My family had a 2000 Forester L w/ 4EAT. My dad has a 2.5 hour commute each day, 5 hours round trip, 5 days a week... So we racked up about 130k in two years. We then sold it because the wheel bearings kept breaking, Subaru sucked at fixing the bearing problem, and cylinder #3 suddenly lost 28% of it's spec'd compression.

Anyway, he drove the 4EAT at high speeds all the time (around 80mph), and I drove it like a bat outta hell on the back-country roads around here. I broke the car loose on almost every corner every chance I had (meaning the tires would squeal no matter what, AWD saved me from sliding most of the time, but not all the time ). The 4.44 final drive gave that little 2.5 boxer-4 some very nice pickup.

So, of all things, the 4EAT Forester tranny was the least of our worries.