Once I’m strolling the rows of a automotive graveyard searching for traditionally important topics for this collection, a Toyota or Honda wants not less than 400,000 miles displaying on the odometer for me to contemplate photographing it based mostly on ultimate mileage alone; discarded Accords and Previas with higher than 300k miles are a dime a dozen. With Subaru, nonetheless, it is one other story; even in Subie-centric Colorado, I do not run throughout many who drove previous the magical 299,999-mile mark. Immediately we have one which achieved that feat, present in tough form in a Denver self-service yard.
Sure, 324,780.5 miles traveled throughout its three-plus a long time on the highway. That makes this automotive #2 within the Murilee Martin Junkyard Subaru Odometer Corridor of Fame, after a 1998 Legacy Outback wagon with 341,418 miles and earlier than a 1993 Impreza wagon with 319,554 miles (plus a 311,342-mile 1997 Legacy sedan I have not written up but). Remember the fact that Subaru solely started utilizing six-digit odometers right here in 1981 (in 1993 for the Justy), and that digital odometers which might be tough besides up within the junkyard took over the U.S.-market Subaru world in 2000, so I’ll have walked proper by some half-million-mile Pleiades-badged automobiles.
Subarus of the Nineteen Eighties weren’t as sturdy as they’re at this time, in my view, however I feel the principle purpose their homeowners do not hold them going when costly issues break is that they have a tendency to improve to a much bigger and extra highly effective twenty first century Subaru slightly than pay for a transmission or head gasket job on their beloved-but-decades-old automobiles. It is one thing of an unofficial state legislation that Colorado residents should personal not less than one Subaru (I’ve two, a ’96 Sambar and an ’04 Outback wagon).
Although Subaru by no means used the Leone title on its North American merchandise, that is what we’ve got right here. The primary Leones confirmed up in america in 1972, going by means of a number of generations till the ultimate ones have been offered right here as 1994 fashions.
For many of the Nineteen Seventies and the entire Nineteen Eighties, the U.S.-market Leone was formally known as merely, “the Subaru,” except for the Leone-based BRAT pickup. The trim-level designations thus ended up getting used as de facto mannequin names for these automobiles; most Subaru aficionados round these components confer with all Nineteen Eighties Subaru Leones as GLs, since that was the best-selling trim stage. This all bought very complicated when the non-Leone-derived XT appeared in 1985 adopted by the Justy in 1987 and the Legacy in 1990, so the Leone turned the Loyale right here for the ultimate 1990-1994 interval.
This automotive actually is a GL (above the DL wagon however under the mighty GL-10 wagon within the 1987 Subaru longroof status pyramid), so its MSRP was $10,708 (about $29,883 in 2024 {dollars}). There have been Leone hatchbacks, sedans and coupes out there for ’87 as effectively, plus the WRX-ancestor RX.
Air-con was commonplace tools on the 1987 GL, however this AM/FM/cassette radio with steel, observe detection and auto-reverse was an extra-cost choice when this automotive was bought (or somebody swapped this one in from a junkyard GL-10 or XT). You wanted {hardware} like this to essentially recognize the hits of 1987.
The engine is a 1.8-liter SOHC boxer-four, rated at 90 horsepower and 101 pound-feet, which was ample for a automotive that scaled in at a mere 2,395 kilos. A turbocharged model with 115 horses and 134 pound-feet was out there.
Subaru launched its first true all-wheel-drive system (as we perceive the time period at this time) in america late within the 1987 mannequin 12 months, calling its AWD system “full-time four-wheel-drive. That is what seems to be on this automotive, which has a excessive/low-range selector however not the change to pick out between front- and four-wheel-drive. Subarus with front-wheel-drive, four-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive have been offered right here by means of 1994, with simply FWD and AWD out there for 1995. Beginning with the 1996 mannequin 12 months, each new Subaru offered in america has been outfitted with an all-wheel-drive system.
Why is that this automotive in such a spot? To begin with, it is rusty— not too dangerous by Michigan requirements however fairly far gone for Excessive Plains Colorado.
Secondly, it bought right into a crash in some unspecified time in the future and had junkyard physique components swapped on. And most significantly, everybody within the area who collects these automobiles already has not less than a half-dozen with no room for extra.
The DL model had sealed-beam headlights plus subliminal messages in its TV commercials.
As a substitute of a substantial amount of hype, Subaru offers you an incredible deal. I want the Ruth Gordon BRAT commercials of some years earlier.
