At this point in my life I had a part time job at a bank, I was going to school at the University of Arkansas, and my 07 XC90 was getting up there in miles. My dad and I agreed that it might be time for me to get something newer, but I just was not ready to let go of the XC90. Luckily my dad agreed to let me keep the XC90, and get something newer, but it was on my dime. He agreed to pay for the insurance, but that was about it.
I knew I was going to get another Volvo, no questions. Well, when I started looking, I couldn’t really find anything that was close enough for me to look at. So, I started looking at cars under $25,000 locally, just see what was out there. That couldn’t hurt right? I mean I was still getting a Volvo. Well, I do not know the word patient, it simply is not in my in my vocabulary. I got impatient, and started looking at cars that caught my eye, outside of Volvos.
I had narrowed down my search to a Jeep Cherokee, Nissan Pathfinder, and a Subaru Outback. I was not finding a Volvo within 500 miles, so I thought, well I still have a Volvo, so it’s not like I am betraying the brand. I made it to the Subaru dealer, and that was it. I had found a red 2015 Outback that was certified with only 20,000 miles on it. I was amazed how many features came on this car for so little money. This was not my girlfriend’s entry level Subaru. No, this car was luxurious compared to that. I called my dad, and said “well I found my car”, and he was surprised that #1 it was not a Volvo, but #2 I had not looked at any other car really.
My dad told me if that is the car that I wanted, then get it. So that Saturday I went back to the dealer, signed a few pieces of paper, and the car was mine! This model was a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder boxer motor. It too had a CVT, but because it had a little bit bigger motor than my girlfriend’s, I didn’t mind it as much. My car also was the Limited trim level which came with leather, push button start, navigation, Eye Sight, blind spot monitoring, and of course AWD.
One thing that I will touch on in later COAL’s is that Subaru just does not give the consumer many options at that time. For instance, you could only get red with tan interior, I was not a fan of tan interiors. Or you could only get a 6 cylinder in a limited, and nothing else. No manual, no real rim choices, nothing. I was kinda disappointed in this, but I was willing to overlook the tan leather as I liked everything else about the car.
The problem that developed with this car would be the reason I let it go. About a few months after I bought the car, it started to develop this sound when I would turn the steering wheel. It was in the actual steering wheel, not suspension, or exterior sound. The only way I can describe it is like compressing a spring, and turning it. It would click every time I turned. I thought it might be the clock spring in the airbag, but wasn’t sure so I took it into the dealer. Sure enough it was the clock spring, but the dealer assured me that they were going to order a part, and get it fixed. Meanwhile they gave me a brand new car to drive, and I was alright with it. A few days later I got the car back, and the sound was gone… for now. A few days later the sound returned, and so I took it right back to the dealer for them to fix again. This went on 3 times, and each time the clicking would return. I am not too picky when it comes to most thing on cars, but I cannot stand when a car rattles, especially a year old car. I was also a bit worried about the safety as I was not sure how this clock spring might affect the airbag deploying when I needed it. The dealer was not really concerned about this, but I was getting a little uneasy.
After only 3 months of ownership, I decided that the best thing would be to trade it in. I was not really excited about losing money on it, but my dad and I both agreed that there could be some safety concern with this car so I found something a little more familiar.
In the end, I really did like the Subaru, it was a great car. It rode very well, seats were more comfortable, it came with a lot of features for a low price. It all really came down to that I just was not sure of the safety, and I was not confident in how the dealer was brushing it off. To be honest I did not have time either to keep taking it to the dealer every time is started to click. Needless to say my first set out of Volvo waters was not the best, but I had not written anything off yet.
It may have been a blessing in disguise. Over time you might have tired of the lack of go in the CVT/4 cylinder combo. At least one person I know has. Don’t get me wrong, nothing agains Subarus; it’s just that the Limited/4 cylinder combo is underpowered.
My experience with CVTs is limited to rental cars, but I had no problem driving in mountainous terrain with a 4-cylinder 2018 CVT Outback (in Glacier National Park and through the rainy Cascades to Seattle). Still would have rather had a stick, though.
Did Subaru ever solve their head gasket and oil consumption issues?
I dunno, but at 90K miles my ’09 Forester has yet to show symptoms of either. I’m both increasingly pleased and increasingly paranoid that nothing has turned up yet.
Our 2000 Forester went 170k and 15 years without a major issue. A couple of rear wheel bearings bearings being the only repairs outside of normal wear items. At the very end, one of the head gaskets was starting to leak to the outside. And we did endure piston slap on cold start-ups.
Sad to say Dr. Z, but that’s right around the time that era of EJ25 will start to show some signs of external seepage. Keep an eye on it and budget for it, monitor fluids and it can go for several years even with a minor (external) leak, giving you time to consider options.
There are two different engine families. The old 2.5L EJ engines were prone to head gasket leaks They seemed to go like clock work. The newer FB engines don’t have the head gasket problems but do have oil consumption issues. The FB engines started to replace the EJ engines in 2011. When I was at the local Subaru dealership earlier this year, the service manager was telling me to keep an eye on the oil consumption on our 2016 because he’s been replacing short blocks on late model cars under warranty due to oil consumption. Based on what I have seen on Subaru forums, it seems to be issue to some degree for the FB engines. There has also been reported CVT failures, but Subaru extended the warranty on them.
Knock-on-wood, ours with about 60K miles has no oil consumption issues, but I was did a very strict break-in routine to seat the rings. I also did an early break-in oil change and religiously replace the oil every 10K kms as per Subaru’s recommendation.
As a Volvo enthusiast your gravitation to Subaru isn’t uncommon. It might just be anecdotal, but many current Subaru owners have owned Volvos in the past. Both vehicles seem to appeal to the same demographic. As Volvos have grown quite expensive, and it’s once legendary reputation for reliability shaken, many former Volvo owners have found a new home with Subaru.
My 85 plymouth reliant k had a clicky steering wheel. Never was an issue. This was before airbags.
Yea limited options. Dont go Honda if you want options. Theyre rhe same way. Want an accord wirh paddle shifters? Get sport trim. But Want leather seats or non black interior? Step up to exl but lose rhe paddle shifters. Thats just 1 of a bizzilion examples. Honda Giveth and Honda Taketh Away
My wife and I bought a new 2016 Outback. It is primarily her car and she came from a Honda and Toyota past, so the Subaru was a bit of a let down. After over 4 years of ownership it has been an okay car. It’s not a spectacular car in anyway. Its decent in the snow, it’s comfortable and has a decent ride. It has good interior and cargo space. However, it has zero sporting aspirations dynamically. The 2.5L 4-cylinder is adequate, but you need to keep the revs up if you want it to move. It takes forever to warm up in winter, and sucks the fuel when the engine is cold. Fuel economy is so-so, about 28 mpg lifetime.
The biggest turn off for our car has been the horrendous warranty service from Subaru. We have had three warranty issues with the car and all have been a nightmare to get resolved. The worst was two of our doors rusted through on the door pillar (a known problem) and it took well over a year to get it resolved. Both doors had to be replaced due to rust, although I had to battle to get new doors and not a half-assed report. It is a long battle that I wish to never repeat.
I considered dumping the car recently, but the depreciation is more than expected so I will keep it for a while yet. But I will not be buying another Subaru ever again.
My sister is another who wanted to love one of these but could not. She might have stuck with it but she had electrical issues that the dealer could not seem to fix. The kind of issue that would have the dash randomly light up every single warning light on the instrument panel at once.
She said it finally hit her that when a rusty Ford pickup from the early 2000s was the reliable go-to every time the Subaru went back to the dealer that something was wrong. She traded it on a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and never looked back.
It is interesting that your resale is lower than expected – are Subarus not as popular where you live? They seem to bring a lot of money used around me.
They are pretty popular around here since I live in snow country. I was very frustrated with Subaru and just wanted to be rid of the car due to me resenting it for the poor service at the dealership and later from Subaru Canada. So I thought of just selling it and buying the equivalent RAV4 for age and mileage. However, the prices on the RAV’s were considerably more than what the Outbacks were going for. So it wasn’t worth it to sell. I will stick it out with this car for a bit.
I will say though, that unlike your sister’s Outback, ours has been reasonably reliable. All of it’s warranty issues were minor – a defective seat belt retractor, the tension spring in the steering rack (causing a rattle over bumps) and the rust on the doors. Like I said, the car it self is okay, but definitely not exceptional in anyway. Interestingly, both my sister-in-law and my brother have late model Foresters and neither of them are happy either. One was an absolute lemon that lived at the dealership, the other was okay buy my brother says it’s been mediocre as a car and won’t be buying another Subaru.
I do not understand. Our 2014 Outback has 155k miles. I remember the steering wheel noise, but it went away. No problems, yet. Our previous 2005 Outback had gasket trouble around 100k, and the dealer took sympathy, giving us rear wheel bearings. We sold it at around 185k.
Why are people giving up on nice cars so soon?
My question is why do they buy cars theyre not fans of to begin with? I can see that in the beater market but not in the new or slightly used market. When I buy I test drive everything and go with what I like.
I am on my 5th subaru and each have gone over 250,000 miles. What’s more, I bought all of the with less than 150,000 miles for around $5000. You guys are too paranoid and pay way too much for your transportation. also, I do not care what color the seats are!