25%? Wow! Either you got a real bargain when you bought the Forester, or your AC was messed up really bad. I paid about $1100 for timing belt, water pump, etc. in one job. The most expensive piece IIRC was the timing belt tensioner.
In a perhaps related observation, the occasional whiff of coolant odor is not an uncommon phenom. Most of us simply write it off unless it's extremely strong and persistent.