[Spud-der]

Hi all,
I really want to get a Subaru for my wife since we need a second car, and we live in snowy Idaho. (I grew up here but my wife is from California and has no experience driving in the white stuff). We found a 2003 Forester XS (leather, moonroof, power everything) that has 85,000 miles. The lady who owns it wants $9,000 for it and is pretty firm on the price. The car is in very nice shape and was bought to tow a 16ft scamp trailer that weighed 1600 pounds. The trailer was only pulled on 4 trips. I know a timing belt and most likely head gaskets is in the near future. When the timing belt is done I would do the head gaskets at the same time to save another headache in the future. Is $9,000 a fair price for a car that needs this work done soon? What would be a fair price?
How much should I expect to pay for these items?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[dave5358]

I really want to get a Subaru for my wife since we need a second car, and we live in snowy Idaho. (I grew up here but my wife is from California and has no experience driving in the white stuff). We found a 2003 Forester XS (leather, moonroof, power everything) that has 85,000 miles. The lady who owns it wants $9,000 for it and is pretty firm on the price. The car is in very nice shape and was bought to tow a 16ft scamp trailer that weighed 1600 pounds. The trailer was only pulled on 4 trips. I know a timing belt and most likely head gaskets is in the near future. When the timing belt is done I would do the head gaskets at the same time to save another headache in the future. Is $9,000 a fair price for a car that needs this work done soon? What would be a fair price?

Seems a bit pricey to me. $7,000 might be a bit more in line for a 'very nice' Forester XS. Go to Autotrader and search for 2003 (or other year) Foresters.

I have no thoughts on the head gaskets. There are an assortment of other parts that you might install along with the timing belt (water pump, oil pump, idlers, seals, etc.). Many (most?) dealers do not put in these other parts, but the parts may fail long before the replaced timing belt. It's usually not the timing belt that fails first - it's some other part, which failure then causes the timing belt to fail.

 

[2.5x_sleeper]

The timing belt maintenance is 105K mile or 105 months, so I'd recommend that maintenance be done sooner than later. This might be a haggling point to get the price a but lower.

I always recommend having a prepurchase inspection done by an independent shop, figuring it's better to pay a small amount now to prevent paying much more later on! :icon_eek:

The asking price isn't too bad, looking on autotrader.com, but if you could haggle for the cost to do the timing belt + associated parts maintenance, it would be a good deal... assuming it passes an inspection... especially for leaking head gaskets. :wink:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]

 

[Galager]

Like Dave said, 9 is high for an XS. I like it at 7 better.