Rise of the Subaru

I think I've finally settled on a car brand.  (For a guy who has made an average of one car purchase per year for the last fifteen years, that's no small achievement.)   What brand is that?  Subaru.

I remember being interested in Subarus before I even knew what they were.  The first one I was aware of was the "Brat," a sort-of-truck vehicle built on Subaru's all-wheel-drive car platform.  

Imported to the US in the 80's with rear-facing seats in the back (to qualify for a lower tariff), it was unlike anything else on the road... until the VW Sporttruck and Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp showed up and tried to copy the Brat's design and success.  (They didn't--both competitors were front-wheel-drive only and suffered lousy sales.)  The Brat was was different and fun-looking and, more significant to me at age 10, was available as an RC car.  The neighbor-kid Joey had one (the first RC kit-car I ever got to play with) just like the set in these pictures.

Our other neighbor (opposite side of our house from Joey's family) owned the first Subaru I ever saw up-close.  A retired gentlemen who maintained a full-time schedule of puttering, he bought the type of car that would one day save Subaru sales in the US market:  an all-wheel-drive wagon.

Living at the end of a hilly, quarter-mile lane in the rainy--and sometimes snowy--Pacific Northwest, he needed a vehicle that would get him and whatever stuff he was puttering around with through all kinds of weather.  He bought a brown GL wagon, like these, in 1983.

My first rides in a Subaru came later, from two high school friends.  One was a classmate who drove us in a brand-new Legacy sedan (it may have been his mom's) when he and I worked as mentors in the city's D.A.R.E. program during our senior year.  I remember it because it was a new design... and much nicer than my 1976 beater, but I wasn't exactly smitten with the brand because of the experience.

The other WAS a beater... a beat-up blue Subaru wagon driven by a friend on the debate team.  As best I can remember, it was a mid-1970's model, something like the one below.  It also failed to make me a Subaru-fan.

By this time, my interest in cars was in full bloom.  I had a subscription to Motor Trend, and would check out back-issues of Car and Driver and Road & Track from the local library.  When I wasn't bagging groceries or pushing carts in my after school job, I would spend by fifteen-minutes of break-time flipping through "Wheel-Deals," the local auto classifieds.  In those days, there were deals to be had, like classic Mustangs for a few thousand dollars, and I dreamt of ditching my crappy Oldsmobile for something awesome.  I can't say I ever dreamt of a Subaru, although I do remember the Subaru XT coupe, with its 80's wedge shape and strange, asymmetric steering wheel.  In general, though, I had no interest in Subarus.

That all changed in college.  Subaru, watching its sales drop year after year, was having trouble in the US car market.  Americans had a newly-discovered taste for Sport Utility Vehicles, and every carmaker was chasing after the Ford Explorer for some of the action.  Lacking the resources to develop a new SUV design, Subaru tried a special-edition package on its 1995 Legacy all-wheel-drive wagon, calling it the "Outback."

Really, the package wasn't anything more than two-tone paint, fog-lights, and tough-looking wheels, but it worked.  One of my college professors (already a die-hard Subaru 4WD wagon fan) bought one and raved about it.  Apparently lots of people felt the same way, and the following year Subaru made the Outback its own model, adding some key improvements:  higher roofline to give more interior room, raised suspension to compete for more ground clearance, a bigger engine (2.5L, optional over the standard 2.2L), bigger tires, and heavy-duty bumpers with rallye lights.

This is the Subaru vehicle that caught my attention.  It was my Senior year of college, and my house-mate had landed a salesman's job at the local dealership.  After working there a few months, he earned the right to drive a demo vehicle: a brand-new 96 Outback.  His status in the house immediately jumped, and continued to climb when heavy winter snows stranded the rest of us.  He and I had known each other since the 8th grade, so it was inevitable that we would need to "test" the Subaru's snow-driving ability... to make sure he was accurate when speaking to future customers, of course.  Shenanigans ensued as we took turns behind the wheel, conducting our "research" in empty, snow-covered streets and parking lots around the campus.  I was hooked.

That same winter, in an incident that ended badly for my house-mate, I learned the limits of a Subaru Outback's winter abilities.  A group of us were in my buddy's demo Outback on our way to my fiancee's house.  The snow had been on the ground for weeks, and fluctuating temperatures had turned some sections of road to layers of packed snow, ice, and water.  As we rounded a turn, the Ouback hit one of these combined section and began a slow, determined slide that neither its all-wheel-drive nor ABS brakes could stop.  The front fender connected with the tire of a parked pickup truck, denting the demo and guaranteeing that he and I wouldn't be doing any more snow-driving research sessions.  Fortunately, the damage to the Outback was minor (and the pickup was unscathed) so he fixed it with his next paycheck.  

When it came time to buy my first "new" car, I test-drove a 2000 Outback and nearly bought it.  

I wish I had, because I honestly think that many of the crazy car purchases that followed could have been avoided.  Instead, I bought a 4Runner (see the "What kind of guy was I?" post on this blog) and insanity followed.

Fast-forward to 2009.  I'm on my way down to get a particularly nasty dent fixed in my 5th Honda Accord (see the post, "Honda Parade, part 2) when I discover an incredible deal on Subaru Outbacks.  It was at the height of the Iraq war, and Subaru was one of many automakers showing their support for military-specific deals.  Additionally, Subaru was offering a big rebate on their 2009 Outbacks to clear inventories before the reveal of their new 2010 design update.  The trade would actually make me money!  It was like Subaru was paying me to take the car!  No matter that I was leaving the country in six weeks... this was meant to be.  It was finally time for me to own a Subaru Outback.  I bought a gray one:

I endured several weeks of well-earned eye-rolling from my wife before leaving for the middle east.  My attempts to argue the merits of the Subaru sounded like a lot of rationalization for yet another car purchase (probably because they were).  But THEN, fate swung in my favor: the "Snowpocalypse" of 2009 hit the East coast, and my wife fell in love with the Subaru, finding that it's much easier to make your way through fresh snow in an Outback than in a rear-wheel-drive sedan.

I loved this car.  To this day, I think it's the most attractive design Subaru has ever built.  But my particular Outback had a rough go of it.  It was hit twice in minor (bump) incidents that led to it's nickname, "Bullseye."  Bullseye's bad luck continued when I got home.  Several wind storms and falling branches led to a dented roof.  A defective floor-mat anchor led to torn carpeting, which was improperly installed by the local dealer... leaving an ugly gap between the carpet and the rear passenger door sill.  The same dealer dropped a tool on the hood during an oil change and dented it (they fixed that one).  Poorly braced Starbucks cups dumped plenty of coffee into the floor.  A rock connected with the windshield at freeway speeds, causing an aftermarket replacement with a unit that had ugly oversized edging.  And finally, in an early-morning attempt to back out of the driveway, I scraped up Bullseye's right rear panel (against my sister-in-law's parked SUV), scratching the wheel guard and warping the fender.

So, less than three years later, Bullseye was traded in for a Dodge muscle-car.

During the time that I was abusing Bullseye, my wife had decided to try a Subaru of her own.

As she was used to the many features of her Mercedes, I thought it smart to similarly option her Outback.  This was my first time getting a "fully loaded" car.  We bought a white 2011 3.6R Limited.  It was very nice, with backup camera, navigation, leather, moonroof, and the like.  The 3.6 flat-six had plenty of power.  But, after driving it for a couple of years, my wife realized that, while it was nice having an Outback in the family,  she really preferred driving a small sedan.  The 2011 was traded in for a newer version of her previous Mercedes. 

In the meantime, my muscle-car experiment went bad quickly (see "what kind of guy was I?") and I started kicking myself for getting rid of Bullseye.  Eager to avoid the dents and carpet problems from the local Subaru dealership, I drove a hour to their competition and acquired my current car: a 2013 Subaru Outback.

It is awesome.  All the good things I remember about Bullseye, but with none of the downsides.  

For example, Bullseye's 2.5L flat four was basically the same engine that had been powering Outbacks since 1996.  The transmission was a similarly old 4-speed automatic.  The 2013 Outback uses a brand-new engine and a modern CVT that together get 31mpg on the freeway.  Nice.

The other big difference is space.  In Bullseye, I had the seat all they way back and down just to fit my 6' frame in.  I had to be careful when wearing big boots because the small footwell sometimes caught my toe when I tried to switch from gas pedal to brake.  Our teenage daughter's backseat legroom in the 2009 Outback was minimal.  In "Starbuck" (named for all the coffee we consume and sometimes spill) there's plenty of room for everyone, EVEN THOUGH THE 2013 IS THE SAME LENGTH AS THE 2009.  Well done, Subaru!

This car is me.  It can handle snow, rain, or (thanks to tinted windows on the 2013) sun.  It will carry people, pets, or stuff.  It's low enough to cut through traffic, but high enough to climb over a curb.  It doesn't suck down fuel.  It syncs with my iPhone for music and calls.  AND it's made right here in the United States in a zero-landfill assembly plant located on a wildlife preserve.

Long live the Subaru Outback.  I have found my car.