Sure, the Kelley Blue Book, or other similar pricing guide might say that the car is only “worth” $5k, but good luck trying to find another similar one for that price. I look at used cars on Craigslist all the time, for entertainment purposes, to see what people are posting, and how much they are charging, and around here this would be a $6-7k car all day long. In fact, someone is selling a 2007 Outback with 160,000 miles, and by the way it needs new head gaskets, and they’re asking $3500 (though admittedly, the ad has been up for 19 days now with no takers.)
I still say it makes sense to fix the car you already have, assuming the body and interior are decent, rather than to buy someone else’s headaches for even more money.
The question was already posed about whether the timing belt had ever been changed, and the lack of response from the OP is a probable indication of poor maintenance over the years. That’s why I asked the question about how many times the trans fluid had been changed, noting that failure to have done that maintenance properly would likely result in the next bomb exploding in his/her wallet.
At this point, I tend to think that this was a poorly-maintained vehicle.
I was not referring to the book value in my post. I referred to utility value which is different. Utility value is the cost per mile this adds to the remaining useful life of the vehicle.
If a vehicle is unpopular and has a low resale value, but has a lot of life left in it and the cost to repair is relatively low when spread out over the remaining life, and I intend to use all of its remaining life, then I’d do it. Otherwise maybe not.
Thank you all for so much helpful information. I really appreciate the time it took to respond and answer.
I am unsure of the miles on the timing belt. I am guessing maintenence was overdue. I am also unsure of how many times the transmission fluid has been changed. Admittedly, my partner and I have not been the best at keeping track of scheduled maintenence.
We bought the car in 2015, it had about 93,000 miles. So we have owned it for 7 years and put on about 75,000 miles.
I was not going very fast when the timing belt broke, probably 25 mph.
We have another car and very little to spend on repairs at the moment. I appreciate the input to help us decide what to do.
I can get at least $850 if I sell it as is. Thank you for the info to help us as we decide what to do next.
And thanks for your patience in a response. We are parents of young kids all sick at home with covid.
+1
In addition to saving all maintenance invoices in a folder, every time I buy a new car I construct a new chart on 8.5 inch x 14 inch paper (sort of a hand-made spread sheet, I guess), on which I can check-off every maintenance item when it is done. It takes me all of… maybe… 10 minutes to construct the chart, and then about 2 minutes to update it after every maintenance procedure.
The y-axis is a list of all the various types of maintenance listed by the vehicle mfr, and the x-axis allows me to enter the date and odometer mileage when a particular procedure is done. Thus, I can see at a glance what has been done, and when it was done, so that I don’t duplicate services unnecessarily, but–even more importantly–so that I can see at a glance what is due to be done.
If you are considering the repair route, which I personally think is best if the condition of the vehicle warrants it, you should consider getting quotes from a Subaru dealer. They are used to dealing with head gaskets and timing chains for this and even though they may have higher shop rates, the experience and training their mechanics have can result in a more efficient use of time resulting in a lower cost. Plus there is the added benefit of the job being done better because of that experience.
If you have more than one Subaru dealership near you, get quotes from both.