The New Car December 8, 2018 @goldenoakfarm
We had decided several months ago to get a new-to-us car. The 2003 Subaru had 230,000 on it now. But living in New England means salt damage every year. The last several years the road crews have changed over to using brine to salt the road rather than rock salt. This causes even more damage. So buying a used car locally didn’t seem prudent.
My husband had spent months online looking at cars down south in Florida. He was seeing some really good deals, the years and mileage he wanted for really good prices. Even with the expenses of going to Florida, we’d get a better car, no salt damage. We have had Subarus since 1987 and this newest one would be #6.
He decided he had a good window to go to Florida in early November. The major farm chores were done, the cows were sent home on Monday, November 5th and he packed and caught a plane to Orlando on November 6th.
He’d found the best deals for AirBNB and a rented car and had a list of 20 – 30 cars to look at across mid Florida. Some of them were eliminated real fast, like the one that smoked when started up, or the one with a Turbo under the hood.
By Friday he’d narrowed it down to a couple and finally decided on one.
2000 Subaru Limited Outback
Some back story:
In 2003 we needed a new car. He had been hunting for a car for 6 months: Subaru, stick shift, low mileage, good price here in Mass. with no luck. He’d gone past this car for weeks, but when he looked at it back then, it was a Limited Outback with low mileage and he figured there was no way he could afford it. We were living on a single disability income.
So he stops into the dealer again to ask if they’ve come across any other Subarus and they said, “What about that one?” He told them he couldn’t afford it. They asked what he could pay, and agreed to sell it to him for that. So he test drove it home and my first response was “What are you doing with THAT?!?”
He explained what had happened and we took it for an extensive test ride. It had leather seats, 2 CD players, 8 speakers, 2 sun/moon roofs, heated seats, the works. And only 36,000 miles, but it was an automatic. He bought it anyway. And we drove it for another 303,000 before we retired it in September 2017.
So the car he decided on turns out to be another Limited, a 2014 and gray. I’d told him all I wanted in the car was for it to be a pretty blue, but would settle for green, if it wasn’t olive. Oh, well…
It had 56,000 miles, had briefly been a leased car (3,000 miles) and then 1 owner. Leather seats, only 1 CD player, but had Bluetooth, all the bells and whistles.
He drove it out of the dealer’s and headed back to where he was staying. Thirty miles down the road, large trash falls off a truck on a highway. He manages to avoid the bigger pieces but hits a smaller one with his back tire and ruins it. These were brand new tires.
So he called AAA and they put the spare on. It was far too dangerous on that highway for him to do. Then he spent several hours at Firestone getting a new tire. Good thing the tires were brand new or else he’d have had to buy 2.
He’d planned to get 1 more fishing trip in while he was down there in Florida. But the weather was terrible, the seas high, and he was thoroughly sick of cities. So he decided to come home early.
He left early Monday the 12th and got in late afternoon on Tuesday. In the old days he would have made the drive in 22 hours door to door, but those days are gone. He stopped at a hotel Monday night.
Three days later this happens, 8” of snow. The poor Florida car didn’t know what hit it! His pride and joy had snow on it and he’s out there on a step stool brushing the snow off, once it had stopped. :))
Once most of the snow had melted he got this photo of it, next to the 2003 Subaru that replaced the old Limited last September.
I got these a couple days ago on my way up to photograph the layers.
After all our Subarus that looked like Subarus, I’m having a hard time with how this one looks. It’s a bigger car and I think it looks clunkier, compared to the sleek lines of the old cars.
But I do like the dual heat system, the MP3 player, and the higher seat. In my old age it’s easier to get in and out.
He’s got to change the oil, they used a different weight than we use here in the north and it’s hard to start. I think it needs a different thermostat too, as it doesn’t warm up as fast or pump out as much heat. When it gets to -25F this winter we will need both of these to have been done.
He plans to keep the 2003, he calls it his “truck”. This means he hauls loads of grain, bedding, fencing, etc when there’s not enough to warrant using the truck. He also said he’d drive it when the roads had been salted, instead of the new one. That lasted about a week…. :))
It also went on a fishing trip last Friday and came home with fish inside. But I guess he was careful, because I didn’t smell fish for 3 days like usual….
So we are hoping to get at least 250,000 miles out of this car. The last Limited we got 14 years out of. So we’ll see how well Subaru still makes cars…
