Impreza Turbo - help please

[Pug Dealer]

Evening all,

Ive just been to look at an Impreza Turbo reg. no. W677 YKP. It has 46k up and full history although I can't see any evidence of a belt change. The guy is asking £8300 for it and it seems pretty mint. Can anyone advise me of things to be wary of or possible pitfalls? It drove well, but I would expect it to anyway having driven several before but I am actually looking to buy now and that's always a different story! Thanks in advance for you help :-)

[Nicol@]

The belt should have been changed at 45k. I personally would not touch a car if the belt change had not occured.

That is important, otherwise check the normal things like FSH, smoke out of the exhaust.
Does it look or feel tired? (I hope not on a 'W' plate)

Check the tyre wear, some are alarmingly bad and not everyone thinks of alignment.

If you have a look on SIDC and scoobynet, you will find lots more info and what to look for.

[Nicol@]

double post ....oops

>> Edited by Nicol@ on Tuesday 5th July 13:26

[DJFish]

As with most cars the cambelt service is the expensive one(about £500 iirc), though I believe the 90k is even worse.

All cars up to year 2000 req'd the cambelt change at 4 yrs/50k, however after a bit of a re-think, Subaru announced that some year 2000 cars could have theirs done at 5yrs/60k, mine was done at 5yrs/48k(ish).

As I said the reason for the expense is the belt change (as well as fluids etc), also some part of the belt tensioner is notorious for breaking during services and this often bumps up the price.

All cars of that age are now out of warranty which was 3 yrs/60k miles (extendable to 5 yrs but dependant on main dealer servicing) and will therefore benefit from much cheaper servicing from independants like these guys: www.xtremescoobies.co.uk/ That's where I'll be taking mine after my last main dealer service.

There was a known problem with the 5th gear on the MY2000, a nut works loose in the box and they start to slip out of 5th at motorway speeds when you lift off the throttle. Dealers should fix this as a warrenty issue, as it's a manufacturing fault.

Other than that, stone chips are a sign of normal use, if a car that age has an immaculate nose, it may be a sign of a re-spray which may be a sign of a prang. Look for uneven tyre wear, Prodrive geometry tweak should sort this.

Hope this helps

Dave

[scoobybloke]

Don't skimp on the belt change. Assume it hasn't been done, from what you've said and factor that into the price. Xtreme Scoobies can do a 45k cambelt service for about £350 - not that bad and it does give you piece of mind (plus all the fluids in the car are replaced).

Chris