1986 Subaru Other

Wagon

1.8-liter flat-four

Manual

JF1AN43B5GB417659

Clear

Gasoline

Please read this information in its entirety. THE BASICS: Well-maintained 1986 Subaru GL station wagon from California. 5-speed manual transmission; front-wheel drive; Pioneer AM/FM/CD with auxiliary jack; power windows and door locks; Hella rally driving lights; Factory roof racks; Chevrolet full-size car horn. All maintenance/repair records since 2005. ***** MANY NEW AND RECENTLY-REPLACED PARTS ***** - SINCE LAST YEAR: Carburetor service; fuel pump/filter; alternator; battery; front wheel bearings; front brake pads, calipers, rotors and hoses; brake master cylinder; front suspension bushings; outer tie rod ends (with alignment); ball joints; thermostat; radiator/coolant hoses; front CV driveaxles; carburetor service/new vacuum hoses; accessory belts; windshield; air filter. - LAST COUPLE OF YEARS: Rear brake shoes, wheel cylinders, brake hardware and wheel bearings; tune-up (spark plugs/wires/cap/rotor/PCV valve); clutch cable; throttle cable; heater core; muffler (Cherry bomb glass-pack, which actually sounds very mellow...nice, quiet rumble); rear struts; starter; headlamps; front seats. - SINCE 2009: Clutch; all transmission seals; timing belts; front struts; rear crankshaft oil seal; shifter bushings; carburetor rebuild. - SINCE 2008: Water pump; oil pump; front crankshaft oil seal; camshaft oil seals; ACCEL ignition coil; power steering rack/inner tie rod ends. If you're looking for a car that's reliable, reasonably fuel efficient, spacious, can take you to the Catskills, California or even Cancun tomorrow without any problems, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, this '86 Subaru GL is the one for you. Its small dimensions make it an ideal city car, but its capacious interior and folding rear seats make it perfect for road trips and good enough for someone who needs a small pickup truck, but also wants a 4-door, 5-seat car. The back seat folds completely flat, giving you a cargo space that's about 6 feet long, 4.5 feet wide and 3.5 feet tall. You can fit a lot of stuff inside this car. It's not the most powerful or beautiful car you'll find, but it will definitely get you wherever you need to go and it has character! Just last fall, it finished a cross-country rally – New York City to Los Angeles – in 42 hours and 33 minutes. It has even been featured in a Subaru advertisement (see attached photo... that's real) that appeared in Backpacker, the Yoga Journal and some other granola-ey magazines I had no part in choosing. I have owned this car since 2007. I have fixed or replaced many things over the years, and have taken good care of the rest. It's really the best car I've ever owned. The only reason I'm selling is because I finally bought a 4WD GL and couldn't keep both vehicles (along with my other projects) in the city. The front-wheel drive model has a taller 5th gear, and I can tell you firsthand that it is better for highway cruising, because the RPMs stay lower, than is the 4WD model. The car's next owner should be someone who is a) looking for a reasonably priced set of wheels, but b) is willing to check the oil, do the maintenance, and keep up with all of the other things that owning an old car requires. If you take care of the car, the car will take care of you. I've driven this thing in all three countries in North America, back and forth between both coasts several times and in extreme desert heat and epic Western blizzards without major problems. But this is not (nor is any older car) something you can just drive and not pay attention to. The car has 219,000 mostly highway miles on the odometer, but these cars regularly go well over 300,000 before you have to think about changing the engine or transmission. Everything else has been replaced, so it would be well worth your while to do that when the time comes, years from now (depending upon how much you drive and how well you take care of it). Parts are inexpensive and easy to find at Autozone and other local parts stores, and the car is very simple, so it's pretty easy to fix. - THE PROBLEMS: Like any older car, this one is not without it's problems. The passenger side front and driver's side rear windows roll up and down slowly (and, since I have owned the car, always have). But they work. The inner section of the double-walled exhaust section is loose inside the pipe, so there is sometimes a slight vibration when you first accelerate. There is also a small patch on the exhaust about 12 inches upstream from the muffler. The interior is clean and looks ok, but it is weathered, consistent with what you would find on an old truck. There are small tears on the sides of some of the seats, and there is a strip of vinyl missing from the back of the front passenger seat (this can be replaced with vinyl and fabric cement). There are a few small rust spots, mostly on the front edge of the hood and around the rear wheel wells. I have kept on top of them, and treat them with naval jelly and fresh paint every few years. The rear tailgate struts don't work in the cold. I've always just used vice-grips. The air conditioning does not work. It broke in August 2010, while I was driving across Arizona (I will never forget that trip). I never looked into fixing it, but all of the hardware is still in place. The driver side power mirror does not work, but can be adjusted by hand (the passenger side one works fine). YOU WILL NOT FIND A MORE ROAD TRIP-READY CAR FOR THE PRICE. If you're looking for a $900 car, you will get what you pay for – a clapped-out beater with a continuously-lit check engine light and/or transmission problems to keep you company during the short time you drive the car before it breaks down for good. Plus, it's getting tough to find these old GL wagons on the East Coast; they're usually too rusty to be worth looking at. This one is not. If you've read this entire post, understand it, and still feel like this is the car for you, then I hope you can enjoy it as much as I have! Thank you.