Hi John,
Happy new year!!!
That bad, ha?
I was seriously thinking about this, because of two reasons:

1) my mechanic in Allentown has access to subaru engines, wherever he
   gets them from (?) and likes to work on them (are they good sources
   of income for him, maybe???)

2) A friend that I know has two subarus, the 85 is a piece of total
   crap.  The '92 is the bigger Subaru, with the 2.2L engine, and has
   withstood his abuse (he is really bad) for 3/4 years now...  The
   car itself may still be a piece of junk, but if the engine takes
   abuse, well, I was thinking anyway, I may get one and try it out.  

And now, I am not sure once again...
Cetin

GRAZUL@zodiac.rutgers.edu writes:
 > 
 > 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