1993 Legacy Turbo Wagon

[mtnparty]

Hello All,

I am looking at a 93 Legacy turbo with a 5sp swap. It looks to be in good shape and he says he resealed the engine when he did the tranny swap. The engine has 200,000 on it and that is the only thing that concerns me and the steering racks leaks a little. He said it uses a little oil but does not smke. I plan on using it was a commuter car am I making a mistake? Anything I should look out for on these cars? Thanks for any help as I just came across this car and the price is right.

Thanks again. Jay

[TurnNburn]

Welcome to the board.

Subaru's last forever as long as you keep up on the maintainence. In fact im 54 miles away from turning over 200k miles on a engine that as far as i know has never been rebuilt and it still runs like a champ at 15psi. How long ago was the swap done? With that many miles its bound to use up a little oil, just make sure that your on top of changing it and keeping it up at its proper level. I just noticed a leak from what i thought was the rack on my car too, but it turned out it was the top of the pressure line (the metal wrapped one) going to the rack. The old clamp there just wasnt cutting it anymore so I put a better screw type clamp and no more leak.

I wish my car came with a 5 speed. I would drop kick a baby badger in the face for a manual car. I miss shifting.

How much is he asking?

[mtnparty]

Thanks for the welcome. I think he did the swap quite a few miles ago, he said he did the swap when he bought it and drove in 100mi a day as a commuter car. the car has 224K and he said it runs great. I am going to go look /drive it tomorrow and see how beat up it really is but the pics it looks well kept.

He is asking 1800 for it but might be a little flexible. What do you think a fair price would be?

[TurnNburn]

Thats not out of the ball park high, but its going to depend on the condition of the car ie. rust, dents, windshield, check engine lights, and the condition of the paint. Its fair as long as you get what you pay for. For that much money the engine better run solid and transmission should should not have any wierd noises. As far as you know is it stock?

[mtnparty]

The car looks to be in good shape, straight body, little/none rust, good paint. The motor is all stock and he says it runs/shifts great. I am kind of nervous about a car with that many miles and a swaped in tranny... but I like the car. He even says the sunroof works/seals.

That said I am going to see it in person later today. If you guys hav any other advice about these cars let me know otherwise I will let you know how it goes. Thanks.

[Legacy777]

My caution for you is that if you're planning to use this as a commuter car, these cars do NOT get great fuel mileage. They get ok mileage if you can keep your foot out of the gas, but I wouldn't expect more than around 20-21 mpg in town, and mid 20's on the highway.

There's a couple fuel mileage threads on here. You may want to search for them to see what others are getting for mileage. Not sure where you're located, but if you could find a non-turbo car in good shape, it's going to probably get a little bit better mileage.

[mtnparty]

Here is the car ... I am concerned about the MPG with the turbo, do you need to run high grade in this motor?

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=46819

any thoughts?

[TurnNburn]

Looks pretty clean for being stock. Yes these cars run premium gas through them so you might want to reconsider your purchase considering the price of gas if you dont plan on wrenching on it for a project. I only get about 16ish city, but thats getting on it pretty often. But like Legacy said, your never going to get really good mpg's out of it. But they are really fun, especially if you plan on visiting the snow.

[Josh222]

I average 16.9MPG mixed driving with my turbo wagon and premium is up to about $5.90/gallon

[TurnNburn]

OUCH!!! And here i am complaining about 4.40... Still bad, but damn!!!