The Subaru CVT warranty campaign ran out middle of 2018, I believe.
The perception by a notable number of people that Subaru is junk is solely on the hands of Subaru. SoA also leaves a lot to be desired with regards to customer service and experience.
At the core, the vehicles and engines really aren't bad and their transmissions aren't bad either with the exception being the CVT....which I think is garbage in all respects by all mfg's. Lifeless!
The Legacy 2.5i I mentioned went 200,000 miles without a failure. Just wear items like brakes, suspension, general maintenance. The car was perfectly fine when it was traded for the '17 Forester.
I flogged the 2.5RS for 3 years and that car was perfectly fine. Took it ice racing a few times on Newfound lake with BMW CCA. No issues or catastrophic failures.
The turbo engines in the Legacy GT's are a different topic and not in the spirit of this thread so, not worth the typing about.
The interference design of the engine isn't just a Subaru thing. There are countless engines out there that are interference regardless of t-belt or t-chain. And contrary to popular belief, timing chains do indeed have a service life since the chains, sprockets and guides wear. The Audi S4 V8 is probably the most extreme example of this that I can think of.
The topic of head gaskets comes up often with the Subie N/A engines and the failure can manifest itself in a few ways. Lack of (or extending certain) maintenance intervals is one and the design of the multi-layered head gaskets is another. I'll spare the details as there is plenty of info to peruse on the information highway. As a sidenote, Subaru isn't the only mfg that has experienced head gasket issues. Enter the 4.0L Toyota V6 (1GR-FE), as one example.
In the event the EJ25 head gasket does fail, a few things tend to happen (or not happen) during repairs. First was the continued issuing of the crappy gaskets by Subaru before the gasket was redesigned (shame on them). Couple that with shops reusing head bolts and/ or not taking the time to inspect the heads for things like warping and you'll have customers that experience a SECOND head gasket failure. And so the spiral runs ever downward.
I personally have not had the issues that so many others have experienced however I consider myself more of an enthusiast and therefore might be closer to understanding the nuances of the things I own and operate.
Maybe my penchant for crappy cars runs deep. I did own a few BMW's prior to taking my first Subaru for a drive.....reader beware!!
