I once saw a story about a teacher that drove to work and back. Her journey took her 120 miles EACH WAY. What was her car? 2004 Subaru Outback. She racked up over 500,000 miles on that car and it never let her down. Subaru used her story when she bought a new one as part of the 2020 Outback ad campaign.
just bought one of these with 125,000 kms on it and she purrrrrsssssss...like a kitten. I just have to remember to turn the lights off..... #newbieInaSubie
I just bought myself this year a 2001 outback legacy LL Bean with only 38k miles with a perfect carfax from a dealership paid in full ,the paint is perfect, no scratches, interior ia immaculate...so pumped to read how stoked people are on this car. An old man,never married , garage kept had it his whole life, literally only drove it to the grocery store and maintenance. The best surf wagon I could have ever asked for and am moving to the mountains next year!! So pumped to own this car!!!
I've had my 2002 for six years and I love it. I'm a fairly conservative driver so the 2.5 engine doesn't bother me even when towing a small trailer which I do pretty often, it just requires good timing for entering highways and passing. It drives and handles well, is comfortable on long trips even though I'm a big guy at over six feet, and the AWD is remarkable in those occasional times when I've been in low traction conditions on some pretty sketchy back roads. The only real problems to watch out for on this generation with the 2.5 is the head gaskets are known to fail though there is a much improved replacement available and the timing belt needs replacement at around 105K miles because if it fails the engine is likely toast.
This helped me so much man so , your saying since I’m looking to buy my first Subaru Outback and yes I know how bad those head gasket material they use are , cheap and lousy , so if I do maintenance on the timing chain and the oil changed and stuff I will be ok with a little bit longer lasting Subaru , like the 2004 or 2007 ?
@@Anthony0899 I can't really speak for Subaru's other than the same type I own which is a second generation Outback. These were built for model years 2000 - 2004 and the four cylinder engines in these is the most notorious for head gasket failure. My automatic transmission still seems strong but manuals are always less expensive to service and repair in any car. The timing belt should be inspected every 30K miles per the owners manual and definitely replaced at 105K - I had mine replaced at 90K simply because the car was 13 years old by then. To my knowledge the six cylinders have no real head gasket issues and they have a timing chain which should theoretically last forever. I've gained most of what I know from the RU-vid channel MrSubaru1387 and I recommend that you check it out.
@@paulspeakman551 thank you man , and yes just wondering , don’t want to run it to a bunch of problems, that’s why I’ve been looking at Volvo’s because those suburbs worry me a bit with those issues
@@Anthony0899 you're welcome. I just got back from a trip with mine day before yesterday, 1500 miles round trip, 1400 miles of it towing my 1500 lb cargo trailer camper with no problems - I stay off the interstates and take the scenic route. A bit of the trailer towing was in the Blue Ridge Mountains and after I parked the trailer on a campsite I explored some dirt forest service roads way back in the mountains. Is was a great trip. That's what a Subaru is for, exploring.
GOOD REVIEW YOUNG MAN.IM 70 YEARS OLD LIVE IN TENNESSEE WE HAVE SOME ROUGH COUNTRYSIDE HERE IN HOUSTON CO. ALONG THE TENNESSEE RIVER.OUR FAMILY ARE DUCK HUNTERS WE DRIVEN SUBARU,S SINCE THE L WAGON 45 YEARS AGO. I,VE HAD ALL 4X4 DRIVES EVEN THE INTERNATIONAL CHIEF AND SCOUT,FACT THE SUBARU,S OUTPREFORM THEM ALL HANDS DOWN IN ALL TYPE OF WEATHER AND TERRAIN,WOULD NEVER DRIVE ANY OTHER !!!THANK YOU SIR FOR SHOWING A PRODUCT THAT TRULY SERVES THE PUBLIC WELL!!!
These Outback’s were awesome. A friend of mine had one in College, upstate NY. Had over 200K miles and ran great. It was a beast with 4 snow tires in the winter. Tons of cargo room too
Keep an eye on that head gasket! If you get a sweet almondy smell or a white powdery substance on the head of the engine you're already leaking antifreeze. That means your head gasket is dying. get that fixed and you'll get another 70,000 miles before you deal with the problem again. It is a common and recurring problem with that engine across all models
@@JJH-jc1fg I hope you did get it sorry for taking this long to reply. Well yo your question I had fix the starter it was giving problem but other then that it’s cool station wagon and I can pick up stuff that my car can’t . I will take it for camping. When things get better ...
LMAO that is SO clever, the Legacy Outback at least my 2000 has seat warmer switches where those coin holders are, you gotta admire how much they innovated for every level of elegance.
I bought my 2002 LL BEAN with 300k miles for $450, and it runs like a 100k mile car. Amazing build quality. The rear seat DOES sit flat. You have to lift up the rear seat, remove the headrests, and it locks down. Also, if you can get the LL Bean, you get the 6 cylinder engine that gives a ton more power. They like to cruise and putter around, but floor it and it will fly!!!
Nice review - I have just purchased a 2001 Subaru Outback Limited version vehicle ahere in Australia, and just need to do a bit of work to get it back on the roads. This will be a great car for me.
How did your Outback do? Its been a year since you posted..l am curious, l just got a 2000 base Outback, over the last month l have replaced just about everything from bearings, struts, sensors, rotors, pads, tires, compressor, CVs, alternator, stereo and speakers, fuel pump, plugs, wires filters and fluids.. it cost around 3k in parts maybe a lil more, the odometer shows 279,000 miles on it but it purrs perfectly, l don't know of it's history but l can see the head gaskets and timing belt were done about 20-40k miles ago ( judging by the very light wear to the lettering on belt) l know it's nuts to start with a base and go over it so extensively but the motor, tranny and drive train seemed perfect as was the interior..lm hoping to get another 100k or more out of it. What is your sitch? Milage? What have you done so far?
@@jameshill2015 not him but I've got a 2000 outback wagon, runs pretty well for having 300,000km on the dot, some things are so old i've just had to replace them like the battery terminals and putting in a new headset in the dash, but I've had for a year and a half now and honestly as long as you maintain it changing the oil and coolant when needed the car itself is very reliable, the biggest pain is finding replacement parts (for example I had one of the little bulbs that hold the windscreen wipers break, going to fix it with super glue and silicon sealant) as subaru don't sell replacement parts for it so you have to go to a wreckers, I'm thinking of picking up another 2000 outback from the wreckers just to use as a donor vehicle, highly reccommend it for model specific parts if you have the space for it.
You can lift the bench of the back seat rotating towards the front. the bench will up against the back of the front seats. Then you can lay the back seats flush with the rest of the cargo area.
I bought a 2002 Outback LL Bean edition with the 3.0 October 2022. $2900 cash. I absolutely love it. I enjoyed my Lincoln Towncar but this Subie has so much going for it. These have had bad years 98-00 & others. If you are a camper, hiker, fishing or just driving in the woods of Central Oregon like this RU-vidr? I cannot recommend the H-6 model enough. Yes, not great gas mileage and due to frameless windows you get wind noise on them all. Mr Subaru on RU-vid has some honesty on these. Nice review Driven Companion. Honest and accurate.
My mom had one of these Outbacks. I drove it from Maine to Maryland and back one summer. It's was a beautiful vehicle. I wish Subaru hadn't changed the design so much
Excellent video. Thanks for posting. We just bought our first Subaru which is a 01 Outback VDC with the 3.0. Looking forward to making XC trips with it. Thanks again & have a great day.
Yep i'm in the 541 and my first car's gonna be an 02 or 04 outback. They are everywhere around here, so it should be decently easy to find the one for me. Once i'm a finacially stable adult, i'm getting myself an 04 STI
@@konaopule323 Yep I wouldn't be surprised. Also I ended up getting a 2008 Impreza Outback lol not that you care just thought it was funny reading my old comment
The 3.0 is amazing I love every bit of it. It will go 120 without a heart beat and just shift to 4th gear at 4500 rpm in 4th going 120 I’m assuming I’ve got it to 145 with plenty of room to go faster
Nice ol' school Subie Review! There was also a one-year -2000- Brighton model. All Subarus were AWD from '97 until the BRZ. This 2.5 with Automatic transmission gets 22/27 city/highway MPG, which is comparable to anything else from 20 years ago and with AWD. (My '04 CR-V only gets 25MPG.) These were the last 'well-built' Subarus, if you ask the die-hards -except for HG. (The '05+ models had more general issues with body hardware and difficult to upgrade the integrated HVAC + stereo/HU in higher-end models. )
I agree, my biggest complaint about the 2.5 is it's incredibly slow and it's not even that fuel efficient. If I'm going to sacrifice power I at least want fuel efficiency.
Well shoot. The lady blocked me and totally blew me off so I went to my backup being a 96 legacy outback with a 5 speed. Might be the better car anyways and it’ll be a lot more fun with that 5 speed :)
I just paid $2,700 for a 2002 Subaru outback legacy the dark blue and light gold package the illumin 16-inch beautiful charcoal grey interior with wood trimming automatic power everything she's my second Subaru and I don't regret spending the money on it or any little repairs that I'm doing
I traded my 06 Baja in on a 07 Chevy Silverado LTZ , it was a awesome Chevy but l REALLY regret doing it, my black Baja had 55,000 on it and it was really unique, the Chevy's are dime a dozen. Wish l still had it, l now believe it or not have a 2000 Outback base with 275,000 on it and doing all the work myself it is like new and purrs perfectly..l love the car..such a lil tank and super utilitarian.. easy to work on. I do not hesitate to believe l will get another 100 plus thousand miles on it, cheers!
I live in Connecticut, Subarus everywhere and for good reason! Some of the harshest winters in the country at times. Looking to get the L.L. bean version
I had a 2000 Legacy Outback. I did like it. However, two problems cropped up during its time with me. It was a five-speed manual and the manual transmission was never up to spinning those four wheels and thus it was a clutch destroyer. I've always only driven manual transmission cars and have gotten well over 200,000 miles on every clutch which is far more than the average for any car. This car only managed about 75,000 mi before burning through a clutch. Secondly, and everyone who's owned one knows it, the head gaskets go at around 70,000 miles as well. This can be a big repair bill especially when you couple it with the possibility of replacing your clutch as well. Subaru has since figured out the head gasket issue and they no longer offer a manual transmission in this heavy a vehicle that spins four wheels. Other than that I thought it was a pretty cool car
Bought a 2000 outback last October. Has had some electrical issues with the ECU ground but I’ve put 26k on it already and took it on a 17 hour roadtrip without it failing me
Actually Subarus crossover basically started back in the late seventies early eighties with the Subaru dl and GL wagon sedan and they also had the justy that was both front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive some of them had the four low the synchros just was not very good on the ones with the four low because it would constantly knock out the second gear synchro
The back seats do gold flat, if you fold the bottom of the seat forwards first. And the 5-speed manual is faster at acceleration, for some reason. Probably shorter gearing.
One thing I think about most videos where they say a vehicle is slow around 10 seconds from zero to sixty I mainly ignore because most cars get from zero to sixty within that time
My concern is that seems to be a gas hogger.... 2.5 loter getting roughly 21 to 23mpg on highway thats terrible for a car in ots segment... plus all the underlying issues with engine!
I was wondering if you could make more space in the back seats by moving the seats a little back and having less space in the trunk. Lmk if this is possible thanks
The junkyard is the best place to go for these parts. Picked up a passenger seat subwoofer, door tweeters, dual bulb headlights which I later soldered the connectors on, L.L. Bean 6 disc CD Changer, interior wood molding, black leather seats and leather steering wheel, wire harnesses, and black leather door panels for my 2000 Legacy L
