TM875

After reading this thread, I took my 01 OBW to a registered dealer / service center to have it looked at (the cel went out in the interim time while waiting for the appointment). I told them that it was diagnosed with P0420 and that I thought it was most likely just the O2 sensor. Turns out, they said the cat was readign inefficiently and needed to be replaced, under warranty. My question is, what would possibly cause a Subaru cat to go bad at only 67,XXX miles (ironically only 2 weeks after I bought the car, used). Is this just a fluke problem, something typical of the 3.0L engine (which was new that MY), or did I just get a lemony wagon?

I have an OBW of the same year with the same stupid security feature. One simple fix, if you don't want to actually go to the dealer: Just lock the doors by actually pushing in the door locks. Don't use the auto locks - but if you manually lock each door, the alarm won't arm. It's kind of a waste, and is a hassle, but it'll let you lock your car and not have the neighbors stare at you until you can get a real fix.

I am, too, a new user and a new Subaru owner, as well. My 2001 OBW had its CEL come on yesterday and read the cc trouble code, so I'm in the process of waiting for the dealer to fix it. However, there is apparently a Federal Emissions warranty for any car under 8 years / 80,000 miles that covers these types of repairs. Now, that being said (and knowing that Subaru, therefore, is liable to replace my cc and whatever else is wrong), do you all think that it would be prudent to suggest that they just try replacing the O2 sensors, or just let them do the cat replacement?