Hello good Subie folk. New 2010 Forrester owner here

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Recently purchased a 2010 Forrester in sage green. It's a low option car, with manual seats, a basic radio, no sunroof, and limited gizmos. Just the way I wanted it. Bought from a fly-by-night used car dealer for $7000 out the door. Has 137k miles, and good condition. Been in Texas all it's life so no rust, or salt corrosion. It took me at least 6 months to get my wife to consider the Subie as our trip car. She wanted everything from a MB ML320 or R350 to a Land Rover, to several Porsche SUV types. I refused to even consider them unless we bought a service insurance plan for 3 years, so that when the systems start to go haywire on those luxury boats, I can send it to a shop, and let them fight over it.

 

After convincing her to get off the Euro bandwagon, we looked at the RAV4, Honda CR-V and the various Subie types. We go to NM and CO a lot and I've seen bizillions of Subies in CO mountains. I drove a few, and found the Forrester to be the best combination of comfort and utility. So, we started looking in earnest for the Forrester, and all of them were in snow country and overpriced(so we thought). Finally, a couple showed up for sale locally and we decided on this one as it wasn't silver, black, gray, or white. Boring to me, but there's a mate for every sock I guess. Funny that most cars these days are some form of silver or gray.

 

Just got back from a 2000 mile trip to CO from TX and lots of driving around. I had to repair a few things along the way but now the car is sorted well, and should provide many years of trouble free service. My one minor complaint so far is the solenoid operated hatch system. My bet is that in a few years, the solenoid trigger button on the hatch is going to go bad, as they all do and I'll have to dig in there and replace it. But so far, all is well.

 

I put four new all season Douglas tires on, and replaced two of the failing TPMS sensors. Replaced the high beam relay, and repaired some bumper trim alignment. The bumper has been replaced, and pretty sure the right fender was replaced so likely hit in the right front, but not hard enough to set off the airbags.

 

Future projects: Installing a hitch receiver for towing small trailers. Replace the front shocks/struts. Sand and polish the headlight lenses. Find a way to bypass the DRL system. 

[Crash138]

I just yesterday used 2000 grit sand paper on my 01 dodge headlights to get the yellow off, then sprayed a clear coat on them... Turned out great. Now when I drive it I don't have to turn my brights on...