I know to expect crackpipe prices nowadays and I'm looking at older cars, but here were my experiences today....
09 Forester 118K at a small lot dealer. Asking $7.9k. Nice straight body, nice interior, drivetrain pulls, shifts and sounds good, but has a pretty gnarly oil leak soaking the front crossmember. Hard to say if rear main seal, or headgaskets. Strong shimmy when braking after driving it for a while, and one front swaybar end link totally broken.
Subaru/Mazda dealer:
'10 Forester limited, 98K, just shy of $11K. Has a even worse oil leak than car #1, a dirty, damaged interior, a big gash on one side. Didn't test drive.
'10 Forester premium, 165K. $7.5K Signs of some old leakage near the rear of the engine, but seemingly no active leaks. Entire hood, front fenders, sides of car are stone chip city, grey primer showing, looks like it was a "follow me" car for a gravel truck. Interior not too amazing. Didn't test drive.
So frustrating. I was really surprised at the condition of the cars at the dealership... I don't mind paying over the odds for an exceptionally nice car, but these were BHPH lot grade cars.
Rant aside, where should I be looking for better cars? I really want an '09-10 Forester,as that gets me the Ej25 engine, the non CVT transmission and the curtain air bags not found in the '05-08s.
With the car shortage the franchise dealers are keeping stuff they usually wouldn't. That's why you're finding rough ones there.
11GTCS
HalfDork
5/15/21 7:45 p.m.
I don’t have any Subaru specific advice other than used car prices are insane right now. We picked up a ‘17 Explorer last fall for what I thought then was a lot of money. Recent research leads me to believe I could sell it today for $2-3K more than we paid for it. My advice, try to wait it out if you can, I don’t think this will be a long term thing.
My buddy just sold his mom's 2011 Forester to Carvana. He got $12.6k for it.
Already picked up and payed for.
You should take car #1 to a mechanic and get some estimates. That is a cheap price in NorCal for 118k, not sure about your neck of the woods.
I agree with the above, car #1 sounds like a good price in my area (also NorCal). Even with if it needs all those repairs.
Buying a used car is not a one day affair right now, in my experience.
Took me months of shopping to get my latest. It was rarer than what you’re looking for, but still, I believe you have to take your time and be prepared to move quickly.
Cars tended to be a fair bit cheaper here near Chicago compared to NorCal, at least pre-pandemic. Car #1 is definitely the winner of the bunch, and with maybe $2k of pro work for head gaskets, + me DIYing the sway bar links and front brakes it seems like it would be a decent car. Unfortunately, I haven't found a mechanic in the area that seems reasonably competent and don't have the bandwidth to do an engine out job nowadays. (Yes, I know you can do HGs in car, but it's hard to do a really nice job with the engine in situ.)
EDIT: Also, thanks to everyone for their advice and input- just hearing what other folks have to say is genuinely helpful.
I don't know if it "has to be a Subaru" but on a very quick search, here are some alternatives.?.
Matrix with some similar wagon functionality. '05 with 99k at $2.9k
BMW X3, I'm not a fan but I'm also not hooked on Subaru Foresters either. '05 with 139k at $5.7k
kia Soul '12 with 71k at $4.4k
Subaru Outback '12 with 166k at $6.9k
The Soul or that Outback would be my votes of the bunch!
flat4_5spd said:
Rant aside, where should I be looking for better cars? I really want an '09-10 Forester,as that gets me the Ej25 engine, the non CVT transmission and the curtain air bags not found in the '05-08s.
You have your heart set on an EJ25 engined model but oil leaks are a mood killer? 
I've only seen badly leaking head gaskets a couple of times, the leakage seems to usually be the oil pan. Both are massively easier with the engine out, so I used to do it as a package deal along with timing belt service.
Slippery said:
My buddy just sold his mom's 2011 Forester to Carvana. He got $12.6k for it.
Already picked up and payed for.
Just a quick note that might help you here. My buddy's 2011 did not have a CVT auto, it was a conventional 4 speed.
I saw him today and asked him. One more year for you to look.
In reply to Slippery :
The 2011s switched to the FB engine though, which has a rep for oil consumption, valve springs, etc. By the time they got the FB engine up to par, they had switched to CVT transmissions. (This vehicle is for my wife, so the idea of a newer FB engine + a stick is out.)
In reply to flat4_5spd :
Yeah, but it's super easy to pop the pistons out of an FB to unstick the rings, since you don't have to go fishing through a wrist pin access plug anymore
I mean, okay it is about fifty times more of a pain to R&R the heads to get to the pistons, but hey, I like to appreciate the little things...
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I currently have two EJ25 powered subies (an '08 legacy 5-speed and an '07 forester) and both are reasonably oil tight. As someone who has owned MGs, Triumphs, etc. I'm really not fussy about that sort of thing... these were pretty bad. With the oil pan leaks- were you seeing rust-through of the pan or the sealant around the flange failing?
flat4_5spd said:
In reply to Slippery :
The 2011s switched to the FB engine though, which has a rep for oil consumption, valve springs, etc. By the time they got the FB engine up to par, they had switched to CVT transmissions. (This vehicle is for my wife, so the idea of a newer FB engine + a stick is out.)
Gee, get a Honda CR-V man or a Rav4.
All Subarus are scary to me.
flat4_5spd said:
In reply to Slippery :
The 2011s switched to the FB engine though, which has a rep for oil consumption, valve springs, etc. By the time they got the FB engine up to par, they had switched to CVT transmissions. (This vehicle is for my wife, so the idea of a newer FB engine + a stick is out.)
And there was a recall on those engines and they were replaced by the factory. Get the vin, do some research. I've owned several FB engines. All have been fine, even the oil consumption ones.
Where I live, I am 25 miles between 2 different Subaru specialist repair shops. Both have Foresters for sale and the good thing about buying at these places is that they usually have done more than a casual wipedown of the exterior of the car.
You might try looking for something like this in your area.
Went to look at another one today. A one owner '09, 110K miles, wife looked it over the prior day and thought it was nice. Had an appointment at the dealership, showed up on time. Salesman met me, we took an elevator up to the parking area. Dude, where's my car? We eventually figured out that it was being safety inspected, has to be completed before I can drive it, should only be 20-30min wait. OK. Ended up waiting 1.5 hrs, salesman says "oh, they had to resurface the rear rotors." Well, seeing as I live 15 min away, it would have been nice to have been informed that things had shifted from "inspection" to "performing repairs" so I could come back later. ANYWAY, it's a sunken time cost at this point. Salesman finally brings the car around. I pull the car out, hit a small bump in the road, nasty rattle from the left front, sounds like a ball joint, could be a bad bushing, whatever. Car feels generally tired in the suspension department. Drove much worse than the other car with the completely broken sway bar end link! Turned around and brought it back. If I was less grumpy at this point I would have focused on the drivetrain, I can definitely handle suspension refurb work myself, but I'm thinking to myself "I am paying a ridiculous premium price for a flippin' 12 year old car, I expect it to not have any problems that are readily apparent in the first 100ft it is driven."
MEANWHILE, my wife has been in contact with the dealership that was selling car #1 (with the oil leak) in the first post. They have been promising to take it to a mechanic for an estimate since Monday. (We requested that they don't actually do any repairs, just want them to know that we're not BSing them about the problems and discount the price accordingly.) They've been stringing us along with "tomorrow" for a while now, but I haven't quite given up yet.
I really like "Carsandbikes" suggestion of buying a "gone over" car from a Subaru specialist shop , have been trying to track one down. (I know of two shops that I don't like...one from firsthand knowledge and one by reputation.)
Any reason you (or your wife) is dead set on a forester? If i went 0/4 on cars all having the same issues at 100k miles, i'd be looking at crvs and 4runners, as was mentioned above.
I can't fault that advice, but yes, we're pretty dead set on a Forester, we're Subaru loyalists. It's what I'm most familiar with working on, the faults are pretty predictable and I don't mind dealing with them if the cars are priced accordingly. (I.e. change the head gaskets and timing belt once around 100K, the car will most likely make it to 200k.) The longitudinal engine makes a lot of repair work easier, I find the ergonomics fit me better than other cars, I like the AWD system, I like how they drive, I like that it's a just a little bit different mechanically.
Heard back from dealer #1 at last. Mechanic confirms bad head gaskets. I asked for their best as-is price, the Salesman is running it by the manager and will let us know. So we'll see.
This is the reason I switched to bikes again. (prices) That and rod bearings... Who puts an oil light in a car that turns on a 5 psi? by the time the damn oil light came on I was already limping back to the gas station to call my wife for a ride home to get the truck.
flat4_5spd said:
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I currently have two EJ25 powered subies (an '08 legacy 5-speed and an '07 forester) and both are reasonably oil tight. As someone who has owned MGs, Triumphs, etc. I'm really not fussy about that sort of thing... these were pretty bad. With the oil pan leaks- were you seeing rust-through of the pan or the sealant around the flange failing?
Flange sealant failing. Must have been a whole lot of shakin' going on down there.
Personally, if it were my money and my ass in the seat 60 miles a day, I'd take the FB25 because I prefer a CVT over the tyranny of "always in the wrong gear" that 4/5/6/7/10 speed transmissions have. And Subaru, being controlled by engineer nerds instead of beancounters or focus groups, did CVTs so right that it brings a tear to ones' eyes. You couldn't ask for a better implementation.
Unfortunately, for Subaru, I'd rather dig my liver out with a spork and eat it raw than own a truck, so on a personal level what Subaru has done with the Forester is purely academic.
I have a friend with an '08 Forester with 165k on it and leaking head gaskets that they need to get rid of. It's a stick. What's a decent price for one these days?
cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) said:
I have a friend with an '08 Forester with 165k on it and leaking head gaskets that they need to get rid of. It's a stick. What's a decent price for one these days?
Anyone? Bueller? I can probably grab it for challenge pricing. I don't really need another vehicle (or another project) but I'd hate to see it scrapped.
In reply to cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) :
Go out to CL/FB and try to buy similar age and miles in your market. Then, subtract waht it would cost to fix and see if the is enough profit to be made.
