Our daughter's first car, when she got her license was a 2002 Outback "VDC", which has the H-6 engine, their top end trim and the VDC drive. Her's was Garnet Black and gold. Black leather. I bought it through a friend, who took it in trade. Older couple who bought a new one every four years. 38K miles. It was a really great car, and with four Hakka's....a tank in snow, slush, ice. Unfortunately, being our first Subie, I did not know about the flaw in the design of the rear crossmember. In the fall of 2013, she traded it in on a newer one.
I bought a 2005 Legacy GT wagon, two years old, CPO, when I had just had it with my 2003 W8 Passat. Luckily it had a 100K warranty, but it was in the middle of it's third engine out repair, and a news transmission. Our daughter's Subie was like a sewing machine, so I bought the LGT. And it really surprised me. Fit and finish was really poor, but it drove very well. I did some work to it. I thought I would own it for 6 months to a year. Owned it for 8 years. Great car in the winter. If I was a bit heavy with the gas, it really drank fuel.
My daughter's second was a 2009 Outback XT, which like the LGT was a standard trans. Great car for her to have in CO. She bought it with about 70K miles, and at about 115K, it started to show all of the signs that it was going to need even more love. Not a great car for a single woman, in her opinion. She and I went over a list of likely "needs", and did the math. She went car shopping and scored a great price on a new Alltrack, and then we worked them up on a trade in figure. She did not want to sell it herself. We're 2200 miles apart. She hated to sell it, as she loved it. But, it made sense.
Both the LGT and the XT were pretty reliable, but were not cheap to own. My 328xi wagon was much cheaper to run. Not even close.
Good news is that she LOVES the Alltrack, and it's also tremendous in the snow.
