nasioc.com

Good resources there.

What car did you buy?

I had a 1999 Forester. Head gasket, transmission, right rear wheel bearing all failed within a year of purchase in 2005. Right after that the downstream O2 sensor failed, then this winter the upstream O2 sensor failed. I almost forgot the MAS went, too. It's specific to year and model, not all Subaru MAS are the same. Needless to say I'm not that impressed with Subarus.

The ex now has that POS and I'm back in Volvo land with a Chevy 3500 when things need to move from point A to B. The used car lot (mostly $10k plus BMW, Volvo, Mercedes) I buy from, where we got that Forester, no longer stocks any Subarus because of similar customers' problems.

I'm amazed that Consumer Reports calls them a good buy. Maybe for a new car, but used they are throwaway trash. The rear suspension bolts sieze in place, and the fix is to cut the lower suspension arm off and replace it! I personally did the r/r of the knuckle, got the shop to do the bearing on that one. Subaru went with a lower-spec (cheaper) ball bearing set. The fix is to use the tapered set from an older Impreza.