87 Subaru.
Where these any good? I'm going to look tomorrow. $500 with title. Mainly want to see if he has any hidden gems in this barn. Don't really need but I got to at least look.
87 Subaru.
Where these any good? I'm going to look tomorrow. $500 with title. Mainly want to see if he has any hidden gems in this barn. Don't really need but I got to at least look.
Depends - there were a lot of option combinations. Manual trans, part-time 4x4 with selectable low range, and TBI is arguably the best combo. Also available in different combinations of carbureted, FWD, pushbutton selectable 4wd with no low range, and Turbo EFI versions. Pretty much all of them are terribly slow but terribly fun.
I had an '87 GL10 Turbo, 5 speed manual with pushbutton single-range 4wd. The thing had a clean and loaded interior (velour, power everything, sunroof) despite having 250k-ish miles. I put a homebuilt lift kit on it and adapted 6-lug 15inch Toyota wheels and all-terrain tires. Though it really needed the selectable low-range transmission to go with the bigger tires.
For $500, even if you don't like it, it should be a quick flip to return your $500 or more.
My wife had an 85 wagon, part time four wheel drive with low range. Super slow.
It was such a slug on the road that I used to make fun of it, until we (I) got it stuck on the entrance to the blue Ridge parkway at the top of Soco Gap above Maggie valley.
The snow was covering the road completely. I couldn't see where the line was and I got a little to the left and slid sideways, ending up with both left wheels in a culvert and the car tipped over at a 45 degree angle. The snow was up to the windows on that side.
After clearing the snow away from the car, I put it in 4 low, started trying to rock it back and forth, and drove it out in less than a minute.
After that we started taking it to the beach regularly. It was ridiculously good.
I had a roommate years ago that had an 80's Brat (probably early 80's). He was very proficient at replacing head gaskets. I believe that was a thing with some of those motors.
Company I worked for in Juneau provided an '86 5 speed wagon. It was fairly slow, but it never refused to start - no matter how cold it was - and I never got stuck, even though I should have many times. Finally, you could fit a surprising amount of stuff in the back.
Never had head gasket issues on anything prior to the 2.5. They are slow by today's standards but not painfully so. Nimble for what they are. We don't see them around here AT ALL anymore and the junkyards that were once full of the things have none now so I don't know what getting parts may be like. I think for $500 you could have a lot of fun and get a beater that is the equivalent of a small pickup with a cap on it.
In reply to ddavidv :
Exactly, not sure about parts availability.
There are enough Subaru specialists that you can still get parts. That's not too much of a problem. There are a many here in Colorado. Shoot you can fix it and bring it here and probably sell it in a couple days. They are hot here.
Looks just like my high school car but with less dents and rust.
Amazing that the hood is intact. These cars rusted audibly and the hood was the first place to go, usually the front was gone before the car was five-six years old.
If it's not a 4wd, then it's a quirky and slow Camry-alike. If it's 4WD, then it's a quickly and even slower Camry-alike that will never get stuck anywhere.
My 4wd had a top speed of 87mph, in fourth gear. Didn't have the power to pull 5th.
They handle well, although a lot of that is because the acceleration and cornering limits are so low that it's hard to have bad habits.
The handbrake is on the front calipers. The front wheel bearings and axles freaking suck, because the AXLE presses into the bearing and the hub is a slip fit on the end of the axle.
CJ (He's Just an FS) said:Finally, you could fit a surprising amount of stuff in the back.
I carried a Mitsubishi 42" projection TV home in mine, and the tailgate closed.
I took a closer look. 4wd auto.Top side/interior is in good shape. Even the rockers were clean. However, looking further underneath the front frame rails have rust holes. Probably from sitting in gravel. I can't do rust holes unfortunately. Too bad. Only had 59k miles. It was parked there when the auto choke broke and never got back to it. It'll be gone by end of day with all the calls he got.
Not a total waste. Guy does bobcat work on the side. I was going to rent one but I think it will be better in the long run to have him do the work at $75 / hr.
80's was not a good decade for Subarus. The 90's was.
I'd buy that for $500 because nostalgia's a bitch.
That is in waaaaaaaay better shape than the '88 I bought in '97.
I had a 4door loyale rx turbo. It was a great little beater. I jumped it off a stadium jump at our local motox track. It drove home albeit on a flat tire (spare was flat so I put it on to save my sweet 13" alloy, had to cut the wheel off with a grinder cause it was so wrapped around the disc that it was the only way to get it off. I beat the living E36 M3 out of that car.
My friend had one. He was inspired by my handbrake turns while riding in my Rabbit after a big snowfall. Neither of us knew that it worked the front brakes on that generation of Subaru. We ended up on a neighbour’s lawn . . . But we were saved by the AWD.
I miss my '93 Loyale 4WD wagon. Mine had the TBI engine with the 3-speed automatic and, good lord, was it slow. But that sucker went anywhere.
AWD / auto - you can't even imagine the slow that thing is.
An unkillable engine wrapped in a biodegradable chassis. I'm frankly amazed at how un-rusty that is, but I fear for it once it gets out of that barn and back onto real roads.
In reply to Duke :
Oh you can kill the engine. My Mom's '87 threw a rod so hard it blew the power steering pump into the radiator.
When my radiator leak got so bad that water ran out as fast as I could pour it in, when I was late for work on the side of I-71, I mercy-killed mine. Top speed climbed to 92mph without water pump drag. Temp gauge wrapped around. After it cooled off, you could put water in it, crank the engine, and shoot brown mud 6 feet through the grille.
Good times...
Valve float was at 7700rpm. Engine made zero power over five, so this was only useful as a theoretical issue.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Valve float was at 7700rpm. Engine made zero power over five, so this was only useful as a theoretical issue.
Yeah, but you could hear that sweet sweet valve lifter rattle. I recall being asked to shut mine off at a drive-thru so that they could hear me over the valve lifter rattle. That was a low-point of that car.
Either going through 15" of snow or powering through axle-deep mud was the high point of ownership. Or maybe the time I towed a lifted Chevy 1500 crew cab long bed on 35" tires that had broken front and rear differentials.
Man, now I really miss that little car. I think that was my favorite car that I've ever owned, honestly.
That makes me miss my '86 GL wagon in a bad way. Went fishing on the Licking River once and came back to find it sunk in the mud on all four tires. Nearly to the hubs. 4-low, feathered the clutch, and it just pulled right out. It didn't go anywhere fast, but it would go anywhere. There was an o-ring in the oiling system somewhere that was prone to collapsing and causing that nasty tick and it's almost like they built it specifically to rust. After getting hit by a guy in a Tercel who was looking right while turning left, the front subframe more or less disintegrated relegating poor Squinty to the scrappers. The coincidental thing about that is I bought it from a friend when he bought a Tercel. The poor car got Tercel-ed twice!
Honestly, I think it was my favorite car I've ever driven.
In reply to NickD :
Mine was quiet. Not sure why.
My first US car! You are required by law to have a Toyota pickup, Dodge pickup or Subaru in order to have a Colorado driver's license. Perfect size for sleeping inside when skiing.
Not slow? I used to put my foot to the floor when I got on the interstate and leave it there until I got where I was going. On the passes, I was right there with the semis. Janel laughs at me that I still think it takes 5 hours to get to Denver. But pretty solid. I had to rebuild the carb after buying gas at Sam's Club (SO MANY VACUUM LINES). It let me down once with some sort of heat-related ignition problem, after that it wasn't allowed to go on long trips anymore and I sold it for a GTX.
Keith Tanner said:It let me down once with some sort of heat-related ignition problem, after that it wasn't allowed to go on long trips anymore and I sold it for a GTX.
When I first got mine, it liked to strand me with the symptoms of a bad starter. Would hit the key and get a click but no crank. Put a new starter in (Subaru puts them in an awesome place, I think I changed it in 5 minutes) and still did the same thing. Got doing some searching on Ultimate Subaru Message Board and learned that on those cars they did not put a starter relay in. They ran full power for the starter through the ignition circuit. As they got old, the circuit broke down and couldn't carry enough juice to turn the starter. I fixed it by using the ignition circuit to trip one of those Ford fender-mount starter relays and then running the starter voltage through the relay.
Mine also had no heat. Like none. Replaced the thermostat and blocked off the radiator and even unbolted the mechanical fan and the temp gauge would still never climb off the bottom peg and the radiator hoses were ice cold. The oil fill cap always had a nice layer of peanut butter because it never cooked the moisture out of the oil. And this was my winter car. I drove it two or three years with no heat in NY winters. Yeah, I'm stupid like that.
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