zett

Subaru's go there, fords get stuck. That made me laugh! I do feel like I'm already in the family. Heh. I do have one bit of Subie history, I had a (I think) 89-90 Loyale wagon over 10 years ago, and even though this car was pre-AWD, I did love that car. It was so handy. Much easier for a short woman to load than a pickup truck. I drove it about a year or two then sold it to my aforementioned neighbors very cheap and they drove it for another year or so.

I talked to the guy that I see all the time at the local burger joint who has a Subaru. Right off the bat he gave me the name of a guy who works on Subarus (who was also recommended by a local garage that has a good reputation). I found this man (he has a junkyard/body shop) and he has 4 Subs (that I saw) in various stages of repair at the moment. It was raining on us and I was on my way home from the vet with my cat, so I didn't talk to him long, but he sounds like Montana Tom upthread. He had a beautiful silver OB in the repair bay he's asking 3500 for right now - so assuming he can keep Subs in stock, I should be good to go once I have the money saved up. My neighbors had bought a fixed up non-Subaru from this guy and it's been a jewel of a car - I have to borrow it sometimes when my#$^*% truck tears up. I had been peeking at this guy's place when I would drive by, but I didn't see any Subies on his lot. Thank you all for the push to go up to people and ask...who knew I'd find someone this close by and so easily? Of course I will carefully check over any car he has for sale...but I have faith in the 'hillbilly grapevine" especially when it comes to the guys at the burger joint...I've been talking to them off and on for the last year or so; they strike me as the kind of fellas that would look out for a woman in need of help and not lie to me about stuff. If they say he's good, I believe them.

I want to thank everyone who has replied to me so far. I've calmed down some about the HG issue. I see that I need to do a lot more research; I don't think a Subaru-familiar mechanic will be easy to find around here (other than at a dealership) but I'm going to try. There's finally starting to be several Subs seen on the road around here, but they all look new/newish. There's this one guy who has an older Forester; next time I see him I'm going to ask him who does his work.

I was thinking second gen onwards. I was hoping to eventually get 3K to 4k saved up. If my income/bill situation stays the same, I should have that saved by end of summer. I've seen 2000s Subs in that range online. My worry is paying that much for a not-completely-ancient (merely old) vehicle and having to put another 3k soon after. I've "babied" slow oil leaks in previous vehicles, I'm used to that kind of monitoring.

I'm a poor woman who loves Subarus and wants an OB, though with all the HG tribulations I'm reading about here and other forums, I'm beginning to wonder why... What is the price range to have a garage/Sub dealer replace a 2.5 with a 2.2 (I hope I have the terminology right) and will they even do that? Is it worth bothering to buy a Subie that needs that if one can't do the work yourself?

I don't own a Subaru yet, but I've been lurking here and other places and decided to join to do my research out in the open, as it were. I'm looking for an old Outback. The roads are so bad here that it makes no sense to me to drive anything other than a "beater". I think there's no more charming a beater than an old Subie. :) I'm about to divorce my pickup truck b/c I'm tired of lugging cinder blocks into the bed for traction (and for many other reasons).