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

I'm thinking about buying a Sub that's a couple of years older than I what can really afford and dropping up to $1000 into it. The way I figure, if I buy a '98 I'll have to spend my whole wad and worry about maintenance issues, but if I buy a nice '96 I'll be able to get any major problems diagnosed and fixed right off the bat and end up with a better car in the end. Please tell me if you think my logic is flawed. If I find a car that needs a couple of things like a clutch, t-belt or crank seals, or they can't provide documentation of maintenance, I can get it out of the way and then not worry about it. Obviously I'm going to have the car checked out for problems BEFORE I buy it, and I won't buy a "fix-up" car either, but I want some confidence in my car. Chuck

I've driven a FWD car over mountain passes here in Colorado in blizzard conditions, once in about 6 inches of unplowed snow, and while it was no walk in the park, I never once lost control of the vehicle. Generally, traction loss with a front wheel drive results either in loss of speed or mild understeer, which is corrected by simply letting off the gas. Do yourself a HUGE favor and buy a manual trans car, you have MUCH more control in the snow. Keep the Bronco and get the 2wd, you will still really like it in the snow, I promise. You'll have to try like hell to get it to fishtail. I snowboard about 50 days a season and I live in Denver, so I'm up and down the mountain, alot of times in very heavy snow and ice. I've never been stuck or slid off the road in a FWD car, even with worn tires. That said, I'm still going to buy a Subaru for the AWD! Chuck

The piece of crap Saturn dealership (Saturn of Denver) where I bought my garbage-can '04 Saturn tried to tell my wife that we should have the spark plugs changed every 7000 miles, and have the radiator flushed at the same interval. She told him he was full of shhh. Dealerships will tell you anything to get you in there spending money. I like it when they issue you horror stories, like the time the Chevy dealer told my mom that if she didn't have the EGR valve replaced every 10,000 miles it could sieze up her engine. Incidentally, I've driven an automatic 100,000 miles without a tranny fluid change. I should have had the flush done, but the fluid was still sorta clean when I sold it, and I never had a problem with it. I'm driving a Camry right now, and I've put about 60,000 miles on it without a tranny flush, and it shifts fine too. That's not to say that you should forego the flush, just that if you have normal driving habits and live somewhere flat it's not the most pressing issue in the world, in my opinion, especially if you dont have super high miles on the car. Chuck

I have a 2004 Saturn Ion and it's the third Saturn in a row that I've owned. My last two were a 92 and a 99 SL, respectively, and they were pretty good cars. This new one is going to turn into a big piece of crap. It has 21,000 on it and the trans shifts funny and flares, the doors rattle, the front suspension clunks (after the bushing recall was performed, and Saturn denies there's a clunk, or just refuses to fix it). Every piece of trim inside the car is coming loose, the doorseals leak, and the shift lock and ignition switch solenoids click loudly and sometimes stick. Saturn has failed to even TRY to fix any of these problems, opting instead to bullshhh me by saying that it's either "normal and acceptable", or that it should simply "go away eventually". I have to drive 30 miles to Boulder for service (pretty much monthly with this car) because I came unglued on the service writer at Saturn of Denver and threatened to beat his rump roast. I've heard similar complaints about the Cavaliers, which are basically the same car. That's why I was dismayed to learn that Subaru is "owned" by GM, although a 20% stake isn't going to change much with the Subaru's, which in my opinion are a far better car. If Subaru technology can be effectively integrated with the GM products, it will be the savior of the American automobile, because Ford isn't gonna do it. Chuck

**The Subaru Tribeca will be followed by Saab's version built on the same platform, and also to built in Lafayette.*** Wait a second. Isnt' Saab a GM product now? Please PLEASE don't tell me Subaru is in cahoots with piece-of crap GM. Pretty soon Subaru's will be just like Saturns- garbage. Dammit. Chuck

What's his shop called? Chuck

Is the timing belt an easy replacement for a casual mechanic? I know how to work on stuff, I just don't have all the tools to do many of the jobs... The "tune-up" items are a given, what I was talking about was the majors, like the tranny fluid and diff fluid changes, and the cam/crank seals-stuff I may not be able to do myself in my garage and that has substantial repair costs and/or consequences if left unrepaired. How well do the CV axles hold up on Subs? C7

If I were to buy a used Subaru with, say, 120,000 miles on it, and I had a little cash to put into it, what services would you guys recommend doing to the car, even in there was no apparent problem with the component? I've heard alot of head gasket and timing belt issues, as well as oil seals and the like. So if you picked up a used Sub that ran great but had an incomplete maintenence record, what things would you automatically want to do to it rightoff the bat? I'm talking the big stuff, and I'm getting a manual trans and probably the 2.2L engine, as well. If you can list approximate prices for these services that would be fantastic as well. Thanks! Chuck

I actually found a Subaru specialist that will inspect any Subaru I bring him for free, before I buy. I had some work done by this guy about 10 years ago on my first car, and 81 GL wagon, and he treated me right. The only problem is, it's way the hell out in Golden, which isn't far from me, but it's pretty far from most of the cars I've been researching. Thanks again, all help is appreciated greatly. C7

I'm getting that unlimited 30 day Carfax deal so I can check out all the cars I look at. I'm just looking for mechanical deficiencies that are common to these years and models. I drove an Impreza Outback Sport not too long ago and I really liked it, but I like the Legacy wagons better for their bigger cargo space and overall size. Where do I look on the engine to determine if the crank and cam seals are leaking? Thanks Chuck