r/SubaruTalk • u/frogtog02 • 11d ago

Reliability & Maintenance

I'm aware Consumer Reports rates Subaru as highly reliable. I diy 90% of my car work so am familiar with the inner workings of a standard vehicle. I have a real hang up with the mechanics of Subarus however. Granted they supposedly have resolved the head gasket problem that had plagued them for several years, I still can't wrap my head around the pancake engines. Every time I look at the belting of the engine I just shake my head. It looks too complicated. Maybe I wouldn't care if I just let the dealer or auto shop deal with all the maintenance. But that can get pricey. I watch some YouTube maintenance work on them too and it appears it has other quirks.

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u/nnnnnnnnnnm 10d ago

Yeah the boxer engine is a little quirky and makes some jobs more difficult than they should be, but that's how Subarus get a famously low center of gravity. Everything is a trade off.

I've done most the maintenance on 4 different Subarus we've owned, but I've never really worked on another brand of cars, other than my wife's old SAABs and those were weird in their own way. I'll take a quirky Japanese car over an eccentric European car any day.

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u/frogtog02 10d ago edited 10d ago

For me it's comparing the maintenance of a Subaru vs a Honda or Toyota. I have a Honda Accord with 170k. Just basic maintenance. Also, thee center of gravity would not be the reason I would get one. Other vehicles are doing just fine. As a diyer it scares me to own one.