Subaru Liberty Wagon Gen 4 - Your Thoughts

[cheesygrinner]

Hi all,

We are looking at purchasing a family wagon for my wife and have taken a liking to the Liberty Wagon Gen 4 shape (around 2004-2009) 2.5 litre Auto.

Has anyone owned/worked on these vehicles? If so I'd love to know your thoughts on them. Common problems, servicing costs etc.

Feel free to discuss here or PM me.

Thanks

-Cheesygrinner

[hx-sandman]

Had a 3.0 R Spec B for several years. Great bit of gear. Servicing costs can be up there, particularly for the major ones at 100,000km you should budget around a grand or so, not sure if this directly applies to the 2.5, but shouldn't be too dissimilar.

[hainzy]

We have a 2010 subaru forrestor. Theyre great cars. Ive got a few friends who have always had subys and theyre amazingly reliable pieces of work and quite safe for the family too.

[playwme]

Had a gen3 Outback with 2.5 and auto. Great car but it was a bit sluggish considering the amount of fuel it used. We had it 5 years with no issues and it cost us bugger all in servicing and repairs. Have since sold it to a mate who likes to go to the snow a bit.

We replaced it with an imported V6 AWD Tarago. Uses just as much fuel but it has more seats, more space, and more grunt.

Any others you're considering? What's your main criteria? Mum and dad had a Turbo Forester with Auto that was much better to drive as it didn't need to be reved so much.

[cheesygrinner]

We wanted to stick to a 4 cyl. Wagon size to suit carrying a folded wheelchair and pram.

Considering it is a second hand vehicle I realise that parts and the higher km services will cost more, but we can't justify the cost/depreciation of a new vehicle.

We have looked at a friends Forester (just a bit small) and also Hyundai Santa Fe (new model seems good but Korean and expensive).

I suppose we would plan on getting a good 6 years (at least) out of an already 4/5 year old vehicle. Hopefully find one with low-ish km.

[playwme]

Have a look at the Rav4's as well. Because they've got the spare wheel on the back the cargo floor is nice and low which makes loading a breeze and gives a lot of space. The 4 cyl is reasonably zippy and pretty good on fuel. Good visibility and driving position and safety of AWD. Buying a used one with the depreciation hit already gone will give you good resale too. I replaced mums Forester with a 2 year old Rav with 16,000 on the odometer. Receipt in the glovebox was for $43,000 ( included bullbar, driving lights, cruise, Hayman Reece Towbar etc). Got it for $25,000 with 12 months rego. I reckon I could still get that for it in another couple years.

[HK1837]

You could get a nice V6 in a Rav too at one stage, same engine as our RX350. This will be some of the reason the 4cyl ones drop so much in value. Good cars though, except in those older ones the passenger's side front is a bit uncomfortable as your feet sit at different levels.

[Alien DNA]

Rav4 is a POS! My sister had one of those and the trans was 3k to replace. Long story short, my bro in law knew what the problem was and Toyota were backed into a corner and admitted to him it's a common problem and a flaw in its design. Stay clear of Rav4s.

A good friend has a Subaru Forrester and 450,000kms later still runs like a Swiss watch.... And my friend is the worst person when it comes to servicing his cars. I'm sure he does 50,000km service intervals

[playwme]

Rav4 is a POS! My sister had one of those and the trans was 3k to replace. Long story short, my bro in law knew what the problem was and Toyota were backed into a corner and admitted to him it's a common problem and a flaw in its design. Stay clear of Rav4s.

That was the 2001-2004 models and caused by a faulty ECM. Newer ones are awesome, especially the V6. They share the 4 cyl with Camry's and Tarago's and share the V6 with the Aurion and Lexus models. There's millions of them on the road all around the world. Every maker has its share of common known issues. Problem for Toyota is they sell so bloody many that it affects a larger number of people when they do have an issue. A good percentage of Toyota drivers are known for their being square, boring and whiney too which never helps.

[Alien DNA]

A good percentage of Toyota drivers are known for their being square, boring and whiney too which never helps.

Toyota drivers are the new version of Volvo drivers.....forever 10kmh under the speed limit in the right lane.

Sounds about right re the Rav4 ECM