I've got a 2005 Subaru, 150k miles, as our 2nd car. It's primarily used for towing a small trailer camping, we put ~8-10k miles on it year. Last year the check engine light came on with the catalytic converter code a week after the emissions test. This was not long after we waited too long to change spark plugs/spark plug wires. We ignored the code all year because we were planning to replace the car. However, like just about everything else used car prices have skyrocketed the past year.
Now I am a bit at a loss of what to do. From what I gather, replacing the catalytic converter may or may not actually solve the problem. I'm afraid doing so may open a big can of works chasing check engine codes. When I pulled the codes yesterday, there is now also a rear 02 sensor code. I have not called around for quotes yet, but I'm thinking the diagnostics and cat could be 1-2k, plus whatever else they find. The car is pretty trashed, and I barely expect it's worth 1-2k at this point. And maybe only 3,500 if it were in full working order. So I'm a little wary about dropping so much cash into an older, known to be finicky, vehicle.
I was looking primarily at Pilots and Highlanders as a replacement. But the going listed rate is $15-19k with like 120-150k miles on them, which sounds insane to me. Especially when 1-2 year old cars are listed at like 30k, I feel like it is almost better to buy a new car (if it wasn't for taxes, insurance, and general desire for a beater) because the front-end depreciation doesn't. I was hoping to stay 10-12k for a replacement vehicle with high-ish miles. Is this even possible or are my expectations too high?
Does diagnosing the emissions problems seem worth the effort? Anything I could easily check, or would be low cost to do, to attempt to pass emissions?