My Desperation Buy. (Car)

Wow that almost sounds like a movie!

Reb continues his bad luck streak.

the fusion is a great car, be thankful you didn't break down when it's below 0 with your family in your car, etc. Best of luck going forward.

Someone mentioned the roadside assistance thing from the phone, I never even thought about it.
As for the insurance? Yeah, its not there if you're not carrying full coverage because your car is a 12 year old banger.

On the UP side...we had to go to a wedding yesterday, and there was valet parking..so I didn't have to suffer the embarrassment of pulling up with a heavily dented, partially rusted, too-loud car that reeks of cheerios and child-leakage.

I know of 3 guarantees in life. Death, taxes, and Reb having car problems.

Reb Cpl wrote: impulse418 wrote: I know of 3 guarantees in life. Death, taxes, and Reb having car problems. My brother in law is giving us his old car now that he just went out and bought a new Merc- its a mitsubishi with 200K miles on it. That'll be mine, and my wife gets the new car so I don't have a chance to break it on her.

Didn't you take the door off on her Blazer once?

The $55 a year for RV towing package has bailed me out more times than I careto list. 100 miles up to 4 times a year.
MOst recently got me home when the brake lines on my Chevy 2500 burst 60 miles from home in rush hour traffic. It's bad enough when you have car problems w/o having to worry about how you're going to get it home to work on it. The other good thing is I've heard of some towing companies that ONLY deal with AAA late at night and service is usually much faster than if you were to call around for yourself.
I'm sure there are other perks I've never used, but I'm not one to run out of gas or need them to deliver me a new tire.

Nice find on the car though; much rather see you in a Ford than that hipster-wagon anyways.

I'm a diehard Ford person but I'll take every opportunity to say how impressed I am with Subaru. I saw a kid drain the trans and put five quarts of oil in the engine thinking he drained the crankcase. After driving around half a day the car lived pnce the proper fluids were put in.

tallen702 wrote: Reb, You should see the leg room in the new Legacy platform (2012 and newer) same with the new foresters.

My wife is in love with the new Forester, but it wasn't in the price range when I was up against the wall.
I think we'll ultimately go back to a Subaru one day, but for now I am content with the Fusion, even if it was a purchase born out of necessity rather than choice.

I bought my first Subaru in 1982.  There has been at least one Subaru in the garage ever since then. 

Your car was low mileage.  175-K on a Subaru is about broken in, not worn out. 

The key to Subaru timing belts and water pumps is this:  Change the timing belt on time (or early) according to the service manual.  Putting this off will be a disaster.  Also, change the water pump at the same time.  The only added cost is the price of the water pump.

If the water pump starts leaking before the timing belt is due, change the timing belt along with the water pump.  After all, the belt has to be removed to change the water pump, so the only difference in the price is the cost of the belt.  If you are paying for labor, it is the labor that dominates the bill.  If you do it yourself, you will appreciate not having to do the job again in the near future to replace the belt.  Besides, leaked coolant on the belt does not do it any good.  It is best to start out fresh.

When you get in the neighborhood of 350-K miles, you will probably want a new car just because you want a new car.  Even at that mileage, you should not need to add oil between oil changes. 

I have never been stranded on the road with any of my Subarus.  When I am done with them I either give them away or drive them to the junk yard.  Most are given away and the new owner gets many miles of smiles from them. 

The old Subarus had severe rust problems.  The newer ones (mid-90's and up) are much better.

I have had old Subarus get ratty due to rust, but I have never had one wear out mechanically.  I never replaced a clutch on the manual transmissions and I never had to rebuild or replace a Subaru automatic transmission.  I have no experience with the Subaru Constantly Variable Transmission (CVT). 

If you buy a used Subaru, you MUST determine if or when the timing belt AND water pump was changed.  If you cannot find this out, you must assume that they were not changed and figure that cost into the purchase price. 

Quite often, Subaru owners decide to trade in their cars when the timing belt is due for replacement because this is an expensive job due to labor costs.  The parts (water pump and belt) are not cheap, but the labor is the big ticket item if you pay a garage to do the work. 

My wife refuses to drive anything that is not a Subaru as her daily driver.

Stay safe,
Karl