Faults:

Left us stranded on the Interstate 90 eight miles from Canastota NY, due to alternator failure. Was able to pull the car from the throughway and make it to nearest NAPA store, where we bought a mechanically defective (late in Saturday afternoon) alternator.

Miraculously made it back home. Few words of appreciation for NAPA.

Had no problems exchanging the defective (bad bearing) alternator bought in the US for good one in Canada.

That was about the only thing that went wrong during my term with that car.

The other issue was with the driver’s window seal. Very annoying whistle at highway speeds.

General Comments:

Have had three Legacies; 1990, 1992, and 1995, and one Impreza, a 1999, prior to purchasing this 2001 Outback.

Always been enthusiastic supporter and advocate for Subaru products. Their 2.5 liter engine changed everything.

That was my first one. Did not like it from the day one.

Bought it in the first week of May in Toronto Canada.

The weather was anything but hot at the time, which is very typical for the city.

Despite that, the engine started to ping on my way home.

Filled up with premium, erased keep alive memory of the computer to reset knocking map to factory settings. There was no effect on the engine ping, whatsoever.

Checked the heat range of the spark plugs and even replaced them for safety sake.

Connected scanner and drove it around watching the temperature. Never got hotter that 98C.

Sorted out higher that normal temperatures of the combustion chamber due to the lean mixture, because fuel consumption figures were way higher than those, claimed at www.fueleconomy.org.

Let it finally go, and just drove it with the radio blaring.

When the winter kicked in, the fuel consumption rocketed up to 15-16L/100km of city driving.

Sold it and never going to look back.

Faults:

None.

General Comments:

My family and I have owned a total of (5) Subaru Outbacks since 1980 and have found them to extremely good automobiles.

The first vehicle we drove for 196,000 miles and never had an engine, transmission or drivetrain problem. The only thing that did it in was rust which you can expect after driving sixteen (16) years in the Northeast.

The second one we drove for thirteen (13) years and 156,000 miles. Again the only factor that did it in was rust.

Living in western New York we have found these Outbacks to be reliable, safe, durable and economical to drive. Being a family of hunters we have on many occasions transported our gear and resultant big game without encountering any performance, space or transporting problems.

We currently have two Outbacks, a 2001 and 2005, and we love them both.

Faults:

This car has been great with one serious exception (and the reason that I won't buy another Subaru). Every time we get a good rain (in So Cal that's not very often), the car floods.

Subaru of Santa Monica has attempted to fix this problem on 3 separate occasions. The last time, they had the car for over 3 weeks.

Last night, we had the first substantial rain in years. The interior of the car was fogging up so much, that visibility was minimal (the defroster couldn't keep up). This morning my car was full of water, the headliner was soaked and water was still dripping down.

Monday will be Subaru's 4th attempt at stopping the car from leaking!!!

I've always had convertibles or cars with sun roofs. None of those cars have ever had a leak!!! Glancing through articles on the Internet --- I've discovered that my problem is not a unique one. Why hasn't Subaru issued a recall on this problem?!?!?!?!?

My biggest concern... how much mold have my children and I been exposed to over the last few years? (From minimal rain and car washes; insufficient water to travel through the headliner and flood the back of the car, but enough to get the interior of the headliner wet).

General Comments:

I have no other comments other than those above.