There are cycles to the market, but the factors influencing those cycles are myriad, and not nearly so regular as the image suggests. Just assuming periodicity also explains nothing about the underlying fundamentals.
The Subaru issue sounds bad. I've never bought a new car in the first place, so the Friend-Shaped Car already had two decades of shakedown cruising. Now I just have the aging car issues where stuff is plain worn out after 140k miles.
I don't miss the Minnesota winters. Here in the PNW, there is also an autumn chill in the air, but we rarely drop below 0°F, and there is little concern about windchill factors.
For sure. There are a lot more of those factors at play during this particular cycle too.
Yes, as it stands I'm leaning towards pushing for a buy-back from Subaru. We find out today the extent of the problems and what they plan to do to fix them. I've spoken with another mechanic I trust and he said he's seen a lot of issues with new cars across all brands lately.
I wouldn't miss these winters either! I've never enjoyed them but they get harder to deal with every year. We used to escape to Sedona, AZ for a few weeks during the worst of it in Jan/Feb, and that helped, but we haven't been able to do that the past few years. It can feel pretty soul-crushing.