Test drove a Forester today, 2003 with 215,000 miles. It's in pretty good shape and climbs my hill as if it were paved- I could stop in the driveway! And go again!
AWD is great, but 215k is a LOT of miles for a Subaru of that era.
It needs brake pads on all four wheels and is throwing a code on the catalytic converter, a misfire on a cylinder (not observable in test drive), and a mass air flow problem. There's a small crack in the windshield, but too long for repair, so I might want to replace. There's a lot of air noise around that windshield, too. Haven't run the VIN yet, but I will before I make any decisions.
The brake pads aren't that bad to do yourself, though I'd figure on rotors as well (they may be factory rotors at that mileage, depending on how it was driven). The catalytic converter code is probably a P0420 code, which generally means you need a new catalytic converter - especially at that mileage. Subarus like OEM catalytic converters, so you're looking at $1k+ for that problem (or you can throw a rear O2 sensor fooler on, which is cheap, illegal, and makes the light go away).
The misfire is probably either plugs or oil leaks in the valve covers - the seals around the plugs leak, so the spark plugs/spark plug boots are sitting in oil, and that can cause an intermittent misfire. It's not that hard to pull the valve covers, but it is a bit of a pain to do.
A new windshield will probably run you around $250 installed, and that's not something you want to do yourself.
The wind noise is almost certainly from the frameless windows. As the rubber gets old, it stops sealing so well, and you get a lot of wind racket. Sometimes opening the window a half inch and closing it again once the door is closed helps, but it's not likely to help that much.
The fuel mileage would not equal my Kia - I'd be looking at ~24-25 mph at a guess. I would drive it the 35 miles to work, probably not all the time, but when we've had heavy rain - that would let me be sure I could get back to the house again. My husband might drive it to work most of the rest of the time, since he only goes 5 miles and it would be more efficient than his 14mpg Jeep.
Nope. You're not going to see 24-25mpg on that Subaru. You'll see 18 or so for city, maybe 22-23 highway, depending on how you drive. And if your husband is only going 5 miles, why is he driving at all? :p
Asking price of the Forester at the little car lot down on the highway is $3,500, which is too much for that car with those miles. But should I offer $2,000? Should I go up to $2,500 in negotiation? Not willing to go much higher.
That car needs somewhere around $500-$700 in parts (if you ignore the catalytic converter and do all the work yourself), or around $2k-$2500 in work if a shop does it.
I wouldn't pay more than about $1500 for it, and I do my own work.
