PennSilverTaco's non-Toyota Japanese (and Korean) vehicle Rant/Rave MegaThread!

My Grandma bought a lake house in Maine in 1989 or 1990; She had a 1987 Mercedes 300E and my grandpa had a 1983 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, but their primary residence was in Arizona at the time and didn't feel like driving all the way to Maine. My Uncle Jeff has connections and get decent cars cheap (generally at insurance and wholesale auctions but also from private sellers). Grammy asked Uncle Jeff to find her a reliable, late model, 4-door car; The two biggest requirements were that it had to have air-conditioning and it had to have an automatic transmission. Uncle Jeff found the Subaru, Grammy ended up liking it, and she bought it for next to nothing; I believe the car may have had a salvage title and that my uncle picked it up from an insurance auction, or that it may have had some kind of minor damage before my uncle found it. There was nothing wrong with the car whatsoever, and Grammy loved it. Grammy and Mr. P (my grandpa) only stayed there in the summer, and the car never left Maine during the time they owned it; During the winter, the next door neighbor would take possession of the keys and at a bare minimum start the car, pull it out of the garage, and let it run for a while in order to keep the engine in good shape. I am 90% sure that my dad used it to pull his 16-foot boat at least once, but my dad doesn't seem to remember this; The Skeeter only weighed about 1,600 pounds (boat and trailer), and we only ever towed it short distances, so I think even the Subaru's 4-banger could have handled it.

My grandparents moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania in 1994 to be closer to family; My Grandpa sold the '83 Cadillac but they kept the '87 Mercedes. He bought a used 1993 Lincoln Continental in 1994, not long after they moved into the new house, and that was the last car he ever owned. Driving from Pennsylvania to Maine is obviously not as a big of a deal as driving from Arizona to Maine, so the need for a third car became less and less; 1996 is the last summer I remember the Subaru being there, by which it time it would have been nine years old. My Grandma acquired it with low miles, and considering that she's owned two "daily driver" cars in 34 years and driven less than 90K miles in both, I'd venture to guess that by 1996 the little wagon had ridiculously low miles. In 1997, she just gave the car to her cousin who needed one, and that cousin managed to total the poor thing after less than two years. I can remember actually crying when I found the car had been totaled; It had nothing to do with the fact that it was a Subaru, and everything to do with the fact I'd spend a significant chunk of my childhood in that car and had a many fond memories (Grammy bought the car when I was like 2 and gave it to her cousin when I was 7 or 8, and then her cousin totaled it when I was no older than 10; If I'd been old enough to drive at the time, I would have taken that car in a heartbeat)!

 

Same car, different angle...



One thing I remember about Grammy's '87 wagon is that it definitely did not have sealed-beam "quad" headlamps like this one; It had the more streamlined "euro-style" headlamps. It was a very basic car, but it definitely did have air-conditioning because that is the one thing my grandmother cannot do without in a car. It had manual crank windows, it definitely did not have power locks, it likely did not have cruise control, and it may have had just basic analog AM/FM radio with no cassette, but it definitely did have A/C! I can also tell you that it was automatic because Grammy attempted to drive stick in a friend's El Camino years ago (way before I was born), failed miserably, and swore to never do it again; TRANSATION: Grammy can't drive stick!

Anyway, Grammy's car was the same color as the wagon above, and it even had the same wheels, but it was not 4WD and it had different headlights; It also had the spare tire located under the hood!

 

The Leone/Loyale was sold in America until 1994 I believe (though older ones seem to be more common than newer ones), and then it was replaced with the Impreza, I think...?

 

Note the "MY OTHER CAR IS A ZAMBONI" license plate frame on this one; I had that exact same frame on my Taco for the longest time!

 

I've only owned 2 so far but will likely own more whenever mine break to the point of not being fiscally responsible to fix. I've worked on many Toyotas and Subarus as a technician. I love both, they are generally put together in a common sense way making them easy to work on.

2021 Subaru Ascent - The wife mobile and road trip car. Not doing much with this besides drive it.
-2 sets of 17" Fifteen52 Traverse MX wheels, one set with Falken Wildpeak AT Trail and the other with Nitto SN2 Snow tires. Yes, I got 2 sets of the same wheels. haha They had a 25% off sale so I couldn't say no.
-Diode Dynamics Yellow SS3 Pro SAE Fog Lights
-Window Tint
-COBB AccessPort, not yet on the vehicle...will be on order soon.



2001 Subaru Outback 2.5 Auto Base with 223k miles -The beater! Picked it up for $700 with a leaking water pump. Previous owner had the head gaskets done around 160k and the water pump started leaking at 217k which is when I bought it. Installed a new timing belt, water pump and bearings. Drove it around for a while to make sure it was going to be reliable and then started to fix and modify.
-Baja Turbo springs, about 1" lift
-Used KYB struts (10k mile take-offs) and new mounts
-Used HD front axles, old aftermarket ones didn't like the lift
-Impreza RS wheels. $80 for the set, pretty beat up with curb rash but they were straight. Restored them and painted them silver to look OE again.
-Falken Wildpeak AT Trail 215/70r16, slight rubbing at full lock but who cares!?
-Retrofitted headlights, ebay legacy housings, NHK H1 projectors and I decided to try using yellow Stained Glass from Krylon to paint the reflector, turned out alright. Doesn't fit the cars color well but I wanted to try it.



Headlights