"..Having owned 7 different Subarus, I agree that they are superb cars, particularly the Legacy/Outback."
"..every few years you get a massive catastrophic failure of the engine or transmission that costs an absolute fortune to fix."
Sorry but we have different definitions of superb...something that has a catastrophic, potentially multi-thousands to repair, failure every few years? If nothing else, I want the new vehicle I've bought to be reliable enough that it won't cost me thousands.
I have an L200 specifically to hold all my diving kit and to be able to haul it all cross country when we're cave diving. It has a [mostly] traditional selectable 2wd/2wd/low ratio/locking diffs selector.
Mitsubishi replaced the first one I'd bought because it was so unreliable but the replacement is much better so far.
One of the many reasons I chose it - it has a 5 year, 100,000 mile warranty.
I'll tell you in a few years how reliable this one's been :)