Recently I was looking through Craigslist and found someone selling a 97 Impreza sedan. He says everything works great and that he has taken great care of it and has kept to the recommended maintenance. Has receipts for various parts put on over the last few thousand miles. Mostly rotors, pads, cv joints, etc all basic things with nothing serious.

 

It has 326k miles on it and still has original engine and trans. Body is in decently good condition and the owner says there are three small rusts pots beginning to form. He is asking $800 OBO.

 

Is this something I should grab or would it be too much of a risk? I'm wanting to lift it and have fun with it. Nothing serious but maybe just for snow and at the beach. For the price he's asking I don't think I'd lose much if something went bad but I am not an expert. What do you guys think?

Id rather buy one with a whole ton of miles, but has been taken care of.....than one with lower miles that shows signs of being whupped on.

it depends on the car. i bought a 1991 legacy years ago, with 340, i still drive it every day, with over 400 on it. best damn car ive ever owned

Nothing wrong with that. If it's been well maintained it should have plenty of miles left. Someone took care of it to get it that far. Many of the cars that go to the crusher do so because they start getting treated like beaters. They pass 100k and people don't do timing belts, trans fluid etc. anymore since it's now an "old" car and then this self fulfilling prophecy comes true when of course, something big goes wrong.

 

These cars have great engineering behind them. If it's been well maintained it will go on and on.

 

And at $800 it's tough to go wrong for a car that moves under it's own power. At that price you can set a little money aside as a "just in case" since all used vehicles will need little things here and there.

that is a great deal. 

Thank you guys for all your opinions. I'm hoping to go take a look at it tomorrow and if everything checks out, then I will be purchasing it. I do have to say that so far you guys have given me a boost of confidence. Around here most people just run there cars to the ground so it's rare to see cars with higher mileage.

Watch out for rust and go for it!

 

Good Luck

How should I address the 3 rust spots already on the vehicle? I've never done any body work or anything.

If it's just surface rust - a wire wheel, some sandpaper or an angle grinder can be used to grind the rust out to bare metal. I use (Or used to before we moved to the west coast) rustoleum rust converter as a primer and several layers of any rustoleum or similar brand paint to seal it up.

 

Then touch up paint to match if you're concerned about looks. As long as it's not structural these can take a lot of rust and look butt ugly before it's of larger concern.

I bought a '97 Legacy sedan from a friend for $650 with 289K about 2 years ago. She got it from a friend who bought it new so we know the history and all the maintenance. It had torque bind when I got it and still does. It was my daughter's first car for a year and a half then I inherited it (after her driving record was impeccable so she got a newer nicer ride).

 

I use it as a backup  so its only got a couple thousand miles more now but this past week been driving it everyday since we got 12" of snow. I had to do a little maintenance (plugs, wires, igniter, knock sensor) but this thing starts every time (-15*F yesterday) and burns no oil. It has a rattle coming from the TC and the 3 flush didn't fix the bind but for $650 what can I expect?

 

Like everyone is saying, for $800 its hard to go wrong for what you plan to use it for.

I saw the post for that Impreza.  He is asking OBO, so throw something a bit lower at it.  I bet you could get it for $650 or 700.  Parts are easy to come by at the salvage yards and the work is easy enough usually.  The rust doesn't progress much here in VA, so hopefully it isn't too deep.

Thanks for the info. I'll throw him a quick cash offer and see how it turns out. He said he can show it Monday so I'll see how it works out.

For what it's worth, my daily driver is a '90 Loyale with 430k miles on it.  Pretty sure is still has the original paint on it.