I don’t believe we have featured one of these here on CC yet and I know this is the first one I’ve come across in the junkyard so this was a pleasant surprise when I saw it a few days ago. It’s hard to believe that in 1986 Subaru offered three different two-doors at the same time; those being this one, the then-new very polarizing XT “cyber”-wedge as well as the then-old GL Hatchback based on the prior generation of cars to this one, one of which we featured over a year ago in this series. Of the three this one seems by far to be the least common so we should be honored to be in its presence.
Introduced to the US market for the 1986 model year, this is a first year example whose coupe shape built on the GL (Leone in other markets) sedan and wagon that debuted here a year earlier. Eventually those sedans and wagons would be renamed Loyale, but by that time the coupe was already discontinued.
As with the sedan and wagon, this was probably the first Subaru that could be considered conventionally attractive, without any really jarring details and to my eye the blocky shape is well toward the appealing side of the ledger. If I needed to cast a stone, well, then the hatchback glass here is perhaps a little too much on the large side and gives it a slightly unfortunate resemblance to the Nissan Sentra Coupe of the same vintage. The Nissan may have done the hatch slightly better in fact. But that’s my only real nit to pick, no worse than Cindy Crawford’s mole.
Of course, no snow climate dweller would ever look twice at the Sentra Coupe when this Subaru was available with 4WD and not just that, but also a choice between 4Lo and 4Hi, just like on a big pickup truck. Manually selectable with FWD as the default, this system was robust and gave the Subaru lineup the ability of a mountain goat, as long as the mountain was fairly smooth going. And not too steep. But for snow, mud, gravel or dirt roads, this thing has you covered.
From the front it’s hard to tell the difference vs the other shapes but large headlights, clean lines, and no nonsense make this an eminently respectable ride.
Sadly the old “Cyclops” center headlight wasn’t available anymore, but Subaru’s logo still stands proudly front and center.
Underhood there’s still space for the spare, mounted atop the horizontally opposed 4cylinder displacing 1.8liters. With 84hp it wasn’t ever in much of a hurry but that’s the same as non-turbo Subaru 4-cylinders these days as well.
Heading around back I’m struck by what is happening to the paint. It didn’t seem to have been repainted but that’s the most egregious fading I’ve seen in a long time with the paint still remaining on the metal.
It does however make for some interesting art where the logo used to be.
Opening the massive hatch lets us take a gander at a fairly spacious cargo area complete with rollaway cargo cover. While not overly deep at least the seats can be folded down separately. I wonder what happened to the one seat, perhaps a dog got hungry one day?
The interior itself, besides being a chocolate brown that doesn’t really go with a red exterior, looks to be in quite good condition. The seat material is from that Japanese high point era in which ALL the seat material on any car looked and felt good. This is Honda Accord quality stuff right here.
Subaru moved some of their weirdness inside for this generation, especially with the dashboard which incorporates some unconventional but still perfectly functional ideas. The left side of the binnacle has six buttons, in this case only the top left is used (for the standard rear defroster), so at least your passenger can’t see the blanks that you didn’t spring for to be filled with other toys.
Here you can note the HVAC controls on the right of the instrument binnacle, perfect to swat away the hand of a meddling spouse that didn’t take your advice to wear a cardigan. Baby, I told you it’s cold outside! The Hi-Fi has lots of knobs, buttons, switches, all the better to listen to side two (auto-reverse!) of Dire Straits’ new tape. You didn’t pay all that Money For Nothing!
No, it’s not that low-mileage, I couldn’t get the leading “1” into frame but that’s still not a very robust number for a Subaru around these parts. It should have racked that up by the mid-90’s in fact. Still, look at that instrumentation, we even have a voltmeter here. The left side hides the temperature gauge and an oil pressure gauge as well making for a full display along with everything else we see here.
The back seat area looks pretty comfortable, well padded, and all the cloth in excellent condition. There are even handy recessed storage areas for the +2 set’s illicit contraband or whatever else may need to be stowed in a hurry. Alas, no opening windows back here though.
As with any Subaru, the obvious suspect for it being here are the head gaskets. But this still made it almost 34 years, so it’s possible it’s actually fine and yet simply another unwanted manual transmission “old” car. If a 35-year-old bought it new and kept it all these years, they’d now be pushing 70 and perhaps nobody else in the family wanted the old car, who knows…
Made in Japan, those were magic words in the 1980’s. I wouldn’t have thought (and didn’t in my +2 note above) that they figured on three abreast in the back seat but this tag indicates so. Still, with five people aboard these days that 810lb maximum load number would likely easily be breached. Oh hey, maybe they had trouble finding 175/70-13 tires and that’s why it’s here!
I wonder if I’ll see another one of these, there weren’t common when new, and obviously even less so now. This may be the most likely way to see one in fact, who knows how many cars are out there not necessarily running around anymore but just tucked away in a barn or a field and eventually cleared out when the property goes for sale. Still, I had just gotten my driver’s license when this was built so I’m starting to feel the age as well. At least I’m still running around and my skin hasn’t turned a chalky orange. I’m just not sure that I’m Inexpensive And Built to Stay That Way.
I’d bet that it sat unused for many years and wasn’t worth the work or money to put back into service. Every rubber part. Everything leaky or seized up. Probably a usable car in there somewhere, but you’d have to really want it.
I didn’t know these had a low-range either. I may have known at one time and forgot. Its just not something I’m used to seeing. Was that a common thing on Subarus back then?
As a kid, I liked seeing these on the road. They weren’t ugly like my mom’s ’77 wagon/lemon, and not odd-looking-drawn-with-an-Etch-A-Sketch like the XT. A pleasant, functional shape and very ’80s, in a good way.
I didn’t realize Japanese cars had such good quality seat materials back then, until I saw how they have held up over such long periods of time. Remarkable!
You may be right about the scarcity of small tires nowadays. Even average cars usually have at least 15″ or 16″ sizes for the last 20 years. Now you have to may more to get less product.
Thanks for another interesting find!
1990-96 Pontiac TransSports (and other versions of the plasticvan) had similar controls at the ends of the instrument binnacle. Chevy Corsicas had something similar only with knobs instead of sliders. Other GM cars as well. They actually worked pretty well. The function was more obvious than with multifunction stalk controls.
The TransSport also had a voltage gauge, which came in handy in that I noticed the voltage going down when my alternator (because GM) failed.
I guess most people don’t care and never looked at anything other than the fuel guage so various instruments have gone away. It would be nice if on all the information display options on my 2018 Subaru there was an old time fake multi gauges option.
I would edit that and fix the spelling mistake if there was an edit function here. I’m pretty sure there used to be one about until the recent improvement which provides for reliable comment posting without usually getting a message about posting too fast.
Bring back Edit!
My father-in-law had the station wagon and Turbo version of this car when I got married, but I think he sold it before I ever had a chance to drive it. Ten years later he drove my own Forester Turbo and said it brought back good memories.
As for 175/70-13 tires, I too wondered about their availability when I saw the picture of the GVWR plate. Back in 1980 or ‘81, I bought some “+1” wheels and tires for my 1st gen Ford Fiesta, a used set of 5-1/2×13 Capri wheels with 185/70-13 Pirellis (stock tires were 155-12, in itself an upgrade from the base Fiesta’s 145-12’s). But the 185/70’s rubbed and I replaced them with 175/70-13’s which at the time was hard to find; I bought some Dutch Vredestein’s, through Tire Rack, which had a Dutch founder.
The first tires I ever bought were Vredesteins (rare 195/70-13 size), and my previous daily driver took 175/70-13s. Vredestein still has a strong line of modern tires for older cars, which in this size include the very decent Quatrac 5 which is a 3PMSF winter rated all-weather tire. The General Altimax, another excellent tire that’s near the top of Tire Rack and CR’s test ratings likewise is available in 175/70-13 and other small sizes.
“As with any Subaru, the obvious suspect for it being here are the head gaskets.”
I thought the head gasket problem on Subarus was mainly found in various non-turbocharged models made from 1999-2011. The early pushrod engines were pretty bulletproof, though I think a 1986 model would have been an early OHC design using belts. Maybe a timing belt snapped? (Are these interference engines?) Or maybe terminal rust underneath?
The current normally aspirated Subaru 2.5 liter engine makes (I think) about 175 horsepower and use timing chains. Still not exactly a hot rod but more than double what the 1.8 in this ’86 put out.
On another topic, I have disabled ad blocking as requested – but what steps are being taken to make sure that the advertising stream is malware-free? Advertising is a common malware vector these days.
A good friend of mine had a virtually identical Subaru 3-door, though his was an ’88 or so and an automatic.
My friend’s parents bought it for him when he was a teenager — part of their rationale was that with 84 hp, he was unlikely to get himself in trouble with it. Definitely true… I drove that car several times, and it was S…L…O…W. It was also loud, but aside from those things was a good car. It did serve my friend very well, over 5 or 6 years and many roadtrips.
In your interior shots, I notice the passenger seat is pulled far forward and with the seatback in a steep position. If I remember correctly, the passenger seat returned to that position whenever anyone slid it forward to access the back (I’m not 100% positive of this, but the image struck a memory of that). I remember that being annoying, because the seat returned to a completely squished and unnatural position.
Very unusual, and special, to have two especially rare CCs side by side like this. Like the yard owner is lining up the CCs for Jim.
Entertaining the way the Japanese industry has cribbed each others designs for decades, and it just seemed so common practice, that we expect it. This Subaru looks like a little brother to the 1983 Mazda 626 coupe. With the Mazda appearing significantly influenced by the earlier Mitsubishi Galant Lambda/Dodge Challenger. Subaru interiors improved immensely in the 80s. As with their exterior styling, they studied the competition very closely.
The Audi is rare, the Subaru less so, and the Kia Sportage on the other side even less rare, but it’s no mundane Accord or Altima either. Will we see it featured soon?
Great find! It’s very eighties.
I liked these when they were new, Subaru had done a complete turnaround from the ugly cars they produced in the 1970’s.
The faded color reminds me of my Bianchi bicycle, at least the bike’s fork the rest of the original orange (not all Bianchis are blue-green) had now faded to a light squash/pumpkin color.
At the time, I was studying graphic design, and used to wonder why Subaru’s agency chose a 1930’s inspired typeface for their titles. Volkswagen and Volvo for example, had been using the same brand typography for years. But their type choices, besides being very clean, were not dated looking. While the Subaru title style would look at home in a 1930s car (or aviation) ad. Though bold and graphic in the Art Deco style, which came back in the 80s, the titles didn’t best compliment their latest products like the XT.
That’s really interesting… I never thought about Subaru’s typeface, but now that you mention it, that style does seem out of place.
Not very readable either. More space between letters and words would help.
Tightened kerning (letter spacing) and leading (line spacing) were popular design elements in advertising typography in the 70s and 80s. Making type a further part of the overall design.
That typeface looks like Avant Guard, or something very close to it. Very of the era, to be sure…
I’d be curious to know the story behind their rationale for going with their choice of title typeface. As it does seem out of place in a modern, mainstream car ad. Subaru buyer demographics may have identified some owners as collectors, with an interest in Art Deco design. But that would be a weak reason. An art director, or someone at Subaru, may have made a case for it.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Ford started making their corporate car ads look more like editorial stories, rather than ad content. In fact, Ford ads looked very much like Car and Driver magazine story pages with their use of the tightly kerned Goudy Bold typeface and vertical lines between columns. While for their truck ads they went with a similar layout and a ‘Lubalin’ style slab serif typeface.
That “everything on the binnacle” was largely started by the Isuzu Impulse, which was also the ne plus ultra of the fad.
Otherwise, this interior is conventional all-angles 80s Japanese car.
The Camaro Berlinetta starting in 1983 (same year Impulse arrived in the U.S.) also had wacky pod binnacles, as well as an equally wacky radio and tape player built into a swiveling head, looking like a 1950s Philco Predicta television set. The tapes loaded vertically via a tilt-down slot like those on home cassette decks. Steering wheel buttons (rare in ’83), digital instruments, and an elaborate overhead console completed the Star Wars feel.
Same FNAudi as yesterday
This car was made before Subaru had headgasket problems these old OHV engines just ran and ran, underpowered as you could get but they were reliable. I;m certain these cars in wagon form were still on the OZ market well into the 90s.
+1 on this. My experience with a 1980 GL was that the engine was dead reliable. At one point I overheated that car VERY badly and I thought there was no way that the engine and head gaskets had survived that, but once it cooled down it fired right up!
Jim, you hit the nail on the head when you opined these were the first conventionally attractive Subarus. 100%. These are definitely among the better looking import hatchbacks of the ’80s.
I feel like every red Japanese car of this era, from every manufacturer, faded like this.
Nice find. I wouldn’t mind having one of these, but this generation of Subaru is pretty much gone here.
I have seen one of these in my life in the Northeast – around 2014.
Hey, I had one of these! It was my first car. Mine was also a 1986, I bought it for 700$ in 2018, and drove it for a year and a half until it got rear ended and written off. it was a rusty old girl, 217K km on the clock when i got it, had a miss at idle and some pinging under high loads, and collapsed rear springs, all of which i fixed, and man it just kept going. Mine was a fuel injected, 90ish hp OHC engine with a 3 speed auto, FWD only. the auto and FWD didnt stop me from bringing it to some really remote places. For a first car, I couldnt have asked for anything better, it sipped gas and was easy to drive, but still light, nimble, and useful, I took it camping all the time. Mine was better inside that this one, and had better paint.
It got written off in june 2019, and I still think about it nearly every day. it breaks my heart to see a coupe in the junkyard, if it had been for sale i would have snatched it up in a heartbeat. I’ll find one, one day, and save it from the same fate that befell mine and this one. I miss my GL coupe!
Where is this located please?
I would like to purchase the 4wd shifter knob, please contact me via email
I actually have that exact car but in teal it runs and it has almost has no problems.
I need the tailights