Kiwi shedding - '91 Legacy wagon
Discussion
Hopefully this is PH-worthy enough!
About 3 days before christmas, I found myself in a position to take a job in New Zealand, in my new boss' words "ASAP". With only just enough money for flights, 3 weeks later I relocated myself to the other side of the world! I'd only been back in the UK from Australia for about 6 months, so I was ready to get away again, haha.
Anyway, I've been without transport (apart from my bike) for the last month, so I haven't really been able to get around much, only really spending time in Wanaka (Where I live) and Cardrona (where I work), though both places are awesome I really want to get out and explore more, but it's difficult here without a car. So, my new housemate and I decided to buy a car together, as cheaply as possible. So, I present to you, our utterly Kiwi ride - a '91, gen 1 Subaru Legacy wagon.
She's pretty bog standard, however I've always wanted to own a subaru, and despite not being very fast, that lovely boxer engine note is there. So she's the 1.8 na with slushbox (would've preferred a manual) and, crucially, AWD. We paid the (relatively) low price of $1250 - around £650. Cars are expensive out here, so I reckon we've done alright. The body work and interior are pretty tired but she drives lovely and seems to (with the exception of a very small oil leak) be retaining all of her vital fluids - and has 237,000kms on the clock. Not bad for a 27 year old subaru on this side of the world.
Here are a couple of photos from her inaugural drive - we took her down some dusty gravel roads and she just ate them up - the 4WD works a treat, took her down some sandy/pebbly loose ground and on a small beach to see how she took it - didn't bat an eyelid. I can't wait for some more adventures in this thing!
DSC_0194 by sam james, on Flickr
DSC_0189 by sam james, on Flickr
About 3 days before christmas, I found myself in a position to take a job in New Zealand, in my new boss' words "ASAP". With only just enough money for flights, 3 weeks later I relocated myself to the other side of the world! I'd only been back in the UK from Australia for about 6 months, so I was ready to get away again, haha.
Anyway, I've been without transport (apart from my bike) for the last month, so I haven't really been able to get around much, only really spending time in Wanaka (Where I live) and Cardrona (where I work), though both places are awesome I really want to get out and explore more, but it's difficult here without a car. So, my new housemate and I decided to buy a car together, as cheaply as possible. So, I present to you, our utterly Kiwi ride - a '91, gen 1 Subaru Legacy wagon.
She's pretty bog standard, however I've always wanted to own a subaru, and despite not being very fast, that lovely boxer engine note is there. So she's the 1.8 na with slushbox (would've preferred a manual) and, crucially, AWD. We paid the (relatively) low price of $1250 - around £650. Cars are expensive out here, so I reckon we've done alright. The body work and interior are pretty tired but she drives lovely and seems to (with the exception of a very small oil leak) be retaining all of her vital fluids - and has 237,000kms on the clock. Not bad for a 27 year old subaru on this side of the world.
Here are a couple of photos from her inaugural drive - we took her down some dusty gravel roads and she just ate them up - the 4WD works a treat, took her down some sandy/pebbly loose ground and on a small beach to see how she took it - didn't bat an eyelid. I can't wait for some more adventures in this thing!
DSC_0194 by sam james, on FlickrDSC_0189 by sam james, on FlickrEdited by samj2014 on Sunday 11th February 09:44
I'm so jealous! I lived in Queenstown for a year back in 2014/15 and miss it more and more each day. I too started off with a '91 legacy, although mine was a manual 2.2 turbo saloon. I paid $900 for it, I took it the whole way down skippers canyon and only when we got to the bottom realised that it was only a FWD model 
Replaced that with a 2.8 Mitsubishi Challenger with mud tyres and a lift kit and had some cracking adventures in that.
Then replaced that with a 1995 Legacy RS twin turbo. That was a cracking car for the local roads, manual gearbox, 4wd, 270bhp, I used to drive straight past my house and along the glenorchy road pretty much every day adding about 80km on to my commute!
My mate had a '91 legacy wagon the same as yours, 1.8 but manual and that thing was faultless.
Enjoy
Replaced that with a 2.8 Mitsubishi Challenger with mud tyres and a lift kit and had some cracking adventures in that.
Then replaced that with a 1995 Legacy RS twin turbo. That was a cracking car for the local roads, manual gearbox, 4wd, 270bhp, I used to drive straight past my house and along the glenorchy road pretty much every day adding about 80km on to my commute!
My mate had a '91 legacy wagon the same as yours, 1.8 but manual and that thing was faultless.
Enjoy
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