1998 Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon Is Junkyard Treasure—With 528,837 Miles

Date:2025-08-13 03:18:47 Category:tech Views:1 Comment:0

A few months ago, we admired a 1999 Subaru Legacy RHD Rural Delivery wagon with well over 400,000 miles in a Denver car graveyard.

I thought it would be a long, long time before I found another discarded Subaru that topped that final mileage figure, but then I found this Legacy wagon that drove nearly 100,000 more miles in a yard between Denver and Cheyenne.

1996 lexus ls 400 in colorado wrecking yard — Murilee Martin

I had gone there because I had been tipped off by Rollin of junkyard_cars_of_colorado about a 1996 Lexus LS 400 with the optional Nakamichi Audio system.

I just built a junkyard boombox using Nakamichi Lexus audio components, and it sounds so good that I wanted to stockpile parts for another. I bought the Nakamichi head unit, amplifier, CD changer, and speakers.

1990 nissan axxess in colorado junkyard — Murilee Martin

I'd already photographed an ultra-rare Nissan Axxess (the successor to the Stanza Wagon) on the way in, and I noticed a late-second-generation Legacy Outback wagon a few spaces away from the Lexus as I removed all the door panels to get those Nakamichi speakers.

In addition to the aforementioned '99 postal Legacy with 431,702 miles, I've documented two other used-up 1990s Legacies with better than 300k miles (a '95 wagon and a '98 Outback wagon), so I like to check the odometers in these cars when I find them.

1998 subaru legacy outback wagon with 500k miles in colorado junkyard — Murilee Martin

I'm glad I looked, because this car puts Subaru into the Top Ten of the Murilee Martin Junkyard Odometer Standings for the first time. Here's the list at the time of this writing:

1996 Toyota Avalon, 949,863 miles
1985 Toyota Camry, 648,928 miles
1990 Volvo 240, 631,999 miles
1988 Honda Accord, 626,476 miles
1987 Mercedes-Benz 190E, 601,173 miles
1996 Toyota Camry wagon, 583,624 miles
1981 Mercedes-Benz 300 SD, 572,139 miles
1985 Mercedes-Benz 300 SD, 535,971 miles
1998 Subaru Legacy Outback wagon, 528,837 miles
1988 Honda Accord, 513,419 miles

This Indiana-built car also becomes the third-best-traveled Made in USA vehicle I've documented in a junkyard, after the Kentucky-built '96 Avalon and '96 Camry wagon. All in all, quite an achievement for the Pleiades-badged Japanese brand.

This car is a top-trim-level Outback Limited with automatic transmission, making it the most expensive new 1998 Subaru model available in the United States. Its MSRP was $26,595 (about $53,085 in 2025 dollars), and I'd say it proved to be worth every penny.

When this car was sold, the Outback name was used for outdoorsy-themed option packages on both the Legacy and the Impreza.

When the following generation of Legacy appeared on our shores for the 2000 model year, the Outback version (which included a sedan model) had no exterior Legacy badging but was still considered a Legacy.

To get a car to survive nearly 20,000 miles of driving for each of 27 years, its owner or owners had to have performed all scheduled maintenance with obsessive regularity (or have been lottery-winning lucky, which I doubt was the case here given how nice the car's body and interior look), plus repair every problem that popped up.

That means this car has had at least three timing belt replacements and probably a transmission overhaul.

The radiator and all engine accessories have been removed, which you wouldn't need to do for a head gasket job. Did a junkyard shopper buy all that extreme-high-mile hardware without checking the odometer first, or were repairs begun and then abandoned? We'll never know.

All the glass had been smashed at some point before this car arrived in its final parking space, so it's possible that it got vandalized on the street and the cost of glass replacement was greater than the real-world value of a 27-year-old car with intergalactic miles showing on its odometer.

The Legacy Outback Limited station wagon with automatic transmission was the most expensive new Subaru available in the United States for the 1998 model year.

This one even has the 30th Anniversary Edition package.

Like most extreme-high-mileage vehicles I find in car graveyards, this one was in pretty good cosmetic condition. You don't get to a half-million miles if you abuse your car in any way.

There's a lot of online talk about weak head gaskets in these engines, but they should stay intact with meticulous maintenance and inspections. Just don't overheat the engine, ever!

When this car was sold, the Outback package was available on both the Legacy and the Impreza. This car has exterior Legacy badging, which went away on the 2000 Legacy Outback sedans and wagons.