Lou Fusz Subaru

I have a 1999 Subaru Legacy Limited Edition Outback Station Wagon that currently has 167000 miles on it. It has a manual transmission. I bought it new in February 1999 from another dealer in town. I had minimal problems with the car until it hit about 110,000 miles. (I had the clutch replaced at about 90,000 miles. Due to poor maintenance on my part, I had to have my rotors, brake cylinders,etc. replaced. This was also the first time I had my brakes replaced. Needless to say, as the miles went up, so did the cost of my repairs. Most of the cost, as they told me, was the labor. I even had the mechanic tell me how to do the repairs myself if I could, to save some money. They have done a great job and were always honest with me.

We've taken our Subaru to this dealer shop a number of times. They're competent enough, but they are soooo expensive. Our head gasket needed to be replaced (at 65,000 miles -- yeah, it's a Subaru), and it cost an arm and a leg. Their labor charge was $140/hour. And they charged us for 10 hours of labor, even though we okayed the work at 10 am and it was done by 2:20. Hmmmm, even if two people were working on it and took no breaks, how does that add up? Unfortunately, if you've got an older Subaru, you're going to need a lot of work done, and there aren't too many shops in town that specialize in Subaru. But for anything routine, I'd look for some place cheaper.