EJ25 whats up with the head gaskets

[turboleg]

I have been noticing a LOT of ej25 cars that are listed for sale. A good percentage of them say new head gasket. It seems kind of strange for the mileage of most of the vehicles (generally between 100K+ miles - this doesn't seem subaru like to me). Whats the deal? Is the newer open deck block that much more suseptable to head gasket failure? I only ask because I'm considering buying a newer winter beater so I can start saving the bodies on my BC legacies. It makes me nervous that I'm going to buy a new car and be putting head gaskets on every 30K miles (I beat the living crap out of my winter beaters). Are they dependable? I'd hate to give up my perfect running ej22's for something thats going to conk out on me.

[BAC5.2]

It was a poor head gasket design. There was an updated gasket fix.

If you want a winter beater, just get another BC Legacy. The EJ22 is damn near indestructible.

[turboleg]

MMMMM EJ22 my old friend. BC's have suddenly become hard to find around here. Autotrader used to have 5-6 BC/BF/BJ listed all at once within 75 miles of me. Now its hard to find one! I think I bought them all...damn me!

How are the EJ25's other than the poor head gasket design? Still bullet proof?

Thanks!