Subaru Justy vs. Festiva

[bastille10]

Hi I saw a Subaru Justy AWD for sale a couple of blocks from my place.
Wern't they about the same time frame? Similar in size. FI or carbed? Don't really know much about the Justy. AWD would be cool, but around here you see even fewer of them then Festivas. Maybe another underappreciated small car that didn't make it?

[bhazard]

I kinda want a justy for winter...

[bravekozak]

How about a Daihatsu Rocky?

[tulsacarman]

We looked at buying one back when they were new, maybe 20 years ago. My wife said the only way she'd drive one was if it was an automatic. They had the EVTC(?) tranny that didn't shift gears. It sounded like a cool deal but I had more than one mechanic tell me it wouldn't be a good idea. We went with the VW Fox. I don't know if the Justy was a good idea or not but the VW was biiiig mistake, a mistake I won't make again.

[Aspire]

Nothing screams "Youtube: Jumping My Car" like a old Subaru.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jumping+subaru+justy&aq=f

[Axlander9289]

Doesn't FestYboy have a Justy?

[FestYboy]

yes, yes i do. i have several actually, all 4wd. they were the last cars in the US to be carbed (1993 Justy DL). what you would want is a leak free GL EFI so look for 91 and up. check the body for rot at the driver frame tube near the foot well and behind the doors at the body seams. if the engine brakes, there's not much for replacement parts and full engines should come from Japan, you don't want the ones from here.

[TominMO]

I had a 91 GL 5-speed 4WD. LOVED it! Great mileage (over 40 MPG) and would go anywhere. If it's in decent condition and a manual, def get it. (IDK if the automatics were ever 4WD, but you definitely don't want one of those.)

[FestYboy]

yeah you could get a 4WD ECVT, infact there's one near me ATM. and you CAN get the auto if it's still funtional and achieve the same MPGs as the manual. the ECVT usually fails at the brushes and they're easy to replace. actually the ECVT is stronger than the manual trans.

your best combo is a 87-88 2wd man trans in a 89-94 body and an EFI engine for milage. if you require 4WD, you want the 87-88 trans as it has a higher 5th gear and is easier on the engine at highway speeds (lower revs).

[TominMO]

yeah you could get a 4WD ECVT, infact there's one near me ATM. and you CAN get the auto if it's still funtional and achieve the same MPGs as the manual. the ECVT usually fails at the brushes and they're easy to replace. actually the ECVT is stronger than the manual trans.

your best combo is a 87-88 2wd man trans in a 89-94 body and an EFI engine for milage. if you require 4WD, you want the 87-88 trans as it has a higher 5th gear and is easier on the engine at highway speeds (lower revs).

That's interesting about the ECVT fix. I always heard that the conventional wisdom is just avoid them, no one knows how to work on them. But you do eh?

A Justy forum: http://subarujusty.proboards.com/index.cgi

Edit: mine was a 4-door GL in a nice charcoal color. I could bury the tires in soft sand and just drive out like it was on asphalt; or go up a 45-degree hill. It did have snow tires on it to do these things tho. I only sold it because I was moving from OR to VA and had too many cars. It was great.

[neanderpaul]

Last car with a carb AND first car with CVT. Never heard ANY high mileage stories out of them.

[neanderpaul]

Yeah read this page from owners talking about 200,000 MAY be possible... pathetic!
Sorry festyboy. No offense but man I've never heard anything good out of the justy.

http://subarujusty.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=engine&action=print&thread=3088

[neanderpaul]

Carsurvey.org is your friend. I looked through about 30 reviews. I found one with 175,000 miles. Most were not complimentary.

http://www.carsurvey.org/reviews/subaru/justy/

[DriverOne]

Nobody here mentioned THEONE from earlier...

[chaosdrifter06]

Is the AWD drivetrain reliable enough to be considered for my powertrain swap? Or am I better off looking for a 323 GTX AWD drivetrain?