I agree that 2.5 years isn't great, and that does beg the question as to the state of the electrics. I guess I'll find out when I go to start it in a few minutes :p

I just passed 30K miles, bought it with 13K, and the only issue was a CEL for a manifold issue, quickly fixed in one day under warranty. My local shop is actually very courteous and responsive. Of course if I end up with phantom electrical problems we'll see how good they are.

If I had it to do over again I'd buy another Subie, but don't really want to drop any money at the moment unless it's on a second bike.

Glad to be a creative linguist. Maybe you'll show up on google soon.

This is why I have a 10 year old acura with 150,000 miles. 3rd set of brake pads, 2nd radiator, timing belt, water pump and battery.

Not counting fuel, oil and tires, I have spent less than $2000 dollars on maint. I had narrowed my choices to an A4 and an Integra GSR when I bought it new. Performance and handling was a toss up, drove them both.

It appears I chose wisely, good luck Todd..

don't you mean a cunning linguist

Scott, ODBII has always been CAN-BUS since the 80's that's why CAN is so big in Europe for industrial control due to the huge production numbers. There are however a number of protocols and they have changed over the years( CAN BUS just defines the hardware interface not the protocol).

Hey - I was going to say that!

I thought it was more, like the addition of monitoring the climate control system, and bluetooth, and radio elements? (I'm trying to get up to speed on this, feeling like a dinosaur)

It may very well be, many microprocessors come with CAN communications right on them ( FREE), so it makes sense to run it everywhere, CAN is a high speed serial, multidrop interface so it's pretty easy to add nodes for monitoring..

brief update - after about a block of driving both warning lights went out. ESP is now working as normal and no airbag light. I guess it just had to reset itself.

Since this car has warranty until 2012 and 100K miles, I'm not worried too much. If it gets to be a royal pita I'll sell it.