karnofsky

We started out at Stanley in Ellsworth and ended up at Quirk in Bangor. We're in Bar Harbor so it would have been easier for us to get it from Stanley but we had prior issues with their service department. Stanley claims that Quirk is trying to run them out of business by selling at a loss to people in Stanley's territory. If so, that's a conflict I'm happy to get in the middle of, though we'll see how quirk works out over the years, it seems every service department has their detractors, but since we bought the car we've heard several horror stories about Stanley's service, and good things about Quirk.

Pat, as far as I know ours gave not warning until my wife noticed the temperature guage heading up. I'm not a mechinic, though, so hopefully some mechanics on board my have some hints, I think someone may have mentioned bubbles in the coolant, but I'm not sure if that will show up before it overheats.

Here's the link I mentioned. http://mysite.verizon.net/vze730qe/

Hey, if this link works, (I'm new here still figuring things out), you might want to look it over and go to his guest book of folks that have suffered head gasket failures with late 90's 2.5L Subarus. We just junked my wife's 97 OBW prematurely, I wish I'd discoverd this earlier. Whatever you do, don't buy the car until the check engine light is off and stays off. I've spent my life buying $4,000 Subarus and in general they've been great but that engine is trouble. Good luck. http://mysite.verizon.net/vze730qe/

Hi, I'm new on this board too, but I've owned Subarus for 25 years, and my wife just junked a 97 Outback at 138,000 that she bought 3 years ago with 70,000 miles (for $13,500). The head gasket went in November ($1,400), then the valves started sticking shortly thereafter which would have cost $2-3,000 to have fixed properly. Read the head gasket threads on this site, and there is a link on one of them to a guestbook of victims. The problem is very real, and they should have been recalled. If you're buying from a dealer, it might be worth asking for assurances that they will take care of it if the hg goes. Subarus are in general wonderful cars but it seems that the 97,98,99 2.5l engines are very much a gamble, and the fix is not cheap. The price of the car does seem reasonable, but you should go into the deal with your eyes open, if you can find one with a 2.2l engine you will probably be better off. The rear windows on ours were fussy, at the end we had to manually assist the power mechanism, and the rear door latch on the SW is a chronic problem.

Thanks for the comment, what's funny is that if we had done things properly from the start we probably wouldn't have done as well. I think the fact that my wife had already signed inspired the Bangor dealer to steal the sale. The local dealer refunded our entire deposit even though we told them we were happy to cover their swap costs. The joy of having a new car at a great price far outweighs the guilt from backing out of the (crummy) deal. The last new Subaru I bought was a silver 5sp DL SW in 1979, for $5,900. I put 195,000 miles on it doing nothing but brake and exhaust work, and a couple of CVJs but the body went, they seem to have improved in that department as the engines have gotten less reliable. Oh well, I love em, probably have had 12 or so.

We just got one for $17,500. My wife's 97 Outback has been retired to the local used Subaru independent mechanic/junkyard. After she went and signed a contract for a 2004 Legacy (which the local dealer didn't even have on hand) I went ballistic because she hadn't done the most basic checking around and had agreed to pay 19,250 + tax, etc. for a car they had to swap from New Hampshire Anyway, I called a competing dealer this morning (an hour away), asked for their best price, 19,000, didn't even give them my phone number, not worth bothering with breaking the agreement (my wife's not that sort of person). Couple of hours later they call back, must of had my number from caller ID, 18,500, I say I'll check with my wife, she doesn't want to do it, I call the dealer she signed with, they say the guys on his way to get the car, they won't come down in price. I'm sitting there thinking, $750 is worth being a jerk for, but my wife won't do it, when the dealer I'm talking with calls again, $17,500. My wife is just off work, we truck up to Bangor, stop on the way to tell her dealer that we're breaking the contract, my wife is ashamed and embarrassed but even if they keep the $500 they're legally allowed to keep from our deposit we're ahead $1,200. We picked up the car, silver 5sp Anniversary wagon, incredibly nice car for $17,500, 3.6% financing, everybody's happy except for the dealership that didn't want to play the game. They kept telling us proudly that they gave us their best price, they weren't like most dealers that make you negotiate and play games. So what if their best price can't compete.

Thanks for the response, my wife went to pick up the car at the dealer and had a meeting with the owner to let him know why we wouldn't be back. He's offered to refund us the coil job, which he acknowledges was unnecessary. Does anyone have an opinion on the suggestion that the engine (currently about 135,000 miles) might start burning oil after the valve job because of the increased compression?

Hello, I'm a long time Suburu owner, my wife bought a 97 Outback from a dealer a couple or three years ago with about 70,000 miles. They replaced numerous gaskets at about 95,000 as part of a warrantee they had sold us. Six months ago with about 120,000 the head gasket blew. The dealer replaced both head gaskets and the clutch for about $1400. The check engine light never went off. The dealer told us to drive it for a while and it should go off. We brought it in and they decided it needed a coil and wires. The check engine light remained on. They told us it needed a valve job. All this time the car was running fine and we didn't really trust them after the obviously unneccesary coil replacement ($250). At this point (4 months later) the car is running poorly. The dealer tells us that the valve job will cost $1600 plus whatever machining will be necessary, which they won't even guesstimate. I'm fed up with the dealer, and spoke with the mechanic at a nearby independent used Suburu shop and garage, who told me that he would do a new short block and valve job for around $2200. He said that the engine is likely to burn more oil after the dealer valve job because of the increase in compression, so he wouldn't recommend that. The car is in otherwise good well maintained condition, with the exception of a fussy rear door latch. Any advice?, should we write off our losses and get out of what I'm discovering is problematic engine, go ahead with the dealer recommended valve job (and run the risk of burning oil out the old rings), or go with the new block and valve job from the independent mechanic (who many people, though not all, are happy with). It seems customary on the list to list the Suburus owned. I honestly can't remember them all, but my first was a brand new silver 79 DL 4wd SW, which I ran into the ground, put almost 200k on with only brake work and a new exhaust system. Since then it's been used ones that I buy for 2-5,000, drive for a few years, and then sell to college kids for a thousand or so. My wife's car is the first we spent so much on ($13,000) and by far has been the worst experience. Thanks for any thoughts on this situation.