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Hi

I'm in the market for a second hand station wagon. I have toyota Camry wagon and love it, I've never had any problems with it.

I'm tossing up,between an Avensis and a legacy about 2005 looks like what i can afford. Which would you recommend? I havent taken either of them for a test drive yet but want quality build and reliability.

Thanks,

Maree

Older model Subarus don't have a great reputation for reliability as they get older and with higher kms, so perhaps the Avensis might be the better option here. However, there are still some alerts to be aware of.
Many of the 2.0litre Avensis's have CVT transmissions and a D4 engine (easliy identified as it has "D4" written on top of the engine). It's best to go for models without the CVT and D4, so the 2.4 may be the better option as it also runs a traditional automatic transmission. These have a better reputation for reliability.

I think you may find that all avensis vehicles have the d4 engine.At least all the 2.4 models currently on trade me are showing the d4 engine.I would like one of these myself but have never found one with the standard 2.4 engine. Cheers Tom

Our technical contact at Toyota tells us that the NZ New Avensis was not D4. However, a vast majority of these now available in NZ are Japanese Imports and not NZ New - and it seems that the Japanese domestic market ones were D4.
So, if you can find a NZ New one, according to our source at Toyota, it should not be D4, although they may be very hard to find.