While I agree with some of what you say MiddleAgedSubie and respect that you're probably both more knowledgable and experienced than me, you're still driving me nuts.
While I admire the passion of Forester owners, most cars and most Subarus are commonplace material objects that allow us to do certain things for a while. At some point they are done and gone. Young folks may find beyond-utility allure in a WRX or an FXT but an n/a H4 Subaru is only good on account of its utility which logically makes reliability problems a big deal.
All cars are done and gone at some point - What keeps them going is partly their build quality but mainly their market value. Clutches, timing belts or chains, cracked windscreens, tyres, suspension components - What is universal between manufacturers is that *everything* becomes a consumable on a long enough time scale, and all cars are terrible financial investments and will cost a lot of money to maintain.
The reason expensive 4WDs seem to go for longer is because they hold their value much longer as they are expensive speciality vehicles, and so people are happy to keep pouring money into them replacing things as they break. If the possibility of a 2k head gasket replacement on an otherwise great car is that much of a deal breaker, then lease a new Hyundai - You'd be up for the same amount for any used car eventually.
Or a tyre might blow on your new Hyundai, throwing you into the freeway barricade (Subie AWD might save you there). Saying that an EJ is 'in the worst 10 engines in the US' because of a HG issue is hyperbolic and ignores both the expensive nature of used car ownership and the otherwise great car.
Most of the old 4WDs I was checking out had had major work done recently - From head gaskets to suspension work, through to whole new engines and new transmissions, stuff that you would never see on a Subie as it would have exceeded it's market value and sent it to the scrap yard (where it can be stripped for cheap and decent used parts). On top of that, they'd been through several owners, and probably used off road by at least one of them (but never ever the owner selling it
), meaning all of that mythological reliability was questionable when compared with a purely 'utility' owned H4. And trust me, repairs weren't any cheaper, I saw the receipts. You're dreaming if you think you can buy a used car that won't need big ticket repairs over the years. At least H4s are common enough to be picky about.
My 95 Legacy, which had the very reliable EJ22, served me extremely well...It was never meant to go offroad and it could not do that anyway.
It is a different car to a Forester, besides the EJ.
In turn, my 13 OB serves me very well now. It is immensely better than the 95. I take good care of it but it does not mean that I have any particular attachment to the thing or that if it gets totaled, I will go back to a Subaru despite being a Subaru-only family for nearly 15 years. It is as good a Swiss knife as any but this simply makes it a highly practical choice, not a dream car. So while it offers better traction and clearance than Subarus of the mid-2000s, not to mention a much longer anticipated lifespan, it is nothing to long for either in the sense of delivering big grins on or off road.
Anything that delivers big grins off road will not deliver them on road, and impracticality does not equal big grins day to day once the novelty of driving 33" MTs wears off. The increased practically, primary and secondary safety of a Subaru when compared with a big 4WD means less chance of totalling it; is that not the biggest cost/reliability consideration? As for me, I've had great on road and off road experiences in my old Outback and my Forester - I don't waste my time wishing it could rock crawl or smash Evo's because it's a great car to drive anywhere and it does everything I want it to, and could do much more.
EJ 25 Subarus sold in the US will need head gaskets. My friend with the Lexus just cited me 8 examples of relatives and friends with EJ25s. ALL of them had to replace head gaskets. Add statistics to the anecdotes, and the engine makes the worst 10 engine lists in the US. By the way why would anyone want to replace head-gaskets with the same poor OEM part that caused the problem in the first place? This is what causes second head gasket replacement, also common in the US. The OB forum has info on better options available in the US.
I don't buy that the EJ head design in the US version is different to the Australian version till you can show something that says so; you're simply ignoring the equal credibility of conflicting anecdotal evidence that says that it's more luck than fact. I'd agree that using the same OEM head gaskets would be a strange choice that would need to be justified (was it redesigned?), and I've heard good things from Subaru mechanics who use the third party ones.
And yes, the early 00's OB wagons seem to be especially prone to it, we've established that and listed them as a particular model to avoid. My old '00 model had it replaced at 240,000kms, I had it done as soon as the clutch went to avoid pulling the engine out twice and last I heard the car's happily on it's way to 300,000. Big deal.
Anyway, I will put it more bluntly. Chances one can get a vehicle in the US that is
1/reliable and 2/off-road ready for under 10,000 are slim to none.
I see you're from Arizona MiddleAgedSubie. On Google it looks a lot like the surface of mars.
I think that we're going to have to accept geographical differences in what is 'offroad ready'; you being at the extreme end. Here in the
Victorian High Country (which looks more similar to OP's state) Subie's make perfectly capable off road vehicles in most situations. We do get low range here too.
Anyway, I agree to disagree.
