A roommate long ago had the high-performance trim for the 2002 Impreza. The car was very fast with exceptional handling. Its handling and acceleration felt like an industrial/rough version for the M3. It wasn't maintenance-free like a Corolla though: I recall there was some gasket and clutch problems that frequently came up. Also, the paint was very hard to work with so if you're into detailing your cars, that would also be worth considering. It would be best to check out the Subaru forums or Edmunds than CF.
My last two cars have been Subaru's and I love them, incredibly reliable compared to other cars I've owned. If you are going for an older car though be careful of the early 2000 models as they had some head gasket problems, although as long as the head gasket has already been replaced you would be fine. I've got last years outback and have no problems at all with it... although I did prefer the earlier models, just seemed so solid.
i think they are decent. my dad had a forester 2005, or whatever year before they redesigned it. it had its problems and there some minor recalls. the interior isn't very fancy. i thought it felt cheap or outdated. my 2006 mercury mariner hybrid was way better.
ive owned two subarus. the legacy and the impreza. theyre both great cars. love the AWD. i will buy subaru again.
I have a brz....wonderful car. Handles great and love the tech features in the limited trim. I've only had it for about four months......and the only thing I wasn't too impressed with was the quality of the interior. Granted, this is a $27k car and I'm comparing it to bmw/lexus/acura.
2011 Outback. My wife loves it. Great gas mileage, comfortable, nice features. My only complaint is the lack of a USB port in our model.
I own a 12 Impreza. Love it for the AWD in the snow. Fuel economy is not as good as comparable small cars without AWD, but the Forrester and Outback fuel economy wise are fine against their respective competitors and seem to be good values at their price points.
I had a 1993 Subaru Legacy. It was my daily driver for 19 years. I sold it earlier this year to a young college student. It was super reliable, the only problems I had was the A/C went out a couple summers ago and I never got it fixed because it would have cost more than the car was worth. Also, the clutch went out around 180k because I was trying to teach a girl how to drive stickshift.
I own a 2010 Forester and love it. Had a 92 Legacy before that. Handles really well and have had absolutely no mechanical issues with it yet. If you get one, it'll last you a really long time.
I drive an 09 legacy GT. They're fun to drive, and so far I haven't had any issues with its reliability
I saw this new Subaru today driving home from the family Thanksgiving get together. It looked as good as the picture, but it was a dark slate grey. My buddy has new WRX hatch back and loves it -- very fast.
Forester Love it Would not trade it for anything else at the moment Will probably never drive a regular sedan again
I have an '02 WRX still. I've put about 50k on it (live/work in the city). It's a pretty good car. I haven't had any major problems with it aside from a misfiring cylinder once. I've even been pretty bad about oil changes, too, and it still has held up just fine over the years. I suppose my biggest complaint has to do with the boxer engine in the WRX and manual transmission, more than anything. It doesn't seem to like cold weather much, and it's sort of a good day/bad day sort of thing. Sometimes when I drive, the transitions from gear to gear is nice 'n smooth, and other days the car shudders like crazy even if I give it excess gas when letting off the clutch. It smooths out after a few minutes, but it's pretty annoying nonetheless. I've heard that's just how boxer enginers behave, though. Maybe they've improved it since '02. As far as reliability goes, I've had no complaints really. I would probably get another Subaru if it weren't manual (looking at you, Legacy GT?). Edit: Bah, they don't make new Legacy GT's any more? Lame. Seemed like a cool car considering the STi is unavailable in automatic. Edit 2: BTW, ever since I've driven this Subaru, AWD has become a requirement. I sometimes drive other cars (my wife's Blazer or my mom's G37) and they feel relatively unstable and slippery on the roach compared to the rock solid grip of the Subaru's standard AWD. That's probably true of any AWD vehicle though.
Yeah, its too bad they don't make anymore Legacy GT's. I have the 09 GT model and it was the last model year to come with an automatic transmission.
We started with a 1998 Forester with 165,000 miles on it. We drove it until it hit about 188,000 miles, and then upgraded to a new 2010 Outback. I drove on black ice with the Forester, and that was enough to convince me that AWD is the way to go. We do drive to the mountains once in a while. We have the CVT model and I've been pretty happy with the 30 mpg I get with a mix of city/highway driving.
