[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]

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. :28:

 

[FORANE]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[BossMaverick]

Subamann in another thread referencing his head gasket repairs:

First replacement was under warranty, so that was free. Second replacement was given "assistance" from factory and dealer (don't know how all that works), but bottom line, it cost $1,000 for the HG replacement, new timing belt, water pump, and a couple of other things that they usually change at the same time. So, the HG portion was almost free.

That was $1,000 since Subaru stood up to the plate and helped you out even though they didn't have to since you were past your warranty period. So what else added up to "thousands and thousands" in repairs over your cost of ownership?

 

[Se7enLC]

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.

Wow, I wish I could actually make a list of all the major repairs my Jeep needed before I got rid of it. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Having to do the head gasket more than once is ludicrous, but the rest seem like normal wear and tear. You listed brakes as a major repair?!? Battery?? And yes, at 100k miles it's time for new struts. Wow.

 

[there4igraham]

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

I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. :29:

 

[AWDFTW]

So you needed brakes and the dealer couldn't do a proper HG job? Then you had some heavy wear and tear.

Yup, terrible luck there.

More Subaru for me. No complaints with the ones I have owned.

 

[Karen]

Whoa, the rear cup holder broke? That happened to me too! Subarus must be awful!

 

[iainb]

Aside from the HG issues are you seriously telling me that cars need maintenance?!?!

 

[2013OB]

I dont think there is a make/model of vehicle on the road world wide where someone states they will never buy that vehicle/brand again. Cars do break down and have problems at times, regardless of make or model.

 

[ChromeDomeAl]

Ever owned a bimmer and tried to get an alignment at one of their dealerships? IT COSTS $1000! I'm not even kidding you.

The only other vehicle that I've owned that came even close to as good of AWD as our Subarus was my 1992 Ford Aerostar. No joke. I've owned big trucks, small pickups, luxury cars, small cars, SUV's, wagons, 4X4's, FWD, RWD, you name it. Good luck with your non-maintenance, non-Subaru vehicle, buddy. I've owned a few Subarus in my short life on this planet and there's one thing I can say for certain: If you drive it like you stole it, your pockets will be lighter. Ever wonder why grandma's 1982 Coupe DeVille is in such good shape?

 

[SubaMann]

OK guys, I read all the responses. A few additional comments:

Maintenance: Yes, I actually understand the importance of regular maintenance. The car has received all regular factory specified maintenance and everything except a few oil changes were performed at the dealer. Oil changes were done every 5,000 (not 7,500) and were all Mobil 1 synthetic.

Use/Abuse: Was I hard on the car? It was my wife's car. She drives so slow and slow carefully it sometimes gets on my nerves. The car was never driven off road. But some of you may feel that my wife was VERY hard on those head gaskets causing me to replace them every 35k.

The List: As I said, that was only a partial list. Yes, I know that brake jobs are normal maintenance, but I still think the pads/rotors should have lasted longer given the mostly highway miles. And the cup holder and gas filler door were not major items, but evidenced a lack of quality control. Some people said there was nothing on that list that was unusual except the head gaskets. Really? The entire climate control audio console had to be replaced (well over $1,000). It started having problems at 50k and gradually got worse. Never had a problem like that with any car I ever owned in my life. And both rear wheel bearings started going at 80k and finally had to be replaced recently. Never had a problem like that with any car I ever owned in my life, including the GM crap of the 70's. And front struts should be shot at 100k?? Maybe if you drive off road. Most (80%) of the miles on this car were highway miles. I've owned many cars past 100k and never had to replace struts this early.

I'm very happy that most of you had a good experience with your Subaru's. I didn't, and it wasn't due to abuse or a lack of maintenance. Maybe I just got a lemon. I don't think so. The head gaskets and wheel bearings are a widespread known problem with these cars. There's threads on them here.

In any event, I'm done with Subaru's.

 

[SubaMann]

Ever owned a bimmer and tried to get an alignment at one of their dealerships? IT COSTS $1000! I'm not even kidding you.

I have a BMW (the Subaru is my wife's car). I just had an alignment done at the dealer and it cost $99.