Guys,

have any of you owned a Subaru?   The reason I got into VWs was because
of my '75 Subaru wagon.  There is absolutely no ambience,  tinny,  
plastic-ee {real low grade plastic,  cheap at that},  no likable 
idiosyncracies which means no character...and to beat all they are
VERY hard to work on unless you have the right SHOP tools.  My brother-
in-law a Subaru dealer mechanic loves 'em because he has a box full
of the specialized tools...when I got the estimate for CVs and a brake job
$1800.00,  I sold it and bought a '77 rabbit which had 200K on it when
I traded it in for an '85 TD Jetta which I sold for $2500 when it had
250K on the motor.  I hardly think that ANY Subaru can hold its value
for obvious reasons so when you put that tinny difficult little engine
in your Vanagon is it really an upgrade?  My first 1.9L wasserboxer
had 106K when I replaced it with a new VW 1.9L boxer which now has
70K on it and is running impecably and wlll keep on running well because
I take care of it.  That engine cost $2500 installed with a 10-12
warrentee.  I really think we VW guys are spoiled by the quality and
reliability of the VW...is the grass really greener?  Try selling
your '83 Subaru for over $1000 regardless of the mileage....then
put your '79 westy with 200K on the ticker and see the phone ring
off the hook.  

john Grazul
Rutgers University