[icepuck72]

Hello....I've always have owned Toyotas, and always will...for me. Right now we have a Toyota Sienna and a Toyota Tacoma. We're looking to get rid of some of our debt, and the Sienna is going to get the axe.

My wife has always loved Subaru cars, and she wants an Outback. So, this is why I'm here. We're looking for 2005-2008. Looking at a bit higher mileage.

My questions....and I'm going to research as well....but how well do these engines/cars hold up? I'm used to my modded Toyota 4x4's lasting until dead and 250k on a single clutch. I've never had a Toyota leave me stranded, and I've owned 8 of them. Other than Toyota, Subaru is probably the only other car maker I'd look at..maybe Honda. But I like that the Outback is AWD.

Sorry for the long post, but just wanted to get my intentions across!!!

 

[rasterman]

The 05-09s are good cars. Maybe not great, but good.

Many owners don't like the soft rear suspension, but there are several ways to fix it and the cost is about the same as that of a new set of struts, which a high mileage car might need anyway.

The 3.0L H6 engine is fantastic- great power and very high reliability with low regular maintenance costs- no timing belt. Downsides: they prefer premium gas, and were only offered with automatics.

The 2.5L base engine is decent and gets a little better MPG on plain pump gas, but has some concerns with head gasket failure. Also higher scheduled maintenance costs with a rubber timing belt to be changed every 105,000 miles. You tend to see a lot of these traded in with 104,999 miles on them.

The 2.5L turbo engine in the XT model is an absolute blast to drive, but gives terrible city mpg, requires premium fuel and has the timing belt expense noted above. Also the complexity of the turbo engine means that repair costs are high when they do break.

All 3 transmissions offered are very reliable, though if the AWD has been abused it will kill the trans. Running different sized tires is the #1 way to do this, so verify that they match on all corners as you shop.

Hope that helps and good luck!

See cars101.com for further details.

 

[Cobalt]

One thing that I have discovered about Subaru owners, they are in the "Glass is Half Full" camp so you have to ask very specific questions when asking Subaru owners about their cars.
Here is an example
I asked 4 friends that own a Subaru what they thought of them and all 4 went on about how reliable their car is but when I asked about any and all repairs they have had done 3 out of the 4 had head gaskets replaced, 2 were before 100,000 miles and 2 had several other expensive repairs needed right after the warranty was up, one has spent close to $4000 for repairs and her car is just now coming up on 80,000 miles but she was actually the most happy with her so called "reliable car.

I came from owing 4 Toyota's and all of them never cost me anything more then the price of scheduled maintenance until well past 100,000 miles.

I like my outback but if it costs me more then just schedule maintenance before 100,000 miles I will dump it.

 

[rasterman]

Haha, that's fair. I should mention that I've never owned a Toyota. I'm on my second Subaru after owning VWs, Jeeps, an Eagle and a Ford.

The VWs were old rusty machines that had tons of character, needed a lot of tlc but not much money. The jeeps were money pits compared to the subies, and while the ford (ranger) was extremely reliable and had lower repair costs than anything I've ever owned, I lost my shirt in resale value on that one.

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

co-workers Tundra threw a rod at 104K miles.

No question though, late 90s and early 2000 DOHC NA 2.5L equipped Soobs had bad to very bad internal leak gasket issues. A little later, tend to get external leaks. Not sure there's a consensus yet on vehicles as new as 2008 though. rasterman and others will have the best info on that.

maybe someone can suggest a good soob mech. in Richmond. Soobs are just weird enough that, before buying a high-mileage 8 year old one, best to pay for a prepurchase inspection. ANY car that old could have 'issues'.