wannadriveasube

I think like you say, that this accident in the history, while maybe nothing major, is probably a big if not the main factor in its low price. I decided that I'll have the car looked at by a mechanic I trust, and if they say it looks to be in good shape, I'll probably go with it. Believe me, I would buy a new one if I could, but this will be parked outside all the time on city streets and its just not worth it for me yet. But hey, if I like this car, maybe my next purchase will be a new subaru? W Edited to add: This is a 1989 Camry!

Hi all - this is my first post to this board and hopefully not my last as I plan to be a Subaru owner soon. I need some opinions here about a purchase I'm about to make. My wife and I have been shopping for pre-owned '03 Foresters. Most of the ones we've seen have been in the $15k-$16k range. Today we saw one at a local Subaru dealer that was siginficantly less expensive and it's making us suspicous. It's an '03 silver, Forester X with 32,000 miles on it. The dealer's asking price was $13,999 which is already way below the average we've seen. On top of that, he was willing to take my beat up old camry in on a trade and knock off another $1000 (or knock off $700 w/o the trade). Visual inspection of the car was good. It had some minor cosmetic blemishes which is normal for a pre-owned. It also seemed to drive pefectly. We took it on the highway, etc. There are two things I'm suspicous about. 1. The carfax reports an accident back in '04. I don't know the nature of the accident but theres nothing visually wrong with it. Actually, we found the receipt from the body shop in the glove compartment and it seemed to only be some damage to the fender. 2. Inside the hood, there was what looked like a thin layer of oil on everything inside. The hoses, nozzles, etc. I asked the dealer about it and he said it was something they spray on the inside of the hood to make it look more shiny and new. He opened the hood of another one and sure enough, it had the same thing. Does this sound legit? The car comes with a 2 year powertrain warranty in addition. I'm not sure what we should do next. Another dealer we visited had the same car with the same specs, and the lowest he could go was 15,999. We know this car has been sitting on their lot since Dec. and they obviously seem desparate to get rid of it. Is this a good deal, or something thats too good to be true? Any advice would be most helpful! Thanks... W