Since it’s a used car and depending on its mileage, find out whether the timing belt is new-ish if its engine is a double overhead cam. Finding out could save you thousands of dollars.
it comes to mind because of this recent thread.
Love mine. It holds more than our old Vue did, gets better mileage, is easier to maintain and has been slightly more reliable (And the Vue was damn good so that is saying a lot). The one part where I have to be critical is rust. OK - Saturns were mostly covered in forms of plastic but the Subaru I’ve really had to follow up on as far as small chips and such - the kind that can cause serious body rot down the line. Now I am driving highway mostly and in a state that uses a lot of rock salt. But my suggestion is get the Outback and pick up a chip kit while you are at the dealership.
For more room, you can always just remove the back seats.
If you are looking for a used Subaru, don’t go back too many years. I know the ones from the late '90s and into the early 2000s were notorious for having head gasket failures. It was so well known that when you took your Subaru into the dealer for any kind of work, they automatically added a solution of their own that helped slow down the gasket failure.
As far as I know this was only with the 2.5 lt engine.
They may have corrected this problem, and if they did, I’m not aware of when it was done.
Other than that, they are great cars.
One other thing in regards to an Outback: If you’ve never heard it before there’s a pop culture cliche that a woman driving a Subaru means she’s a lesbian*!*
Just sayin’… 
Not the Outback, only the Forester!
That’s the way I heard it to. 
Also, the Subaru Forester is the state car of New Hampshire.
Regarding the Outback, the redesign years were 2005, 2010, and 2014. I assume you don’t want to go older than that. According to Consumer Reports, the six-cylinder was better than the four-cylinder in reliability before the 2010 redesign. After that, the four-cylinder was a bit better in reliability. The 2011 or 2012 is generally quite reliable according to their ratings, with the 2011 4-cylinder probably being the best in all categories.
Regarding four vs six cylinders, I’ve found that my 2009 Forester (the four-cylinder non-turbo) had plenty of power in New York (less than 1000 feet), but has a real problem at altitude (5000 feet plus, depending on where I am in town) especially going up hills or trying to maintain 75+. Also, it really needs a fifth gear for highway cruising in the automatic version. It’s due for its 60k service, which includes the spark plugs, so that might help with the power issue. However, my mother just bought a 2015 Outback–the top end in terms of luxury, with all the bells and whistles so she could get all the safety features–and found that on a trip to Colorado on the interstates the CVT tended to run around 5,000 RPM while trying to maintain highway speed (75+). That said, I’m not sure if she bought the four or six cylinder, but I’d be happy to post that once I find out if anyone’s interested.
5,000 rpm to maintain 75+ sounds a bit high. What highway mpg did (does) she get?
Maybe that was mostly when putting more of a load on the engine like going up a long hill. Not sure what the story was about being on flatter ground. My Forester kept jumping between third and fourth gear trying to do 80 starting at some point west of Amarillo, even going up little hills, and it would hit close to 5,000 RPM in third. I haven’t taken it up the same hill approaching Santa Fe that my parents have, and I didn’t ask how their Outback performed at very high elevation in Rocky Mountain.
I’ve found my best solution is to use the sport mode while driving in town on particular trips.
I would be interested. Mine is a 2011 I believe (I don’t like any car enough to really pay attention to the details) six speed manual and for me 70/75 is about 2200 in top gear. I don’t know just what 5000 would be but I’m betting on something over 90. For long hills I sometimes go down to 5th and more like 4000 but that’s more wanting to stay in the power band as much as need.
Four-banger here and my MPG is usually around 24 here in the city and 32 highway and maybe climbing a little more yet for the latter. That 6 speed was a little bit of a learning curb from my usual 5 speeds to get used to.
So my wife is trying to tell me something? (She has the Forrester that is a bit cramped for me.)
I have an 07 Legacy wagon and it has been one of the best cars I’ve owned. As noted above, the 2.5 non-turbo is prone to head gasket failure (a $2200 touch which included the water pump, timing belt and gasket). That is, however, the only maintenance I’ve had to do other than the normal replacement stuff.
FWIW, I’m 6"2", and it’s a tight fit. The newer Outbacks are quite a bit larger, as are the Imprezas. The new Impreza is close to the same size as my Legacy!
My wife and I just bought a brand new Forester, it’s very nice. Fantastic visibility, fun to drive, comfortable. Great turning radius. We just got back from Mammoth Lakes via Yosemite and the car had no problems with performance at 9-10,000 feet.
We also test drove the Outback wagon, it’s a very similar vehicle. Visibility wasn’t quite as good. I believe it’s slightly longer so you get a smidge more cargo room especially if you fold down the rear seats. It was also around $5k more, we didn’t see what we were getting for the money.
Regarding roominess, the other year myself and three buddies spent a lot of time driving around Arizona in one guy’s Forester (2013 or 2014 I think). One of my friends is a former defensive lineman, he’s about 6’ 2" and a bit under 300lbs, he wasn’t cramped in the front seat and we had plenty of room in the back seats.
Ah yes, the turning radius in a Forester is fantastic. It’s tighter than the Honda Accord that I also drive, so it really doesn’t handle like an SUV. The height means that I don’t sling it around like my old Impreza wagon.
As I said, maybe mine just needs new spark plugs. Maybe I’m just picky about performance. Or maybe the newer CVT performs better than the old 4-speed automatic. As I said, I manage to do better driving it in town and picking the gears in sport mode than the computer does.
This is worth repeating. I had a Subaru 2005 Outback, and the head gasket failed at 65,000 miles. I WAS (AND AM) SUPER PISSED. Your goddamn motor shouldn’t fall apart at 65k miles.
This was a problem for a decade or more with Subaru. I’ll never buy another one as long as I live, no matter their current rep.
Re: Head gasket issues in non-turbo 4 cylinder engines. A good explanation of the problem.
This site has the following to say… “In case you were wondering, anything up to these have head gasket issues, which is: The older EJ series motors, which those vehicles are up to 2009 Legacy/Outback, 2010 for Forester, 2011 for Impreza.”
I’ve been thinking about what to get my kid as a first driver that may need room for a dog and spend time in the mountains of Colorado, so based on the comments here a Forester may be the ticket, 2011 or later of course.
Just in case anyone has the wrong idea – my wife’s Forrester is a great car! It just isn’t very comfortable for me. It’s fine for up to two hours or so, but beyond that it gets increasingly painful.
Well, I asked and I did misunderstand. It would kick up to 5000 RPM to climb hills but only then.
Same here except I have a 2001. I love everything about it (except the check engine light came on and I need to have that seen to.)
Outbacks love going uphill, which is useful when you live in the mountains like I do.