I sold my wife's 2014 Subaru Crosstrek, as much as I liked driving it,
I preferred my 2014 Prius Plug-in. Gets twice the gas mileage too.

I'd bought my wife a 2011 Mazda CX-9 a while ago, as we needed a
bigger car for trips, and wanted something with AWD and a third-row
seat. I found one that needed lots of little fixes, which I like
doing.

Found a local auto shop that specialized in Mazdas, they replaced the
diff oil, brake fluid, did an oil change and flushed the radiator.

It was missing the pull handle on the tailgate, found one onling for
$12.

The driver's side window started making an awful noise and shaking
when rolling down, found a YouTube video documenting the likely
problem, teeth shearing off of a $7 nylon gear. I took the motor out
and spotted the exact same issue, the new gear is arriving tomorrow.

There was a small hole in the dashboard, a little big of Sugru fixed
that. I used another piece of sugru to match the texture, once it
dried pressed it into the soft sugru patch to match the texture of the
rest of the dash. Looks pretty good.

I had an interior detail done when we bought it, looks brand new
inside.

Next, the bane of 201-something cars, fogged headlights. I've got some polishing compound that'll clear it up, this time I want to apply a
clear coat to it afterwards.

I *like* these little fixes. Saved a ton of money in the process, my
wife was looking at the 2-year old model for $12K more than we paid.



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Kurt Weiske wrote to All <=-

The driver's side window started making an awful noise and shaking
when rolling down, found a YouTube video documenting the likely
problem, teeth shearing off of a $7 nylon gear. I took the motor out
and spotted the exact same issue, the new gear is arriving tomorrow.

Postscript: I'd put the old motor/gear back, minus the debris, and it
worked OK, with a little "tick" when it slipped against the missing
teeth instead of horrid grinding when the debris jammed between the
gears.

I should have quit while I was ahead.

I went to install the new motor, and the bracket on the inside of the
door that the motor installs to cracked and fell inside the door.

I punted and took it to my repair shop, who got a replacement part
and installed my new motor for $280.



... Abandon desire
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I sold my wife's 2014 Subaru Crosstrek, as much as I liked driving it,
I preferred my 2014 Prius Plug-in. Gets twice the gas mileage too.

Did you get a good price for it? I read that used cars are really in demand right now since people don't want to use public transportation during the pandemic.

Glad you kept the Prius, based on your earlier emails you seemed to enjoy it.

... A critic is a legless man who teaches running.
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