Hello everyone,
I'd like to thank you in advance for reading my little novel here, and for any opinions, advice, and input you care to share with me.
I'll give a bit of background about me first. I'm a car guy, though I don't know much about Subarus as I've never owned one (always liked them though). I'm not much of a mechanic, so most anything beyond an oil change gets sent to a professional. I live in Winnipeg, Mb, a wintery climate most of the year, and I'm kind of looking to replace my DD a 2012 Suzuki Grand Vitara.
So, what has lead me to you folks is this:
About a week ago I was driving home with the GF, and passed by the local suburu dealers. In the front of their lot sat a previous generation Suburu Forester XT. I had to stop and check it out. Here's a link to it.
http://m.autotrader.ca/a/5_23624484?prx=-1&orup=35_10_35
I've got a few questions for the experts here:
First off, what does everyone think about the asking price? $16k seems high for an 08 to me. Especially with over 111k KMs.
Secondly, how much life is left in this car. I'm looking for a dead reliable, very low maintainance DD. My Suzuki is just this. I know I'd be getting into an older vehicle, so some repairs are to be expected, but I don't want to have to spend too much on it, especially with its 16k asking price.
What kind of mileage have you guys got on your Foresters, and how much have you had to invest in repairs?
A related third, what things should I be watching out for on these cars? What are common problem areas? How many KMs do the turbos generally last? Etc.
This car looks pretty clean, but the trailer hitch is rusty. Where should I be looking for rust on these? Any advice on how to spot a repaint?
Fourth, please tell me about the traction control system. Can it be fully deactivated? This is very important to me. My Suzuki"s traction control can not be fully deactivated. Sure it can reduced, but it's never fully off. This drives me nuts, and since its summer here I won't be able to truly test if the Foresters can be fully turned off in a test drive. To elaborate, if I chose to be a total idiot and start doing donuts in the middle of a crowded road in a blizzard, and I press the "traction control off" button, will I be able to do these donuts, or will the cars computer still be able to reign in my fun?
Now obviously I exaggerate here, and I'd never actually do this, but I can't stress enough how much I dislike traction control systems that can't be fully deactivated. I think if I want to do some fish tailing on an empty snowy road I should be able to, I don't need the car telling me I shouldn't. So I really want to know if I can fully disable the traction control in this generation Forester. Ok, no more ranting, I promise.
Lastly, and I know, I'm reaching here, would it be possible to swap out this cars auto for a 5/6 speed manual transmission? Has it ever been done? How much work would be involved? Can you ballpark a dollar amount for having a professional shop do the work? Or I'm I just crazy for thinking about it?
This car would be mine already, by the way, if it was not an automatic.
That's all the questions I have for you now, good people of ultimatesubaru.org. Thanks again for reading and for you input.
Cheers,
Jeremy.
