quasi Report This Comment
Date: October 08, 2026 10:18AM

I've been driving my 2002 Subaru Outback Limited named Zippy since 2014 and since 2016 made multiple 1400-mile/2250 km round trips towing my small 5×8 cargo trailer camper to visit family, and while the little 2.5 liter 4 cylinder engine has performed well, at 168k miles/270k km it became time to lighten the old boy's burden. My son in the car business searched for a few months and found this very clean 2018 Subaru Outback Touring model with the 3.6 liter 6 cylinder engine and only 46k miles/74k km that is now mine. I was trying to think of a name for it and then with the white color, advanced tech with warning chimes, view screen, collision sensors, and voice command as compared to the old 2002 with none of that, and the car's ability to boldly go where many other cars are unable in harsh road conditions, the name became clear. The six cylinder is like warp drive compared to the old 4 and the Subaru/Pleiades star cluster above the plate is the icing on the cake. I give you the Enterprise. The name seemed logical.

pulse Report This Comment
Date: October 08, 2026 10:40AM

Nice one 👍

My car struggles on a speed bump so it's definitely not going offroad or towing.

I don't think I've ever named a car.. though I'd probably call it Scooby if I had a Subaru

woberto Report This Comment
Date: October 08, 2026 11:40AM

Subaru flat sixes have a habit of going bang after developing a knock from a "chicken and the egg" big end bearing failure.
The emission control fucks with the timing so bad that the engine starts to knock.
Perpetual motion takes over and the "detonation knock" from the improper engine management becomes a "good old fashioned knock" where the big end bearing get slappy.
I blew up my STI Liberty and the specialist at MRT Performance gently broke me the news and sold me a crate motor from Japan.
Subaru 4 pots are unbreakable. Subaru sixes on the other hand are a lottery.
Let's hope you don't win the lottery q-man because it's a sweet ride and we hope it remains that way.
(You don't see any with more than 200,000 KM on the clock because they don't make it that far over here.)

woberto Report This Comment
Date: October 09, 2026 01:46AM

I take that back as the 3.6 turns out to be WAY better than the 3.0 so you are on a winner quasi.
Only suckers like me bought the 3.0 and paid the price.

quasi Report This Comment
Date: October 09, 2026 11:15AM

The 3.6 has been pretty durable. I'm more concerned about the CVT but by this model year I think Subaru had the bugs pretty well worked out. The last six cylinder with an actual geared transmission was 2014 and that's a little older than what I wanted. The last six before they went to the turbocharged four was 2019 and besides being out of my price range I don't quite trust a 2.4 four that's stressed by turbocharging though I expect they've worked out any problems by the newest models. I prefer a larger engine that's loafing along while making its power instead of a wound up smaller engine. I did notice that the six with the CVT is turning about 1950 rpm at 70 mph/113 kph while the old 2.5 with 4 speed automatic is at 3000 rpm going that fast. I'm very curious to see how fuel consumption will be during my normal driving and also while towing the trailer; I suspect it will be comparable to or better than the old one. I haven't been on the highway enough with old car to know what fuel consumption is there but this newer one got 30 mpg/ 7.84 Lp100km on my trip home, pretty good for 256hp in a midsized SUV.