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If you wanted a four-wheel-drive that wasn't a truck in 1978, this was about your only choice.
The AMC Eagle didn't show up until the 1980 model year, so Subaru had the American four-wheel-drive wagon market to itself when this car was new.
The paint has been thoroughly nuked by the Colorado sun.
The interior is somewhat faded, but you can still make out the glorious brown-on-tan-on-beigeness of it all.
With 67 horsepower, the only way this car ever saw 120 mph would have been on a very, very, very steep downhill grade.
Subaru kept the plaid interior fabric well into the 1980s. Toyota went for a very similar interior look in the early Tercel 4WD wagons.
Amazingly, this car had factory air conditioning.
A four-on-the-floor manual transmission was mandatory on the 4WD wagon, though an automatic could be had on the sedans and coupes in 1978. The small lever shifts between front-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive.
This was a real four-wheel-drive car, and driving it in 4WD mode on dry pavement for long periods would damage the powertrain. Subaru USA went 100% all-wheel-drive in the middle 1990s.
Subaru was known mostly for very cheap cars during the 1970s, but this one sold new for the 2021 equivalent of $25,660.
You weren't supposed to drive this car over 50 mph in four-wheel-drive. Times have changed.
As far as I know, only a few Peugeots share this oddball wheel bolt pattern.