Well bought the Admiral a new vehicle

[boatman37]

Thanks JoLin (but we got rid of the Jeep for the Subaru ). So far still loving it. i don't like the range on the Subaru remote starter though. seems like you need to be about 30' or less away from it but will keep testing

 

[arks]

FWIW, we bought a Mazda CX-5 AWD in 2014 and it's been very reliable and fun to drive. Had to replace the front brakes at 40k but apparently that's normal.....
Our cars normally stay with us at least 10 years so reliability is important with us.

 

[ondarvr]

We've had several Subaru's, My wife still has an Outback limited turbo, she loves it, great cars with a couple glitches.

​Had the radiators come apart in both my wife's and daughter's Outbacks while on the freeway, it instantly dumps all the water and overheats, which requires new head gaskets, $2,400 on the normal Outback, $4,800 on the Limited. This includes a lot of stuff that can be easily done while it's apart. It was the second head gasket job on the normal Outback, but the first set lasted longer than normal, maybe 160,000 miles. I have no idea if Subaru fixed the head gasket issue, but people keep saying they changed them for longer life, but I still see people have problems. Anything after about 90,000 miles and the head gasket could go on the older ones.

 

[JoLin]

Thanks JoLin (but we got rid of the Jeep for the Subaru )

Grrr... I meant to type Subaru :facepalm:

 

[bruceb58]

I have no idea if Subaru fixed the head gasket issue, but people keep saying they changed them for longer life, but I still see people have problems.

Yes, what they did is make sure you use genuine Subaru coolant that has a stop leak in it. One of the reasons I would never buy a Subaru.

 

[jkust]

Whenever I go skiing out west, it's like every other vehicle is a subaru. Just bought my son a 13 Sonata with 50k miles for his 16th birthday and i've driven it a few times to work just to try it out. Never owned a 4 cylinder, haven't owned a non-body on frame suv forever and never owned a foreign car. Just the mileage difference alone is enough to make me want to move to a car from my 5.3 liter GM.

 

[ezmobee]

the funny thing is, i was always a GM guy but ended up with the Durango and a couple of Rams. i have to say the Jeep Commander was easily the best, most reliable vehicle we have ever owned. easily the worst across the board is Ford. i had pretty major issues with almost every one i had. pretty good luck with GM too. hopefully the Subaru is good!

Your Commander wasn't FCA. I just traded an '06 Grand Cherokee that was also an excellent vehicle.

 

[ondarvr]

Yes, what they did is make sure you use genuine Subaru coolant that has a stop leak in it. One of the reasons I would never buy a Subaru.

​In researching the coolants when it first happened it sounds like many, if not most, of the car manufactures use a stop leak coolant now.

 

[bruceb58]

​In researching the coolants when it first happened it sounds like many, if not most, of the car manufactures use a stop leak coolant now.

I know Cadillac was using an additive with the Northstar engine which also had a head gasket issue.

As far as I know, Honda and Toyota don't use them in their coolants but those are the only two factory coolants that I have used. Never heard in any of the forums about them containing a stop leak.

 

[ondarvr]

It was 3+ years ago when I looked into it, there were other companies and/or models that used stop leak, it wasn't confined to just a few.

One reason was that it elimanted most of the leaks during the initial inspection, so it saved time and money, it became a crutch some depended on.

 

[boatman37]

well without pics it didn't happen so here are a few of both new Subies. my son drove his WRX to work for the first time today (about 80 miles round trip) and according to the readout got about 27MPG. he filled it up last night after going through his first tank and got 23.6MPG on that tank which was pretty good for all the starting and stopping he did over the weekend learning to drive a stick. his 2006 BMW 325XI got about 25.5MPG back and forth to work so surprisingly the Subie seems to be better on gas. it only has about 350 miles on it so far so still not broke in