Friday 22 March 2013

Tea, the Leone wagon.

A car that I have a feeling I have been mispronouncing forever..

A 1988 Subaru Leone Wagon.

Well into production for the 3rd generation of Leone, which was introduced 4 years earlier. Available in Wagon, sedan, and an interesting 3dr coupe/hatch which I've never seen..

This car looks pretty sharp in a dark grey, and is in great shape for what really is a 'working' car. I imagine many of these spent their life in the scrub/snow, and have every right not to last 25years!
But its cars like this, that are all-the-more special when they're tidy.


I still occasionally see these around, as being a 4WD wagon, they're still genuinely useful. Subaru's have a fairly loyal fanbase too, so theres no doubt some diehard L-series/Leone lovers out there!

I've only personally been around one of these - in this case a light metallic green sedan owned by a co-worker. He had it for years without any major hassle afaik; and had held together well, other than some interesting tape-covered rust holes under the rear quarter/pillar glass.
It finally gave up after some carby(fuel!) issues. Had a small fire in the engine-bay after someone tried to 'fix' it.. and that was the end of that.

Interior/dash is fairly simple and attractive. Its well laid out, and looks good in a mix of light grey and black.
The most interesting aspect would be the HVAC controls on the left of the cluster there, which a particularly odd, diagonally sliding, heating/cooling control.
Heating/cooling control maaaaybe (! :P) doesn't need to be so close to the wheel and in the line-of-sight; but at least it leaves the the centre-dash/console area rather uncluttered.

Lots of legroom and original mats.

The powerhouse - The Boxer/Flat 'EA-82' four cylinder. 1.8 litres and a single overhead cam per side.
In classic Subaru style, the engine-bay is also home to the spare.

*..random air-boune AE86 in the background..*



Overall a pretty cool wagon. 4WD, Manual, different, and some of the coolest hubcaps I've ever seen (I actually saw one of these hubcaps on a Toyota Starlet today!)
Other than maybe wanting a touch of paintwork, this Leone is in great shape. Nice. :)


1 comment:

  1. Whoa, I must have missed this post somehow in the past. This thing is mint! I own a Leone GT Touring Wagon as well (not the GT/II) and I've never seen another one like it in Australia. Just the standard Aussie delivered wagons are disappearing at an alarming rate as the 2nd gens did, you almost never see them around any more, with the exception of the Brumby which gets all the love.

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