My new Turbo!

I know I had some of you wondering.... All right, it's not a turbo on my SVX, but it is a Subaru.....

First of all, I'm jealous of those of you that managed to make it to Reading this weekend. One of these years the stars and moon will align for me and I'll go.....

I was busy this weekend picking up my new (used) '94 Legacy Turbo Touring Wagon (I've been looking for a nice wagon to use as a 'utility' vehicle) which I won on an eBay auction. The seller indicated that it had a rebuilt title, so I was a little leary at first- (in fact- it probably kept the bids down)- I had one of my buddies that lives in Batavia go over and check it out for me and also decided to pull a CarFAX report. No obvious damage repair (BTW- 137,000 mi's.) and everything seemed to work when he test drove it so I figured 'Go for it!'. I managed to get it for a mere $2201. Here's the auction site:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEBWA%3AIT

The wife decided she wanted to come with to bring it home, so we hopped on the Amtrak to Chicago on Sat. morning at 7:40AM and pulled in at 3:45PM. A short walk in Union Station to the Metra to Aurora got us there by 5:40PM. (I couldn't find a one-way plane fare under $200 and I didn't like the prospects of driving down and having to drive two vehicles back, so Amtrak was the logical choice.)

My buddy picked us up at the train station and we met with the dealer and cleared the paperwork. A couple of delays due to paper SNAFU's, but we finally made it work.

After a nice visit over dinner catching up on old times, we were on our way to MN.

Ran into some weather on the way back- rain, heavy rain, hail and gusty winds, but as we all know, a Subaru just shrugs that stuff off. We rolled into the driveway a little before 3:00AM. (Long day!)

The shakedown cruise indicated we could use some fresh struts all around and a brake job to 'clean things up'; also discovered it needs a pair of front axles. I'll flush the tranny and give it a transfusion with some Mobil 1 ATF (we all know that works- right?). Mobil 1 will go in the engine, too, for extra protection for the turbo. I don't think an expenditure of about $600. is too bad to bring this turnpike queen back to her full former glory.

And that's how I spent my weekend.

-Mark