I've owned a 2008 Outback (sold in 2018 with 110,000 miles when the head gasket failed). The consistent oil problems are troubling. But the pros have outweighed the cons so far, so I keep getting Subarus.
Avoid older Subarus with a EJ25 engine, especially 2012 or before. The head gaskets are shit.
My 2015 Crosstrek blew a head gasket at 141k, only once ever let the oil change get past 5000 miles. Been disappointed with this car so far, needing a new engine, it'll probably be the end of my Subaru ownership.
it was from the garbage head gasket era, and it still had its original factory head gaskets on it when I finally pulled the motor to turbo swap it earlier this year. It had 270,000km on it. So overall, for 10 years of ownership it was pretty damn reliable.
Keep in mind I got rid of a 2013 Forester that had the infamous Subaru head gasket issue. Not an issue I want to ever deal with again.
The Japanese car that's let me down has been Subaru. Two blown head gaskets resulted in the engine overheating and basically turning into scrap.
If it's the typical 2.5 SOHC H4, that is the year and same mileage where my head gaskets failed on my Legacy of that generation. The failures are external leaks almost all the time so if you see drops of oil on your driveway, it's a good chance they are weeping.
I can't recommend calling around to other mechanics/dealerships enough. Did the head gaskets on my subie, have done them on all subies, but on the most recent one earlier this year. The range in expected cost I was quoted ranged from 2700-8k. Went with the 2700 option, a local, family owned subaru mechanic, and have had zero issues since.
Unfortunately subaru only realized that the late 90s Subarus had an unreliable gasket material. They started switching to multi-layered metal gaskets around 99-ish. This is a really common issues with the NA 2.5.
Head gasket, typical Subaru issue.
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