Highway Star

You do realize you have to take care of it, as in washing all that road salt off regularly so it doesn't start rusting and proceed to be eaten away by it.

No shit? I wondered why we have drive through car washes on every corner. It's a miracle that my oldest car is 15 years old with 160k miles and no problems. But hey, it's not a Subaru.

You all laugh. But a chronic model problem can emerge at a certain time. Since this is the first year of the 5th generation, in another year or two you can tell me I didn't maintain my car or that I was the leading edge of a scourge for every northern owner of a 5G Legacy. Only time will tell.

Sorry I can't help you on your sub-frame. I just found out my front sub-frame has rusted out and needs to be replaced. I got a quote from the dealer for ~$500 in parts and ~$1000 in labor. So all in I estimate it's about a $2K job.

It's a bite because the car is in good shape and too valuable to sell off. However when repairs get to over 15% of the car value, I start re-evaluating my fleet strategy.

The biggest bitch is that the car is 8 years and a couple of months and about 95k miles. Pretty disappointing for a brand that claims to be all about snow and dirt roads. Of course I'll get it fixed but the Subaru love has gone cold.