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My wife and I are looking to replace her jalopie, and we found a 2001 Subaru Outback at the local mission store. What I'm wondering is how reliable are they, as far as maintenance how easy is it to work on them, is maintenance affordable, and what kind of insurance costs are there.
2001 with the 4-cylinder engine is one of the years affected by head gasket failures. The vehicle that you are considering may have been repaired, but I would check the service records to be sure, or factor a head gasket repair into to the price that I would offer for it.
Traction is very good in adverse weather conditions with Subaru's AWD system, though fuel efficiency is not a strong suit for the class from that era. Reliability is average, not to the same level as a Honda, but as long as the car is maintained, you should not experience too many issues with it.
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I have a 2001 Outback. I've had it since 2007. It's my 3rd Subaru. The previous ones I had were 1991 Legacy wagons.
I'm happy with my Subaru and plan to keep it a long time even though it has some issues. Is the one you are looking at a manual or automatic transmission? I've known some of the automatics to have problems.
I've kept an eye on mine for the head gasket problem and it's been fine so far. I have 139,000 miles on it.
Subarus are extremely reliable cars. The 01-03 cars did have a head gasket problem but odds are that it's either already been fixed on that car or it won't cause you an issue.
The repair is also not that difficult if needed and most shops will do both gaskets for around $1000
From everything I've read, the 6-cylinder engines did not/do not have head gasket problems. We have a 2002 Outback H6 VDC (purchased new) and have never had any problem with it. Very dependable and great AWD.
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