A year ago, we needed another car so my son, home from college could go to his summer job. My mother in law had passed a year earlier and father in law kept both cars but now was offering one at low cost, so we bought his 04 Subaru outback with 45k miles. I already knew a few things about the car since he bought it new. The engine had been replaced for "piston slap" by the dealer. So off to the dealer I go to get the maintenance records which they refuse and say my FIL had to get them. FIL goes and gets them. They go back only about 4 years. Great. So no idea when the engine was replaced and what exactly was done. I start going through the records and most complaints are honestly pain in the ass customer complaints.....the brakes don't feel right....I think I hit a pothole.... So in the last one, I see that they've checked the brakes but I'm a big DIY guy so check them myself. These clowns said they're all fine and I find that the rears are near metal on metal. Easy fix. There's also a complaint of a CEL. Reported P0420 and reset and all ok. I'm like "what?". The worse case on this is that the cat needs to be replaced.....and there's 2 of them.....and they're about a grand each. For a car that I paid $3500 for, no.
Here's the good news part. Over the weekend, I repaired an exhaust leak (cut the 2 flanged pieces for muffler and mid pipe, insert $4 autozone coupling pipe, 2 clamps and some muffler goop just for fun. Fixed. While I'm on a roll, I get some spark plugs after seeing that other things could cause that P0420. I reset the code and trip meter and hope for the best but expect the light to pop on in less than a hundred miles. I hit 101 and no light. I keep driving the car. My son drives a couple hundred miles down to his girlfriends. Light is still off. Tonight, I put gas in it and see it's hit 400 miles. I think it's fixed.
So what this means is that instead of going till december (inspection time) and dumping the car for low money with a cel, it's all working. Well, only 1 of the 4 speakers works but the car works! I feel like I have a car again.