I love my 1996 Subaru Imprezza and want to do everything prudent to keep it alive. But, after the garage told me it wasn't worth fixing (has 276,000 miles and needs $1200 worth of engine work....major oil leak and smoke under hood), I started asking around. A friend told me to find out what the average life expectancy of the transmission was before investing the money...no reason to fix the engine if the transmission is just about to go! Any one got any ideas as to the life of the transmission???