Yes, I really love the black. The paint has lots of swirls and washing marks, but is otherwise in good shape. I will buff it out and wax it come spring to keep it that way. Should look awesome with a nice shine to it.

 

I really like the stock rims. For once a set that complements the car. I'm definitely going to tint the windows as I see you've done, what black car would be complete without tint? They local police frown on front side window tint (have heard of road side peeling sessions!) but I live in the sticks, so I doubt it will be an issue.

 

I didn't pay the $10K, I got it for $8800 and they did the timing belt as part of the deal. This car really is cherry, and unfortunately it was at a dealer so a bit of a premium for their profit is a given. Worth it for getting the color I wanted (black) and a stick car (seems to be fairly rare).

 

The belt was due in another 15K anyway. I also had them put a class 1 trailer hitch on it as well at my cost. A word of warning though, I scraped it twice backing out of steep driveways today, it's very close to the ground. Somehow though, it looks kinda cool on the back, makes it "beefier" looking somehow. It's the Hidden Hitch system.

 

So literally everything major has been done on this car already, headgaskets included. Hopefully I can just drive it for a while and keep my wrenches in the toolbox. I finished downloading the entire FSM PDFs so I am set if something goes on me.

 

Unfortunately the snow has all melted here at the moment, will be another couple of weeks before I can run the AWD through it's paces.

 

Ironically I am originally from Ottawa. I did extensive searches in the Autotrader, literally hours, and among the prices any of the dealerships had, there was a very wide range - from seemingly better deals (at least $/km wise) to insane prices ($12K for a 200K km car). You also have to remember that car prices vary widely from region to region, so doing national searches only has so much value. Locally, used Subarus sell in a couple of days typically so there is a fair demand.

I finished downloading the entire FSM PDFs so I am set if something goes on me.

 

Would you mind sharing this link? I'm sorry, but a Haynes repair manual just doesn't have enough information in it when you are used to FSMs. Thanks!

Not at all: http://techinfo.subaru.com

 

I will warn you, there are two ways to get the FSM:

 

1) Pay $35 US and download 500-600 small PDF files at the max rate of 20 per hour (took me 2.5 days of downloading, I work on a computer fortunately). They also have TSBs online as well.

 

2) Order the printed set for $200US

 

Both can be done online with a credit card at the site above. Subie Girl gave me that link.

I'm told you can also get them on EBay. There are a couple of good sellers.

 

http://www.books4cars.com and there is an EBay seller called "thebestmanuals4u" who claimed to have a CD with the Subaru info on it for $35. I had already paid Subaru for the online account by that point so I have no info on whether the CD is the same info as the FSMs or is one of those "generic" manuals. He claims the info comes from Subaru.

 

None of the above had the books for 97 Legacy at the time I looked.

I'm told you can also get them on EBay. There are a couple of good sellers.

 

http://www.books4cars.com and there is an EBay seller called "thebestmanuals4u" who claimed to have a CD with the Subaru info on it for $35. I had already paid Subaru for the online account by that point so I have no info on whether the CD is the same info as the FSMs or is one of those "generic" manuals. He claims the info comes from Subaru.

 

None of the above had the books for 97 Legacy at the time I looked.

 

Thanks, I will check both out. Here's my car, though the quality isn't great with this cell phone camera.

 

That's better quality than my phone has, LOL.

 

These cars look so sharp in black.

 

I need to pull the fog lights off and polish the lenses, they're sandblasted all to hell. Will sand and polish them back up to new.

That's better quality than my phone has, LOL.

 

These cars look so sharp in black.

 

I need to pull the fog lights off and polish the lenses, they're sandblasted all to hell. Will sand and polish them back up to new.

 

I did that as well to my headlights. I wet-sanded with 600, 1200, then 2000 grit sandpaper. Then polished with Meguires PlastiX. 200% improvement. I need to find some new foglights, as mine were broken in about 4 pieces.