Buying a used Forester

[smallzoo99]

Looking for a used suv/mpv/estate for under £3k. its a 2nd car, and the boot must be big enough for my 2 alsations 

I am guessing we will do about 6,000 miles a year will be mainly driving locally and maybe within an hour of home.

We had considered VW Sharan,VW Touran,Mazda5 and Ford S-Max but then someone said why not look at a Forester

I hadnt really considered it as I thought it would be expensive to maintain 

Do you think I could find a decent Forester for our budget ?... dont need a turbo or anything just a solid reliable motor which doesnt have terminal chassis rust etc

cheers

Peter ( Cheshire )

[Mr B]

It is possible, a very good example Forester SF or SG pre face lift all weather would come in that budget, parts are cheap and they easy work on .
SF and SG pre face lift cover years 1998 to 2005, early vehicle far far better made, SF being way better than SG .
Main thing will be avoiding rust, rear sub frames, inner arches turrets and inner end sill areas,
If you willing have an automatic you likely find clean one easier as lot of the less used examples tend be auto box .
The early ones are super reliable,never had a failure or engine light on 3 in my family in 17 years of daily use .
Avoid diesel models as in your price range they will be garbage, you could look at petrol SH models but I don't buy them myself as don't like the component quality & suspension design after SG models .
Newer you go the more problems & repair cost you will get .
The old ones had the number 1 reliability jd powers award several years running for a good reason, they where built proper .