After I’m strolling the rows of a automobile graveyard in the hunt for traditionally vital topics for this sequence, a Toyota or Honda wants a minimum of 400,000 miles displaying on the odometer for me to think about 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. As we speak we have one which completed 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 automobile #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 never written up but). Needless to say Subaru solely started utilizing six-digit odometers right here in 1981 (in 1993 for the Justy), and that digital odometers which are troublesome in addition 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 autos.
Subarus of the Eighties weren’t as sturdy as they’re at present, in my view, however I believe the principle cause their homeowners do not hold them going when costly issues break is that they have an inclination to improve to an even bigger and extra highly effective twenty first century Subaru somewhat than pay for a transmission or head gasket job on their beloved-but-decades-old automobiles. It is one thing of an unofficial state regulation that Colorado residents should personal a minimum of one Subaru (I’ve two, a ’96 Sambar and an ’04 Outback wagon).
Although Subaru by no means used the Leone identify on its North American merchandise, that is what we’ve got right here. The primary Leones confirmed up in the US in 1972, going by means of a number of generations till the ultimate ones have been offered right here as 1994 fashions.
For a lot of the Seventies and all the Eighties, the U.S.-market Leone was formally referred to as merely, “the Subaru,” apart from 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 Eighties Subaru Leones as GLs, since that was the best-selling trim degree. This all acquired 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 grew to become the Loyale right here for the ultimate 1990-1994 interval.
This automobile 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 accessible for ’87 as nicely, plus the WRX-ancestor RX.
Air-con was normal tools on the 1987 GL, however this AM/FM/cassette radio with metallic, observe detection and auto-reverse was an extra-cost choice when this automobile 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 sufficient for a automobile that scaled in at a mere 2,395 kilos. A turbocharged model with 115 horses and 134 pound-feet was accessible.
Subaru launched its first true all-wheel-drive system (as we perceive the time period at present) in the US late within the 1987 mannequin 12 months, calling its AWD system “full-time four-wheel-drive. That is what seems to be on this automobile, which has a excessive/low-range selector however not the swap to pick 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 accessible for 1995. Beginning with the 1996 mannequin 12 months, each new Subaru offered in the US has been outfitted with an all-wheel-drive system.
Why is that this automobile 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 acquired 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 a minimum of a half-dozen with no room for extra.
The DL model had sealed-beam headlights plus subliminal messages in its TV commercials.
As an alternative of quite a lot of hype, Subaru provides you an amazing deal. I want the Ruth Gordon BRAT commercials of some years earlier.