Those of you that have driven the N/A 4 cylinder 2/2.5L gen 4 liberty/outbacks, how did they go power wise? Were they badly underpowered?
Need a p plate legal car in the future and I want something manual, with a bit of space, AWD or RWD, that isnt a commo or a falcon. I like the look of the gen 4 subie wagons, but I am a bit worried about the power. A 6 cylinder lib would be great but they are a few grand more and I wont be able to stretch that far. Should I look elsewhere?
Neither are powerhouses but the 2l is very ordinary. The first one I drove (looking for a first car for my son a couple of years ago) I thought had a worn out engine. Turns out the car is just a bit much weight wise and every 2 L I drove was the same.
I got my son a 2.5 gen 3 (we couldn't quite stretch to the Gen 4 at the time) and find it a nice drive in manual (Autos are plain gutless). I much prefer it to my tweaked Commodore.
The 6 cyls are more powerful but very heavy on fuel and they have had a chequered history re reliability. Gen 4's are better than earlier ones in regard the latter.
Pretty sure all Gen 4 6 cyls are auto. The auto's are very, very expensive to fix.
Subies are pretty reliable if serviced according to the book but all models can suffer center diff failures, a $1300+ repair, which becomes a $3500 gearbox repair if not picked up early enough).
Suspension is notoriously short lived (especially the rear shocks and sometimes springs, esp. on outback). Dampers are usually well and truly done by 150,000k (rebound is weak new) so allow replacement in the budget.
Pays to get any prospective purchase checked out by a Subie mechanic (not RACV!).
As I stated earlier, once you have experienced all wheel drive, two wheel just doesn't cut it any more.
