There's a reason why when you go to hike in Utah, odds are every third car at the trailhead is a Subaru.
Yeah... And the reason is, those people are HIKERS. Not people who drive dirt roads very often or very far
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In all seriousness, I owned a Subaru for years and it was one of the best cars I ever owned. Good on gas, fairly reliable, very easy to work on when it did break, GREAT on snowy roads etc. And surprisingly capable offroad - it was nothing short of amazing what it would pull itself through with the fronts chained up. And I fed it a very steady diet of offroad the whole time I owned it. Took it more places, more often, than most Subaru owners would believe a Subaru capable of. Stuff that makes the Blacks Fork TH look like a ride on the back of a transport truck. That said, a steady diet of dirt also made for a steady diet of new CV joints/half shafts, ball joints, hubs, clutches and tires. I had to replace each of those components multiple times while I owned the car. The CV joints especially, using it offroad it just ate those things up, I think the car spent more time clicking-clacking it's way around corners than not while I owned it. Broke upper ball joints twice, before I started replacing them regularly just to avoid having them break at a bad time. It spun hubs several times too - an ugly sound but a relatively cheap and easy fix. And lacking a true low range or low gearing, the clutch couldn't help but get worn out quickly with offroad use. I changed it often enough that I got to where I could do it by myself in under 4 hours - including pulling the engine out and putting it back in. I held none of this against the car, I was using it beyond it's design and accepted the consequences.
But I think the biggest drawback for offroad travel to a Subaru or anything else like that is the small P rated tires. The small size makes for some rough riding on any kind of dirt road, which is hard on many other components. But the P rating means weak sauce and lots of flats, shredded sidewalls and just generally ruined tires. I used to carry two spares for my Subaru and ended up using both at once several times. Even "good" graded dirt like the Pony Express trail or the North Slope road could be bad ju-ju on those little P rated buggers. Especially right after the road had been grated, exposing fresh sharp stones. But, on the bright side, a couple of times I had to change tires on that car I didn't even bother with a jack, I just lifted the back corner up while a friend pulled the old tire off and put the spare on
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At any rate... I'm actually a Subaru fan, great little cars. But, my opinion, based on my experience, if more than just an occasional mild dirt road is on the menu, I'd look for something a bit more robust.
- DAA