Originally Posted by
Flexray
Fixing what you have is almost always cheaper than buying a new used car. If you are going to replace it with a similar year/value/type of vehicle I would fix what you already have. Basically every 2006ish vehicle is going to need a bunch of work done to it. A set of tires, brakes, maintenance and some other repairs is going to equal or exceed the cost of the head gasket repair.
If you replace it with something that is like 5 years old, it will need less work but the purchase cost will be way over the cost of the head gasket.
But doing the head gasket repair does come with some risks. If the engine was badly over heated, the piston rings will loose their temper and the engine will consume oil after the repair, seeing you just maxed out the temperature gauge it should be fine. If the engine stalled from being too hot, I would not fix it.
This is a old Subaru, was only a matter of time until you had to do the head gaskets.