So we’ve been driving the new Forester for a couple of weeks. I have to say I really like it. It’s pretty loaded, and the massive moonroof is nice. I’ve always like the sunroof/moonroof option since my first new car, a green ’96 Escort with a manual flip roof. It’s just so enjoyable when you’re tooling around town on a fine Autumn day.

But man, I wasn’t sure we were going to get the Liberty there for the trade. I mean, I can’t complain too much because the thing was really crapping out. It had like 80,000 miles on it, the fan was shot, maybe the ac compressor, it started leaking some freaky fluids and the timing belt was on its last legs. I would imagine the water pump wasn’t far behind, and about 100 feet from the Subaru dealership, the transmission started making some weird noises. Oh yeah, and the closed radiator system was probably shot, because it dumped some fluid on the way, and since you can’t add coolant or even crack it open unless you’re a licensed technician…well, it was in rough shape. And the alignment was crap and it really needed new tires.

The dashboard started beeping about halfway between home and Subaru, so I was pawing through manual trying to figure it all out. The beeping lasted only a few seconds, so I hoped it was nothing major. On the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, it started beeping again. This time, as it was beeping, I was rifling through the manual. In the ‘V’ of the spine I caught site of the temperature gauge. Yeah, the arrow was hard in the red.

In summary, the Jeep shit the bed on the way to be traded in. This sucked, but it could certainly have been worse. We might not, for example, have even made it to the dealership. Or it might have crapped out a few months ago when we were emptying out the basement of the wine shop. So all in all we are looking at this in a positive light. And once again, we have a hell of a story.