I am looking for a winter car to keep miles and salt of my newly aquired sountern replacement F250 to replace the starting-to-get-rusty 2002 F250 I had for 5 years out of Florida.
Subaru seems to be the answer, not too picky on style as long as it is reasonably clean with good rubber and AWD/4WD. Goal would be to buy a decent car with one fault, correct the fault, drive it all winter (first snow to first good rain so probably 5 months) and sell for even money including all repairs and registration or make money then repeat again next fall, or take it out to my friend's farm and store it for summer.
Lots of decent looking early 00s Foresters with cooling/overheating issues in the $1000 range. Are these generally head gaskets or something more sinister? Are there concerns if these cars have been run for a long time with weeping head gaskets or if the oil is clean are they generally pretty stout. Is a used motor even worth considering or is any junkyard motor gonna be just as bad as what I am working with?
If Subaru is out whats another good option? CRV, Rav4, Escape, Miata?
