Our Story Addicted To Subi

July 23, 2026

Our Story: From Saving Subarus to Building Addicted To Subi

Over the past little while, we’ve had to deal with some unfair criticism from one very unhappy individual who has never actually dealt with us. Unfortunately, criticism is just part of putting yourself out there. It's not the first time and it certainly won't be the last.

It’s easy to focus on the negative rather than the positive. So instead of getting caught up in it, we thought it was a good opportunity to share our story. With our online presence growing, we realised there are many people who know the name Addicted To Subi but may not know where it started, why we do what we do or what our goals are.

So, this is our story.

Where it all started

I’m a career mechanic, I started my apprenticeship around 11 years ago and worked extremely hard to complete it as soon as I possibly could. Eager to learn anything possible

Not long after beginning my journey in the trade, I caught the Subaru bug after being given a blown-up Subaru Outback H6. At the time, it was a car that many people considered scrap. That's actually how we got it. We saw an opportunity, needed a car and decided to bring it back to life.

We fixed it, got it back on the road and that was the beginning of everything.

The parts journey

Before we knew it, we were buying car after car, mostly mid-2000s Subarus.

We started pulling them apart, saving what we could, repairing what we could and making sure as many usable parts and running cars as possible found a new home instead of ending up in scrap. We loved every minute of it. We were always learning, taking on new challenges and honestly couldn't stop.

We've never claimed to know everything, far from it. Every car, every part and every problem teaches us something new. We're always learning, adapting and improving what we do.

But don't get us wrong. We're highly skilled and passionate about these vehicles. Years of hands-on experience, working on them day in and day out and constantly pushing ourselves to learn more have given us the knowledge and confidence to take on challenges that many others wouldn't.

Discovering the Brumby community

Then we discovered the Brumby... Oh, the Brumby. What a car. We didn't do things by halves.

We bought one, then two more, along with plenty of parts from a farm clean-out, all saved from the scrap heap. They sat there waiting for their turn, but it wasn't until we took our imported Subaru Sambar to a meetup with the 4x140 ACT/NSW group around 2023 that things really started to take off.

From there, things exploded.

We met incredible people, made lifelong friends, travelled, attended events and became part of a community that genuinely cares about keeping these vehicles alive. The cars stayed on the road, parts found new homes and we made memories we'll never forget.

Why we started supplying parts

With my experience working on Subarus, I always had spare parts around to keep my own cars going and help with repairs when needed. Eventually we had cars, parts, knowledge and a growing collection of items, but keeping track of everything became overwhelming.

We realised we had access to parts people were looking for, but there was no easy way for anyone to know what we had available. That's when things started to change.

Growing into new parts

For around 10 years, we've been buying, selling and helping people through Marketplace and Gumtree. Over that time, we've built up over 100 reviews on these platforms from people we've helped along the way. Those interactions showed us there was a genuine need for what we were doing.

About two years ago, full-time work and other commitments started taking up more of our time, so we had to adapt and find a way to make everything more sustainable.

Unfortunately, we still can't respond to every request and we genuinely hate this. That's what pushed us towards supplying new parts through Marketplace as a crossover point. From there, we created our Facebook page as a place to share everything we do, our own space.

Then came eBay, where we've grown into a Top Rated Seller with more than 100 positive reviews. It gave us a great way to reach more people. Like anything though, it came with its own challenges: Managing listings, high fees and everything involved became another learning experience.

Building something sustainable

At the end of the day, our goal has always stayed the same.

Help people and keep older Subarus on the road.

It sounds simple, but it hasn't always been easy.

We didn't always know exactly what we had on the shelf (and honestly, we still don't) and we simply couldn't keep up. We trialled different inventory systems and different ways of managing everything before eventually realising we needed a better solution.

After trying plenty of options, we settled on the systems that are currently in use. They aren't perfect, but they give us the best balance between cost, time, effective tools and keeping everything organised. Even now, we're working on improving things almost every day.

Where we are today

We still work fulltime and have limited time for all of this, now going from focusing almost entirely on used parts to now offering around 150 new products active ready to ship, with more being added all the time. Used parts are still something we care deeply about though and something we hope to expand back into in the future. For now though, we have to focus on what we can realistically manage alongside our other commitments.

We'll continue expanding our range, developing new products and finding better ways to help keep these older Subarus on the road. We already have products we've produced ourselves, with plenty more planned for the future.