The engine design and layout is the best I've seen. You have plenty of room to move around and work on various areas of the car. One of the coolest features I saw was the oil filter was right on top.
And yes - 2013 to 2014 is the chain upgrade vs a belt. A major bonus in my mind.
The timing chain is part of the reason I waited to get a 2013 model, I'm sure it's not reallly a big issue, but I once saw the bill for my brothers 2001 outback for a timing belt and head gasket and it was pretty high. I was also pretty happy about the oil filter being on top of the engine.
It appears Subaru has never fixed the head gasket problem on EJ25 engine. Apparently Subaru made changes to make it more reliable, but it has never been able to completely fix it. A buddy of mine had to have his gasket replaced on the 2010 forester just a few weeks ago. FB25 engines are all new and so far they do not seem to have any gasket issues. So far I've only come across reports of louder than normal chatter/ticking/tapping sort of sounds coming from the engine and excessive oil consumption issues. Time will tell how good these FB25's are.
Looks like they changed the head gasket in 2010 to multi-layer shim style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZbPlHnistA
I wish they put the FB25 into the Outback in 2011 when the Forester got it though.
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