[New2Subies]

I am looking at buying a forester but it is fairly far away from me, would you feel comfortable trusting a SGS inspection and purchasing w/o personally test driving. And how can you tell how early in the year a vehicle was produced, I've heard that the 03's were better later in the year but I don't know how to tell when a specific car was made. Also random forester questions, does the back seat lay down as flat as a outback and can you safely drive with a 17 ft canoe on the top with a roof rack? Thanks for the advice.