Stella will not go gentle into that good night
 

So we finally decided to put Stella, our 2002 Outback, out to pasture after 185K plus of faithful, reliable (until recently) miles. When she was brand new her flat 6 pulled strong and took us on many adventures. But it seems that lately she has been spending too much time resting in the garage or catching a ride on the rollback. This week the wife and I made the tough decision to put her down. Made a deal to pick up a younger, newer model. All shiny and smelling like youth. But alas Stella would have none of that and died on the way to the trade in. One last ride into the sunset on board the rollback. Alas she will be forgotten and probably not missed.

Good riddance... There's nothing worse than an unreliable car!

Sorry to hear....185,000 is way too young!

My son has been obsessed with Subaru's. He sold off his 2006 Mini Cooper S and purchased a 2007 Impreza WRX STI with only 70K miles on it.

I see all the commercials with the 300K mile Subaru's, I hear all these stories about people keeping them forever. I was impressed a 4WD version of Toyota and Honda.

I drove his car, I was even more impressed, now I found myself looking for one for sale.

Then the problems started, he filled the tamk with gas and it ran really bad for 10 minutes. Seems to be a common problem with one of two parts one is $40 the other is over $200 they control the tank pressure and have something to do with emmissions IIRC.

He changed the air filter and gave it an oil change, that aggravated a small tear in the intake boot causing the car to go into limp mode. Another common problem with these cars, a $200 Cobb heavy duty boot and it was fixed... nope!

Still throwing codes for massive vaccum leak, we buy a smoke machine and fins there are leaks along this transfer tube that follows the intercooler, we buy soem hose and take it out of the loop.

Still throwing a code, we are at a loss now, more google searching discovers the brake boosters fail, another common problem. We replace the brake booster and that fixes it.

NOW he has to get on with what he was supposed to do from the beginning, replace the timing belt.

He cured me, I no longer want one. My FJ Cruiser has 175K miles on it now and the only problem I have had with it was a bad alternator. I plan on driving that another 200K miles. I laugh now when I see those commercials, the engine might be original but everything else has probably been replaced and the owner is saying to themselves, what else could possibly go wrong?

They are nice driving cars I was super impressed with that.

If you screamed Stella!! On the top of your lungs as she rolled or rolls away, I will award you 10 Al Gores Internets points. (redeemable for carbon credits)

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