Subaru finally in Rehab!

My Subaru is a 1984 Model, made in Detroit, USA, the result of a joint ventured between General Motors and Subaru to manufacture sub-compact cars in the USA following the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. It has a 1.6 Liter engine, with the spare wheel positioned under the bonnet in the middle of the engine. It’s a large Hatchback, and the back seat folds out to make for a roomy double bed. It has automatic transmission and a power-steering that makes the Subaru a sheer joy to drive.

It’s been a love-hate relationship of an intense kind. In the early 1990s I acquired this stately estate-wagon courtesy my elder sister who had managed through her insider government connections to get a preferred ringside seat at the IPS auction of private cars belonging to diplomats that had completed their mandatory five years of stay in Pakistan. The Subaru’s owner had been an American lady working in the US Consulate in Karachi. She had bought the Subaru brand new back home in the USA and shipped it to Karachi upon her posting here. 

During her five years in Karachi she had driven the Subaru in the Clifton area, mostly from her residence in Bath Island to the US Consulate near Metropole Hotel. So when I acquired it, the Subaru had all of fewer than 10,000 kilometers on the dashboard, loving cared for by a woman who was clearly in love with it, and saddened by the thought of leaving it behind in Karachi. I paid the princely sum of just over 100,000 rupees for it.

Some lovable rogues with whom I have developed enduring and endearing friendships claimed a romantic liaison between me and the American lady, whom I had in actual fact never laid eyes on, and said that she had given me the Subaru as a parting gift to remind me of her. There’s not an iota of truth in that, though, as one can well imagine, this version of the Subaru’s acquisition appealed far more to my circle of friends.

Over the last over thirty years that I have owned the Subaru, I have ranged far and wide across Sindh, liberally engaging its four-wheel-drive in the Indus Delta region. Within Karachi it has carried me in much style and great comfort, its sleek design inviting much admiration and quite a bit of envy.

During the last few years of my mother’s stay on Earth the Subaru was her preferred ride, bringing added emotional impetus to my relationship with this beauty on four wheels.

Recent times have not been kind to Subaru. I have been neglectful and the Karachi weather has proved corrosive even for Subaru’s study steel frame. For the last eight months the Subaru has refused to start, and stayed put in one place on my front drive. Progressively with age its running and endurance had diminished.

Ironically, the real blow to the Subaru’s well being came when TCS allotted me a new car for my running around, first the slightly used Suzuki Baleno, and then the brand new Suzuki Swift. The pressure to keep the Subaru on the road was lifted completely, and keeping it roadworthy moved from necessity to luxury. That luxury, unfortunately, I have not been able to afford up until now, and that too just barely.

The first small steps in the Subaru’s restoration work have been taken, and my old friend and mechanic Khursheed of Mecca Motors in Gizri, is on the job.

Khursheed has been Subaru’s crisis manager for the last ten years, and very successfully. He was introduced to me by Karim Ustaad of Quetta who ran his rather spacious workshop in Karachi’s Punjab Colony. He understood Subaru the way nobody else could, and I loved spending time with him while he worked on it. Karim Ustaad then moved to Sukkur, having taken over the contract to maintain Pepsi Colas fleet of trucks, but left Subaru in the capable hands of Khursheed.

Also associated with the Subaru Rehab project is Anwar Ustaad, a specialist of motorbikes, especially of the very large Harley Davidson variety. He’s an old friend as well, and has periodically worked on the Subaru.

The engine, incidentally, is the original one, I having successfully deflected Karim Ustaad’s efforts at convincing me to get it replaced with a Toyota Diesel.

The first order of the day is to fix the Subaru’s Radiator, in particular its Water-body that has completely corroded, and its hose pipes that have stiffened and cracked. This done, we can get the engine running once again. Wish me luck!