I had a '79 DL, 4x4. It sounded and drove like a tractor, but would never
get stuck. It would often backfire when shifting between first and second,
and send pedestrians running for cover. On cold, wet days, the throttle
linkage would freeze and I'd have to shut the engine down to stop the
thing. I too started running into excessive repair costs ($600 Y pipe) and
every time that I worked on it, I'd twist off one or two of the cheap
pot-metal bolts. Good idea, bad execution. I wouldn't buy another Subaru or
consider putting Subaru parts in my beloved VWs.

-Mark

>
>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.