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Hi there - I am a Subaru virgin thinking of buying a used subaru L Series or GL. i am not into 4WD'ing (yet -but once i get one, who knows...) and was basically just hoping to pick up a well-made car that has class, and is cheap to run (compared to a boring corrolla or ford laser)

I have heard these are great cars, but parts are scarce - is that true?

Most I have been looking at are in the $1200 - 2500 price range and have between 220,000 and 300,000 KMS.

Anything I should look out for?, or stay away from???

Thanks for your advice!

One thing is for sure, parts are not scarce, only the rare ones are, but they've always been like that

Welcome to the forum. I've got an L series that I've had for about 6 years now that has undergone a few changes from the stock setup. Love it and it treats me well if I treat it well - that really goes for anything though.

The thing to look out for is rust around the windscreen. While not entirely a deal breaker its something to be aware of. You can find units around that do not have rust around the windscreen.

The DL is the basic setup. Usually comes with AC but not always. It will be a carbie engine, interior will have vinyl flooring and the usual plastic interior pieces. The dash is a basic layout with speedo, temp and fuel gauges + your warning lights.

The GL is pretty much the same but has carpet instead of vinyl + the door trims have a little carpet on the lower edges. The dash is a 4 guage unit and in my opinion is the better layout over the DL's. It has the speedo and tacho mirroring eachother on the dash with the fuel and temp gauges on opposite sides of the instrument cluster. Look neat. The other difference is that the GL has air ducts to the foot area of the rear passengers.

In terms of the wagons, you'll typically get the DL which is most common and there's also the touring wagons that are basically like the GL but with power windows and mirrors.

You might find power mirrors on a DL depending on what pack it was built as. A sports wagon typically came with white 8 spoke star 13 inch steel rims (sunraisers), tow bar, and a wrap over roo bar (some call it a bullbar). Its basically a dressed up DL with some sort of great stickering down the side of it too. There are loads of different stickers out there too.

The touring wagon also has a higher roof line after the front seats...

Mechanically these little subarus are basically all the same, there's a few differences that can be worked around though, most relate to the difference between the EFI (MPFI - multi point fuel injection) touring wagons and the carbie ones.

Hope this is a help.

Cheers

Bennie

Cheers Benny!

What a great reply!

The sportswagons sound like the pick of the bunch.

One seller, who'd already sold said that they are reliable, but all prone to rust, have small fuel tanks and are not all that zippy compared to more modern engines of the same size (he said not great on big hwy hills like syd to newcastle).

Maybe he didnt have the MPFI one (which sounds good!)

IMO the touring wagon - MPFI is the go from a stock sense. It has all the goodies from factory - just make sure these all work before you purchase the vehicle. These will command a higher price in general too.

The fuel tanks aren't really that small - 60 litres for the L. I've managed 63 in mine once And of course they're not really zippy compared to newer engines - these things were built in the 80's and have "a few k's" under the belt!

Maybe that fella's L wasn't running very well too...

Cheers

Bennie