I was looking for some info about the cars we’ve owned so I figured I’d write it out as a post as well. This is in reverse chronological order, so most current cars are up top.
2021 Subaru Forester Sport:
With the outback becoming the “kids car” it was time for me to get another car for myself. As I’ve gotten older I’ve found I prefer the more upright “suv” style seating -vs- the more car like option in something like the outback. I also like smaller cars for lots of reasons and we really liked our first forester. After some looking around at options I found I really liked the 2019-2021 foresters and specifically the sport. I spent a few weeks finding one that was exactly what I wanted, 1 owner, no accidents, low miles (30,300) at a price I felt was fair. I flew to Boise Idaho to pick it up 9/21/2024 and drove it 500 miles home that day. It’s been a great car so far. I’ve got some mild plans for it for fireroad driving (ATs, skid plates etc).
2019 Subaru Ascent:
Nikki had loved the idea of a bigger subaru for when people visited and we’d been eyeing the ascent since they were launched in 2019. We picked this up used 8/30/2021 with 35,406 miles on it. This has been an amazing car and we’ve driven it across the country three times now.
2005 Subaru Outback XT:
Sold my legacy for an outback XT. I did a LOT of work to this getting it to be over 300whp, but unfortunately the “built” motor is supposedly had when I bought it burned a quart of oil per tank of fuel (which was ~300 miles at best). It lasted from spring until fall before we sold it to buy the ascent. This had a 5mt.
2015 Subaru Outback:
We swapped out the forester with it’s oil consumption issue for a used outback. We still have this car and it’s been amazing. It’s now the “kid’s car”.
2015 Subaru Legacy:
Traded the cooper S in for something with more room and AWD while still getting 30+mpg. A plus with the legacy was also that it had a larger fuel tank so it could go a full week of commuting on a single tank. This was a great car. I put ~113k miles on it in the first three years in RI before moving to Montana where I only added 23k in three years for ~139k before selling it. I bought a midlife crisis car to replace it with the outback XT. The legacy was bought 9/5/2014. This is the first automatic I’ve owned…
2011 MINI cooper S:
We eventually traded the first mini in for a 6mt MINI cooper S. This was eventually traded in on the legacy after realizing it was too small with kids in kid seats in the back and that it didn’t have a spare tire. This is the only car we’ve owned with a 6mt! This had 51,669 miles on it when I traded it in.
2011 Forester:
We eventually traded in the WRX on a 2011 Forester which was great with the kids. This was a base/”new england edition” (roof rails and alloys) with a 5mt. It was a great car but suffered from the oil consumption issue. We traded it on the 2015 Outback.
2004 MINI Cooper:
Shortly after getting the WRX replaced we bought Nikki her first new car, a 2004(?) MINI cooper. We also road tripper quite a bit with it including a tail of the dragon trip. The mini wasn’t fast but it was a ton of fun. It was a 5mt. We traded this on the MINI cooper S.
2004 WRX:
The 2002 WRX was replaced with a 2004 WRX that I owned from 2004 to 2011. We drove this WRX on the insane canadian road trip that started the blog.
2002 WRX:
The first car I bought was my 2002 WRX. Bought new in Bozeman, totalled ~18 months later in RI.