going from 01' ouback to 05'

TwoFortyJeff said:

I have a 2005 2.5 NA Limited 5 speed and it has been nothing but trouble. The most disturbing part about owning this car is that everyone says the issues are normal!

If you want a 4 cyl AWD wagon, Subaru is NOT the only player in the game. Look at Audi and Volvo. Yeah, the maintenance is expensive, but it's just as bad on a Subaru!

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Be aware that audi and volvo will have multitude of problem and will be very expensive to maintain. My friend just traded a Quattro a4 for a forester due to mechanical issues. Turbo went bad, followed by the rack and pinion steering. 2 cylinders quit firing at mammoth and he limped back to the shop with no turbo and on two cylinders. Final straw was the front diff needig replacement. Sad thing was he had 3 payments left and the car was his. His forester has been very reliable and he bought it new. We take it on all ski trips now. In my case my outback was purchased ned and for 7 years never been in the shop. I was truly impressed. I noticed oil seepage during timing belt replacement and most people would ignore it. It was small and not noticeable by monitoring the oil level. I attribute this to hard driving when fully loaded going to mammoth or Yosemite. 2.5 is not known for power delivery so I used a lot of throttle to maintain speed. Couple of times temp was climbing but never overheated. I still consider the outback to be very dependable and recommend it to people. I am convinced oil seepage could have been ignored and the car would be fine. I would clean it every once in a while to keep it from rutting the engine mounts and that's it. Since I am a bit of a perfectionist I replaced the gaskets. I plan on keeping the car for a long time and based on previous rock solid performance I will be surprised if the car does not last another 10 years/200k miles.