So,
I'm young and my wife and I need a new car. She just got a job teaching about 20 miles away and our old '89 civic doesn't have A/C. We like to ski, so.............We want a subaru!
I found a '96 Legacy GT2.5 for sale locally. It's white and has a few paint chips with the beginnings of orange around them. Aside from that it looks to be in good shape. 122k on the clock. KBB has this car at ~$4200 for good, used, private party and their price is $4900. I'm curious what you guys would pay, what issues might develop, what else I should look for and things like that.
thanks for helping me out.

ps -- i'm in the SF bay area and have had trouble finding what i'm looking for in a subaru, so if anyone else has an impreza outback for sale in the $6k price range, i'm still looking.

I have had two 97 Legacy GT's, I loved both of them and they are what got me into the Subaru community. The second one I bought with 176k on the odometer and after about 10k miles the clutch started to go and there was an oil leak that got pretty bad. I loved both of the cars though and they would definetly make a good family vehicle and especially great for going in the snow. The big problems with my high mileage Legacy was the oil leak and the coolant system. Dont know if others have these problems too, but they werent too bad.

Headgaskets are an issue on the 2.5's. See if they were done.

Check to see when the front and rear seals were done and the head gaskets. Our 2.5LGT project is leaking oil so badly that is smokes like a giant tire-fire at every stoplight and this is a car that has not been driven hard, just used alot (or so we were told) The bill to get the car back to tip top was something like $3,000 for new seals in the motor and all the usual upgrade stuff like brakes etc. Fortunate for us we are getting a new Crawford block and an entire list of new go-fast parts.

Get a pre-buy inspection now and if it leaks in any way, get the cost of fixing any and all leaks taken off the price. If the headgaskets have not been done, negotiate that too. This block WILL start leaking if these issues have not been taken care of.

Travis
Editor
Subiesport Magazine

Why not and Impreza Outback Sport of similar vintage?

Much cheaper, bulletproof drivetrain, more space (assuming the GT is a sedan)

I'd love an impreza outback sport of similar vintage. Is it really more reliable?
I haven't had a chance to talk to the previous owners yet -- but I should check on
1) head gasket
2) front and rear seals (what are these -- I'm missing something) I thought I knew a fair amount about cars -- are we talking about the equivalent of a rear main seal behind the torque converter?

I see nada and kbb around $4k -- does that sound right (yes, it's a sedan)
thanks again for all the replies

If you get it, Good Deal!