Subaru Repair: 2001 Subaru Outback Limited, subaru outback, 2 quarts

Question
I have a 2001 Subaru Limited Outback.  I purchased it, used from a small dealership in town, in July and before they gave me the car they had some work done to it (new muffler, new front axle, new a/c system, etc…), and when I got it from them, it had a small oil leak.  We had to go out of state, so I couldn’t do anything about it then, but it had enough oil when we left.  We checked it when we returned and it was still okay.  Not even a ½ quart short.  I was driving the car over the weekend (about 2 weeks later) and it started smelling like burning oil really bad, so when I got home, I checked the oil again and it was completely dry, according to the dip stick.  So, we went and got oil and put in a little less than 2 quarts and checked it again and it said that it was almost 2 quarts over!  I never noticed any drip more than the size of a silver dollar on my driveway, so I have no idea where this oil had gone, or why it was now saying that it was too full.  My oil light never came on, either.  We’re stumped.  Any idea on why this is happening?  Also, I was told the car would get pretty good gas mileage, about 30 – 34 miles to the gallon, but on our trip we kept track and it got about 24 miles to the gallon.  Would this have anything to do with the oil problem?

Answer
Subaru's are not that great on fuel milage. 24 MPG is great for that vehicle. Its the sacrifice for the perfomance. Because of the horizontal design of the engine, you need to wait about 5 minutes after turning off the engine to check the oil level. I would get it looked at though to see what the burning smell might be.