I was given this car back in November 2023. I owned the car for 1 year and 3 months. Loved the heated cloth seats. Drove from Washington to California and back no problem. Near the end I drove it though the Washington winter. I had to sell it because my mother wanted me to get a newer vehicle. A new driver is driving the car now. Highly recommend this car.

This car is truly phenomenal. Take good care of it, and it takes good care of you. Keep up on maintenance and you have no problems. Wait for the engine to fully warm up before you romp on it and you won't have head gasket problems. It's pretty fun to slide around gravel roads as it gets loose and swings the tail pretty easy, but it's super easy to recover simply by countersteer and lifting off the gas. But stay in it and countersteer and beautiful drifts take place. Super funny to drift a station wagon. Had it to 110 mph once. Didn't feel unsafe or unstable. Car looks good from most angles. Daily communting was what I did with it (although obviously some fun stuff too), and it satisfied my needs with the helpful storage space of an SUV but good gas mileage of a crossover. Engine isn't super powerful, but has enough torque and grunt to get you by, just don't expect any supercar levels of acceleration. It's got great handling on dry and wet pavement, but take it out to a gravel road and she shines. Mine was at 268000 miles before I sold it to family, they say it's still going strong. Even at that mileage you can still drive it like a rented mule and it likes it. At over 200,000 miles I stopped driving it at 75-80 on freeway. Keep it to 70 and oil consumption stays pretty good. I extreme offroaded (being some things you might see on the trans-america trail, like mud pits, sand and river crossings) it a few times with all season Goodyear's and it had no problem. I can't say enough about this car if I ever have the chance to drive another one I will. Just make sure the engine warms up first before doing anything stupid.

Even low mileage examples have problems with head gaskets. Only practical way to fix is to pull the engine. Everything else is failing as well. I was under the false impression that Subaru is a sturdy brand. At 120,000 miles the car needs an overhaul.