I have fun with my two modern cars, they're standards but have the amenities of a modern vehicle. Last trip I took was jumping on US22 and winding though the hillsides of Ohio.
You are absolutely correct, the Chryslers didn't fare well at all, body wise. But the Slant that was in the one probably ended up on a tractor, that's what a lot of them in the area I grew up did when the car rotted away. Fortunately no inspection here, but I enjoy not having to fix something every day. The Focus gets it's regular maintenance and that's about it.
The Subaru with a manual sounds like a fun ride. Subaru's are great cars and handle well, but some develop a head gasket issue and the turbo XT models can lose the turbo/ metal parts can go into the engine. My ex girlfriend had a 2005 Outback XT with ~75K miles, and blew the turbo. The problem may have been her incredibly short commute to/from work, I think it was 2 miles away. She drove like a little old Lady, never beat on it. Also, the 6cyl models are more problematic than the 4cyl models. I got most of the "statistical" info about Subaru's from Scotty Kilmer on YT, he's a popular car mechanic with over 5M subscribers. Subaru is making one of Toyota's new cars for 2023, weird collaboration. Other than driving through OH to get to the southwest from here, I did spend a little time in eastern OH, the ex-gf had a sister that lived there and I had an aunt and uncle in western PA, about 40 min south of Erie. I saw a lot of lovely old homes in that area of OH.
The EJ25 engines would blow the head gasket at 125k, and turbos are just a pain. They one I have has a FB20, they don't (yet) seem to have that problem.
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