subaru justy

Anyone have any experience with them. There's a really clean example for sale locally wonder if it's worth looking at in person. What kind of car would it compare to? Yugo? Suzuki swift?

All I know about 'em is some were FWD, and some were this wonky Subaru 4WD with no low range that had selectable power to the rear wheels (rather than typical 4x4 where selectable power is to the front).

Avoid the ECVT. They are trouble prone. The stick shift versions were typical of Subarus of old...indestructible and frugal but willing to rust out on you. They are very light weight.

I've got one. I've also got 2 Yugos, and a Metro.

You can compare them to the Yugo (only worse), but not the Swift. The Swift is more modern.

Yugo shares a lot of things with Fiat which does have a loyal (though quirky) fan base and racing heritage.

Justy doesn't share anything with anything, including other Subies (I've got several of them too).

The pushbutton 4wd on demand is completely cool, and very rare. Highly desirable.

As ddavidv said, the ECVT is trouble. It is a continuously variable transmission, which is highly prone to self destruction, and extremely expensive to replace (several times the value of the car).

There were also available with very weird carbs on them. They were a complicated throttle body injection system which is VERY difficult to fix. Very few techs understand them, rebuild kits are not available, and the tech info simply doesn't seem to be out there. My Justy has been sitting for several years because of this issue.

Avoid any car with signs of ECVT failure or carb issues. If it looks a little rusty, it is much worse than it looks.

Having said that, still a cool little car. Mine will one day be a SHOJusty.

My Sister in Law had one years ago. It died when involved in a rearend collision.

Anyway, apparently I'm credited as saying, "It's the perfect beater car, it's already screwed up, it only has 3 cylinders." or something like that. I don't remember saying that but...eh?

Clem

"Avoid any [Justy] with signs of ECVT failure" is funny! The only sign of ECVT failure to look for is that the car has one. My wife had one when I met her, fun, light, tossable car but it ate ECVTs every 30k miles like clockwork. The extended warranty that her parents purchased with the car when they bought it was a very good thing.

You, sir, are correct. I stand corrected.

I meant to be referring to a Justy with carb issues, or any with an ECVT.

Here it is on CL I'll only consider paying that price if there is no rust anywhere on it.

SVerX thanks very helpful info. I've been keeping my eye open for a yugo but haven't been able to locate one. I blame GRM for my obsesson with quirky small cars after an article on yugo's several years back. I mean seriously trying to find a yugo I can't believe I'm even saying that.

Mmm... refridgerator white, I dig! Neat car, but not for that money.

nicksta43 wrote: Here it is on CL I'll only consider paying that price if there is no rust anywhere on it. SVerX thanks very helpful info. I've been keeping my eye open for a yugo but haven't been able to locate one. I blame GRM for my obsesson with quirky small cars after an article on yugo's several years back. I mean seriously trying to find a yugo I can't believe I'm even saying that.

I can relate.

Before GRM I had 1 vehicle- a basic transportation appliance.

Now, thanks to GRM, I'm always fighting off the property maintenance inspectors trying to tell me that 2 Yugos, 3 SVX's, an Impreza, a Justy, a 323 GTX, a Turbo Caravan, a CRX, a Metro, a Miata, an X 1/9, a Spirit RT, a Corvair, a Subie 360, a '60 El Camino, 2 trucks, and an MPV are too many cars in the yard. Geez- what do they know???

SVreX is my hero

Unfortunately, SVreX is NOT his next door neighbor's hero.

The salvage yard I worked for had one. The owner decided it would be a good car for his 13 year old son to learn to drive a stick shift on so he would tear around the open lot nearby trying to see how much air he could get and whatnot. the only "problem" it ever had was it kept blowing tires off the bead when he'd land too hard at an angle. eventually we just threw it away in a rolloff full of scrap.

SVreX could be his neighbors hero if he sent half of those cars up to me.

Seems very high, especially for a DL which I'm pretty sure was only available as a FWD.