LGT Reliability

I just bought my first Suby, an '05 LGT, and am wondering about its long term reliability. I know this was the first year of a remodel, but how old is the drivetrain? Does anyone who has an older 2.5 LGT have an opinion about this. My friend had an old Outback 2.0, with a ton of miles, and as far as I have heard, that's Subaru's reputation, that they go for 200,000 miles. Does this hold true for the new LGT's too? Thanks!

According to CR its been very good.

As for the Engine, the STI and Forester with the same engine have also got very good marks.

I don't own one (My GT in the name is cause I owned 3 Impreza GT which is the mk. 1 Impreza Turbo back when living in Israel), and I'm sure there will always be some problems for some people, but sounds solid to me.

It's really too early to tell, people have not gotten up to really high mileages yet. In any case, it's too late, you're already committed!

 

Looking at other Subarus, the cars have been very durable but not perfectly trouble-free out to 200,000 miles or so. Each particular model of Subaru cars seems to have one or two problem areas that develop over time. For instance, some years had troubles with rear wheel bearings or automatic transmissions failing early. Other years had head gasket problems or leaky sunroofs.

 

A notch below Toyota reliability, then, but tough as old boots.

BUT!!!

 

The safest in every single category of vehicles...

 

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx

Also, typically, modding a car can cause reliability problems. I'm not saying it definitely will, but it can.

 

 

If I'm not mistaken, this model was out in Japan for a year before being sold over here, so I wouldn't truly consider it the first year of a remodel.

50k on mine and still no problems. Only issue I ever had was a #4 misfire that took the dealership about a dozen attempts to fix. (incompetant) finally put in a new plug and I've had zero issues.

Man, I'm glad I didn't pay for the extended warrantee. I have not taken my car in to be serviced by the dealer yet, and I probably never will unless something under warrantee fails.

 

The more I read here the more I see how much of a rip-off the dealerships are. If they can't change the oil or replace a spark plug properly then they are worse than useless. I'll do that work myself so it gets done right and for much less money, thanks.

Just had my 15000 mile check up 2 months ago. I've had my car since October 2005. Not a thing has gone wrong. No rattles under tha dash. No warranty issues. Rock solid so far.

 

I just bought my first Suby, an '05 LGT, and am wondering about its long term reliability. I know this was the first year of a remodel, but how old is the drivetrain? Does anyone who has an older 2.5 LGT have an opinion about this. My friend had an old Outback 2.0, with a ton of miles, and as far as I have heard, that's Subaru's reputation, that they go for 200,000 miles. Does this hold true for the new LGT's too? Thanks!

 

It may be the most reliable turbocharged car producing 100hp/liter on the market.

My daughter has had an '05 GT for about a year and a half; 18K miles, and absolutely trouble-free.

I purchased my '05 LGT new in September of 2005. As of now it has 24k on the clock. Too soon to tell, but so far so good.

Hey everybody,

First post for me. I've had my 05 gt wagon for about 14 months and I've put about 23K on it. Unfortunatley, I have had a couple of problems. Leaving to go home from a friends house and my key would not turn in the ignition to start the car. Subaru had to replace the entire unit. They said that it was a freak problem. Twice, I've had to take my baby in because the fan was constantly running... pretty loud too. Oh, and a bad batch of headlight bulbs that burned out too quickly. Everything else is perfect.

 

That being sad. I could care less about these minor problems. I LOVE this car and subarus in general!

 

Have a nice day.

It may be the most reliable turbocharged car producing 100hp/liter on the market.

Until a month ago I had a 1994 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon that produced about the same hp/liter, 170,000 miles and no engine problems. Lots of other problems, though :-)

Subarus in general have been pretty reliable after the overhaul of the company's outlook and cutting the cost of production down by being more "standardized" starting in the mid 80s. The parts are also in good quality as well.. I know a lot of Subaru owners that have seen well over 100,000 miles and the car runs just fine. The drivetrain is fine for the power output that the motor makes. It's a very well put-together car. It's when you start tinkering and abusing the car with negligent driving that kills the car.. some cars can take that kind of abuse.. some others cant.. Subaru just falls in the middle of that.. if you want to abuse a car, get a Saturn.

 

 

Currently, I have over 55,000 miles on my 05 GT with about 4000 miles of track use and about 50 autocross events (it should have been at 75,000 miles by now, but I split my driving/racing with a 1999 Subaru 2.5RS at 100,000 miles+ and a 1989 BMW 225is with 168,000+ during this year). I've taken the car on 8-hour to 14-hour car trips (one-way). The car does fine. I've rev the car way too many times to count to the rev limiter. I've launched my car of it's fair share as well for autocross and some drag strip for practice. It's holding up just fine. I do need to rebuild my brake calipers.. i overheated 2 of the 4 brake dust seals for the front brakes but that's a minor thing to fix compared to the amount and type of driving that I do.

It's when you start tinkering and abusing the car with negligent driving that kills the car.

What do you consider as the tinkering and abuse that are bad for the car?

running the car lean or near 12.5:1 AFRs is a bit too close for my comfort at WOT when you start doing power mods that has to do with bigger turbos, injectors, etc. Adding power and not driving it properly is just asking for the weakest link in the car to fail eventually.

 

You can't imagine the amount of people that are out there that ride the brakes, ride the clutch, dont rev match, using the proper gear and not labor the engine too much, or something simple at proper scheduled maintenance of chaning fluids of all types, using the right octane fuel or even checking tire pressures.. there's so many factors that are involved with just the driver alone.. I haven't even begun the consideration of driving conditions such as inclement weather and stop-and-go traffic. I've seen people just go out full throttle without even properly warming up the car for at least a minute.. those cold starts where the oil isnt even warmed up isn't going to help you or the motor..

 

some people just dont care and the mentality that goes with that is: "who cares, Im not keeping this car any longer than 5 years anyways, I'll get a new one when something major screws up".

37k on the clock here, bought new in August '05. The only issue its had was a plugged AC drain because I parked under a tree when I shouldn't have. Fixed under warranty. So far so good *knocks on wood*.

37k on the clock here, bought new in August '05. The only issue its had was a plugged AC drain because I parked under a tree when I shouldn't have. Fixed under warranty. So far so good *knocks on wood*.

 

Tree?

Windy, maple...little spinner things got in there somehow I guess. It was clogged. They fixed. The passenger footwell wasn't flooded. I was happy.

 

Where is the AC drain anyways? I'll be honest and say I have no idea.

Problems w/my car since purchase:

 

1) squeaks and creaks from clutch, dash, all over the interior. Dealer can not fix.

 

2) alignment was way off when picked up from dealer - dealer would not fix because they said it was in spec - had my friend adjust when he installed my new springs. It's fine now.

 

3) brakes rapidly deteriorate. Had front rotors planed twice, rears planed once. Stopping power is severely lacking even tho somehow I am pressing the brakes hard enough to warp rotors.

 

4) trunk latch broke. Trunk wouldn't close, and when closed would not open w/latch. Dealer fixed. Also the plastic hangar on the thingy in the trunk broke. Haven't bothered to get this fixed.

 

5) MOST SERIOUS PROBLEM - driving on the highway the car completely shut off out of nowhere. Lost all power, engine shut down, no power steering, the works. WHILE I WAS DRIVING AT 70 MPH!!! Panicked but was able to restart the car immediately while rolling. Happened again 5 minutes later. Freaked out, I drove directly to the dealer and forced them to check out the car. 2 hours later they had nothing. They said there was nothing that would lead them to suspect anything was wrong. Hasn't happened since, but I remember this incident any time I want to take my car on a long trip. NOT COOL.

No major problems at 53K, besides the annoying rattles and warp front disk from driving pretty hard.

I have had the following legacies:

91 L 100,000 miles traded on 95

95 L 140,000 miles sold when buying the 02 LGT

96 LSI 130,000 and counting

02 LGT 125,000 and traded on the Spec.b(should have waited till the 07)

06 Spec.b 18,000 miles. No problems as yet.

 

They have all been durable. Although I have had some minor issues, I have been very happy.

 

The only real issue was on the 02. I needed to have a head gasket replaced at around 90k. It was around 800.00 or so to fix. But in the 125,000 miles of ownership, that was the only repair. It could have gone more, I just really wanted the Spec.b.

 

I have never tried to get 200,000 miles on any car. I am usually itching for a new one before that.

My take is the car is really too new to say that its reliable. However past Subaru's have had a postive experience especially turbo charged WRX's.

Mines leaves me with enough cash to http://www.acura-legend.com/vbulletin/images/smilies/drink.gif

I had a 97 Outback before this. The only issue it had was a weak clutch...which failed about every 60k. Then the head gasket went at 160k, at which point I traded it for a VW Passat (which broke about once a frikin month!!!) Other than that I don't think anything EVER failed on my OB...seriously bulletproof.

 

I think my LGT may not have the strongest clutch either, but if you want some aspect of your drivetrain to absorb the abuse it is going to get driving 250 hp to all four wheels, the clutch would be it IMHO.

So my LGT has been pretty much perfect so far (Got it June 05, now have 23k)

 

1 super hot day the radio/HVAC controls failed to turn on for me at all....it was like 110 degrees that day. I let the car sit for a few hours and everything came back to normal once things cooled off. I consider it a fluke since it never happened again. I also have the Ipod mod in my radio, which may have helped to overheat things a bit.

 

Admittedly I drive my LGT pretty hard, so I also warped the discs (and overheated the pads) twice so far. The dealer has agreed to resurface the discs under warranty. But I wouldn't consider that a reliability issue. I purchased Hawk HPS pads and now just need to stop hauling it down from ludicrous speeds so much.