Lunaviney’s search for automotive heaven. Review 1: Subaru Outback 2004
This mighty boxer engined Subaru Outback was once a proud and mighty japanese beast of the road, no matter the surface. Now it feels weak and broken. All though the 2.5 flat 4 still has some nice pep, the rest of the car seem to have lived a life of abuse. Which certainly isn’t unheard of when its a Subaru of any kind. Its done 38000 presumably very hard kilometers (Or 234000 miles).
But in the spirit of strucuality lets start with the cosmetics. This particular example looks pretty fresh. Its not overly rusted but, its a Subaru, theres no nice way of putting how ugly it is. The headlights are both look annoyed and bulgy giving it this really derpy angry face. Coupled with the aggressive engine note the Subaru Outback comes across as a very angry car. A feeling that keeps going once you’re inside the unbelievably hard seats. The steering wheel tries to feel sporty with pistol grippy race look and the just look of the materials. No such thing as comfortable plastic wood in there. The quality of the interior feels solid enough for what its supposed to be but it also feels very unexciting and boring. The infotainment unit on this car was also knackered, the screen was flickering badly and the Menu and Nav buttons turned it off completely. The stereo was good enough to produce a pleasant background noise atleast.
But its Subaru so the reason why you’d ever buy one is the drivey bits and they are as expected bloody fantastic. The flat 4, 2.5l engine feels annoyed about its general existence. It wants to punch something and you’re its companion for its noble quest of violence. Though its punchyness was slightly spoiled in this car due to someone mating the angry engine to a lazy and bored 4 speed automatic. It felt rather slow and harsh with its gear changes. Quite possible just because I’m so used to my Buicks TH400s perfect smoothness. The good old Subaru AWD is as always great. Especially for the roads in my local area. Too bad the entire car gets spoiled by the automatic gearbox really.
As a whole this is a very servicable car to just have as a daily driver. Its not made to be anything but a family rocket and it feels like one through and through. Which also makes it very boring. Had it been a manual gearbox it would’ve in all probability a much more exciting car to drive. But as the swedish saying goes: You cant have too much fun. If you’re looking to buy one always check if the headgasket is replaced because they are the achilles heel of Subarus. As for this car I’m rating it 3.5/10.
