Living with an old, broken-down car is like living with an old dog. It needs constant attention; it moves slow and tends to leak. It can’t help it. But my patience has finally run out.
For months now I’ve been planning life around the mechanical whims of a once-great 2005 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT wagon that serves as a winter-beater.
How do you know when it’s time to give up on an old car? It’s not easy to let go, but there are signs.
The 2.5GT, bought used and now with 231,000 kilometres on the odo, needs to be taken for frequent unscheduled visits to various mechanics.
Most recently, it was to replace a flat tire caused by a dented rim caused by exhausted suspension. During its lifetime, this car has dented three of its original four alloy wheels.
Replacements are over $500 each. A set of four would double the value of the car. For now, the GT is looking sad, running on the doughnut spare until we can find a used alloy or a set of four 17-inch steelies that will fit.
“This is a gem,” the mechanic said, sarcastically, when it went up on the lift at a local tire shop. The hood doesn’t close properly unless you spritz the latch with WD40 and opening the fuel-filler door is a two-person job.
Before the dented rim, it was a dead battery that necessitated a jump-start off a Kia Stinger we had in for review.
For those curious, the Stinger’s battery is in its trunk, well hidden under the spare tire for better front/rear weight distribution.
And before the battery, it was a curious problem — as yet undiagnosed — that has the engine running on only three cylinders, but only once it’s up to operating temperature.
Occasionally, and seemingly at random, it decides to run properly. Plugging in an OBD-II code reader revealed misfires on every cylinder, and a laundry list of potential fixes, none of them particularly cheap.
If you live with a slowly dying old car, you quickly learn to drive around its weaknesses. I’d plan shorter trips so the engine wouldn’t fully warm up, so it would run on all cylinders. Jumper cables, a can of WD40 and a tire pump were in the trunk at all times and saw frequent use.
The 2.5GT was given a year to live by a mechanic who said the turbo bearings were on the fritz. That was four years ago.
My brother and I share the 2.5GT. This car is a winter beater for me and a summer beater for him, and it has — I’m ashamed to say — been treated like one. It spared my other cars from the ravages of road salt. It has served its purpose admirably, joyfully even.
We probably should’ve given up on it years ago but we liked it too much. Turbocharged, manual, all-wheel drive station wagons are few and far between.
So we kept putting money into it, a few hundred dollars here and there. Death by a thousand cuts.
When it’s finally time to give up on an old car you feel it in your bones. The underlying mechanical problems cost too much to fix. Parts are breaking faster than they’re being repaired.
The money needed to fix everything would be nearly enough to buy a much more reliable car. This is bangernomics 101.
For the record, the 2005 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT was a great car. The turbocharged 2.5-litre flat-four — when it runs properly — is a firecracker.
After a long pause for dramatic effect, it accelerates explosively without warning once the turbo comes on song.
Car and Driver magazine, writing about its own long-term 2.5GT, concluded: “Very much the stealth car; demure exterior with a tiger in the tank. … Woe to the 4.9-litre Mustang driver who thought he'd overtake me!” The magazine also found the climate control, “always seems to blow too hard and in the wrong area.” Both of these observations I can confirm.
The magazine reported several mechanical foibles, but nevertheless enjoyed the freakishly fast Legacy anyway.
Whatever the next winter beater is, it will not be as fun or fast as the 2.5GT. It will be missed, but the time has come.
Sadly, this old dog has got to be put down.
