Chuck Charger!

That's what I figured. Chuck

So my spending limit for a car just went down, and I've started looking at the Impreza wagons as well as the Legacy's. From what I've been able to ascertain, it seems like there isn't much difference between the two besides body style and perhaps trim package. Are there any mechanical or system differences? The reason I ask is that I might be able to pick up a 2001 Impreza sport wagon (not OB) with 120,000 verifiable highway miles on it from a friend of the family for just above trade-in value, and thus far my research has been focused on the Legacy wagons. Thanks, you guys have been awesome answering my questions so far! Chuck

Hehehe....if I'm going to take quarts of oil and dump them out all over the Denver metro area, I'm not going to pay more than $1 a quart to do it! Chuck

I just don't want to have to F around with a bunch of maintenance issues that I didn't know about when I bought the car. If there are any other issues I'd really love to know so I can look out for them. Thanks guys! Chuck

I use it in my 92 Camry, but that thing leaks like 4 quarts in a normal week, so it's never in the engine long enough to tell the difference. With oil, I think you get what you pay for... Chuck

I've read about the head gasket issues on the 2.5L, but are there similar problems with the 2.2L? What are some of the chief concerns regarding the 2.2L engines? Especially in mid-90's models? C7

I have a friend in Arvada whose giant elm tree was completely destroyed by the hail. It looked like somebody tied ropes to all the branches and hitched them to an M1 Abrams. Completely insane. I got caught out in the open by a storm like that about 5 years ago at a Ted Nugent concert at Adams County Fairgrounds. I had to go to the hospital to have my head sewn shut from getting clocked by a marble sized hailball. The doc said if it had hit me directly it could have killed me. Now I wear a helmet to outdoor shows! Chuck

I live right off Colfax and Simms...luckily I live in a townhome and my parking is covered...my mom wasn't so lucky in that storm. She lives on like 8th and Simms, and it rained so hard that her basement flooded through her windows, which are all at least 8 inches above grade, and her house is on a hill! Her car got hammered bad. Did you see the 10 foot high piles of hail in the Colorado Mills parking lot? That was nuts. Chuck

About how much does this service cost if coupled with the timing belt replacement?? Chuck

Just a funny story from one Denverite to another... I live in the Denver area, and when I was in high school I had this POS 81 GL wagon. I went to high school in Golden, so we would ditch class and drive up Lookout Mountain to fire off my potato cannon or do various other things, and I would use that smokescreen to my advantage. There is usually an abundance of cyclists clogging up the road, which hairpins its way up a mountain face, and they clog up the road because there's no shoulder. I used to be able to make my Sub smoke like crazy if I got in front of a cyclist about 300 feet, slammed on the brakes hard until it almost stopped, then popped it into 3rd and bogged it out. It would smoke like it was on fire, all the way up or down the mountain! That would piss 'em off good! That car didn't last very long, though... Chuck

Yeah, I'm not going out LOOKING for hail damaged vehicles, but if I run across one that is only mildly damaged, I want some numbers to bargain with. I guess I forgot to mention that I'm going to buy a Legacy wagon, probably in the 100,000 mile range, and I have very little intention of selling it, ever. I want a car that I can maintain until it turns to dust, so I'm far, FAR more concerned with the mechanical quality of the car than with appearance. Besides, I'm so hot I could pick up ladies in a rusted out Chevy Vega with mismatched bady panels and no exhaust pipe. Chuck

I'm going out looking for Subaru's hopefully by next week, and since I live in the Denver area, there are sometimes some hail damaged cars up for sale on car lots or from private owners, due to a couple of good hail storms last summer. Some cars I've seen listed were hail damaged but priced right at book or above. So, how much should I hammer the seller down if the car is hail damaged? I personally could give a hoot if my car has hail damage, as long as it's not obscenely pocked-up, so if I can save some green on an otherwise good car, I'll do it. Is there a standard deduction for this type of thing? Chuck

I'm with jt95, I bought my last new car a year ago. I made a $17,000 mistake. In a year, that crappy, chintzy Saturn has depreciated by almost HALF of what I paid for it, and with its questionable build quality I'm gonna be lucky to reach the term of my loan before it dies (I drive ALOT; 25,000 miles this year on the Saturn). Lesson learned. I'll let some other poor shlub eat the depreciation. Oh, and I'll probably never buy another American car. As for Toyotas, I'm driving a 92 Camry with 158,000 on it (wifey drives the Saturn), and it leaks, no kidding, 4 quarts of oil a WEEK out of the front crank seal, because when my wife replaced the engine after she siezed up the thing (before we met, thank you very much) the disreputable shop put in a wrecker engine and told her it was rebuilt. Anyhow, it still runs pretty good as long as I keep oil in it. I'd buy another Toyota if I could afford a newer 4-runner. That car will hopefully be replaced by month's end with a Subaru... Chuck

I don't think the problem lies in where the car was built, but in the design and engineering of the components, and the overall quality control of the product. I'd still rather have a Toyota than a Ford, and Toyotas are built in Indiana as well. In fact, almost all Japanese cars are built here now; with Subaru finally opening a factory here (when did that happen, anyway?), I think that they all are built here to be sold in North America, and that's a good thing in my opinion. Pretty soon GM and Ford are going to try to build all their cars in Mexico to cut costs. The downfall will be audible. Chuck

I don't know anything about Subaru's, but I've been reading up on here, and it seems like he might be describing the piston whip or piston lash condition... But I don't know shhh. Chuck