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Subaru is a Japanese company that has problems with head gaskets on all of their 2.5L engines. It's just a known problem that an owner must be willing to address during ownership, and I have no idea why the flaw has remained for 20 years. My friend had a 1999 Outback and went through 3 head gaskets before essentially giving the car away. He then purchased a 2006 Outback and had his first head gasket begin to leak both oil and water.
That same friend has owned 2 VW Jetta diesels (not turbo) and went through 3 engines. He no longer drives them, and sticks to the Subaru knowing he will have to play the head gasket game. I never had a head gasket issue (never had anything break or wear out) with my 1996 Subaru Legacy in 245,000 miles, but it had the 2.2L engine. I just did oil changes, brake pads, spark plugs and wires once, and kick the dust out of the air filter.
Another friend has a 2002 VW Golf 2.0L with 135,000 miles. He is over about every other month to fix something or other. His current problem is a misfire in 3 cylinders, likely caused by a failed engine coolant temperature sensor. The sensor is registering the temperature as -40 F when I connect with the Torque app. About a year ago his alternator went out, and they are more expensive than Japanese or domestic alternators. A few months before that, it had a bad shake caused by worn axles. The DRL burn out all the time too. My opinion is the suspension is due for damper replacement too.
This is all unacceptable in my opinion. I thrashed my Subaru through the forest, climbed steep hills at speed smashing boulders, and never slowed down for potholes and caught air several times. The suspension was fine even at 240,000 miles and nothing ever broke. I never replaced brake fluid, power steering fluid, or engine coolant.
My experience is VW has many little parts failures that just aren't normal on other makes. To add insult to injury, they require specialized tools, like a hollowed out hex wrench, to remove normal items in the engine bay. You must remove the intake manifold to get to the spark plugs. Poor engineering from a maintenance perspective.
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