I bought my 2000 outback in march of 2000......early on i had it in for brake problems .....most of it was squeling noise......I am in sales and do not buy a car to baby it......I have 115,000 on mine and had to replace the leaking head gasket and still have problem with poor milage......I am told the o2 sensors in relation the a catalytic converter problem is possibly to blame......but other than that I can not complain about the quality of my sooby......having the head off i had the chance to look into the cyclinder and the cross hatch hone marks were still in tack.....that impressed me.....for all of the cars shortcomings i do believe that the engine design is still worth fighting all the other crap for ......just my cent and a half