Used as Intended: 1986 Subaru BRAT GL

Subaru’s BRAT has enough built-in oddity that it hardly needs help attracting attention, but this 1986 GL has another distinction: its odometer shows 254,588 miles. Offered in Helena, Montana, for $12,500 on Craigslist, this BRAT’s engine was replaced in 2006 about 100,000 miles ago, according to the seller. A replacement transmission followed in 2016, roughly 6,000 miles ago. A high-five for Barn Finds reader Tony Primo for the tip.

Featured extras include Subaru’s “Halo Twin Roof,” a sliding rear window, locking fiberglass cap, hitch, and four extra “wagon wheel” rims with chunky tires. “Wagon wheel” is genuine old-Subaru vocabulary, and to me those wheels add a certain burliness to any Subie wearing them. Several manufacturers offered caps for the BRAT, meaning a number of people could claim they had a job selling brat caps—and not the flat-brim kind worn backward. Subaru marketed the BRAT for both work and recreation, a pitch backed up by the GL’s four-speed manual and selectable dual-range four-wheel drive. Those extras, plus an odometer reading north of a quarter mil, suggest somebody took Subaru’s work-and-play formula to heart.

BRAT Trivia of Dubious Utility: Ronald Reagan’s 1978 BRAT reportedly started life as one of Subaru’s proving-ground durability-test units; the company asked for performance reports every six months after it went to his California ranch. Using the first BRAT off the assembly line, Greek-American designer Alex Tremulis, a key figure in Subaru’s BRAT design effort, reportedly demonstrated the functionality of its bed-seat wind deflector by lighting a cigarette back there at 60 mph. A BRAT appeared in Knight Rider S1 E7, in a rancher-dispute story. No Reagans were harmed during its filming. A pertinent pasta perspective is that, laid end-to-end, roughly 1.6 billion spaghetti noodles would equal this BRAT’s indicated mileage—which would have kept 17-year-old me fed for about six days.

The A/C is inoperative, but there’s a recent battery and a full tank of gas. Before buying, I’d look closely at the brakes, oil leaks and seals, hoses, CV boots, tires, and the 4×4 function; anything tired there would be worth knowing, and could provide useful negotiation ammunition. The 1986 BRAT’s 1.8L has a gear-driven cam, so there’s no aging timing belt waiting for the most inopportune and expensive moment to call it quits. Despite their deceptive exhaust-note thumpery, these 73-hp boxer engines are inherently well balanced and smooth.

The seller also mentions a Kenwood stereo. I’d pull it out immediately to see what lurks behind it. In my mid-’90s automotive circles, Kenwoods were jokingly called “Firewoods”—not because of the head units themselves, but because of the typical bass-obsessed teenager’s sketchy twist-’n’-tape wiring methods. Before deciding what comfort to take from the engine’s claimed 100,000 miles, I’d want to see the 2006 paperwork. Did “crate engine” mean new, remanufactured, or used but shipped in a box? And do you see 100,000 miles on a replacement engine as an attractant or an alarm?