Daily driver love!

The weather's been gorgeous in Wisconsin, and I spent some time cleaning up my car yesterday. I realized today that since I got this car back in the summer of 2008, I've only taken like two pictures of it. So I went down to the beach and took a few snaps.

The speed. The handling. The insanity. The...1988 Subaru DL 4WD.

(more pics here!)

It's remarkably clean for a EA82 in the rust belt, though it has its fair share of dings, dents, and surface rust. I've bought it (twice!) for $500. The stripes aren't factory, they came during a moment of inspiration after a few beers. 5-speed, push-button 4WD (single range, meh) 150kish miles and still going strong. Panel beating to fix the deer collision damage starts this weekend (see pic of pass. side). The 13" pizza cutters are getting ditched for Peugeot 15" wheels and better rubber for summer autocross duty at some point. I think the engine has been out of the car some 5 times since I've owned it.

So, that's my daily. Anyone else got a neglected-but-awesome DD?

Pure sweetness.

I spent some quality time in Milwaukee and Port Washington. Beautiful country, nice people.

Have you even needed to do anything that your DD can't do? No way! Great car for so many things.

I love the '80s Sube wagons.

What's the sticker on your mirror? I've seen that on quite a few subarus of late.

I love my DD. I consider it the "palate cleanser" between press cars. It's garaged in the winter, but during the good weather, it lives mostly in Toronto, where it shuffles me back and forth between manufacturers.
It's a 5-speed, not too much power, but with great handling so it's good to go for the odd lapping day.

1989 Accord LXi, bought it 2yrs ago, had 78k miles, has 137k miles now.
Wears many hats: 37k/year mile DD, occasional kayak carrier:

...and occasional impromptu road trip car to FL ( 2,600 mile round-trip ), when I get fed up with the airlines at holidays:

Best $1.5k I've ever spent. Only 'repairs' have been wear items such as cv's, clutch, brake pads etc...

pinchvalve wrote: Have you even needed to do anything that your DD can't do? No way! Great car for so many things.

Nope! This car is my Swiss army knife. It's low enough to auto-x, high enough to get through the rough stuff, small enough to net 30MPG, and big enough to not need a truck.

ReverendDexter wrote: I love the '80s Sube wagons. What's the sticker on your mirror? I've seen that on quite a few subarus of late.

I've had 3 of these, and will always rely on them for base transportation. You can often find them in great shape with bad timing belts for sub-$300, and the job takes about 20 minutes (with the engine in the car).

The pig sticker is for the Japanese "Kodansha Young Magazine", who has sponsored the Subaru WRC team for ages (look at their mirrors). The magazine itself is a softcore Playboy-ish kinda thing, which I always found hilarious.

My $1000 528i is fast becoming the best daily driver I've ever had. Over 250,000 miles (that's where the odometer stopped), and it continues to run like a top. Despite being the epitome of a 'beater', it remains invisible to the police, and is just an all-round nice car to bang around in.

@ SlickDizzy: rifling through your Photobucket, I see you've had one of these, too. Wish my interior looked that good!

1987 Corolla FX16 - 275k, needs a T-belt and the distributor pukes oil - I have both, I'm just lazy. paid $650 last september. Nobody knows what it is, and being a base FX16, it doesnt have the ground effects or spoiler to give away the 4AGE

In reply to SlickDizzy: I had one just like it, but had a factory turbo, You couldn't really feel the turbo but the light's on the dash would let you know when you were getting to the danger zone. A couple years after I sent it to its resting place I was riding my bike past the junk yard and it was being put on top of another car right up front . I know that it was winking at all the STI cars that went by .

Lesley wrote: I love my DD. I consider it the "palate cleanser" between press cars. It's garaged in the winter, but during the good weather, it lives mostly in Toronto, where it shuffles me back and forth between manufacturers. It's a 5-speed, not too much power, but with great handling so it's good to go for the odd lapping day.

I am horribly jealous.

My uhmmm... Challenge Car is my daily driver. It's starting to get a little old horsing this thing around town. It's great on the highway, and the interior is great. It's comfy, smooth, and not half as loud as it should be. But man... it's BRUTAL around town.

$250 dd. Added the wheels from my Jetta GLI since it's engineless.

My parents bought a '88 Subaru GL 4WD Wagon new. But it had an actual shifter for the 4wd...maybe it was a '87...

I drove that car half way through highschool then my dad got sick of changing CV joints and the final straw was the shifter linkage gave up and he sold the car for $50. Side note: an entire case of beer can fit in the compartment under the rear area and many bottles of booze can fit on the side compartments. I think at one time we had 12 people in that car. Oh, the fun, stupid times....

My daily driver - 1986 Chrysler LeBaron - started out as a $160 red and its now been "improved" with a cheap rattle can flat black paint job.

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35k miles a year (165k on the odo) and runs like a champ.

My DD from the last 3 years. It sits a bit lower than pictured now with a FM 1.5 suspension kit, but otherwise pretty similar.

zipty842: I love that FX16!

My DD since November 1.

slow, heavy, slushbox, decade old suspension - but it has a throttle cable, hydraulic power steering, almost all of its paint, and (for the time being) everything works...including the factory cassette deck. I cant complain all that much

ArthurDent wrote: My daily driver - 1986 Chrysler LeBaron - started out as a $160 red and its now been "improved" with a cheap rattle can flat black paint job.

Making the scene at the "Top Hat!"

Love this shot.

In reply to m4ff3w:

Very nice.

1999 Ford Contour. Bought new in August of '99. Now approaching 150K. Really starting to feel it's age, but its only problems are "cosmetic" or "comfort" related. As long as it keeps running, I'll keep driving it.

m4ff3w wrote: My DD since November 1.

More info please!

Jeff wrote:

m4ff3w wrote: My DD since November 1.

More info please!

My '87 Milano. Mostly stock (running Verde 15" wheels, some poly bushings, etc) for now. Hopefully with be forcefully inducted this summer.

My Challenge car is my daily driver... the only way my girlfriend would let me have a challenger is if I could actually drive it around too. Being mostly stock at the moment, it is an incredible daily driver. Possibly the best car I have ever owned. 200k miles and running strong with every option under the sun and enough torque to shred through second gear.