'05 Forester: recommendations?

Morgan wrote: Dear Morgan: 1) 18 grand for Forester w/manual trans and 50K miles is too much - moreover, the yearly mileage count indicates that is was either a) salesman's car or b) off lease vehicle or c) vehicle, that was recently retired from usage as a rent car If any of above is true, I would personally stay clear

2) If none of above holds, try to get more realistic price - say, 12 grand and - if purchased from "used car dealership" get a basic divetrain warranty from the seller, because factory warranty will expire in 10k miles 3) when you negotiate a realistic price, pay CASH and only CASH.(period) You will obviously avoid finance charges ( going high today for used cars) and mandatory full insurance coverage ( depending on your driving habits and area where you live, you may well get by with liability only, which, e.g. for my 2000 OBW Ltd. runs at like 10 bucks a month...) 4) when you finally made the purchase , be religious about maintenance of your new toy - Subies DO REQUIRE it; moreover - a lot of it may be done DYI style I wish you many happy years with one of the most sophisticated and at the same time dependable automobiles available in the US market

cheers krzysztof duszkiewicz

I'm about to ditch my '94 Legacy wagon for high mileage and expensive> repairs. I'm considering replacing it with a 2005 Forester, 5 spd, about> 50K miles on it. The price is $18,000. My thought is that if I'm going> to spend that kind of money on a car, I'd rather spend it up front on a> car that won't need major repairs every month for the next two years> (the '94 has cost me $8,000 in repairs since I bought it for $2,500> almost two years ago).>

I have an '05 Forester XT (USA) with the auto trans, and no major problems. I have about 15,000 miles on it. No off roading, but plenty of rough washboard and rock based primitive roads in addition to Las Vegas commute traffic.

My only complaint is that the driver's side sun visor doesn't always stay in place when in use. Subaru has replaced it once, but after a month or so, the same problem started. They will have the opportunity to swap it out again.

Keep drivin the 94 if it's possible. Get your $ worth out of those repairs.

A new Forester would not cost that much more and you'd have all the warranties. If all US dollars, this one is overpriced and way too high mileage.

I think the another problem I have with continuing to drive the '94 is that we also own a '96 Legacy Outback wagon with 150K miles on it (the '94 has about 180K miles on it). The '96 will need a new catalytic converter in July to make it through inspection (we scraped by last summer) and needs an oil check every fill-up to avoid an engine block replacement. Right now the '94 is undriveable. It's sitting in the shop waiting for a decision. The electrical system is so dead that they needed to use a battery charger so I could get my favorite CD out of the player. We put about 15K miles on the '96 in a year and a lot less (maybe 5K? not sure) on the '94.

Problem is that the 15K car has to have an automatic transmission, the other has to have a standard (I'm particular about that). The '96 has an automatic, the '94 has a stick, so we can't swap cars. (The 15K driver can't drive stick and isn't in a position to learn.)

So we need two cars with AWD, preferably Subarus (Central NY). We're not in a position to make car payments, but I think we might be able to come up with up to twenty thousand dollars cash. I won't know until the end of the week. Life gets complicated when you're buying a house and a car breaks.

Thinking out loud here.

Morgan

Thanks.

The car's from the original dealer, so the history is known. The original owner apparently drives from Central NY to NYC every weekend, which is where the mileage comes from.

We'd pay cash in any case--you're right, finance charges are not something we want. And car payments on top of the mortgage payments we hope to be taking on shortly (did I just write that?) are something we really don't want.

But a Subaru is something we very much *do* want. :-)

Morgan

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

I bought a 2005 Forester, 5 spd, new about a year ago with about 50 miles on it. I paid a little over $18,000 for that (there was a rebate program in effect at the time). So, I would say that price is quite high for a used vehicle with that many miles.

Which 2005 is it. If it is only an X then the price is too high. If it's an XS or XS premium and well maintained hwy miles then it's probably in the right range. Try for 15,000 - 16,000. Consider that a well maintained Subaru should do you 300,000km easy. Also consider that while the mileage is that of a three year old car, the body style and equipment is virtually current year, that should add value. Are there maintenance records?

OTOH, I just spent $2410.00 on our old 1990 Legacy for a clutch, timing belt, CV Joints and full tune and Synthetic in the tranny and engine. It's got 160,000km on it and runs almost as new. It has the old 2.2 DOHC engine which, arguably, was one of Subarus better engines.

My 2004 Forester XS (42,000km) is my third consecutive Subaru, starting in

1986. These cars are keepers, generally speaking.

I purchased a 2005 Forester XS 5 speed, new for $22,500 USD at Thanksgiving

2004. I just turned up 18,000 miles with no problems at all except one blown tire from highway debris. I have been very happy with it so far. I did notice when renting a 2006 OBW that it was quieter than the Forester as someone else here also noted before.

Blair

Thanks to everyone for advice. I'll be picking up my new 2006 Forester

2.5x this evening. 5 spd, steel gray. I can't tell you how exciting this is. I haven't owned a new car since my 1990 Acura Integra RS. (That was a nice car, 5 spd, stealth red.) I won't have to drive my husband to work anymore. He can decide when to come home instead of waiting for me to remember to pick him up.

Morgan

Morgan wrote:

Ah the memories. Nothing I hated worse then waiting for my wife to remember to pick me up at work :)