Do any of these Subarus sound like a good buy?

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 9:08 pm

Venom wrote:Fair enough you never asked anyone about anything other than an L series, but i will just say one more thing.

Liberty = AWD = WIN. Find some car yards with a couple of Libertys, take them for a drive and find out for yourself. I own both. My l series even has a 2.5 litre quad cam motor and an AWD gearbox and i will still pick my Liberty as the daily driver any day of the week. If that and the opinions of 3 people who actually own an L series who are telling you a Liberty is a better car doesn't convice you, then you'll just have to find out for yourself because not much more can be said.

I appreciate everything you posted none-the-less.

WIN is another acronym?

Fair enough, I didn't mean to sound like I didn't trust which one was better.

I'm glad I did some of my own research about L Series vs. Liberty, to see which one I might prefer.
There are some unique qualities about the L Series that I still appreciate. (ie. tighter turning

)
I've already owned a 2008 Honda Civic so I'm fully aware of what modern conveniences are like.
I sorta wanted to try something different...

I just picked up Car #1 tonight.
For $3800 delivered from Perth to Australind, I should hang my head in price-shame?

I think I can absorb some of the difference from avg resale price if I need to sell it,
plus I didn't want to wait several weeks waiting for "The Right One."

If someone had a similar or lower priced offer on a Liberty I would have considered it, (maybe it was and I accidentally disregarded?) but the best way to contact me would have been through a PM before I had a chance to pick this one up.

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 9:22 pm

El_Freddo wrote:Ok - the liberty can be found in dual range, the US missed out on the dual range...
There is no lockable centre diff on the Liberty but they do have a LSD built into the centre diff. Low range is there but the highest one possible - 1.19:1 compared to the L series 1.59:1 - but you can split the box and put the L low range in there. Check out the sticky in coversions, perfomance and modifications section by AlpineRaven.

Sounds like the L Series is the cheapest way into a more-capable softroader.

1.19 Lo range? I'm almost wondering "...what's the point..."

I never heard of a Lo range that wasn't nearly 2:1, (like on pickup trucks or Jeeps) if not deeper.
I'm content with the speed the drivetrain turns in 4Lo in an L Series.

The final drive is the diff ratio. It doesn't mean much unless you start to look at gear ratios, particularly 5th gear and the tyre size too. There's a bit to get your head around to fully understand how it all works.

But for your information, the L series rev's higher at 100km/h than the Liberty does. L's do about 3,250rpm and the liberty something like 2,750rpm... This is due to the 5th gear and final drive combination as well as the tyre sizes used. The Gen 2 liberty is 3.7 final drive but revs about the same at 100 clicks...

That's good to know. So the difference in torque at freeway speeds is even less. The main difference sounds like the Liberty could "keep on pulling" past 120km/h, 130km/h, 140 km/h etc. if you mash the throttle. My 08 Civic was like that; if I lost attention I could easily drift effortlessly from 110 km/h to say... 143 km/h.

(those speeds were achieved in the USA, where the posted limit was 114 km/h, and they are more lax on speed enforcement

)

Liberty - more modern features, huge choice of easy upgrades from other models as well as off the shelf gear...

Cheers

Bennie

Sounds great if you want to do a lot of customization.

I happen to be pretty content with this L Series, as is.

niterida · Post by **niterida** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 9:33 pm

Well I did offer you my Outback for $4000 (ish) - you would have had the comfort of a Liberty with the offroad ability of an L series (well sort of.....)

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 9:43 pm

I'm just happy you're in a Subie and not a Civic

. I wouldn't worry about the price. Paying a little more for a car in good condition especially when you don't have a lot of time to search is a good idea. It's certainly better than been short for time and stuck with a car you need to fix!

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Sat Jul 09, 2011 12:00 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote: That's good to know. So the difference in torque at freeway speeds is even less. The main difference sounds like the Liberty could "keep on pulling" past 120km/h, 130km/h, 140 km/h etc. if you mash the throttle. My 08 Civic was like that; if I lost attention I could easily drift effortlessly from 110 km/h to say... 143 km/h.

Will never be an issue in a NA L-Series!!

Post by **TOONGA** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:34 am

just curious ... have you bought car number 1? as it is still advertised on Gumtree.

TOONGA

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:28 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote:1.19 Lo range? I'm almost wondering "...what's the point..."

So that you can swap the L series low range in... At least we got the low range built into the EJ gearbox - the US missed out on ALL subaru models after the L series!

Cheers

Bennie

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:59 am

El_Freddo wrote:So that you can swap the L series low range in... At least we got the low range built into the EJ gearbox - the US missed out on ALL subaru models after the L series!

Cheers

Bennie

Lol, okay...

"...Mate, you're going a bit fast at 13 km/h..." or "...I reckon I might bog..."
Shift into 4Lo and you are now turning at 11 km/h; problem solved?!?

So they did that just to boost sales in their performance mod department?

(hahahahaha)

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:01 am

TOONGA wrote:just curious ... have you bought car number 1? as it is still advertised on Gumtree.

TOONGA

Yep.

Good, I wanna save a copy of that gumtree add for future reference.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:16 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote:So they did that just to boost sales in their performance mod department? (hahahahaha)

I wish they had a mod department! I don't know why they did it, I'm just glad they did!

Cheers

Bennie

Post by **TOONGA** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:57 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote:Yep.

Good, I wanna save a copy of that gumtree add for future reference.

you had better be quick as those ads normally disappear when the seller finds a buyer and they delete the ad. you will want to save it as a web page or copy and paste everything into a word document.

TOONGA

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 11:51 pm

TOONGA wrote:you had better be quick as those ads normally disappear when the seller finds a buyer and they delete the ad. you will want to save it as a web page or copy and paste everything into a word document.

TOONGA

saved a copy

The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Do any of these Subarus sound like a good buy?

Which one of the three would you pick?