My dad is looking for a beater daily & found one he's going to go look at, he's a 30yr dealership guy, but mostly GM/Honda. Any monsters in the shadows on these, are these from the headgasket era or was that just Outbacks?

Should be good. It was the 2nd MY for the SH Forester and I think the last year for the EJ253 in the Forester so the oil filter will be underneath.

I would still check for head gasket failure, piston slap, control arm bushings, timing belt, struts, etc.

If it has the 2.5 SOHC engine, as most of these do, this is still from the "head gasket era." Also an interference engine if the timing belt breaks or comes off due to pulley failure. Try and get its service records.

Thanks gents, I'll pass that along.
It's got 250k on it, but looks pretty clean

In my experience, stock Subaru throwout bearings aren't the best. I did two in about 100K of normal driving. The rest of the clutch was fine, but the TOB's were making noise.

The normally aspirated Forrester will be pretty slow. An XT can get out of it's own way but was likely run hard and/or tuned/modded by Johnny throttle jockey like most other turbo Subies by this point.

quote:

Originally posted by M1Garandy:
The normally aspirated Forrester will be pretty slow.

Yep. I had a 2016 Forester with the 2.5i engine that I just sold. It was a great car, but slightly underpowered. However, that's pretty typical of all the non-turbo compact/crossover SUVs like it, and the Forester is not as terribly underpowered as some of its counterparts (a few of which are downright painful to drive). It's fine as a daily driver.

I had wanted the Forester XT when I bought that one, but couldn't find a lightly used one at a price I was willing to pay. I wish I had waited for it. I replaced with a turbo crossover (Mazda CX-5 with the turbo engine), and it has plenty of power.

Yeah, the XT is a blast. My mom's mom had one for a while, an 07 I think. And it was a blast to drive up into the mountains from NV to UT.

For a daily short-drive commuter the N/A will suffice.

My dad is looking to get out of his 2012 6.2V8 Yukon XL Denali. He's got lifter problems & had disabled the AFM, but knows there's a $3k job in the future if he keeps it.
My sister & I both have Expeditions, so he doesn't have a lot of need for the big SUV anymore.
His long-term plan is to pick up a cheap commuter that gets decent MPG, sell the Denali, and buy a Tacoma to pull his trailer.