My inner lesbian took over and I picked up an '05 Subaru Outback 3.0 L.L. Bean Edition. 58k on the clock, bought new and maintained at the dealership I bought it from and super clean.
My A3 had 165k miles, was due for around $4k in maintainance stuff (timing belt, control arms, turbo issues, etc.) and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. $17,000 for the car and gave me $8,000 on the trade in.
They had an "05 with the 2.5 turbo, but after comparing it to the 3.0 there wasn't much difference. The 3.0 had less miles, .5 seconds slower 0-60 but no chance of the issues the '05 turbos are known for. I had also been looking at 4Runners but the 4wd are scarce and didn't want to jump into a V8 if gas shoots up too high.
Oh, and the beauty is I just rented it to an AT&T commercial for 2 days at $450 a day as a "picture car" (family unloading camping gear in a campground). That'll make the first 3 payments!
