New - Used Car

Our trusty Toyota Highlander finally reached the end of its useful life after 22 years and 273,000 miles. 

During our trip to Wallowa Valley in Oregon we noticed a humming sound.  Turns out the transmission is starting to fail and there were cracks in the front control arms.  Cost to fix was over $10,000 so time for a new car. 

After a lot of looking and research we ended up with a 2021 Subaru Forester with a bit over 37,000 miles on it. We got it for a good deal because the owner was being forced to leave the US due to Trump's visa policies.  She had been here working for 15 years with no visa problems, but now no visa renewals so she has to leave.

A few things I really like about the car are:

• Adaptive cruise control: You set the maximum speed (e.g. 65 mph) and then it will go that fast or just as fast as the car in front of you. This works great and makes long trips so much easier.  The only gotcha is if you are going 30 mph through a town and the car in front of you turns.  Then it tries to speed back up to 65 mph which does not work in a 30 mph speed zone :(.
• Blind spot warnings: Whenever a car is in your blind spot, a blinker on the inside of the external mirror blinks.  No more changing lanes into another car.
• Lane warnings: If you veer outside of your lane, it beeps at you.
• Front and rear object warnings: When backing up it beeps and blinks at you if, for example, a bicyclist goes right behind you as you are backing up (happened in a parking lot).  Supposedly the one in front will also apply the brakes before you even respond. 
• Ride: It is much smoother and quieter than the Highlander with better seats which make longer drives more enjoyable.  For me, it seems to be a lot smaller than the Highlander also although there is plenty of inside space. 

We took it on a 650 mile road trip and got 35.5 mpg which is a lot better than the 20 mpg of the highlander. Finally, I like that we have the mid range version without the internal cameras (it only has external cameras).  We get many of the advantages like adaptive cruise control, but the car is not spying on me all the time.