January 17, 20215 yr Considering a Subaru Forester as a third car for carrying two mountain bikes and using when weather gets very bad... Possibly a bit of light green laning. Looking at around 2004 edition with two litre non turbo. Is 135,000 miles ok if well looked after and only going to do doing 3,000 miles roughly a year, maybe less? What is the cambelt change interval and are there any issues with the automatic gearbox as I will be buying auto version? Anything else to look out for? Has anyone used these for carrying bikes, is a tow bar carrier best option if the car has a tow bar? Finally, in terms of modular off road wheels what size can it take and what tyres? I've heard Yokohama Geolander fit well and are quite good but can it take a more off road focused tyre? Thank you.
January 19, 20215 yr things to look out for are sagging rear ends from failing sls struts and rear end corrosion . Still can have lot of life at 130K but you need be checking repair history and car thoroughly conclude it sensible buy . 105 to 115K nice range, very low mileage not as desirable as people would think, lot of good auto models around if willing travel a bit and not rush purchase. Main thing is learn the car and get idea of good/bad and car characteristics by viewing several, if you not a mechanic and got no proper knowledge with this model you not going know much from vieing 1 or 2, 5 to 10 and you learnt a lot and start getting idea of values, functioning condition and general faults . you got better chance finding nice tidy auto over manual which lot are used/abused proper hard by at least one owner . for suspension something like 30mm lift blocks and say 215/75/15 tyres such as toyo open country A/T give you close to 3" gain overall, beyond that more expense and problems and you upsetting on road ability . If not doing lot of off-road being sensible with tyre choice important or using second set of rims for more dedicated off-road tyres is way to go . Skid pan is a must as sump super vulnerable ... Don't be too concerned on cambelts as they easy do and fairly cheap even for oem parts .
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