doof-doof types, and mostly fugly looking things are/nt they?

Cheers

F-0

By: Websters Dictionary

Websters Dictionary — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:44:49 +0000

Such fine words from an obviously well educated person.
now if only I could understand those words.

By: Alain

Alain — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:27:10 +0000

Hello

l di-egree regarding subaru reliability,wrong subaru has never ever been ablable to address Head Gasket issues pretty much since they built cars.And when it comes to replace head gasket is an expensive exerice,since the engine has to be out .l have one forester first subaru and last one never again.Remember Subaru has always been small on the market.Tribeca is a piece of S… on wheels.

cheers alain from australia

By: Wheelnut

Wheelnut — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:49:09 +0000

Tom – I also average 10L/100Km city and 7L/100Km on the highway.. and when you consider that my subie weighs 1400kg I think that the 2.5 litre boxer does a pretty good job at getting all that weight moving

Part of that reason I believe is due to the fact that a couple of years ago I switched over and I now use premium in my car and have noticed that I am [or I appear to be] getting more k’s out of each tank as the car runs smoother – although that depends upon how you drive it and what speeds you cruise at etc