03 era Forester Feedback

Check edmunds, kelly bluebook and craigslist in your area.

Take a test drive and decide for yourself.

Take a test drive and decide for yourself.

Haven't heard many beefs about the '03's.

My personal experience ('99 OB, 127k miles,

04' WRX, 27k miles, '98 Imprezza, 150k miles) is that they require almost no maintainance besides what's on the factory schedule.

I'm looking at baying a co-workers 03 Forester. He bought it new and it has 25K on it now. Haven't talked price yet. A few questions,

- what's it worth? It's the xs model or whatever the top of the line is. About the only thing it doesn't have is the sun roof and leather.

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- In reading some reviews it seems like a lot of people mention it being a somewhat noisy vehicle, esp at 80 mph where supposedly the wind noise gets really bad. Any feedback on the noise of this thing?

- It doesn't seem that power seats were available in 03. How hard to adjust are these non power up/down seats and how comfortable are they?

- I also see a lot of posts about blown head gaskets, surging, expensive routine maintenance, bad wheel bearings, overheating and on and on. It leaves me wondering how they got a reputation for reliability.