Danna Peters

1995 Liberty GL Enduro Wagon

MY car (except when it needs cleaning or work doing to it) is a white 1995 Liberty auto. It's a GL Enduro model, this pack includes roof racks, mag wheels (Australian made surprise! surprise!) and stripes. When it was new we added a back dust deflector, a bonnet protector, a full set of mud flaps, rear bumper bar protection stripe and a large rubber mat that goes into the back of the wagon to protect the luggage area. All of these extras (must haves) are all genuine Subaru parts.

We use our (correction, my car) for a work vehicle, crazy aren't we. It covers approximately 120kms doing a paper run in the early hours of the morning and then the same trip again (after 6.30am) doing a mail contract, 80kms out of the 240kms a day are gravel roads, so I think you could say our vehicle travels over a mixture of good, bad and bloody terrible roads, (depending on the council's road maintenance program).

The Liberty has a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty as long as you keep it standard and use genuine parts. This is the only part the frustrates Keith. Those who know Keith will tell you he just can't help himself, he likes to add or pull off and lift up our cars and he hates to see a Suby left standard (he is already talking about buying a lift kit for it and putting it under the bed, so when the warranty run out, up it goes.

Km: The Liberty is now 14 months old and has 108,650kms on the clock but by the time you read this, could add another 3 or 4 thousand.

Tyres: We are only getting an average 20,000kms out of a set of tyres. It doesn't matter what brand they are. We have just had our sixth set of tyres put on and they have all been different.

Brakes: Brake pads are also a problem as the new shoes (after the original set) are very soft. These you only get approximately 17,000kms out of . We are now on our 3rd set of brake pads.

Warranty Work: We have had all the services done. These range in cost from $68 to $640 for its major 100,000 km service in which they change the Cam Belts ($192). If you change all the oils yourself it makes this work cheaper. We have had the oxygen sensor and the knock sensor both changed, they were faulty. Also we have to look at replacing the wheel studs (due to the mag wheel nuts that are supplied are too short for the standard dms).

On a whole the Subaru Liberty is a terrific car to own and drive even on rough roads. It is a great family car and work horse.

Danna Peters SC346