I'll Never Own a Subaru Again

[SubaMann]

Folks, this may be my last post in this Forum. Today, I traded in my 2007 Outback Wagon (2.5i Limited) for a 2013 Honda CRV EX-L. My ownership experience of the OB had been horrendous. Here's a summary:

• First Two Years - fine
  
• 35,422 miles - Head gaskets replaced. Just under the wire of warranty expiration. Replaced front brakes and rotors. Rear cup holder broken and replaced.
  
• 69,420 miles - Replaced front and rear brakes and rotors. Replace battery. Replaced all drive belts.
  
• 71,180 miles - Replaced head gaskets AGAIN. Replaced timing belt, water pump, thermostat, tensioner. Replaced air bag light assembly.
  
• 79,680 miles - Gas filler door broken and replaced. Replaced audio/climate control assembly due to electrical short etc.
  
• 101,976 miles - Replaced both rear wheel bearings. Front struts leaking. Front axle boot cracked.
  
• 104,000 miles - traded car in.
  

And those are just the major items. I left a lot of things out. Bottom line, the car has cost me thousands and thousands of dollars in repairs. I could have owned a BMW X5 for the last 6 years for far less total cost of ownership than what this OB cost me.

I will never own another Subaru again for the rest of my life.

[Gelacy]

Originally Posted by SubaMann

Folks, this may be my last post in this Forum. Today, I traded in my 2007 Outback Wagon (2.5i Limited) for a 2013 Honda CRV EX-L. My ownership experience of the OB had been horrendous. Here's a summary:

• First Two Years - fine
• 35,422 miles - Head gaskets replaced. Just under the wire of warranty expiration. Replaced front brakes and rotors. Rear cup holder broken and replaced.
• 69,420 miles - Replaced front and rear brakes and rotors. Replace battery. Replaced all drive belts.
• 71,180 miles - Replaced head gaskets AGAIN. Replaced timing belt, water pump, thermostat, tensioner. Replaced air bag light assembly.
• 79,680 miles - Gas filler door broken and replaced. Replaced audio/climate control assembly due to electrical short etc.
• 101,976 miles - Replaced both rear wheel bearings. Front struts leaking. Front axle boot cracked.
• 104,000 miles - traded car in.

And those are just the major items. I left a lot of things out. Bottom line, the car has cost me thousands and thousands of dollars in repairs. I could have owned a BMW X5 for the last 6 years for far less total cost of ownership than what this OB cost me.

I will never own another Subaru again for the rest of my life.

Bai bai.

[fosterick]

The car will treat you as well as you treat it. Sounds like your very hard on your vehicles? Did you do the required maintenance? I'm on my 2nd Outback and wouldn't have any other car. So goodbye from the Subaru World, you won't be missed.

[FORANE]

Originally Posted by SubaMann

Folks, this may be my last post in this Forum. Today, I traded in my 2007 Outback Wagon (2.5i Limited) for a 2013 Honda CRV EX-L. My ownership experience of the OB had been horrendous. Here's a summary:

• First Two Years - fine
• 35,422 miles - Head gaskets replaced. Just under the wire of warranty expiration. Replaced front brakes and rotors. Rear cup holder broken and replaced.
• 69,420 miles - Replaced front and rear brakes and rotors. Replace battery. Replaced all drive belts.
• 71,180 miles - Replaced head gaskets AGAIN. Replaced timing belt, water pump, thermostat, tensioner. Replaced air bag light assembly.
• 79,680 miles - Gas filler door broken and replaced. Replaced audio/climate control assembly due to electrical short etc.
• 101,976 miles - Replaced both rear wheel bearings. Front struts leaking. Front axle boot cracked.
• 104,000 miles - traded car in.

And those are just the major items. I left a lot of things out. Bottom line, the car has cost me thousands and thousands of dollars in repairs. I could have owned a BMW X5 for the last 6 years for far less total cost of ownership than what this OB cost me.

I will never own another Subaru again for the rest of my life.

All cars require maintenance, a category which some items of your summary clearly fall into.
All cars have their idiosyncrasies and weaknesses in design no matter which car you get or how much you spend. I have owned Mercedes and Ferrari and they too had design weaknesses. Had you done some research, you might have purchased a H6 outback which is not known for the head gasket failure you experienced.
I have a friend with a CR-V and he hates it. Think the CR-V will not cause you any trouble? http://repairpal.com/honda/cr-v

[haly0]

Originally Posted by FORANE

All cars require maintenance, a category which some items of your summary clearly fall into.
All cars have their idiosyncrasies and weaknesses in design no matter which car you get or how much you spend. I have owned Mercedes and Ferrari and they too had design weaknesses. Had you done some research, you might have purchased a H6 outback which is not known for the head gasket failure you experienced.
I have a friend with a CR-V and he hates it. Think the CR-V will not cause you any trouble? http://repairpal.com/honda/cr-v

couldnt of put it into better terms. One thing i'll add is honda's real time 4wd blows IMO

[Latigo]

Don't feed the troll

[Novablue]

There are never any real purpose to these posts. One person rants, lots of people get offended... and unless the OP comes back it gets... quite boring.

It's like going on a sports forum and saying "I'll never go to a football game again, it was loud, smelled like beer, and my team lost."

What do you think football fans would say to that?

[Latigo]

Originally Posted by Novablue

There are never any real purpose to these posts. One person rants, lots of people get offended... and unless the OP comes back it gets... quite boring.

It's like going on a sports forum and saying "I'll never go to a football game again, it was loud, smelled like beer, and my team lost."

What do you think football fans would say to that?

Maybe something along the lines of, "Don't talk about my Packers like that!"

[fatabbot]

Originally Posted by SubaMann

I will never own another Subaru again for the rest of my life.

I likely won't, either. However, I will say that the only thing on your list that really makes Subaru look bad is the repeated head gasket replacement. Have a hard time taking two brake jobs over 100k miles seriously....

[BossMaverick]

Out of the list, I'd really only complain about the early head gasket deaths. Everything else is just normal wear items or stuff that randomly goes wrong with vehicles. A lot of those things would be fairly inexpensive if you did the work yourself.

I keep records for our fleet of vehicles at my job and there is no such thing as a truly repair free vehicle, no matter the make or model, so prepare yourself for vehicle ownership and realize that vehicles need money to keep running. You can't pretend that a vehicle will cost you a set amount of dollars for 105,000 miles of ownership (like you're trying to do by saying that you could've owned and drove a BMW for the same cost).

Also, your short brake pad life tells me that you drive your vehicles hard. You shouldn't complain about short brake pad life when you have no one to blame but yourself. Adjust your driving habits and you save on repair bills and on gas (that goes for any vehicle).

Finally, I will again say that you do have a valid complaint about the head gaskets. Did you try to contact SOA at the time to see if they would've helped with the repair bill?

Edited to Add: Everyone else posted while I was typing this. I probably should've just ignored this thread.