Ranger83

Don't forget you have 36K, 3 year bumper-to-bumper, which apparently includes headlights (but not windshield wiper blades).

I didn't replace my HG until 140K, and did so before it blew up. Now has 167K.

You'll be dead long before you notice the mpg change. Carbon Monoxide bonds so much more readily than Oxygen with the hemoglobin in your blood that a concentration of only 9% will kill you. Driving a car when you can smell gas and have an exhaust leak under the passenger compartment is riskier than anything I've ever done. But YMMV.....

That would be quite deceptive, don't you think? Want to lay money on it? I tried to adjust it in PhotoShop to look like the SilverStar, and could not, by adjusting the brightness, contrast, colors, etc. I do agree in that I think the SilverStar isn't any brighter: it's a marketing gimmick to vacuum an extra $20 out of the wallets of young males.

The X-One was a good tire for me. I replaced them with the Michelin HydroEdge, which has good grip and phenomenal wear. Still going strong at over 45,000 miles. Another popular all-season for Subarus is the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred - rated #1 by CR if you don't face a lot of ice. Goodyear has a $40 rebate going at the moment. I see a lot of them as replacements on Outbacks. Another top-rated tire by CR (whose methodolgy is questionable) is the plain ole Michelin X, available at Costco, Sam's Club etc. The X radial and HydroEdge were rated tops for all weather conditions. The Goodyear; Hankook Mileage Plus II H725; and Yokohama Avid TRZ were top rated "If icy roads aren't a factor."

Anyone compare them to the XtraVision? They're half the price and I found them effective on my old OBW. The website says XtraVision: While SilverStar: But other than being whiter, they don't look any brighter to me?

Yup, that's pretty much why everyone I know $70,000 on a Z06 Corvette - operating economy.

Optional and dealer-installed. It was a $50 option. I think they're a lot less after-market. Now standard in Outback, anyway.

If you go to the manufacturer's website you can usally find the exact rolling diameter to see if there is a difference.

The Nokian WR is an All-Season tire with the Mountain M&S rating. It's getting very popular for year-round use in the snowbelt.

Correct, it was a little slippery - I only saw two cars with Quebec plates in the median strip on the way to work in NH.....:-p

Honest opinion? You'll look like a poser.

Where in New England? It's only gone below zero in Boston once in the last few years, but my relatives in VT get down to -25 F pretty regularly. That said, in my old OBW's we used Castrol High Mileage 5-30 in winter and 10-40 in Summer.

Peabody Sunoco has done a lot of work on my two Subarus - including a head gasket job - and our company cars. 978-977-0610. If you look at the MechanX files at CarTalk you'll find a number of others.

Out of curiousity I checked the gap between outer tread blocks on the RSI's; Nokian Hakka I; Michelin Pilot Alpin; Michelin X-Ice; and Blizzak WS-50. That's all I could find between the two office parking lots. The gap on the Nokians was 11/32nd. The two Michelins and the Blizzaks were more like 8 or 9/32nds (I have digital calipers but they're at home and i wasn't that curious! I even checked the M&S rated Michelin LTX tires on our trucks and the gap is smaller. So I guess looks are deceiving. I've never seen any of those Coopers although they seem to have a good reputation. Of the 8 cars I checked, 4 had Blizzaks, 2 had Nokians, and 2 had Michelins. Decidedly unscientific but that's what was handy!

I had mine done at 140K at Peabody, MA Sunoco for $1,250 including a few other items. BTW Peabody is about 15 miles from Boston - Metro mos def. Towing a car 300+ miles is not cheap. Water pump had been replaced already. Changing it, along with spark plugs etc is worth it if you want to keep the car for a long time. If you're going to dump the car, no need. My heads did not require any valve work. They were milled flat, a standard procedure when HG's are replaced and done relatively inexpensively at an automotive machine shop. The best place I found to look for repair garages is the MechanX files at cartalk. http://www.cartalk.com/content/mechx/ I found 9 Subaru shops listed within 30 miles of Zip code 06010, which I think is Bristol. One with 4-5 reviews was PJ's Complete Auto Service in Waterbury, for example. Many independents listed work on Subarus, but aren't so listed. Call around, most of them will tell you whether they've done it before, or not.

I waited four. With a 5 year 50,000 mile powertrain warranty I'm not concerned. It's worth it to drive a Subaru that's smooth and powerful. By the time you waited five years for the Phase I 2.5 problems to surface, you'd be buying the Phase II. So now it's safe to buy the Phase II. But this year they've added VVT - so that's another five years.....

Yeah, around here they're considered baby fur seals in Winter. I took the 3.0 badge off so it looks like a 2.5. It's been great fun! Most people don't even know there's an H6 Outback.

What tires on on it? The Bridgestone Re92's on the new OB's have a poor reputation for bad weather traction.

Probably because you don't say where exactly you'll be living and working. There are about a dozen dealers in a 50 mile radius. Or whether your car is on warranty or can be taken to an independent.

Mine (06 3.0R) only has 1200 miles on it. It's quiet, smooth, quick. We'll see about MPG as they supposedly it increases for the first 10K. 2600 rpm at 80 mph and the 5spd auto steps down nicely. I took the 3.0R badge off so it looks like a 2.5i.

First news I had of a bad wheel bearing on my 97 OBW was a metallic rubbing from the front right, which ate the relatively new rotor and thus required a new set along with the bearing. But since that can't happen, keep driving.....

FWIW I have an 06 3.0R and looked in the manual the other day when a young WRX owner at work suggested a change at 1,000. It gives a change at 3,000, but then reverts to the 7,500 mile interval from then on. You'll find other threads on oil change intervals here. If you go to a place like Bobistheoilguy you'll find many, many threads. My own opinion as the owner of five company vehicles and two personal cars is based on our use of oil analysis. I learned about it when maintaining four M60A3 tanks and five other armored vehicles in the Army. Tanks always operate under high load because of their immense weight (when most people say, "built like a tank" they're significantly understimating the tank) and that included the twin turbo, 1,790 cubic inch diesel on the M60. It held something like 35 gallons of oil. The longest-term vehicles we tested were a 97 OBW with 165,000 when sold, and a 95 Ford Econoline van that curently has over 165,000 on the original drivetrain. We usually change at 5,000 just because it's easy to remember. With regular or synthetic oils, at 7,500 miles the oil from either engines had no problems. There was a slight buildup in silicates (probably from ingested dirt) but everything else was cool. We could have gone to 10,000 miles with no problem. Modern cars burn unleaded fuel and have very precise fuel metering and very uniform production tolerances. The factory engineers aren't idiots and aren't cavalier about recommending oil change intervals. They conduct lengthy, detailed experiments. They also designed the engines and by law have to maintain their emissions for 50,000 miles. Changing earlier just creates very high quality waste oil. But it's a religious argument and the "change every 3,000 mile" has their own altar. Personally I can never understand how folks can be religious about changing oil - but beat a cold engine.

Go to a parking lot and do some figure 8's, starting out small and slow and making them bigger and faster. If it's a wheel bearing get it replaced quikly or you'll eat the brake rotor.