Junkyard Find: 1982 Subaru GL "Third Eye"

by Murilee Martin

Published: June 28th, 2011

Remember the mid-mounted “passing light” Subaru installed in some of its Late Malaise Era cars? I had forgotten all about this oddball option until I ran across this ’82 in a Denver wrecking yard.

The driver hit a switch on the turn-signal stalk and the Subaru grille emblem flipped up to expose the Cyclops-style middle headlight. Subaru buyers didn’t see the point, and most of them skipped this option.

The resemblance to the early Honda Accord is quite strong from this angle.

There was once a time, back in the Dark Ages, when four-wheel-drive had to be selected with a lever in Subaru cars. Why, that’s like something you’d have to do in an AMC Eagle (though the Eagle used a dash switch instead of a floor lever).

The boxer engine design has served Subaru well for more than four decades now. Lots of these EAs going to The Crusher these days.

#1980s #1982 #1982SubaruGL #4wd #AWD #Denver #DownOnTheJunkyard #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Malaise #Subaru #SubaruGL #SubaruLeone #MalaiseEra

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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2 of 29 comments

28-Cars-Later on Jan 16, 2013

If that flip up emblem with headlight is still present/operational I think it would be a great accessory to the Murilee Martin junkyard boombox.

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Camelback on Apr 02, 2015

"The driver hit a switch on the turn-signal stalk and the Subaru grille emblem flipped up to expose the Cyclops-style middle headlight." My '82 GL 4WD Hatchback had a "barrel" push on/off switch on the dash to the left of the steering wheel to activate the "cyclops." The center light only worked with low beams. When you put the high beams on "cyclops" went to sleep.

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