What to do with a tourning wagon?

[WoodsWagon]

I hauled home a 1989 red touring wagon, auto 4wd. Rusty as all get out, no breaks, except the right front, which was stuck on. It supposedly runs good, seemed to handle well enough at the end of a strap. It has 3 good tires, and one mostly good with a flat spot(trash). How rare are the touring wagons? I'm tempted to cut the roof off and rivet it onto mine.....

[zyewdall]

I hauled home a 1989 red touring wagon, auto 4wd. Rusty as all get out, no breaks, except the right front, which was stuck on. It supposedly runs good, seemed to handle well enough at the end of a strap. It has 3 good tires, and one mostly good with a flat spot(trash). How rare are the touring wagons? I'm tempted to cut the roof off and rivet it onto mine.....

 

Don't know, except that my '89 is the touring wagon too, and it's one of maybe two or three I've seen in Boulder, which probably has at least 100 of the old EA82 wagons. So they must be fairly rare, or few of them made it into our population.

[Snowman]

Not sure of this, but I think 89 was the only year for the touring wagon in the US.

[zyewdall]

Not sure of this, but I think 89 was the only year for the touring wagon in the US.

 

Really? -- If that's true, I'm firmly convinced that '89 is the best year to have then. Late enough for SPFI, but still early enough for the dual range tranny, and has the touring wagon option too!

[Ross]

Wierd - almost all ea82 wagons (and ea81s after 83) had the touring wagon roof here!

[TROGDOR!]

Touring wagons were only made in 1989 and 1990, and were quite rare. I've seen a few 89's in person, and a couple 90's online. I also recall my mom test driving a 1990 Loyale touring wagon in 1990. They never caught on in the US and are the rarest of the EA82 body styles.

[tailgatewagon]

if you junk it save the rear glass as they are worth a mint to the right people since you cant find them anywhere there are probably 5 or 6 touring wagons here in bozeman mt. and at least 1 has had plastic on the rear glass for a year or better........

[wesley willis]

is the touring wagon the wagon with the really really big rear glass? i saw one in town today.

[Ross]

Touring wagons were only made in 1989 and 1990, and were quite rare. I've seen a few 89's in person, and a couple 90's online. I also recall my mom test driving a 1990 Loyale touring wagon in 1990. They never caught on in the US and are the rarest of the EA82 body styles.

 

They were made right through, and in other countries non-touring wagons are quite rare. For some reason they just didn't sell them everywhere. I think the non-touring wagons were called "Omega" here.

[Snowman]

Is there really a noticable increase in interior space/headroom with the raised roof?

[hatchsub]

Anyone got a pic of this? I cant even imagine what it looks like cause ive probably never seen onel.

[TROGDOR!]

That's right, in other countries they started making them in 1985. Only in North America were they only made in 1989 and 1990.

 

 

There is no extra headroom in the front, but the backseat has more headroom. The raised roof adds a few more inches of cargo space. A touring wagon could have hauled my couch, where my normal wagon was 2 inches too narrow.

[tailgatewagon]

kinda along the same thing,,, there is a gen1 legacy with a turing roof. its an 92-94 style. but its a turing wagon...

 

also almost all new subarus are turing wagons....

[zyewdall]

They never caught on in the US and are the rarest of the EA82 body styles.

 

Yeah, when I was in France, there were tons of little wagon/van things which looked like station wagons with a tall roof -- some more like a foot of roof instead of just 4" like the subaru touring wagon. It's what they seem to use instead of SUV's, which is what America went with . I love them. Those and the four door toyata and nissan pickups which are all over Africa and South America, but didn't come to the US till about 2000.

[MorganM]

Swap the motor into the one you blew up. Part out what's salvagable. Dispose of the carcass accordingly.

[moosens]

I hauled home a 1989 red touring wagon, auto 4wd. Rusty as all get out, no breaks, except the right front, which was stuck on. It supposedly runs good, seemed to handle well enough at the end of a strap. It has 3 good tires, and one mostly good with a flat spot(trash). How rare are the touring wagons? I'm tempted to cut the roof off and rivet it onto mine.....

 

 

Save the rear hatch,it's special...same for the ceiling liner.Save the trim around the hatch too.THere's screws from the inside of the pillar if you do remove them.

 

I love mine.Too bad I don't drive it.:-\

[moosens]

Touring wagons were only made in 1989 and 1990, and were quite rare. I've seen a few 89's in person, and a couple 90's online. I also recall my mom test driving a 1990 Loyale touring wagon in 1990. They never caught on in the US and are the rarest of the EA82 body styles.

 

Something like 1500 as I recall,were produced in the two years.

[WoodsWagon]

1 of 1500. thats pretty rare as cars go. Would I get more value selling the hatch and keeping the engine, or repairing the rust and selling it to a new owner?

[moosens]

1 of 1500. thats pretty rare as cars go. Would I get more value selling the hatch and keeping the engine, or repairing the rust and selling it to a new owner?

 

I've already gotten my spare hatch and I've yet to see someone else needing one since.I needed the glass once and Steve from WV came through with one.They are expensive if you ask the dealer,like almost $400 and there's 3 types of them too.One is glued only,the others are a little different.

 

How bad is the rust?I'm assuming it's typical of a NE 1989-90 car.Can you see the road through the rear quarter wells?How's the unibody rails near the firewall?Rockers?Lower edges of doors?

 

If it's maroon I have/had some doors.I think WagonsOnly has them stored for me.

 

Mine has gone on family vacations,been offroaded,even through a good 30"'s of water....and someone once posted the pic of the nose to the air and about 18"'s of nothing between my front tires and earth. That car is still going strong and hasn't rotted too badly yet.My sister inlaw uses it to go like 1 mile each way to work. It's living the good life now.Very handy,we call it the family truck.

[Snowman]

Not to discourage you, but outside of this board, I doubt anybody in America knows what a touring wagon is. I kind of doubt that you could get much more for one than for a regular wagon.

[zyewdall]

Not to discourage you, but outside of this board, I doubt anybody in America knows what a touring wagon is. I kind of doubt that you could get much more for one than for a regular wagon.

 

Unfortuneatly true. I got mine for $500 in great shape with only a toasted rear wheel bearing. They guy just wanted it out of his driveway and had no idea what it was worth.

[WagonsOnly]

Unfortunately he did, they're not worth too much. I have an '89 touring wagon in fire-engine red (also from NH) as well as Paul's maroon doors. Also--touring wagons were not available with a power sunroof (for obvious reasons--there'd be a net loss in rear headroom even with the raised roof) but I've seen one with a dealer-installed flip-up.

[zyewdall]

Unfortunately he did, they're not worth too much.

 

True enough:). To ME, it was worth more though -- the added head room helps when I use it a junk hauler, and being an '89, it has SPFI but still has dual range....

 

Hey, what kind of VW's do you have in your collection?? Any of the old turbodiesels?

[moosens]

Yeah,they're all worth more to us because we're whacked out on Subaru,man.

 

 

Seriously,my touring wagon cost $200 needing timing belts and an axle.That car has taken us on family vacations,gone off roading several times including the infamous nose in the air photo.. ...then it's helped move people,including myself,and still runs excellent even though my sister inlaw drives it.

 

So,I'd say any SPFI wagon with dual range 4WD is worth the $500 or so.

 

Hey,how about that one on eBay right now??Shooooey,boy,tell you what,that'd be for me if I had the green.Sccccccchhhhhhhhwwwwwweeeeeeeet!!!!!!

 

There's been quite a few folks over the years that have commented favorably about the touring wagons of '89 and '90....because they really are a nice car for a boxy Subaru of the late 80's.

[HooptyGL]

my 94 leg GT had the touring wagon roof w/ rack and i sure did love it. I loved it so much that i even replaced the head gaskets....then it was stolen in denver in january, some meth-head drove it like 6 blocks before totaling it into a lamp post in down town at like 3 am on new years day...but now ive got a GL thats almost a decade older with less miles...and he's in jail!