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Patrickjd9

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Posts posted by Patrickjd9

  1. Our 2004 Legacy will run out of warranty by the end of the summer, and I am looking for an alternative to my wife's preference for dealer service. The dealer has been good as dealers go (Fitzgerald-White Flint), but I'm not sure that any dealer is the right choice for long-term service.

     

    Suburban Maryland (Silver Spring) would be preferable, but I'd go elsewhere in the area for a good specialist mechanic. This is of extra interest as I am thinking of a used Impreza wagon as a commuter car.

  2. Maybe they've all peaked. The 5-cylinder awd VW and Audis were some of the finest awd vehicles made, and they lasted well into the 200k mileage with average care. A lot of guys "upgraded" to the newer Audis, only to discover newer Audis were more sophisiticated but less reliable. Awd technologies have improved tremendously, making it cheaper to produce a respectable system, but overall quality seems to have slipped everywhere.

    I'm with you. Overall reliability of cars and trucks (especially Japanese and European) appears to have peaked sometime in the 1990s. Too many luxury features, parts costs (especially electronics) and crowded mechanicals that make major repairs uneconomical, and too much power out of too little engine displacement are among the reasons.

  3. I'm with you on that. The last "good" year for Volvo was around '96. (the last year that you could get a "red brick" 4 cyl.) The bean counters at Ford have now turned Volvos into cheap, plastic, electronic dispose-a-cars.

    The FWD Volvo problems predate the Ford purchase. We had a 96 850 Wagon, and sold it for $2K at 128,000 miles because it needed at least $2500 worth of work-including a repeat torn weld in the driver's doorframe.

     

    Hard to get a good price when the driver's door makes a sound out of a horror movie when opening:banghead:.

  4. 25.6 mpg on a trip from New York City area to Maryland suburbs of DC. Alone in car, 65-70 mph, no traffic delays.

     

    22 mpg on a recent weekend drive to mountains of western MD. 2 adults, two children, camping gear, very large sack of gear tied to roof rails. I-68 is hard on any car; I took this to be a sign of progress as the engine breaks in.

     

    Just under 10,000 miles, automatic transmission.

  5. Our new Legacy has about 3100 miles, and I'm mildly disappointed with the mileage, 18-20 city, and 22-25 highway. I knew before buying that the fuel mileage was middling at best, but was hoping for about 20-21 city and 26 highway.

     

    I won't make final judgement for about 20,000 miles, experience with other cars says it might get there. We sold a 96 Volvo 850 to buy the Subaru, so regular gas alone makes for a big savings.

     

    No problems or warranty work so far.

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