Ah yes, the sun has nearly got his hat on and the roads are almost drying out, so it’s obviously time for a nifty little sports convertible. Welcome then to this week’s sub-£2k special, a Subaru Outback.
Shed is actually doing you a favour here because all the nifty little sports convertibles in the classifieds have already been priced up to the max for the summer, whenever or wherever that might be. That’ll teach you for not buying one in the depths of winter. Plus this Outback has a gurt big electric sunroof so you can easily imagine you’re in a ragtop.
According to Subaru, who should know best, the Outback is the car that saved the company. It was very popular among preppies and boomers in the US. The one we’ve got here is a clean-looking, low-mileage example of the gen-three (designation BP9 for the 2.5 ‘crossover’ estate) model that first came into being in 2003. For its motive power, the gen-three continued with the non-turbo 2.5 flat four ‘boxer’ petrol engine that had been burbling away in the Outback since the very first 1994-on gen-one. It generated 162hp at 5,600rpm and 167lb ft at 4,400rpm, so it isn’t rapid (123mph and 0-60mph in 9.4 seconds), economical (33mpg official average, low 20s unofficial), or especially cheap to tax (£395), but it does have bags of character.
These Subarus also have something called Symmetrical AWD. Plenty of old motors with decidedly asymmetrical AWDs have passed through Shed’s calloused old hands but the system on the Subaru – full-time with 50/50 torque split front to rear under normal conditions and (Shed thinks) a viscous-coupling limited slip differential – was tough and worked well. In SE spec the car offered a kind of hardy luxury with air con, climate and cruise control, heated seats and full moo, which as you can see from the pictures appears to be wearing well.
What about under the skin though? On pre-2011 cars, the 2.5s had timing belts rather than chains. These should be changed along with the water pumps every seven years of 105,000 miles. Lots of covers and ancillary items have to be removed for access so it’s not a quick or, by extension, cheap job, but we’re in luck because it was done early on this 92,000-miler, in January of this year.
The engines sometimes suffered from a sudden code-free loss of power that could be down to a whole range of causes from coils to corroded ground straps via leaky intake hose gaskets and below-par fuel pumps. Coolant and specifically head gasket leaks were common, and clutch plates could shatter. Air con compressors failed, outside door handles crumbled in colder climes and underbody corrosion was always a threat.
The good news on this car is that the rust that was noticed on the 2023 MOT test – rear subframe, exhaust and body – was all addressed. Windscreen damage and a worn front brake were put right too. The most recent test in January of this year mentioned slight play in the rear anti-roll bar ball joints but from the looks of it the car has been given whatever it needed as each test came round. The last owner was probably a mature type, clearly evidenced here by the selection of Radio 2 on the radio and by the presence on the dash of a stick-on LCD clock. Whenever Shed sees one of these he thinks of his long-lost Dad, Shiplap Shed, who along with many dads of his age loved to buy tat like this. The thinking was that others would be impressed by your space-age tech when in fact everybody knew they were £1.99 or, if you were lucky, free in a Christmas cracker.
Apparently after the dealer washed this one the tailgate stopped opening. Sometimes the tailgate handles do stick in the up position but it’s not a hard fix as Subaru thoughtfully provided a removable bit of interior tailgate trim that allowed for examination of the latch assembly. Squirting some releasing fluid in there and on the handle pivot points should sort it out. If it’s a fob thing Shed reckons that should be easy too: just press the button for 10 seconds until you feel something physical happening. He uses the same technique when the postmistress comes over. The trick is to resist the natural temptation to let go of the button when it squeaks at you three times. Keep pressing and you should get a proper result. That’s what Shed finds anyway.
The Sheds do most of their doings in their old Merc estate, from takeaway collections to tip runs. For some reason Mrs Shed doesn’t like Shed using the rear entrance for load insertions, so if they bought this Outback it wouldn’t really matter if the tailgate worked or not. The gurt big sunroof has a huge flap on it too but the less said about that the better.
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