Would you try it?

My car is in western Washington and I am temporarily working in the Washington DC area for the next many months. My work isn't allowing me a rental car while here but may allow me to retrieve my personal car (at their expense).

A co-worker said it might not be worth risking trying to drive the car across the country.

 

It's a 1996 Legacy GT with no known issues other than a little higher than normal oil consumption.

 

Would you drive across the country in a car in a similar condition? I haven't done any long road trips in this car, nothing more than 3-4 hours. I don't know what kind of issues might develop after driving 8+ hours a day with the car?

 

If I had a family member take the car in for a service before I drive it across the country, what things should be checked?

It might be cheaper to buy another subie in D.C plus if its temporarily then you could sell it.

I drove my 95 from AZ to MI and back 3 times this last year A couple of those as 30 hours non stop. But I do all my own work so I have a pretty good handle on what the car is doing and also on what I can fix on the road. And I keep things in pretty darn good repair.

 

My opinion is that the main expense of this kind of trip isn't the money, but the exhaustion and risk of wrecking, etc. That's harder to judge. If you aren't comfortable with such a big trip I'd say it isn't worth it.

You don't say how many miles your car has, or what's been replaced, but I'll give you a slightly different opinion.

 

You might be able to get by without a car for work, but it would be a shame not to have a way to take some trips out of the city while you are here. If I were you, I would be planning some road trips and excursions for your free time since there are a lot of things to see and do.

 

Highway miles are easy miles for the most part. As long as your car is mechanically in good shape, I would not worry too much. Or maybe you could work out another arrangement, where you share a rental car with other people to keep the cost down.

For comparison, mine had 250k before the trips and is at 272k now.

I don't see why you wouldn't want to drive it that far, but if they are covering it, I'd either buy a beater in DC and sell it when you leave or have the car shipped. I used to know a guy who drove his 98 impreza 2.2 5mt back and fourth from oregon to wv twice with 225k on it, and that car was a shitbox. And as far as I know, it didn't break down once on him.

You just said retrieve it at their expense, why couldn't you ship it? Cost would probably be less, actually.

I second (or third) the notion of buying one locally and selling/driving it back when you leave. Subie's are cheap in that part of the country. My sister in NY picked up a 05 Fozzy with 190k miles that had minimal rust originally from northern PA for $900. Why risk driving your car (even on the company's dime) 3000 miles cross country, only to have to drive it back? You could pick up someone's winter beater for $500-$1000, sell it cheap when you're done and have money for a plane ticket home.

There's something to be said with sticking with what you already have and know (devil you know is better than the devil you don't). If the company reimburses you for miles that is money in the bank if your current car is paid off and depreciated. Plus, you are already paying insurance, licensing and taxes on the car you own. No need to incur additional transaction and upkeep costs on some unknown "bargain" used car.

You know your car better than most of us. Would you happen to know what causes it to burn oil? If its nothing minor just make sure you keep it full. If it doesn't leak or over heat, I think you might be fine. And make sure your T belt system is healthy enough for the long hours.

 

Aside from all that stuff- do you love your car enough to do that? If its healthy enough, and you enjoy driving then do it. I havent had my scoob long enough, but I drove from McAllen TX all the way to Seattle WA and back in my '96 F150 and it was the most fun I've had in a long time. Granted like the other guys said I work on my stuff so I know it could make it. I love my truck enough to drive it all the way up, do you love your scoob enough to share that sort of experience with it? Because when you talk about that story you're going to talk about how awesome your car did. Lol. Its all up to you.

How many miles do you have on it? Timing components and headgaskets new enough to not be worried about having a major malfunction? If it is a manual, how is the clutch? If it's an auto, does it slip at all? Are the brakes in good order? Mountain passes are a ton of fun as long as they don't cause use up whatever brake or trans you had left. What happens if you do go retrieve your car (that they *might* pay for you to get) and it suffers a catastrophic failure while en route? Now you are having to deal with a broken car away from home, and not at your work site. That could cause even more problems for you. Personally I would probably look for a cheap car out east unless you know that you and your ride are ready to conquer that trip.

Car has 162,xxx miles, rebuilt engine from 2004 (not sure why but it's had it's head gaskets done since), new radiator and all cooling lines. Tires are older but that's easy enough to replace.

 

They won't cover the cost of a new car, just to have me drive mine over. I will ask them about shipping it, but it hasn't been an option the bosses suggested.

 

The car is paid off and depreciated.

 

I have no idea what's causing it to burn extra oil. I have never seen drops or a puddle of oil under the car. Though, I will check if I go back to get it since it has been parked since new year.

 

I started looking at cars locally after I posted last night. How much rust is normal for a beater in this area? I understand there is going to be some because they salt the roads around here.

Your car sounds healthy enough that I wouldn't really think twice about driving it that far, I's still do a full check up/inspection and would probably change the oil before I set off though. Also rust in the Nova area is very limited at most, you'll occasionally see rust on the edges of doors and what not but that's about the worst. It's not like up north where old cars are basically rolling rust in the shape of a car.

Not much rust, just on really old cars. We only get a few major snowstorms most years.

I have not much to add except I drove mine from Columbus, OH to Charleston SC (through the mountains) while pulling a trailer. Then drove from Charleston to San Diego. Still works fine.

I had mine to the shop before moving to San Diego and told them what I was going to do and let them check whatever they want. They caught a dying battery and I had an oil change, coolant hose replaced, had them check the spare and new brakes.

I'm 75 miles SW of DC and I have a 2005 Outback Sport, 5 speed stick, I can sell you :-)

I love my subaru. I would risk it. I wouldn't drive/own a car that I wasn't confident could drive accross the country in a moments notice

I drove my 95 from AZ to MI and back 3 times this last year A couple of those as 30 hours non stop.

 

i drove my 95 wagon from az to upper michigan when i first got it, had it 2 months and had just done the timing belt. made it like a champ, car still runs well. trans didnt survive kid number 3 tho, blew up on him a couple months ago. he drives like an asshole tho, so im sure that helped. car had 185k miles on it when i took the trip.

Mine was only a little less than that when I got it in AZ and drove home to MI later that week. Meanwhile I moved to AZ. and am pushing 150k of my own miles on it.

You shouldn't find much rust on older Subaru's if they are from the DC area. Both of my '98 Legacy's spent most of their lives in Maryland and the wagon is rust free and the GT only have a couple of small rust spots starting. On the other hand, my '05 IMpreza Outback Sport for Northern PA has already had a front subframe rust out and I'm in the process of patching the quarter panel rust. The brake backing plates on the car liternally crumbled to pieces.

Will your work expense Uber trips? Seems a bit unreasonable to say the only car you can have is your own. I'd buy a junker while out there and expense that to work at the normal rate of what mileage would have been to bring yours out.