poor subaru!

My Subaru is old and tired. It had a checkup today, and it's starting to fall apart. I could get those bits fixed ... for 5000 dollars. Blue book on the poor beastie? Less than 3000, probably closer to 2000. [Edit: 2000 is if a dealer goes out of their way to make it look good. Private sale? About 1000.]

We've been through a lot together, this little car and me. 130000 miles. 7 years. 3 serious girlfriends (and the concomittant grayhounds / kids in the back seat!). One road rage grazing (with my parents in the back seat, natch!); one scraping, one full-on Tkil Stupidity (tm) notch in the front bumper.

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All in all, Suby has been a fantastic car, and I'm very sad to see it go. If nothing else, I'll see if I can't arrange for it to have a few relaxing years with my dad in Denver -- the all wheel drive ought to serve him well, and so long as he's not going too far, I'm sure Suby will be as good a trooper for him as it's been for me.

Would I get another Subaru? If I lived in an area with any inclement weather at all, I'd very likely do so -- but living in southern California, and contemplating moving back to New Mexico, I just can't justify the costs of the AWD system.

So far, I'm thinking about buying a Prius. I'm not looking forward to paying MSRP or better, nor to having to get on a waiting list, but the thought of 50+ MPG is very tempting. I haven't called around yet, though, so we'll see if that's what I end up with or not.

No matter what, I salute the Suby. Well driven!