When I’m walking the rows of a automobile graveyard searching for historically significant subjects for this series, a Toyota or Honda needs no less than 400,000 miles showing on the odometer for me to contemplate photographing it based on final mileage alone; discarded Accords and Previas with higher than 300k miles are a dime a dozen. With Subaru, nonetheless, it’s one other story; even in Subie-centric Colorado, I do not run across many who drove past the magical 299,999-mile mark. Today we have got one which achieved that feat, present in rough shape in a Denver self-service yard.
Yes, 324,780.5 miles traveled during its three-plus many years on the road. That makes this automobile #2 within the Murilee Martin Junkyard Subaru Odometer Hall of Fame, after a 1998 Legacy Outback wagon with 341,418 miles and before a 1993 Impreza wagon with 319,554 miles (plus a 311,342-mile 1997 Legacy sedan I have not written up yet). Keep in mind that Subaru only began using six-digit odometers here in 1981 (in 1993 for the Justy), and that electronic odometers that are difficult as well up within the junkyard took over the U.S.-market Subaru world in 2000, so I can have walked right by some half-million-mile Pleiades-badged vehicles.
Subarus of the Eighties weren’t as sturdy as they’re today, in my view, but I feel the primary reason their owners don’t keep them going when expensive things break is that they have an inclination to upgrade to an even bigger and more powerful twenty first century Subaru slightly than pay for a transmission or head gasket job on their beloved-but-decades-old cars. It’s something of an unofficial state law that Colorado residents must own no less than one Subaru (I actually have two, a ’96 Sambar and an ’04 Outback wagon).
Though Subaru never used the Leone name on its North American products, that is what we’ve got here. The first Leones showed up within the United States in 1972, going through several generations until the ultimate ones were sold here as 1994 models.
For a lot of the Seventies and the entire Eighties, the U.S.-market Leone was officially called simply, “the Subaru,” with the exception of the Leone-based BRAT pickup. The trim-level designations thus ended up getting used as de facto model names for these cars; most Subaru aficionados around these parts discuss with all Eighties Subaru Leones as GLs, since that was the best-selling trim level. This all got very confusing when the non-Leone-derived XT appeared in 1985 followed by the Justy in 1987 and the Legacy in 1990, so the Leone became the Loyale here for the ultimate 1990-1994 period.
This automobile really is a GL (above the DL wagon but below the mighty GL-10 wagon within the 1987 Subaru longroof prestige pyramid), so its MSRP was $10,708 (about $29,883 in 2024 dollars). There were Leone hatchbacks, sedans and coupes available for ’87 as well, plus the WRX-ancestor RX.
Air conditioning was standard equipment on the 1987 GL, but this AM/FM/cassette radio with metal, track detection and auto-reverse was an extra-cost option when this automobile was purchased (or someone swapped this one in from a junkyard GL-10 or XT). You needed hardware like this to actually appreciate the hits of 1987.
The engine is a 1.8-liter SOHC boxer-four, rated at 90 horsepower and 101 pound-feet, which was adequate for a automobile that scaled in at a mere 2,395 kilos. A turbocharged version with 115 horses and 134 pound-feet was available.
Subaru introduced its first true all-wheel-drive system (as we understand the term today) within the United States late within the 1987 model yr, calling its AWD system “full-time four-wheel-drive. That’s what appears to be on this automobile, which has a high/low-range selector but not the switch to pick between front- and four-wheel-drive. Subarus with front-wheel-drive, four-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive were sold here through 1994, with just FWD and AWD available for 1995. Starting with the 1996 model yr, every latest Subaru sold within the United States has been equipped with an all-wheel-drive system.
Why is that this automobile in such a spot? First of all, it’s rusty— not too bad by Michigan standards but pretty far gone for High Plains Colorado.
Secondly, it got right into a crash in some unspecified time in the future and had junkyard body parts swapped on. And most significantly, everyone within the region who collects these cars already has no less than a half-dozen with no room for more.
The DL version had sealed-beam headlights plus subliminal messages in its TV commercials.
Instead of a fantastic deal of hype, Subaru gives you a fantastic deal. I prefer the Ruth Gordon BRAT commercials of a number of years earlier.
Credit : www.autoblog.com
