Price vs condition

It's a conundrum I've suffered with a few times, and I've always sided towards the cheaper option.

Right now it's this - I'm seriously considering replacing our long suffering '08 Mazda 3 with a 3rd gen Outback 3.0R.   We're in Peru (the country, not the town), things here are different.  Cars are worth more, lives are worth less, roads are variable, and if you want anything done how you want it it's best to do it yourself.

The 'family' car is an LR3.  It's done better than expected, but it's getting tired, and my confidence in it is getting ever lower.  SWMBO hates the Mazda (it's too small/uncomfy/cheap/tin can depending on her mood), and so it's a battle to use it on family trips.  It would be good to have something a bit bigger, safer, dare I say it comfier to not have to use the LR3 on long trips.  Personally I was leaning towards E39s (as per my various threads), but German plastics/electrics after 25 years here may not be the best combination.  My preference is RWD > AWD > FWD (low speed, low grip surfaces here).  I was looking at H6 Legacys, but the ground clearance for here isn't great (I run Mazda 5 springs on my 3), and there's not that much more space compared to the Mazda.  I'm not that keen on having 2 SUVs in the family (although not dead set against it yet and do have some high mileage 3rd Gen 4runners saved in Marketplace).  The H6 Outback seemed like a reasonable compromise.

So, there are 2 for sale (in all of Peru, and the only ones I've seen in the last 5 years).  Both 2007 model year (so the facelift/SI Drive etc), both 5EAT.  One is unloved, and is $7000 (will probably come down $500) and has been for sale for a few months.  Dash is cracked, aftermarket head unit with horrible install, overall dirty, missing headlamp washer, bad paint, has had an "injector service" (yikes), ABS light on, something non-standard in the rear exhaust (no passenger tail pipe visible).  The last 3 years of inspections show it has been up and down the country and out in the provinces a bit, could mean it's reliable, could mean it's beat to hell

The other one appears (I've not been to look in person) to be a cared for version, and is up for just under $9000 (for reference there are 2 reasonable H6 Legacys, one at $9000, one at $9500).   Owner seems to like Subarus judging by his social media..

Obviously the $9k option is much nicer, but $2k buys a lot of parts.  The only thing it couldn't easily fix is the dash.  The cheap one has 150k kms, the more expensive 125k kms.

The cheaper one could be bought as soon as the Mazda is sold, and bits replaced depending on how critical.  The more expensive one would need some financial juggling/using some finances that were assigned for other stuff.

There's nothing actually wrong with the Mazda (well a snapped rear swaybar endlink aside which means it's got the stock rear bar on for the minute), it's just a desire to change...

I've lived with a family in Central America, and been a fan of Subarus. 
 

"My confidence is getting lower in the LR3", and "SWMBO hates the Mazda". Those are the important parts. 
 

You need to get rid of the Mazda. It serves no purpose in your family. 
 

But it also sounds like you are trading a lot of reliability for a lot of problems in the interest of saving a few dollars.   You are concerned about the LR3, and the lower cost H6 has too long a list of potential problems. 
 

Buy the best car you can afford that meets your family's needs. 
 

Also... Even though I am a Subaru fanboy, are you sure you want a Subaru?  There are only 2 H6's available in the entire country. You are gonna have a biatch of a time getting parts and service. I know local mechanics are amazing at coming up with solutions, but the Subaru is a very different animal than most other cars. I'm not sure I'd want one in Peru. 

Also..

Neither of these cars may be available by the time you sell the Mazda. 

Your use case sounds ideally suited to common 4WD/AWD SUV's... Why shy away from having 2 in the fleet, especially if at least one can be both 'bullet proof' and well supported?

If we were talking like a 50% price difference, I'd say that's a hard decision to make. But for a <25% difference and knowing that the cheap one needs some work and could end up costing nearly as much as the expensive one overall....seems like a pretty easy choice to just go for the nice one and be done with it.

It all comes down to individual cars.  I just book ended what you are talking about.  Bought two cars within a week of each other and both were fantastic deals because of the cars.  Bought an 09 Hyundai Genesis 4.6L with only 33,000 miles.  By the book, I overpaid at $9850 for it.  The car is immaculate and I don't expect any issues for years to come, except for tires and oil changes.  Several days later I bought an 07 Lexus RX350 with 156,000 miles.  It was a one owner and pretty clean but not perfect.  Biggest downfall is that it is gold.  Yuck.  Gave it to my daughter to take to NH and Maine for a job she just started that will run until the end of August.  I won't see her or the car for 6 months, but its a Lexus with a fresh oil change, new battery, new tires, and good wipers.  As long as she doesn't let it sit too long between starting it, she shouldn't have any issues.   All things considered, I think I got a pretty good deal on the Lexus as well at $5200.  Wasn't searching for either car at the time, but they presented themselves and they were good enough deals to jump on.  So far, 3 months in, they have both been what I expected.

Thanks folks.

With regards to parts availability, there isn't really any, for anything, that is of decent quality.  You can get Chinese copies of popular stuff (Yaris/Accent/Rio/Corolla), but anything worth getting needs importing.  No local mechanics touch any vehicles in my family.  I've also ending up having to help out with extended families vehicles, the level of workmanship is horrendous in the main.

The Mazda serves a purpose of transporting me, or me and the kids, cheaply, whilst not being hateful to drive, but yeah. 

It's other usage case is every once in a while I need to travel for work, a 12 hour drive through the sticks, including a climb through the Andes where there's no cell phone coverage for an hour or so at a time, and no recovery services.  I shan't be doing that drive for a little bit though, as of today this is the road, thanks to the cyclone that parked off the coast for a few days:

Also, no, I'm not sure I want a Subaru , hence me dithering.   As I mentioned, I've also got a 2001 4Runner (3.4/auto/240k kms/$9500) saved, a 2002 Pathfinder (3.5/5MT/200k kms/$10,000), an E39 (528/5MT/?? kms/$6,000) the only manual E39 I've seen in 10 years here(!), a plethora of auto E60s and E90s, etc.  I'm totally undecided. 

I tend to weigh heavy "the seller" and which one I want to follow in ownership. 

Cheap car seems to have gotten cheap/poor attention like radio install.  Expensive car was owned by someone who cares. 

For this reason, expensive car is my choice.

For project/fun cars I'll play the cost vs condition game to a happy medium.  For DD use and/or family use, I'll buy the best car I can possibly afford.  Its a hard lesson to learn.  In your situation where it sounds like parts availability and other maintenace resources may be thin I'd be even more inclined to go for the best vehicle I could get.

Yeah, it's not worth considering the beat example here.  If your wife isn't happy with the Mazda feeling cheap/tinny, you definitely don't want to present a Subaru that needs work.... They're not spectacular in general, and hard enough to keep in good condition.   A beat example will have cracks, creaks, and in general be ratty, and your wife will likely never like it after that initial meeting.

Buy a Toyota 4Runner.  Seriously.

Here is the one I have saved, for your viewing pleasure:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/894599865063541/?ref=saved&referral_code=null

As a Subaru owner who loves the car (Crosstrek) I say get the Toyota. 
 

You sound like someone who *actually* needs their car to work come hell or high water. Toyota does that better than anyone. Subaru is generally a reliable brand but they do have weird or annoying engine problems that seems to show up for no reason. And it's a lifted wagon with light car running gear. A 4Runner is based on a truck so it will be generally sturdier and easier to repair and tougher to break. Preaching to the choir here but I'm just explaining my reasoning. 
 

I also love old German cars. Just don't. Imagine popping a radiator on one of those mountain pass climbs. Yikes. 
 

It's easy for me to roll those dice. I can park my Boxster in the garage (and have) while I wait on parts and take my wife's car around. Parts are 3 days out worst case. Not a biggie. It's a luxury really. I imagine this would be much more difficult if parts are coming from (I'm assuming) out of country. 

All good points Spandak - Out of all things here, you've got the best chance of finding Toyota parts if an emergency arises, Landcruisers/4Runners were the vehicle of choice for Govt. agencies/armed forces here for a long time, so if you urgently need something, there is a least a possibility of finding it.

Normal/new stuff is 5-7 days depending on Rockauto/DHL/Customs cooperating, something that's dealer only I can get through a Middle Eastern supplier which is 10 days to 3 weeks (depending if it has to come from elsewhere first).

Hmmm.  I'd also been considering some Hilux Surfs, then I realised they are all the turbo diesel lumps, which they never made in LHD as far as I'm aware, which means these have all been converted here in Peru   Scary.   Safer to stick to the 3.4 option methinks!

docwyte said:

Buy a Toyota 4Runner.  Seriously.

A Toyota seems to have worked well for Hungry Bill.