After they fixed the head gasket issues of the 2000s or so, they seem to be fine? My partner, myself, most of my friends, and may of my coworkers, and much of my town drives them. They're insanely popular in outdoorsy and snowy areas. The article scores them decently high in reliability too.

I'd never get a WRX though.

Build quality and ride comfort though, not so much. They're rough and tumble machines, not luxury sedans (well, the Legacy is nice enough, not seems silly to get that over a Toyota).

Speaking of Toyota, they own part of Subaru anyway and have collaborated with them on a few dual-branded vehicles.

I've had a half dozen or so Subaru's and have had little trouble with any of them. Currently we have a '17 Forester we bought new currently with 120k miles on it and just last week I picked up a used '21 Ascent.

The Forester has been though two batteries and just last week I had a wheel bearing in the rear replaced. No other trouble and still runs fine.

I got the Ascent to keep out in Seattle and that'll be my car there -- it'll fit right in -- Subaru seems to make up about 30% of cars in the Seattle area.

It's worth noting that as of 2020, Subaru is running an entirely new platform for their cars, and it has been remarkably solid. The FA24 engine, in particular, appears to be running unusually generous tolerances for things like cylinder pressure, oil pressure, manifold pressure/temps, etc.

For tuners it's been a box of wonders. For ordinary consumers, that maps directly to reliability.

If you google around, you'll see mention of head gasket problems in association with Subaru. This issue has been resolved for the better part of 20 years. Today, the intersection of people who blow up Subaru engines and people who drive like drunk, teenage morons is effectively a perfect circle.

Thank you both for the replies!

I’ll be driving it in snowy conditions in Canada. Ontario , Quebec, and New Brunswick in the dead of winter trips :)