Looking for opinions on a car (Subaru)...

milehigh

So I've been looking at Scoobys for awhile and was debating between a WRX and a Legacy GT.

Well, today I found an 05 Legacy GT with 63,000 miles on it, manual transmission, 1 owner, super clean, won't rape my insurance, $15,500 before rape fees.

Opinions? I've never owned a Subaru; but most people I talk to are super happy with them. Plus this car drove like a dream. It's quick and handles beautifully...So yeah, I fell in love with the car and am looking for people to tell me why this would be a bad idea. The only flags IMO are the high mileage.

So yeah, thanks in advance, I'm taking my GF back to the dealer now to get her take on it (which I don't expect to be more than "I really like the sunroof :P")

Djeet

I'm really happy with my '05 Legacy GT; for me it's a keeper.

One thing I'd find out is if the timing belt has been replaced. Subaru recommends this at 60K and if the dealer does the 60K mile service (which includes timing belt replacement) it'll set you back about $700. I'm assuming this is a 2.5L turbo.

Apart from that you should be asking after the normal things when buying a used car: service records, repair records, has it been in an accident, title check, how long it's been since wearing parts have been changed (should be verifiable through service records), etc.

Although truth be told, since I do most of the service on my own car I probably couldn't give you a great paper trail for changing out oil, filters, tires, etc.

One thing you should know is that if you should ever need to replace a tire, you'll likely have to replace all 4 at once. With AWD the circumference of all the tires should be within 1 cm of one another (5-10K miles of wear maybe). This isn't really a fault in my eyes, just something to be aware of in when owning an AWD car.

Is this a "Limited"? Because if not 15.5K seems high.

firewaterword

Price seems somewhat high to me as well, especially considering the mileage. While 63k isn't crazy high, it's well above average (which if I recall is something like 13k a year, meaning an '05 should be somewhere around 52k, give or take).

milehigh

It is a limited actually, about to inquire about maintainence history, thanks all =D

Charles Kinbote

If you haven't stopped by consumerreports.com, do so. It's an absolute requirement when purchasing used cars.

Limp moose

BUY A CAR FAX!!!!!!

omg I can't stress that enough. They are like 10-20 dollars and worth every penny. When i was shopping for used cars back in 2006 some ass tried to sell me what appeared to be an awesome car claiming everything was a ok when the car fax said it had been in a flood. (ala a katrina mobile)

As for your Subaru my only gripe with that particular car is it doesnt corner as well as other cars in its class. They tend to fish tail a little if you are going too fast. Where as other cars at the same speed won't. So just watch out for that.

milehigh

Well, I took the evening last night and did my research. Everything showed up clean. This morning I went back over and currently have it at a trusted mechanic for an inspection. Hopefully they'll be able to tell me if this car was beat on or if it looks good. If things check out I'll be the owner by this afternoon I'm particularily excited about this car due to AWD, which I've never had before, but sorely missed living in Colorado, you don't get up to the ski areas (or often times work) with RWD....

Djeet

Limp moose wrote: »

They tend to fish tail a little if you are going too fast. Where as other cars at the same speed won't. So just watch out for that.

I wonder if perhaps you were driving one with diff issues as I've found it pretty difficult to rotate the rear out on this car (and I do my share of spirited driving). If anything it has a slight tendency towards understeer.