Hi,
I'm a young guy currently driving a 1997 Toyota RAV4. I'm ready to upgrade and am looking at getting into a Forester. I have about $6K, pretty hard ceiling there, maybe 1 or 2 hundred more, tops...
I'm looking for a manual, and I like the L level...
So, I have found a couple of 2002 Forester Ls that are 150 and 350 miles away from me and this is the first time I'll be buying my own car. I've had hand-me-downs before this.
I've heard that there can be a severe problem with the head gaskets in 2002s... other than that I have found two examples that are less than $6K with less than 90K miles on them. They are both at small used car dealerships, one is advertised as a one owner car.
My questions:
Is Carfax or a similar service useful/worth it? What would I find there?
Carfax tends to leave out important info, even what you pay for, not worth it
If it were you, how would you evaluate the cars, I can test drive them for sure, but I don't really know anything about the mechanics and what could be wrong with them.
That generation has mostly corrosion issues besides the HGs (main places are the fuel filler neck, rear wiper motor, and fuel lines underneath driver side rear door
Should I just pick a garage out of the phone book in each town and ask for a mechanic to give them a once over inspection?
Basically any competent shop, preferably one not affiliated with the seller.
How will I know if the head gasket is messed up with them?
Milky oil, bubbles in the coolant reservoir after driving, oil/coolant seeping from heads.
Lastly, are there any major maintenance services required around 90K that they could be just about to need and that is the reason for the realtively low prices compared to others of their era?
105k-timing belt, water pump and associated parts, not cheap but REQUIRED or you'll blow your engine when the timing belt fails. search around this site for more info Subaru Research Site- specs, prices, options, 2011, 2010, 2009.. Outback, Legacy, Forester, Impreza, Tribeca more specifically Subaru maintenance schedules and new car break-in period
I need a good solid car, don't know when I'll be able to get another one, and I'm also excited by the possibility to do some light mods/tuning on account of the shared components with the Impreza, never done anything to a car before performance wise and would like to try.
These are solid cars with proper care and very easy to mod, poke around with some searches and read the stickied threads for more info
Thanks in advance!