the two most notorious Subaru problems are oil consumption and head gasket issues and we sincerely hope that all Subaru owners here have a dipstick which reads near full from change to change AND a coolant level that remains near the yellow factory fill mark in the over flow tank, truly we do.
I've got a 2013 Outback with 6 speed manual transmission. I love it. I don't drive it much........has about 15,000 miles after 3 years. I have a family member that owns a Subaru dealership and so that helped with price. My son's 2006 Outback had the head gasket replaced at 115,000 miles. So that is a known issue with them. I thought it was with the generation prior to 2006 but I guess not necessarily.
Oil consumption can be a problem but its hit or miss. I watch mine close. I think it has to do with the newer cars using 0 weight oil and there possibly a problem with break in and rings not seating properly on some vehicles........but I'm not sure. I got a scare with it around 7,000 miles with a trip from Utah to Houston. I checked the oil before the trip and it was right at the mid point on the dip stick. When almost to Houston, I got the low oil warning. And I'm like..... what? So I put a quart in and did some research and evidently there have been reports of excessive oil consumption. When I got back from the trip I changed the oil at 9,000 miles and didn't have any problems for the next oil change around 14,000 miles.
What I found is that since the car sits for days, it will always read the highest on the dip stick with that much time with the oil settling down. So if it reads right at mid point after sitting that long its actually kind of low. I have never owned a car that had a range as much as it does on the dip stick when measuring right after driving and then measuring several days later without driving it.
So what I do is to be consistent when I check the oil which I have chosen to be 5 to 10 minutes after its been running and I want to see it near the top end of the OK range. If its in that area then I can count on not having any low oil problems. Right now, I just assumed I didn't check the oil properly before going to Houston because I haven't had any problems since.
What is interesting is the class action settlement letter, I got from Subaru regarding oil consumption issues. It was for
2011-15 Forester (below VIN *543624)
2012-15 Impreza (below VIN *270253)
2013-15 Crosstrek (below VIN *270284)
2013-14 Legacy and Outback (all)
So you know there have been issues but I think its hit or miss.
All in all I like the car. I think I got one of the last manual transmissions made. I watch the oil but so far after the initial incident, oil consumption is OK and pretty much non-existent on my particular vehicle. And to reiterate, I found I have to check the oil every time at approximately the same time after the car is turned off so as to get a consistent reading.