Subaru Legacy estate 09-14 model with boxer diesel engine? Good or bad?

pathogan2008

I'm looking to buy an estate car for the family.
Upgradig from an old 07 Volvo V50 petrol estate.

I saw this 2011 Legacy estate come up.
https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/2011-subaru-legacy-estate-diesel/21251380

Trouble is, I know very little about Subarus, and even less about boxer diesels.

Can anoyone that has/had one comment?
Are they reliable? Do they have common failure points?
Things like engines, clutches, DPFs - do they give trouble?
Are they chain or belt driven, what's the interval? Is it costly to do?
Are there a lot of Subaru dealers/specialists about? Or are they simple to fix?
Is the AWD transmision a good setup? I seem to remember it was supposed to be bulletproof on old Subarus
What's real world consumption like.
Comfort and Handling? I'd imagine an AWD setup will feel stable. A step up from the V50?
Anything else to watch out for?


PH

Wildly Boaring

Researched them a good bit previously and all I saw were terrible reviews.

Unreliable, noisey and low economy.

Lot of the early ones seem to just give up the ghost inexplicably.

There's a reason that they're cheap I'm afraid

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=217&t=1573800

bigroad

There is a reason they are cheap.

ongarite

Avoid pre 2012 ones anyway..
Work colleague had 2011 Legacy boxer diesel.
Loved the AWD system until bottom end bearings/crankshaft ripped itself to pieces going to work one day last year.

Price to rebuild engine was very expensive but worse than that no-one even the few and far between Subaru specialists wants to work on these
engines.
Ended up selling car for scrap price & having to fork out for new car.

pathogan2008

Thanks everyone - would seem like a no to the Legacy Estate then.

Is there another estate I should consider to replace the V50?
Its a LUX model, so I like things like leather seats, xenon lights, comfort, reliability, efficiency etc.

PH

AMKC

Maybe you could get a SAAB.

https://www.autotrader.ie/browse-used-cars/saab/9-5/used-2011-saab-9-5-2-0-linear-tid-tipperary-fpa-201903055583712

Its a nice car but I know not an estate unfortunately. A pity they never got to do an estate version of it. I think it could have looked great.

Another option could be a Skoda Superb estate

https://www.autotrader.ie/browse-used-cars/skoda/superb/used-2016-161-skoda-superb-1-6-tdi-se-county-antrim-fpa-201902205140088

No idea what your budget is so just went for a relatively affordable one.

I am sure you could find 4 wheel drive ones and ones with nice beige leather interior etc for more money but they would still be great value.

Also it looks like someone bought the Subura Outback boxer diesel estate as it is gone. I wish them all the best with it.