This generation Subaru (1980-1984) is starting to get a bit scarcer in these parts, despite Eugene being an early adopter of the brand. So when I saw this bright red hatchback (with a tow hitch) sitting at a grocery store, I had to pull over and peel off a couple of shots. The only question in my mind was which front end it would have.
Oh goodie! It has the rather rare round headlight front end. I’m pretty sure that was used in the first year or two of this generation, and replaced by the more common twin rectangular headlight job. This has the 1.6 L pushrod boxer, making all of 67 hp. That was pretty typical of the times, and plenty to bring home groceries. Unlike more recent generations of OHC Subaru boxers, these old version were considered extremely bulletproof, without the head gasket issues.
I read somewhere that Subaru just didn’t design in enough head bolts on the newer engines; hard to believe. And the head gasket issue went on and on and on…has it ended yet? We’ll have to wait a few years.
Related reading:
CC 1984 Subaru GL Hardtop Coupe – A requiem For The Affordable Hardtop
Oh how I hope the head gasket generation is behind us. I am almost at 90k on my ’05 GT wagon.
And probably so is the generation when the exhaust would fail, and you could hear a Subie coming down the road, sounding like a sewing machine…as identifiable as ‘potato-potato-potato’ on a Harley twin.
Does that explain the WRX,then? They always sound like they have an exhaust leak.
That may have something to do with the prevalence of aftermarket exhaust systems and other mods, even on stock-appearing examples.
I do also hope it’s behind, as a Legacy GT wagon is on my short list for my next car (assuming that happens in the next couple years, anyway…)
Well if they’re aftermarket, they could at least tune them to sound a little better, as Italian makes usually do!
BTW, that ’80 model shows they were moving on from their horrific ’70s styling.
Unless it’s been modded and/or abused to within an inch of its life, you won’t have to worry about an LGT. Different HG design.
Thank goodness. Mobil-1 changed every 3,000 miles and only lightly abused, er…highly / sedately enjoyed…
Now if I could just get a taller final ratio, on the hiway I’d get better than 23 MPG and I wouldn’t have the turbo spooling constantly at 72 MPH…though passing acceleration is an instantaneous blast…
General rules of thumb on the non-turbo 2.5 head gasket issue –
1998-early 2003 – not if, but when
Late ’03-2009 – can be problematic, but regular oil and coolant changes keep trouble to a minimum. Many have been known to go well over 100K before they go bad, if they go bad at all.
2010+ – new gasket design similar to (but not interchangeable with) the turbo 2.5.
Our 2000 Forester managed to make it to 170k before both sides started leaking. Must have been lucky, as everyone else I knew with this vintage usually had to have them done by 100k.
Funny , When I was a kid , I thought those little private planes made that potato potato potato sound too when they idled. When I played with airplanes made of legos with my friend, he laughed when I said potato potato potato as I spun the propeller .
No, the head gasket problems have not ended and continue to dog this otherwise sterling company. I’ve bought two Outbacks that were both about ten years old at the time and always made sure that the head gasket had already been done.
I’ll be honest when I say I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these cars in person before. It’s actually pretty nice looking for an early-’80s hatchback. With the round headlights and curved body panels it almost looks like an AMC Pacer that went on The Biggest Loser and then got a plastic surgery to make its body panels more attractive.
Ooh, good eye, you’re right. It *is* kind of like a Pacer on a diet.
These disappeared from Rustopia about 20 years ago. Haven’t seen one in moons.
Wan’t this 3-door hatch body style kept around until about 1989 as an entry level model?
This is an ’82 base model, that was the only year for the slat grille with thin chrome edging. It came in all three versions – STD hatchbacks (yes…) came with round ones, DLs and 4WD GLs with single squares (the latter having the “cyclops” auxiliary light under the flip-up badge) and 2WD GLs had quads.
’80-81 had thicker chrome borders, ’83 and up went to the honeycomb grille and I’ve never seen one of those with round lights.
I’m convinced; the title has been changed.
bulletproof but o so slow. friend in maine had an early wagon. loved it for its traction but on the interstates it routinely got passed on the uphills. when i asked about the mileage it was not as good as my plymouth horizon which had almost the same amount of room but no 4wd option. i would imagine a stick in these would help immensely.
I had the wagon version with A/C, and I learned to switch off the A/C when merging onto the freeway using the very short on-ramp near my house.
Nice looking indeed and sure is rare, but what is with the Lei caught in the tailgate? I can only guess the owner is being expressive, maybe even trying to scare away the rain to bring on Summer-like weather.
My older sister had two of these. One was a hatch like this and the other was a wagon. Her family swore by them and my BIL was a pretty fair mechanic so they had some parts cars.
I don’t see how Subaru could have had worse head gasket problems than the Nissan NAPS engines. Sort of the achilles heel of a couple good brands it seems to me.
I believe this is a 1982-85 model, based on the parking lights and the absence of a CHMSL. If I remember correctly, when this type of Subaru was introduced in 1980, the parking lights and turn signals had separate lenses, with a small space between them (I may be off by a year). This particular car appears to have the parking lights / turn signals with one flush lens, and I think that design came out in 1982.
This Hatchback variant of the 1980-era Subarus carried on as an entry-level car even after the 1985 boxy Subarus went on sale, and I think it remained available in the lineup until 1989 when it was replaced by the Justy.
Quite a survivor — I haven’t seen one of these in years!
I hadn’t seen one in quite some time, then I spotted one almost exactly like this sometime last year. Definitely a double-take sort of sighting!
It does seem like years upon years since they were common though. A friend’s family owned a station wagon of this body style in the mid 90’s, but by that time it had been supplanted by a boxy DL wagon so the older one was primarily a driveway ornament. His family had a reliable “Subaru pipeline” in that the grandparents would buy a new one every 3 years, and the oldest one would be passed down, so every 3 years they were given a 6 year old Subaru wagon. Not a penny paid for any one. Pretty good deal while it lasted, and considering they had six of them over the time I knew him, it lasted a good long time.
A college roommate of mine had one of these with the round headlights. Come to think of it, I drove it a time or two when he was drunk. It was quite nice driving despite it being 12 or so years old at the time and so full of rust the doors were perforated. His uncle was a car dealer in Indianapolis and he got it on the cheap from him.
Haven’t thought about one of these in ages.
I believe this hatchback would have the same 1.6 that my long ago 79 Brat had.
Though not a speed demon the 1.6 in that Brat was at times flogged mercilessly, yet withstood it without a whimper.
As others have stated here, I also have Subaru on my short list of next vehicles, but I am worried about the head gasket issues…
My grandparents had 2 of these, haven’t seen one in years.
I had an ’83 model subie wagon. Same motor, five speed. Pretty solid except that the transmission needed to be replaced around 150,000 miles. It was traded for a ’92 Justy a year after that. The Justy served me well for three years and 75,000 miles without an issue.
I did have head gasket issues with my ’89 XT Turbo four.
I sold Subarus in the summer of ’89. We still had new models with this body style in stock. They were 4WD GLs, so I don’t know if they were still offering this body with FWD. Subaru had a pretty crazy model line in 1989. They were selling Justys, XT coupes, Legacies, Loyales, and these hatchbacks, which I think were just called GLs in the literature. Many of them were available in several combinations of trim and drive. Most of them also primarily competed with other Subaru models, and Subaru was a regional player in the US at the time.
Wasn’t there also a Loyale hatchback at one point? 2 doors and an 80’s style glass hatch, rather than the 3-door styling like this? I don’t think I’m making that up, but I don’t know if it existed in ’89 or not. If so, that seems to be another internal competition. But all that diversity sure was interesting; pity most of them have gone.
The Loyale hatchback – or rather its predecessor – was the RX. Nice looking car.
I think the Loyale hatchback was called an RX Coupe, at least when it was equipped with a turbo and 4WD. This was distinct from the XT Coupe, which wasn’t a hatchback.
It was definitely called the RX, or RX Coupe… I’m not sure if they even had the turbo engine available, though. I nearly bought one of these and it was totally loaded (including dual-range 4WD), but no turbo.
Adding even more confusion is the fact that Subaru also sold an RX sedan a few years earlier which was basically a fully-loaded Loyale with the turbo engine. Subaru’s lineup and naming scheme was completely absurd at the time, unless their goal was to have people frustrated with it and just refer to all of them as “Subarus” rather than specific models.
Here’s the “RX Coupe”:
Here’s one with a turbo and US registration. Subaru seems to have called the same models by different names for other markets and years, so it’s hard to come up with a definitive answer on what they should be called. Sometimes the coupe was called the RX-II, but I’m guessing not in the US, where Mazda would have had issues with it.
…and the RX Turbo Sedan:
These were great cars light and fairly well made with selectable 4WD for almost decent fuel economy but from here its was all down hill the cars got heavier and drank fuel like a 6 but with only mediocre performance at best unless you got a brace of turbos and then the fuel tank is just too small and you still get blitzed in traffic by French diesels.
Interesting that this body style didn’t get the square facelift, the same applies to the Brumby/Brat that ran through to 1992 from memory. The hatch wasn’t sold here though.
In my mind’s eye, this vintage Subie is still common in Maine. Maybe my memory is playing with me, or maybe the cars really are there, so rusted as to be diaphanous, but still going.
Small hatchbacks always get a second look from me. I keep considering getting one as an around town beater to keep the Jetta out of the winter schmutz, but try and find a small hatch that the wiper/lights/window/mirror controls all work the same as a VeeDub. I consider a Saturn Astra from time to time.
Thought I spied an 08 or thereabouts Rabbit in a used car lot the other day, tho the Rabbit is larger than I would prefer. Stopped for a looksee and discovered it’s a Canadian refugee, a Golf “City”, still wearing it’s Ontario plate.
Now there is an interesting car for someone to do a CC on! Never imported into the US officially.
I had a friend in high school who had this generation wagon. His had the round headlights. I remember everyone thinking it was such an ugly old car (this was 2001-02 ish) and I thought it was so cool. Unfortunately his ended up upside down in a ditch.
I actually like it. Reminds me of the mid to late ’70s Japanese cars. And it’s a 2 door hatchback. I have no idea why Subaru never fixed the head gasket problem. My sister (in Portland, OR) was looking to buy a late ’90s used AWD Subaru Impreza and I managed to talk her out of it because of the head gasket issue. And I like the sound of a Subaru with a slightly louder exhaust. Sounds just like an old VW bug.
This really is a nice looking simple car. Subaru did a nice job with its greenhouses, the frameless door glass usually aided this mission.
Just about any low buck Toyota or Nissan from this era would have had the body colored framed door glass mismatched with however the rear side window was handled – cheap looking ugly cars in my mind, no matter how good they may have been.
This is the sort of design a smarter GM would have figured out. Can you imagine this as the Chevette? And with a decent updated drive train? Millions would have been sold.
Now it makes sense that the classic “Whoop de do for my Subaru” commercial was actually for a chain of muffler shops.
I never saw a hatch with the round lights either, looks cool! I haven’t seen a hatchback, period, in a long time… maybe 10+ years.
The 4WD version of this body is one of my favorite Subarus and a truly unique type of car. If only they’d added the turbo engine…
I wish they still made cars like this today. The Toyota Yaris 3 door came close until they totally destroyed the front end for 2015. It was a car I would have bought on the spot in 2014, had I been 30 years younger. But at my age and in my condition, I have to have an automatic transmission and cruise control if I am going to use it for daily transportation and trips. Toyota did not make the 3 door model in LE trim, which was necessary to get the auto and cruise.
I recently purchased one of these with the round lights and it has some cosmetic issues, such as busted light covers and the fender has been damaged. Does anyone know where to get parts for this vehicle?
My Grandfather has one of these SRX model with the rather rare round headlight front end! I´m from Chile and we can´t find any parts for it (we need both carburetors) if you know where may I found them please comentó below! I really love the car and my grandfather won´t let it go hahaha. Any help is good!