I own a fully paid Subaru Forester 2011 with 162,000 km that I've only driven for 5 months, and now it has tons of problems. I had the P0420 code 2 days ago, and now I'm losing power. My friends said it smells terrible, like fuel.
It has a lot of oil in my coolant reservoir, not a milkshake yet, but probably soon.
Problems:
* Engine leaks everywhere
* Differentials pending
* Suspension sounds weird
* Burns a lot of oil; I add 1/4 every 3 weeks
* Gas mileage is 340 km
* Heating is not the best
* Cooling not the best either
Maintenance:
* When I bought it, I changed the oil.
* Oil filter, cabin filter
* Radiator
* Don't know anything about spark plugs or other maintenance.
That's about it. Besides all those problems, it drives all good, haha, no other codes.
I'm planning to finance a used Mazda CX-5 with 130,000 km for $24.5k, at a 7% interest rate for 60 or 70 months. They would take my lemon as part of the payment. Or buy a new Kia/Hunday, they're about the same price with 3.99% interest rate.
Fixed cost of home: $5300
Take home: $7000
Normally, we save and invest the rest of the money.
Currently, we've paid off debt, so we're debt-free and have about $4k in savings.
We live in SK, so winters are dangerous here, with lots of car accidents. Wife feels safe in a SUV and we don't want to hit another lemon in the marketplace. Also we're new in Canada, just about 1 year and 9 months now.
What do you think?