legacycentral bbs

Hi guys, first off, just want to mention that yes, I’ve done my research. I’ve looked into the common problems with these cars, their history, moddability, etc.

My other cars include an IROC Camaro, 5-spd Lexus SC300 (daily driver, soon to be turbo’d), and a 2nd gen AWD Turbo eclipse (heavily modified, and my Auto-x SM class racer). The AWD Eclipse WAS my winter driver, but a spun bearing has put it in the driveway (again). It's also gotten a little hairy to use as a daily driver...so I'm started to look for ANOTHER car. In my search for a fun, reliable, AWD car I stumbled across the following:

1993 Subaru Legacy
136,000miles
5-spd
Power Everything
AM/FC Cass, CD
Turbo
“Body Rough, runs 100%, in the last year all brakes, timing belt, water pump and seals done, great fun in snow, $1,900”
(I contacted him and found out that “seals” means new cam and crank seals)

What are your thoughts? Like I said, I did research, but I honestly didn’t know anything about these cars before I saw this add and started researching. My friend in my auto club had one back in college, but all I knew about it was that it had a “glass transmission”…which is why he sold it.

Does this thing sound like a good deal? I’m also looking at some Outbacks and Impreza’s in that price range, but I’d LOVE to have a turbo…especially because I’ve got quite a few spare parts from the eclipse kicking around that might be of use.

These are the kind of first posts that we love to get

The transmissions aren't "glass," but if you do beat the hell out of them, you will break them. Being an AWD DSM owner, you have probably heard just as many tranny-grenading stories as we have. In short, don't dump the clutch at redline and don't slam gears around like a rabid gorilla and you shouldn't have a problem.

By "body rough," do they mean banged up, or rusted? Subaru made a huge step in rust prevention with the Legacy, I guess with the way they undercoated them. But nonetheless, if they've lived primarily in snowy states, they can develop cancer. If it's minor stuff, like surface rust on body panels, you're probably okay. If it's frame rust or actual holes in the bodywork, might wanna look elsewhere.

But 136k is absolutely nothing. Search some of 91White-T's posts, he just picked up a 91 turbo with over 400,000 miles on all original stuff, and he still IC'ed and boosted it and drives it hard.

Good luck!

That is a good deal. Like subyluvr said, 136k is nothing. She's just getting going at the mileage. There are heavily moded cars here with far higher mileage that are driven every day. I hope you get it, once you drive it you will know you made the right decision.

And by the way, welcome to the BBS!!!

If the body is truly rough I would not consider that a god deal

You may be able to find similar pricing with a much better body, and a few niggling mechanical problems that are easy to fix

subyluvr2212 wrote:These are the kind of first posts that we love to get

The transmissions aren't "glass," but if you do beat the hell out of them, you will break them. Being an AWD DSM owner, you have probably heard just as many tranny-grenading stories as we have. In short, don't dump the clutch at redline and don't slam gears around like a rabid gorilla and you shouldn't have a problem.

By "body rough," do they mean banged up, or rusted? Subaru made a huge step in rust prevention with the Legacy, I guess with the way they undercoated them. But nonetheless, if they've lived primarily in snowy states, they can develop cancer. If it's minor stuff, like surface rust on body panels, you're probably okay. If it's frame rust or actual holes in the bodywork, might wanna look elsewhere.

But 136k is absolutely nothing. Search some of 91White-T's posts, he just picked up a 91 turbo with over 400,000 miles on all original stuff, and he still IC'ed and boosted it and drives it hard.

Good luck!

Heh, yeah, being a DSM owner, I've definitely heard my share of stories related to every aspect of the cars reliability. Unfortunately, I've found that most of them are true. When the car was completely stock (and to the best of my knowledge, unabused), one of the shift rails went taking out the entire tranny. Shortly after fixing that, the turbo went. Then it was the timing belt (at 109,000miles...yes it was changed at 60,000), taking out the head. 1,500miles after installing the new fully built head, I spin a bearing. I'm not looking for a car that's bullet-proof, just something that will treat me well as long as I treat IT well (no hard AWD launches, getting a turbo timer or letting the car cool after driving it hard, smooth shifting, regular maintenance, etc). None of the problems I've had with my DSM were related to my driving (except for *maybe* the spun bearing...I have yet to tear the engine apart and find out).

As far as what "rough body" means, that's what I'm going to find out when I look at the car tomorrow. I'm pretty much OK with anything that doesn't affect the structural integrity of the car. I'm not looking for a head turner (if I want to snap necks, I'll drive my Lexus), just a fun, relible little sleeper that I can play around with. I will say that after browsing around these forums a little bit there are some cars here that look real nice - they definitely age better than the VR-4's, the car I WOULD be looking for had I not had so much misfortune with DSM's.

136,000 being "nothing" is exactly what I wanted to hear (you'll rarely hear anyone on a DSM board say that buying a DSM as a reliable daily driver, with ANY mileage, is a real good idea). I really don't want to buy this car and have to be constantly dumping money in it to keep it going because it's past it's life expectancy at 100K.

professor wrote:If the body is truly rough I would not consider that a god deal

You may be able to find similar pricing with a much better body, and a few niggling mechanical problems that are easy to fix

Locally? I'm in New England - any 1st gen Legacy around here has been through 10-15 New England winters...I'm sure there aren't many people who bought one of these cars and only drove it in nice weather. I think I"ll be hard pressed to find one without any sort of rust in the near future. Winter is coming up quick and there's no way I'm driving the Lexus or Camaro in a snowstorm, especially because my job requires me to occationally drive on unpaved (and unplowed) roads. If I don't pick up this 1st gen Legacy I probably won't be picking one up at all, unless more turbo 5-spds start popping up in the area.

I know what you're getting at - it's a lot easier and cartainly cheaper to fix mechanical issues than body issues, but for my purpose, as stated above, I'd rather have to deal with the latter, so long as it doesn't get to the point where if affects the former.

I would offer them 1200.

I'll offer him $1200, but I'm betting there's no way he'll take it. I didn't talk to him but he left a message on my phone. The guy definitely knew what the car was, and what it was worth. You really think that, no matter how good the mecahnicals, it's only worth $1200??

I paid 1400 for my 5sp NA FWD couple years ago and it had 183k on it. The body was in great shape and so was the interior. Do I feel like I got a deal, damn straight.

Now what would I do if I were in your shoes. I'd offer him 1600 but would still be willing to pay the full 1900 if he wanted it. To get a manual turbo with only 136k is a pretty good find, that's exactly what I'm looking for when I get out of school. And if you need a winter car and are going to be subjecting it to harsh NE winters, does a little rust really matter?

And of course, welcome to the BBS.

Thanks for all the input guys. I talked to the guy selling the car personally tonight. He's done all the work on the car himself and seemed to know alot about subie's all together (He mentioned he picked up another non-turbo '90 legacy and that the timing belt went...I asked him if it was an interference engine, he said no, and was able to list off which subie engine's were and which weren't). He said that everything mechanical on the car is perfect. He bought the car almost exactly a year ago, did the water pump, seals, timing belt, brakes, and the coolant overflow tank (he said it was some type of expansion tank?) last year and the only thing he's done since was replace an axle a couple of weeks ago.

Physically, the car is rolling on 2.5RS black steelies (because he said the stock alloys were hurting). I asked what he ment by "body rough". He said there's not a lot of rust on the car, just a dent in the front fenders and one of the doors. I'm going to look at the car tomorrow around 3ish. Wish me luck guys.

Sweet....

check the suspension carefully for signs of a wreck... when I hear the alloys are hurting, I'm wondering why

What professor said, and I have never seen a 2.5RS on steelies

Ultimately though, $1900 is a pretty damn good deal. I know of ONE 91 turbo in my area with more mileage than that, it belongs to a friend of mine, and he wouldn't sell it for less than $3k, although he brought the body back to perfect condition...

Haha, great link.


Checked it out today. As I pulled up, the first thing I noted was that physically, the car looked like COMPLETE @$$. It didn't have the turbo bumper (must have messed it up before), the paint on the entire car is completely faded or chipping, there's a dent on the driver side door dead smack in the center, and on the passenger side, there's a HUGE crease right from the passenger fender up through the passenger door, so much so that the passenger door hits the fender when opening it. It had the ugly steelies on it that he pulled off an impreza from the junkyard (stockies I guess were real chipped and pitted).

HOWEVER, the car had VERY minimal rust for it's age. And it was only that - surface RUST, and just on the rockers...there was no body rot. Looking inside the fenders, door jams, at all the shock mounts revealed no rust what-so-ever. That was a very good sign.

The inside of the car wasn't half bad. Very dirty...I'm sure the guy never even had a thought of cleaning it...but nothing was really broken, except the "window lock" button on the driver side was missing. All the power pieces worked fine, except there's a piece broken on the sunroof that keeps it from closing all the way without holding a piece of it down, but it's a real easy fix.

The guy selling it was very honest, pointed out every little thing with the car that I would not have noticed without spending a few hours picking it apart. I asked him about having the brakes done - he was honest and said that it was just the pads, not the rotors.

At this point, I was standing back, looking at the car, and thinking to myself, "This is stupid. I should just pick up a nice 130k mile Impreza, outback, or non-tubo Legacy. For 2 grand I can get one of the ones in the paper in MUCH nicer condition..who the hell cares if it's a turbo anyway?" I was just going to walk away, then I figured, hey, what the hell, might as well drive it for the hell of it.

I asked the guy for the keys, started it up, peaked around the engine untill it was warm, and then took it for a drive with my girlfriend. I noticed that the tranny felt very smooth - not quite as smooth as my lexus (n/a supra) tranny, but smooth none-the-less for a 12y/o car that looked like it did. The suspension, while not as tight as I'm used to, felt good - the car didn't float at all as I took it down the first hill over some bumps...the shocks felt good. Power steering pump was quiet. Exhaust was quiet. A/C and heat blasted. Brakes felt a little weak, but they didn't feel spongey, just not "grabby". Overall, the car felt very tight.

However, I still was planning on walking away, until I took a left turn, gave it some gas going up a steep incline, and heard that sweet, sweet faint whistle. I melted. I've got a very nice stereo system in my GSX, and I remember why I never used the damn thing. It's been 8 long months since I've heard that sweet whistle. Instantly thoughts went from, "I should just get a nice good looking subee" to, "no other subee short of a wrx could make a sound so nice." I knew that I'd have a helluva time finding a reliable, AWD, TURBO car in ANY condition for under 2grand if I didn't pick this thing up, nevermind one in such good mechaincal condition, and I'd regret getting anything else.

I pulled in, bulshitted with the guy for an hour or so, and then started to talk business. 10 minutes later, I was putting a deposit on my 1993 Legacy Sport Sedan. Even convinced him to throw in some extra's he had kicking around in the garage.

I'm going to pick the car up sometime next week, and I'll post some pictures of the car up that I snapped later. But as for now, do you guys know what I might be able to do with this junk?

Driving my car is the same thing that convinced me to buy it, I was about to walk away too... That timer and IC can be put to use, did you rob a WRX or something? lol j/k