How good is this if I get it in manual trans

Neither. E36 is a worse e46. Subaru is shit. Just get a civic.

depending on how many miles and how well maintained the E36 is, the suspension bushings are a trouble point, they get chowdered up and are very hard and expensive to replace

I actually made the choice between a 110k mile e36 325i manual sedan, and a 2001 manual Forester with 165k about a year ago

I went with the Forester, the e36 was kinda spotty on maint. history, but the Forester was taken care of by someone even more autistic than me

sold it a month ago with 210k miles on the original HG's
Definitely had times where I regretted not getting a RWD I6 god machine but oh well

If you're buying a Subaru before 1996 you're already fucking up, the 1995 and 96 need a manual tho or they're total trash, ej22 master race

After 1996****

>then it wasn't well maintained

It's literally a scheduled service at 100k miles for the 2.5's. Like, it's not avoidable, they're going to go no matter how well you treat the car.

>they're not hard to replace

You have to pull the motor to do it. As in, literally remove the motor from the car. This is not easy for someone that doesn't have an engine hoist, and will cost well over $1k for a shop to do.

I mean, I like Subarus as much as anyone else from new england, but all the Subaru guys I know have swapped at least two motors into their cars and have head gaskets down to a 4 hour job because they've done them a dozen times or better.

>literally a scheduled service at 100k miles for the 2.5's

maybe for the pre '99 DOHC yeah, and maybe for those that don't take care of their shit yeah

I'm in Colorado and work at an import shop, we work on a lot of Subarus and for every one with a blown HG you have one on the originals at 180k+

really just gotta take care of your shit tbqh fampai

What I'm getting at is it's not enough of a cataclysmic problem that it should prevent anyone from buying one, you just have to be smart about it

and yeah worst case scenario it's a $1000 job that will last the car's lifetime if you're too scared of pulling a motor

How does one "take care of" a headgasket?
Youre honestly retarded and i would fire you if you acted like this at work.

*after 2000
FTFY

>wasnt well maintained
How does one prevent a headgasket failure in a flawed design?
>handles well compared to its class
Not even close. A corolla outhandles it.
>insults me because hes wrong
Still wont get 25mpg
>requires maintenance
Like any car would
>compares it to bmw
So its expensive and breaks a lot?
>ej22
I originally said dont get the 2.5. Get the 2.2 because its better. Then you throw a fit with baseless claims about how im wrong and stupid. Then you agree with me... wtf man.

>for every one with a blown HG you have one on the originals at 180k+

Yeah, nah. Those are just ones that cleetus and his pals swapped out over a case of beers one idle Tuesday night. Won't show up on a service history, and they'll somehow forget to mention it when they sell it to a buddy of a buddy that they don't particularly like.

> it's not enough of a cataclysmic problem

It applies to literally every single 2.5 with 100k miles, +/- 25k miles. It's not a question of if, it's not a matter of how it was maintained, it's a known, guaranteed point of failure that reliably fails within that mileage range for 99% of motors.

I'm not saying it's a deal breaker, I'm not saying you shouldn't buy a Subaru with a 2.5. I'm just saying, if you do buy it, set aside $2k on top of the purchase price to replace the damn head gaskets, because they're guaranteed to fail within that mileage range for the vast majority of owners.

If you have your own engine hoist and/or know a guy who works at a shop that takes on side work for cash, you can get out of it cheaper, but if you buy a 100k mile Subaru with a 2.5, it's going to be a problem.

Again, not saying you shouldn't buy the car because it's going to shit a head gasket without question, just saying to factor in some extra cash for when it does.

this is what GOD drives in heaven.

Just a few cents from someone who has owned subarus since 1998 in Europe. All made in Japan, not that USDM trash... from 1.5L NA to 2.5Turbo, currently 2.0Diesel. 5 cars in total.

EJ25 engines shit their headgaskets when people rev them to the limiter often and hard. Do not play around redline, heads will twist a bit, gaskets will leak, coolant in oil and you are done. All that happens while tempgauge tells you it is perfectly fine at 90... it gets worse on H6 NA engines which fuck their heads rather often. Just stay away from redline and you are good to go.

Transmissions. Manual transmissions are the only ones when we talk about symmetrical AWD. Avoid autos, their milage is trash, abilities on snow suck... In manuals make sure you use thicker oil (there are 2 specs allowed, one is "transmission grade - thinner" and the other is "hypoid drive grade - differential grade - thicker". I went with thicker all the time, takes more abuse and protects synchros better although you wont be able to shift so fast into gears, you will feel that extra resistance, especially in cold. But protect trans at all costs, whoever opens it, they will fuck it up. No mechanic can make it as good as from factory and replacements are done part-by-part, you can't order entire replacement transmission... good luck with shimming and tolerances.

Fuel consumption - depends on how hard you drive. Minimum is 8 liters per 100km, that is slow speed highway cruising. In real traffic expect 10/100 more likely, there are huge drivetrain losse which cause it. Not engines fault, just parasitic losses in AWD system.

Tuning. Do or do not. Stock cars last. My 1998 NA impreza has done 350k km without any engine/drivetrain mods, just regular maintenance and afaik someone still drives it these days although it is catching some rust.

Maintenance. Is expensive. Like, you HAVE to do it. It is not like meh, I can do longer intervals. No. Just do it and it will serve you

Youre so full of shit that im inclined to believe youre the same """"mechanic"""" thats saying you have to "take care of" a headgasket

I know guys who wrecked headgaskets (and heads) at 30k miles, I know guys who still run 10 year old original gaskets from the factory with 150k miles without problems. You are presenting it as a guaranteed point of failure. It is not. Yes, I admit it is one of weak points of that engine design (Together with fucked up coolant circuit on rear cylinders) but if you are dickhead and try to "tune up" your soft-turbo wrx into STi power levels, you are dooming it to fail. If you think your STi engine can take 400hp on stock parts, again, problem is not in the engine, it is in your own little brain.

I had 2.5liter. Other than eating oil (2 liters per service interval) it worked flawlessly. Headgasket did not cause me any problem but again, I did not abuse the shit out of it.

>pre 1996
Never had an Elder God Teir EA Engine?
Gutless? Sure, Indestructible? Yes.

Your arguments are on the level of a civic ricer tho. You hate subarus. I think you might have owned one. One that you bought from your dawg friend who wanted to get rid of it because he didnt spend money on the car outside of refilling oil and fuel. I think you had no knowledge about the car and you wrecked it. I think you went to authorized service, complained a lot, they told you to pay a lot and now you are crying because it cost you parts and labour which is more than on any other car due to fucking squeezed in engine that needs to go out and do 2 sets of gaskets... Your dream of blue subaru with golden rims that rumbles trough the night and gives you boners like in videogames was ruined. It was not what you believed in, it was just a car afterall.

Or you have never owned one and you just "heard from dawgs" and get mad because you can't have a nice one and instead of buying a wrecked one you rather buy a clapped out beamer. Or honda. Or anything because Subarus suck. meme cars.

God drives an accord but he doesn't talk about it.

Not even close.
But damn youre autistic.

>How does one "take care of" a headgasket?
>How does one prevent a headgasket failure in a flawed design?

fucking lmao, the "flawed design" is the fact that it's a fucking flat four, there's always oil and coolant sitting at the gasket unlike an upright configuration. You """""take care"""" of the head gasket by using quality oil and coolant, as well as Subaru's coolant conditioner, and replacing them at regular intervals so they don't eat away at the HG

Well fuck, I'm sure it will be dismissed as anecdotal evidence, but since I was a child my family and myself have had more than half a dozen post 1996 EJ25 Subarus

We've never replaced a head gasket because we either bought them new and took care of them, or bought them from someone that takes care of them

I've had 2 Foresters with full service history since new, owned by intelligent people, that I've had no trouble with over 200k miles until I sold them to teenagers in great mechanical condition

People that drive the piss out of them and lug them and change the oil every 7k and use Walmart coolant every 80k miles and then are surprised when they're not healthy is where the bad rep comes from

And still, yes it's an inherently difficult design to keep in good shape, but as I said it's not that big of a fucking deal to change them

And yes I admitted they're high-maintenance cars, but that doesn't make them unreliable or shit
It's just not something you buy if you're a lazy fuck that doesn't take care of their fucking shit

by the way, I calculate my fuel mileage autistically and I managed to get 25-28mpg regularly in my Foresters because I know how to drive and my cars are healthy

this wasn't me btw

By the way, yes the Phase 1 DOHC EJ is a heap of shit

you're a prick, he's completely right

Their bad rep comes from retards that change the oil sometimes, without any sort of other preventative maintenance expecting them to be a Corolla, then go around telling everyone about how shitty Subarus are

Yes it's like a BMW in terms of the level of dedication to maintenance required, but unlike a (newer)BMW if it's taken care of it will never break down on you or leave you stranded or have random little shit go wrong

Opposite of truth trolls are thick tonight

XD upvoted