My Forester 2003 2.5x MT is 9 months old. When it was about 2 months old I had problems with it. It idled roughly (rpms going up and down), and also occassionally but not always stalled on startup. The dealer "cleaned the idle valve" and told me that I wasn't driving it enough. It had 2,200kms at that time. Now it has almost 7,000kms and it's starting all over again. How many times will the dealer "fix" this problem under warranty? Can I expect this problem every 6 months?

Fix means fix, not put a band aid on. I'd be taking it back every stinking day until it ran exactly like it did brand new. Be a pain in the butt; that's why you bought a new car - so you wouldn't have problems.

I think I'll take it to a different dealer this time.