fuhkengroovin

Thanks everyone for the advice and words of wisdom. Ended up buying a 2005 Forester with about 98K miles on it. The body has a few scratched, the interior shows some wear, but it is fun to drive. I have yet to get a good feel for the gas mileage, but my brother, who drives a little more aggressively than I do, was only able to get 24.8 driving it home from Spokane. That has me worried. What is interesting is that it goes almost 100 miles on the first quarter tank, then starts to drop a little faster after that. I heard an interview on NPR the other day with a Ford engineer and he admitted that the car companies ALL do that trick with the gas gauge. They want you to think that your car is getting GREAT gas mileage, so they keep it artificially high at the beginning. Then, at the end, they make the reading artificially low so that you won't run out of gas. He said the reason they did it is that some people "top off" their tanks by adding that extra squeeze or two, so they want the non-topper-offers to see that their car is full too. Supposedly it's all being done so that we'll all stop topping off the tank. The only other thing I'm worried about is kind of a rough shift pattern around 35 MPH, but it's probably nothing. I'm trying to drive it very gently to see if I can coax more than 23 or 24 MPG out of it.

Thanks - that's good to know, especially that low gear and reverse give you total 4WD. I can't wait to drive one...

The more I think about this, the more I feel compelled to ask. In the 90/10 split on an automatic transmission, does it know to "switch" over to 50/50 or something close to it when it feels slippage?

Oh one more thing... Not to muddy the waters, but I notice a fair amount of Foresters are being sold with "rebuilt" titles. I guess there's all sorts of logistics around that, but it must all come down to how bad was it wrecked. I mean a fender bender can set somebody back a bunch of money, but it doesn't necessarily mean the car is trashed. My wife's wrecked nearly every car we owned but once they come back from the shop they are *almost* good as new. If a person intends to finance a car with their HELOC and wasn't worried about getting collision insurance on the car, with the intention that you were going to get it paid it off and literally drive it to the grave, would a salvage or damaged title be all that bad? Probably depends huh?

Thanks - I didn't mention it, but I'm still partial to the wagons and wouldn't turn down a good deal on those either. There are a ton of them up here in the Seattle area. For whatever reason, right now it seems like used car prices are more than I expected. Even the legendary '96 Outback will fetch $2500 for one with 200K+ miles. In fact, on CL someone is posting one for $6888 which seem ridiculous to me.

Finally figured out what I want to buy. I want one in the 2003 - 2006 era since that's about all I can afford right now. It's intended to be the "work car" which can also be used to go on vacation/camping, etc. In light of the recent gas price increases I had been considering a VW TDI, but in the end, I decided I wanted a Subaru and the Forester seems to have a better price point than Outbacks or Legacys with little to none additional cost in MPG. I'm dumping a minivan and the Outback seems like a nice transition, although I've never driven a car for very long that got less than 20 MPG, so it's time to say goodbye to my old friend (1996 Nissan Quest - well equipped). I've owned an '86 4WD hi/lo bought right off the lot and drove it almost a quarter million miles. And I got 26 - 27 MPG in everyday driving. Me and Subaru bought more than one Y-pipes, but in the end, it was timing belts (which were non-interference which allowed me to truly maximize the time between TB changes ) but then I start reading on this site about all the HG problems and transmission problems and on and on. Of course, on these sites you only hear the bad stuff and if what people said was true the highways would be littered with broken down VW's and Subarus. So my question is the usual set: Does anybody know what the recommended interval is for timing belt changes on this era of Foresters? Would manual or auto tranny be preferable? I can drive either, don't mind shifting if it buys me MPG, otherwise, I would probably take an auto. Reliability is also important. My mechanic is good, but boy, is he a arrogant! What year, if any, would you recommend for reliability and MPG? I already learned that 2003 was the end of the Never Ending Head Gasket is Blown Era, so thanks to everyone for that much already! I want a sunroof, but if there's a model/year/tranny/color that's rock solid, I could give that feature up. Thanks in advance...

Thanks for the links. I am hoping to look at a car from private owner near Kirkland so these guys could give it a once over if I have doubts. I guess that's a good question though - if they don't have receipts for anything should you ALWAYS take a car to a mechanic. I've only done that once and was glad I did, but that was back before I had such a rich repository of information. And that page on blown head gaskets was excellent - now I know a little bit of what to look for except I hope to avoid that scene altogether by staying with the 2.2L & 5SPD. I see some people advertise the '96 with a 1.8L (dealership) and am thinking they just made a mistake. Just wanted to add, when I do have it serviced (sorry, I'm lousy with a wrench) I would go to Jim Startup's Foreign Auto Repair. He has an amazing reputation as being sort of an arrogant arsehole, but when it comes to diagnosing problems and fixng foreign cars at a fair price, Startup is the go-to guy.

Thanks everyone. Just called and the dealer selling it is not on a large lot. Here in Seattle Hwy 99 is where you go to see lot after lot of used cars. Less so since we entered the Great Depression II, but still quite a few small operators out there and everything is "as is". He reports that the engine has 191,000 but the transmission and differential considerably less - he had to replace them to sell the car. Don't see how the dealer got caught up in this and it really makes me nervous. Probably want to look at the Outback first.

I'm looking for a very reliable low maintenance Subaru and based on hours of searching and reading right here on Ultimate Subaru, I have settled on a 1996 Subaru wagon. I know that cosmetically there are differences between the two models, but the two I have to choose from are both 5-sp and 2.2L engine and isn't that what matters the most? Will the Outback offer significant ammenities that the legacy would not or is it just the fog lights and the two tone paint job? I have learned so much here already - you all are the greatest:banana:

I might go and look at this car in the next few days. It's a 5 speed (I think) with "a button" that gets it into 4WD. I had a 1987 which had a whole separate shifter that would take it to hi or lo 4WD on the fly. I guess I'm a little nervous because this would be the first year for the transition? Maybe it's nothing to worry about, but would be curious to know if the experts here have anything to offer as far as letting the buyer beware? Mostly concerning the tranny - I believe the engine should be similar enough to the '87 that I have some idea of the problems that may exist with leakage, exhaust parts, etc.