Hey everyone this my first post, hopefully not my last. I need a car, I'm leaning strongly toward subies. I want a wagon, decent mileage, and AWD is pretty cool. I'm looking to spend around 10 grand, and I definitely want a 5 speed. I'll prolly end up with like a 98ish Imprezza or Outback. So, there's a few things I'm wondering about.

1. What (if any) are some common problems with these cars? Anything to look for?
2. I know these cars have rallying roots, so there's lots of performance potential, no?
3. Are these cars easy to work on? The flat engines kinda make me nervous.

Of course if there is anything else in general I should know or you guys want to share feel free. I don't know much about these cars, so educate me, even if you think it's "common knowledge." So, basically tell how cool these cars are!

Thanks everyone!

-Jon

 

for what you're looking to spend, there's not a lot of choices out there for AWD 5-speed wagons under $10,000. It's either Subaru, or a much older Volvo or Audi.
The Outback and late 90's Imprezas are pretty reliable, but a clean service record is always a plus. A few imprezas had head gasket issues in that time frame as well. Something to look out for.

As far as your "lots of performance potential" statement, I'm a little nervous condoning that. Yes, Subarus have rally heritage, and they are very capable vehicles, but if you expect to quickly and easily build a streetable Subaru that will compete with a RWD V8 on a drag strip you've got something else coming. A late 90's Impreza IMHO is capable of around 200 HP, without massacreing durability. This will get you somewhere in the neighborhood of 15.XX second quarters, and a six second or so 0-60. NOTE: ROUGH ESTIMATES, please don't flame.

 

Thanks for the reply.

As far as the performance potential end of my post goes, I wasn't really talking about a 500hp 110 octane race fuel beast. My current ride is an '87 Maxima suffering from a slow and painful death, prolonged by my perhaps naive efforts to "repair" it. It's a great car, but every performance part is basically a DYI project. I'm thinking maybe intake, exhaust, some shocks/springs maybe. Kinda bolt-on stuff. Thanks for the reply.

Don't be shy guys, I'm familiar with cars, but I'm a total newb to Subarus. Any info is appreciated.

 

The engines in the Impreza RS, Outback Sport, Legacies and Foresters from 98 and 99 have headgasket issues. With those motors, it's not a matter of if they'll go, but when, and when they do, it's expensive. Check to make sure any car of those years that you purchase has had the gaskets fixed. Other than that, make sure you look at the normal stuff - run carfax, check for obvious signs of wreck, open/close all the doors, hatch and hood, drive it around and listen for odd noises.

I'm pretty sure there is no 5 speed Legacy Outback, so you probably won't be able to find one of those. If I was going to spend $10K on a 98 or so 5spd Subaru wagon right now, no question I'd get the Legacy GT Limited. Leather with heated seats, monochrome body, decent wheels, etc, etc. Nice cars. In fact, this is exactly what my fiance and I almost bought until we found the 2.5RS that we purchased for her

As far as performance, without swapping in a WRX engine, you're not going to get much power out of these cars. You can do the basic stuff - header, exhaust, intake, etc, but without a turbo you won't be making big gains. You can do a lot of suspension stuff though and really make those cars handle nicely.

 

Id say def. go with a suby if you want awd under 10 grand and in a wagon body style. theyre reliable cars from what ive seen and heared and they are also safe cars from what iver heared. i gurantee you will not be disapointed if you find a nice suby in good condition. and if you do swap a wrx motor, you would have a pretty mean wagon.

 

Aiight, so in light of these head gasket problems, would it be better to try for an '00 instead of a 98 or 99, or is there any way to check on a vehicle's maintainence history to see if the gasket has been replaced already? Also, what has been your experiences with the Subaru dealers? Is it worth it get the cars serviced there? How is the customer service?

Thanks.

 

Try and find a used car with all the service records, that will be your best bet, also, having head gaskets done might show up on car fax, since it's a pretty significant repair.

 

your best bet is to have a reciept from the previous owner. If it was done under warranty, a dealer can theoretically access it, if not, it's tough. Carfax AFAIK will not identify a head gasket repair as having been done. If service records are reported for the vehicle, the best you'll be able to see is that it was in for service at a non-regular interval, for non-warranty/recall work.
00 may be better to target if it's in your price range, but they are still not immune to the problem (just much better)

 

Why not fork out a little extra and just find an 02 WRX Wagon. I just picked one up for 13.9, I`m sure you could dig around and find something else with 50-60k miles on it. I`ve had mine a little over a week, and I love it !

 

Well, I wish I could. My parents may be able to help me out financially and increase some of my options, but I'm not counting on it. This thing has me kinda thinking twice, I'm not about to spend this much money and have it be trouble down the road. Do you guys have any other recommendations as far as different models go?
My other problem is that I need a dealer to hold my hand and finance one for me. So I'm gonna be limited to what they have available. Thanks for helping out a newb. :-)

 

if you're financing, I'd rule out a high miles REX. Problem is, to get into the range of price that you're looking to be, you're going to have to have significantly abnormally high mileage. Not that this is bad for the car, it's totally fine, but used WRX's aren't easy to come by as it is, never mind restricting yourself to one with over 60-70,000 miles, which is not really a car that a dealer would seek out.

You'll do better as far as financing goes if the car is 5 model years old or less, so a 2000 will be cheaper to finance than a 99, probably significantly so.