I bought a 1991 Subaru Legacy(5 speed, N/A) a few years ago with around 200,000 miles. It had been on Craigslist forever for $800, and when I emailed the seller, he offered it for $300 immediately if I could get it next day.
I picked it up and found an issue right off the bat: it wouldn't idle at all. I'd never drift started a car before in my life, but I did a dozen times within a block when I drove it home since it died every time I'd shift.
It was the dullest shade of Old Man Blue I'd ever seen.
So being younger and dumber, I decided to Plastidip it...with cans...in white...outside.
Well, that went terribly, so some friends got together and we sharpied over it to make it quite interesting.
So fast forward a year and some change to Christmas of 2013. The BattleWagon had been a daily driven beater since day one and was pretty trouble free until Christmas. The crank pulley bolt backed out and sent the pulley into a spinning disk of death that destroyed everything it touched, including the end of the crank and the woodruff key. So I took the pulley off and drove it as quickly as I could, because there's no way I'd miss Christmas dinner!
Ended up doing a timing job a few months later and finally put it back on the road. Remember that 60,000 mile interval on the belt? Apparently, mine was approaching 170,000 miles on the same belt. The belt was dried and cracked, but still whole, so I turned it into a belt for my pants
Fast forward yet another year. The dip has come off and the rust is showing, but the BattleWagon soldiers on. I took it to school with me in Erie, PA, and it hasn't let me down.
She's never let me down, but driver error is always a possibility...
Slightly too heavy of a right foot, slightly too bald front tires, and slightly too low of a gear come together to form understeer, the destroyer of all things on wheels.
It was in sad shape after that. Two bent steelies, two flat tires, bent front sway bar, vaporized sway bar link, folded control arm, destroyed CV joint, bent tie rod, bent front crossmember, and a hole the size of a dinner plate in the rear passenger door. But the old beast did two things: It protected everyone in the car, and it drove the mile and a half back to my apartment in a snow storm (at 3 AM on a weeknight with a tail car warning anyone who would come up behind)
And on the third day after that, it rose again. Sorry for potato quality, but it's the only picture I have of it in it's current shape.
Words can't describe how much I love this car. It is an invincible piece of wrought iron that is a savior to all. I've pulled more cars and trucks out of snow and mud than I can count, picked up friends from a few states away on multiple occasions, and I even lashed it to my 95 Legacy to pull out some structural damage when I challenged Bambi to fisticuffs and lost.
I keep it ratty looking mostly for the general reaction, but the car is in relatively good condition as we approach 240,000 miles. The shifter bushings are gone, the filler neck leaks, and the struts have been bone dry since the Clinton administration. The thing handles like a moon bounce strapped to a pogo stick, but that's all on the list to be fixed when it warms up a bit.
Behold, the BattleWagon: the best $300 I've ever spent.
