[BoxerFanatic]

This is an interesting topic.

I am considering changing my garage's compliment of cars, and I have noticed that my Legacy is not lasting the way I thought it would, and I am having to put a significant amount of money into it, and one problem pops up after another is buttoned down, on a car with less than 90K miles.

I wonder if it is a first production year thing... (it is a 2005 GT limited), or a Lafayette-build issue, compared to other vehicles built at Gunma, Japan, or what.

Things like a failed window motor, torn suspension bushings, possibly a bad ball joint (in the car's defense the main highway around here beat a lot of cars into submission, it was ridiculously rough, and was just completely removed and re-created, not just re-paved.)
But also things like the e-brake boot and shift boot worn through, and the e-brake handle leather de-laminating, the steering wheel leather looking quite poor, and the soft-touch paint wearing off the inside door pulls.

And just a little while ago, it developed an intermittent fuel leak, when the tank is full, and the temperature falls from warm to cold. I have never had a car leak fuel before, and that seems pretty significant.

And I have needed a bit more cargo room, as well, so am thinking about a mid-size or compact AWD/4WD SUV.

Interesting that SnowMachine mentions that quality has fallen off drastically, I have been noticing that in doing research on my own, as well as my experience as well. Seems like inflation is taking it's toll, and feature list length trumps those features actually being robust and long-term reliable. Money going for the bragging rights without actually backing up those features with 200K-mile solid engineering and materials quality, with affordable maintenance.