Why a High Mileage Turbo Subaru is Not a Good First Car

So to start this off with some context, let me tell you what lead up to me purchasing this car. I’ve wanted my own car for years, and a couple of summers worth of saving money, and some help from my parents, I was able to buy my Outback XT May of 2015. My mom didn’t want me getting a used car for fear of constantly repairing it, or leaving me stranded. Naturally, I told her, “It’s a Subaru, Japanese cars run forever” and instead of driving a nicer, newer, sportier Civic Si right now, I’m spending all of my money ordering repair parts.

Before signing the lease paper’s to the civic, I ended up finding the OBXT 100 miles away, with everything I wanted. Manual, Turbo, AWD, and leather. The car was literally posted the day before I was going to sign for the Civic, so I talked my mom into going to see it with me. Long story short, I fell in love, and bought the car for $3800, which I thought was a sign that the car was perfect for me, since it’s everything I want for 50% of what they go for.

After owning the car about 2 weeks, I got a check engine light, and all my sway bar bushings were bad, so my mom insisted I get the car fixed before I drove all of my friends to Six Flags that weekend. A meaty bill for $450 later, and my car was good as new. I got an oil change shortly after where I was notified that my car was abused, so they did an engine flush and cleared out the sludge, but the car was fine. A summer of daily driving the car to and from work 70 miles a day taught me to drive manual among many other things such as:

1. Subaru’s are thirsty for four cylinders.
2. Driving manual in rush hour in NYC is the worst thing ever in the whole wide world.
3. I have a problem with road rage.

So over the summer, I decided to put money into my car that I didn’t need to. I upgraded my brakes to far superior ones, I installed a pioneer head unit so I can listen to music from my phone, made a custom mesh grill, and I replaced Axle seals because I had a small oil leak from my front axle. The car was fine until I blew an ignition coil driving my friends around for his birthday. I fixed it immediately, and the car was without issues for 5000 miles.

Then things started to go wrong… On a night out with some friends, My car ended up having the crank pulley break, 100 miles from home. I had to figure out how to get everybody home, and how to deal with my car. At the same time, I was searching a car to purchase for my dad. So over the weekend, I bought my dad the LS400, and repaired my car at an overpriced mechanic for $500.

So to total the repair costs so far, I’ll make a small list.

1. Fuel Injector, and sway bar bushings - $450
2. Engine flush- $100
3. Axle Seals - $200
4. Ignition coil - $150
5. Crank Pulley - $500
   Car: $3800
   Total Repairs: $1400
   Total: $5200

Meanwhile the 20 Year old Lexus I bought for $1600 is running fine after 3 months, and seems like it’ll last.

Not even two weeks later, I discover throw-out bearing issues, which means I need a clutch kit. How much is a clutch kit? Alot.
The car ended up sitting for two months until I could save up $900 for the repair. Which brings us to now…

I picked up the car yesterday from the mechanic, and was greeted with the more issues. A pipe above my turbo is leaking coolant into my turbo, and I need a new intake. I’m looking at about $400 in repairs this time, and the car still has some aesthetic issues that I would like to resolve.

I love this car. It’s fun, it’s practical, and it’s exactly everything I want in a car. But I simply can’t afford to keep it as a student. My class schedule conflicts with whatever work I can find, so most of the year I am without a job. The car has bad fuel consumption, takes expensive fuel, and is pretty unreliable considering I’ve spent over $2000 on a car I haven’t even owned for a year. When I take care of this issue, I won’t put any more money into the car. If the car makes it to May of this year without any more issues, I will start to spend money on mods, and taking care of it’s aesthetics issues. However, If the car fails, I will have no choice but to sell it.

I’d like to thank everyone for reading, and thank everyone who helped me identify problems when they occurred. (DIY community, that means you.) I’ll keep you guys updated on the car, but right now, she and I aren’t on speaking terms.

TL;DR: Don’t buy a car for less that they’re usually worth and expect it to be reliable.