I am not a Subaru owner but simply a Subaru lover at the moment. Actually, I did own a Subaru years ago and fell in love, but have not owned one since. I am beginning research for a good used car and decided to come here and fill my love tank. I would ultimatly like to have a RS25, but also really enjoy the 03-up Foresters and, of course, Bajas.
My first car was a beat up 82 4wd wagon with the third headlight. It was a young boys dream come true. I would pile friends in, wind it up and skip it across mudholes which would sink my friends' large trucks. The 4wd low range was amazing; I had it broke in so well I would launch it on the street in 4low, shift the manual thru 3rd, then slam it into 2wd(high range), drop back to second gear and keep going. 0-60 was better than many performance cars from the time period when I owned it and drove it in this fashion, and I managed to win a few friendly wagers in short races on the street. We also used to race across country dirt roads doing time trials, the Subaru was untouchable with all of its 80? or so horsepower 1.8L engine.
Of course I managed to kill the car eventually, but the abuse it took made me a believer for life. Even though I never managed to get back into another Subaru, I grew up in a shop learning auto mechanics, and I eventually made my way into a Subaru dealership. I got factory trained and worked as a Subaru tech for about 6 years before I left the career to pursue further education, but it was certainly one of my favorite jobs from the last 20 years. My love for Subaru grew exponentially while I learned about the deifferent models and the inner workings.
Anyways, now I am looking to buy so I am here to do some research. Looks like a good forum, hope to chat with some of you soon.