I have become a convert to it... also known as Subaru. 2wd (FWD) or even 4wd, high mpg, light, easy to drive on country roads. Cheaply made, cheap to buy, not desirable by the public.
fairly easy to fix. Spark plugs in under 10 mins. Rotor is kind of a b1tch though, held by a tiny screw.

old RWD V8 full size cars are nice too, but they get 19-21mpg at best and don't handle as nicely.

Subaru Legacy/Loyale are easily the best in their class. Comparable to Ford Escort station wagons.

They don't however tow or carry anything with their tiny 1.8L/2.2L engines.

the ther serious downside is that alum. heads crack very easily due to overheating - it is hard to find any 1.8L engine with 100K which doesn't have cracked heads (which doesn't really affect anything).

I want a 4wd F250 for serious work but for daily driving I want a Subaru, something with high miles and disposable.

 

they make snomobile motors too, I think polaris uses a fuji engine, they make many machine tools also

I dont really want any of their products

 

Speaking also of that Subaru/Isuzu plant venture in Indiana, Isuzu bought back a bunch of what GM owned in them (from 49% GM down to 12% GM now!) and it is rumored at 4x4wire.com that Isuzu will let all it's GM grade garbage run the cycle (bye-bye Ascender!) and maybe the North American market finally sees a compact truck and other rigs with a diesel in it. (Other than the Liberty.)

http://www.isuzu.co.jp/world/
http://www.isuzu.co.jp/world/product...ertrain_2.html
^^^ = nice diesels!

That D-max (not the engine) Pickup looks pretty decent and maybe even the Ranger would get some comparable gear from somewhere in the Ford family in the near future. Maybe I can live with push-button 4x4 with manual hubs, but that push-button system has to be DURABLE!

Okay, enough of me ****ing people off about fresh stuff we should have here in North America but sadly don't have...

 

I had a legacy. Quality was incredible. In 150k I spent less than 500 dollars in non regular maintanence. It only got 19mpg. Didnt matter how I drove. hwy or city. I took it well beyond its intended purpose every day. I will own another.

A friend of mine got a suby lemon in 01. Not all cars are created equal. He was mad at me for telling him subys were good cars. Figured I had steered him wrong.

 

i have been following the developments whith Isuzu lately too. I think its about time they got out from underneath GM, GM did nothing good for them. I am curently rebuilding a 90 TrooperII and you can see that Isuzu had to cut corners on some stuff becouse GM wasnt allowing the funding. Things like staters and alternators are Toyta parts and then things like the fuel injection and related parts are Nissan. At first it realy confused me but it makes sense when you look at the history. Everytime Isuzu made a decent selling car GM discontinued it becouse it had better perormance and quality than thier stuff so they made Isuzu stop making it. Thats GM for ya