I've had 5 Hondas. Two of them rusted out just in front of the screen in
the windscreenwiper area. Cars garaged, no exposer to salt/ice etc.
Another had the windscreen crack overnight.  A Toyota had an alternator
fail. Neighbours Toyota had atrocious paint, faded and went all blotchy.
And that just for starters.

BULL on Toyota being problem free. I have been handy replacing sockets and
wiring on Corolla due to leaks and "rust"...also, their locks DO fail. And
why, pray tell, do you suppose Toyota designed in a knockout button for
their automatic trans floor shift? So that you can get the thing out of
"Park" when (not if) the interlock fails...its in the manual. Yes, Toyotas
are "generally reliable" and I liked owning one, but then again, they
generally don't get driven like Subarus get driven (like, zero fun
quotient). Have fun changing certain lights on all makes. As far as
electrical gremlins and leaks, learning how to take off a door or other
panel and doing some preventative maintenance (and using a tester if
anything acts up) solves a lot of headaches. Sometimes one ground can cause
a dozen different intermittent unrelated problems. Both motors didn't fail
at the same time..there was likely a moisture fault exacerbated by those
specific conditions. I think that the $525 dealer cost likely included
replacing some faulty wiring elsewhere which was causing both blowers to go
open circuit at the same time. (they saw ya coming)  I think I would have
put a car doing that in bone-dry conditions for at least a few days to see
if the problem cleared up. A co-worker took apart all the electrical
connections on an MGB back in the days, sanded them and used electrician's
paster/silicone, and he drove that car 8 years as a daily driver in a heavy
salt use/deep cold & heavy snow winters, and high humidity summers seaside
location with ZERO drivablility and electrical problems.

Those of you who think an AWD will be cheaper to run than an FWD are
sniffing gas fumes too often. Ditto on the parts replacement cost on a
Toyota or a Honda...when something goes, think $$$. The real test is
comparing the cost of running a Subaru, to say, a Jeep. As far as the
foglight and other proprietory bits on *any* make, they are all stupidly
expensive to replace on the newer vehicles. Even the plastic bit for the
hole where a foglight would normally go if you get a model without the
foglights.

I like Subaru in spite of its annoying bits. As a non-mechanical friend
discovered, taking apart an old Subaru and figuring out the sometimes weird
'why', stood him in good stead, and now he can fix all sorts of glitches
without going to a dealer.

Jim B/PEI
Jeep owner x 2 for my sins, but recently driving a Subaru.