$4,000 will buy you a bunch of different cars. Check out a used Acura/Honda or Toyota Carola.
If you are set on an Ebola Subie, my usual recipe is to buy a sub 150,000 mile Subie WITH the HG issue for about $1,000. I spend a weekend and $500-600 (as others have said) and 90% of the car's issues are fixed. I then have a great car that I usually sell after about 6-8 months of driving & make just over a grand.
I've bought some bad ones over the years. Stay away from that dual cam motor in the late '90s cars. Listen for piston slap which could also be a rod bearing going bad. Either way, run from those SOB's.
They have an adjustable lifter set-up (not hydraulic) so sometimes the ticking is exccessive lifter clearance. Very hard to tell the difference to the untrained ear. If it has a mis at idle or a flashing CEL light, you could have a bad valve or valve seat. Only way to tell is to get a compression guage on it or tear it apart.
My current '04 Forester is one that my wife wants to keep. XS model, big ol' sunroof and I recently swapped in a set of WRX seats sourced from CL super cheap. I get just over 26 mpg on the highway all the time. Never saw below 20 even in mixed city driving.
The big full size Legacy from '00-'04 are my least favorite because the mileage sucks and they are very low on power. People seem to love them because they sell the instant I list one.
I didn't mention in this thread but 4x4 or awd is a must-want for me.
I'm one of those people that must get to work no matter what the state of emergency is. Got a certificate in my glove box from the governor to prove it.
Well, something like my new manual 4WD RAV4 with snow tires should do you then.
In reply to Dr. Hess:
New or new to you? Stuck with that $4k limit
So much Subaru hate around here
Get an Impreza with the 2.2. Bullet proof and they should get almost 30 highway. Not experience, just what I was told. But if I can get 28 in my 06 wrx ( was on a road trip ) a 2.2 Impreza should be able to hit the 30 mark.
I've rallycrossed and occasionally auto crossed my 06 wrx for almost 4 years and about 40k miles ( 90-132k ) and its not even using a drop of oil between 3k changes.
Several years ago I did a couple head gasket jobs for friends/family. A friend of mine bought an '01 Forester with around 125k on it, and noticed an external leak shortly there after. He's put about a 100k miles on it since and it's still going strong (although he just has some transmission work done on it [auto]).
A month or so later my brother in law bought an '01 Legacy with 115k on it and a bad timing belt. I rebuilt the heads, changed HGs, and all the timing belt components. He's put about 80k on it and it just started running hot. They suspect a head gasket issue, but they live three hours from me so I haven't personally inspected it yet.
That's my personal experience, so take it for what it's worth.
ebonyandivory wrote:
I didn't mention in this thread but 4x4 or awd is a must-want for me.
In that case, I'd recommend a nice Audi. It's bound to be more reliable than a Subaru of that vintage.
1988RedT2 wrote:
ebonyandivory wrote:
I didn't mention in this thread but 4x4 or awd is a must-want for me.
In that case, I'd recommend a nice Audi. It's bound to be more reliable than a Subaru of that vintage.
Can't tell if serious!
Elaborate if so (I've been more hesitant to look at Audis than Subarus)
ebonyandivory wrote:
In reply to Dr. Hess:
New or new to you? Stuck with that $4k limit
New to me. I paid $3800 for it, which was a bit high, but the body and interior are clean. Spent $300 putting a new 5th gear in it (don't have to pull the trans to do it.)
