For a bit now the Subaru has been making a high-pitched whine when accelerating. Bringing it to my mechanic to fix, he diagnosed a major transmission problem and gave the car three months to live.

I have no idea how this happened. The mechanic suggested that transmissions shouldn’t fail like that, and that the fluid level might have been neglected, but we’re pretty good about checking stuff like that. According to Consumer Reports, 1999 Outbacks have a much greater than average risk of having major transmission problems, so we may not be to blame at all.

Either way, we’ll be replacing the Subaru - far before the 1994 Tercel, amusingly. Now I’m wishing we hadn’t put our $6,500 federal tax refund towards the mortage! We still have our emergency fund *wince* + our MA tax refund + our government bribe economic stimulus rebate - around $3,000, total. This is clearly not enough to buy a quality used car, and I would like to finance as little as possible, given the ripoff that auto loans usually are.

Since we do have another vehicle, we may be able to delay the purchase until we can afford it. Unfortunately having one car is just not a viable option for us long-term, as we live in an area with unreliable public transport and there are days when I need to drive separately from Matt, for doctor’s appointments, classes, etc. Believe me, I wish it weren’t so. I hate driving and maintaining cars in the worst way.

We’re also not sure if we want to replace it with a wagon/small SUV (nothing bigger than a Forester), because we do need some carrying capacity. On the other hand, with gas prices such as they are, another compact wouldn’t be a bad idea for our daily commute - and we showed this weekend that you can even fit 10 5-foot fence posts and 100 feet of chicken wire in a Tercel.

On the wagon front, the Subaru Forester and the Toyota Matrix look promising. From what CR says (I picked their Used Car Buying Guide up from the library), the Forester has some engine problems before 2003, and of course the Matrix wasn’t made before 2002, so there are some price implications there. If we go the compact route, the Corolla is, of course, consistently rated highly; and the Echo/Yaris do okay. The Honda Civic is also appealing, as is the Scion xA or xB.

There’s also the leasing option. Django’s been trying to convince me that this is the way for my car-despising self to go, and I don’t disbelieve him - it’s just that, short of shopping for a lease directly, dealerships aren’t exactly forthcoming with the figures I need to determine if this is the right choice for us.

What are your thoughts on this situation?

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