So I recently sold my wrx to help pay for college but I want to stay in the subaru chain, but at a much lower price.

So I found a 97 legacy 2.5GT sedan automatic Ya its an automatic but this will just be my car to drive to school and work and I want AWD. Its priced at $5200 (washington state)

But it has 117,000 miles. But....the head gasket was recently replaced, which I guess is a major problem on the earlier legacy's. Thats a good thing that it was replaced right? or could there be other problems if it blew? All stock except it has been lowered. Also has new tires and the abs system done at the dealer.

Is this a good deal?? Hopefully I could get him down a little bit

Any advice would be great,

Thanks

 

Welcome to i-Club.
Alot of people have had problems with the way older Legacy's.
If it blew a headgasket it could have possible cooling system issues
and it should tell you how the car was treated.
Also it is possible their are other things wrong with the car.
I can totaly understand that you are looking for a dependable
car to get to school and work.If I were you I would look for a little
newer Subaru.I have a 04 WRX sedan and it is really efficent
and dependable.I just make sure I keep up on my maintenance
and oil changes.Good luck though.
www.ebaymotors.com
www.autotrader.com

 

Replaced or not, I would not recommend the purchase of a car prone to problems like this.

There are some very fine examples out there for a reasonable price. I would suggest that you keep looking.

 

blown head gasket might be a warning for bigger problems (possible car abuse)

Look into the older Imprezas also. You can get those for pretty cheap.

 

Late 90's impreza outbacks are in the 5-8k price range.

 

good price for it.
Chances are after 3 years of driving it like that you will be craving forced induction and wind up doing a wrx swap any way.
There could be issues if the gasket blew and they drove it like that for a bit (scored cylinder walls) in which case it will be burning oil like no tomarrow.

 

Well from reading on multiple subaru forums, the Head Gasket on the most all of the earlier legacy's until like 2002 were prone to blow due from a defect from the factory.

I did a search and most everyone that replaced the head gasket when it blew whether it was at 50k miles or 120k have had no other problems since. I aksed the same question on another forum and numerous people said they had replaced there's and since have over 200k miles on the car without any other problems.

He seemed to take care of it though. Has all the records including the timing belt/water pump. The HG was replaced 2 months ago.

Still the same opinion?? Nobody here seemed to mension that legacy's have head gasket problems like every other site.

Thanks again

 

I would look for a Subaru with lower miles like under 100K miles.
That car you were looking at was probably abused.
As said the late 90's Subaru Outbacks are a really good buy.
The best of luck with your purchase.

 

There is no evidence of abuse here.
If the car was abused you would see items like struts, tires, and other suspension components from hitting a curb.
I would know because I beat the living hell out of my car and had to replace all those things in the first year!
And might I point out even though I beat up my car that badly it has never had a dependibility issue. 121k on it and its just fine.
Moral of the story, if you suspect abuse for any reason test drive it and spend the $60 to have a mechanic look it over. There will be signs and trust me head gaskets are not an indicator of abuse or any other larger issue. Head gaskets will blow at random unless of corse you do something like boost the compression without replacing them.