Hi everyone! Glad to find this place. I bought a new GL hatchback for myself and a new Brat for my (ex)wife back in 82 or 83...somewhere around there. I loved that hatch! Had 4speed with dual range that would climb trees! I want another one. Having a difficult time finding one that's not a rust bucket. My biggest problem is that I live in Wisconsin and most of the good ones (if available at all) are in the Pacific Northwest. Anything around here, IF you can find one, you can throw a cat through. Anyway....glad to find a Subie forum. While I'm searching for the car I want I will try to learn from all of you as much as I can about which one I should be looking for and ask a lot of dumb questions. I AM a car guy and like Station Wagons. You will find me as silverfox over on the stationwagonforums.com site. But...I want one of those Subie Hatch's again. I love those little doggie go anywhere cars!

Welcome to the USMB.

GL finding your Hatch, theres some for sale occasionally around here.

And I have lots of fun in my Hatch.

 

Thanks, turbone. I lived up a crazy steep half mile driveway so I bought one. New Years eve around 1983 it was snowing hard and there was about 2 feet on the ground. I had another couple in the back of the hatch and I needed something from the "house on the hill". The other couple couldn't believe I was going to go up that driveway. When I say crazy steep you can believe it. Many people wouldn't come up that drive in the summer! The front of the hatch was actually plowing snow up to the grill. I dropped it into low range and never spun a wheel all the way up. 2 days later that couple went out and bought a new Subie.

They are great - the best of the EA81 body cars IMO. I will probably own one or two for as long as I can keep them on the road.

 

Your best bet is to buy one from around here (good knews is that they are often very cheap - got mine for $250 needing a clutch cable. NO rust at all). Then just arrange to ship it to you. Should be less than $1k for shipping. Well worth it to have one without any rust at all and still cheap as cars go.

 

GD

Yup...you are right, GD. I found one awhile back that I loved. It was toward the CA border in Oregon. I had a friend from the station wagon forum go look at it for me and he took lots of pix. He told me the car just would NOT go. Couldn't get up to speed....LOL...I told him they are dogs but he said, no, this is just not getting up to speed when floored. I took this to mean a plugged converter but there was another problem he told me about. Said it had a growl in the tranny area....like a grinding when under power. Don't know what that was but I passed on the car. Didn't trust it to drive 2250 miles! BUT!!!! I have NEVER seen one of these, now days, as clean and rust free underneath in my life! I was amazed! I swear...It was like NEW! The PNW is sure the place to buy one rust free. AND seems to be the only place they ARE.

They are great - the best of the EA81 body cars IMO. I will probably own one or two for as long as I can keep them on the road.

 

Your best bet is to buy one from around here (good knews is that they are often very cheap - got mine for $250 needing a clutch cable. NO rust at all). Then just arrange to ship it to you. Should be less than $1k for shipping. Well worth it to have one without any rust at all and still cheap as cars go.

 

GD

 

Did you buy that one with the clutch problem recently, GD? I just was looking at one with that problem but it was sold before I got back to the guy!

No - I've had my hatch for about 4 years. And it wasn't ever listed for sale. I got it from a friend of a friend after it had been sitting in their driveway for a couple years with what they thought was a bad clutch. Turned out someone had installed the wrong cable for an '83.

 

GD