Need suggestions on value

Hello all! I have the opportunity to pick up a used Legacy and due to its unique history I am not sure how to price it. I am hoping to get suggestions form current owners as to what you think this car is worth.

 

The car I am looking at is a 2005 GT limited wagon. Silver with black leather interior. 5 spd. It has 34,700 actual miles on it. The body has a couple of small dings and scratches, but nothing major. The interior is clean with the exception of the trunk area which was well used. It seems to be loaded with the sunroof and whatnot. Now, the motor in the car has just been rebuilt. The guy that owned it spun a bearing in it and brought it to a local shop to be fixed. He didn't have the money to fix it and ended up getting a divorce and pretty much fell off the face of the earth. 6 years later the car is still sitting at the shop and the shop now has the clear title for it in their name. So this is why the mileage is so low on it. The shop has rebuilt the motor and it is back to driving condition. When they rebuilt it they upgraded the pistons and rings in it to help bullet proof the motor. It is not running huge power. It only has a turbo back exhaust and an Accessport running stage 2 I believe. Other than that the car appears to be stock. What do you think a car in this condition should be worth? Any input would be much appreciated.Thanks!

Maybe when I get home tonight i'll have a few beers and give a more in depth opinion. But without more knowledge of who did the work and exactly what work was done it's hard to say if you can even trust that the car is worth buying.

 

Even with low mileage like that you could be getting yourself into a real mess. But if the engine was rebuilt properly and all maintenance needed was done to get it running perfect and was somewhat warrantied or a trusted shop I knew. I would probably pay up to maybe $12-13k. Again it's hard for me to say but yea.

 

In all honestly though I wouldn't even touch a car with that low of mileage and has a rebuilt engine unless the price was great(less than 12k for sure) and I trusted the shop and all that. Also I'm no expert on the going prices for legacy's, just giving my opinion. Ask me about a 93-07 impreza/wrx/sti and I could help more.

Cool, thanks for your input! The shop doing the repairs is well known in my area. I know the owner and the car was repaired properly with everything checked out and replaced if needed. The motor rebuild does come with a small warranty. I have known these guys for much longer than they have had the car and use to work there back when the car was first dropped off. So I know it's history is correct. I have zero worries about the reliability of this car or the story behind it. So let's just assume the car is solid with low miles and a new motor. Thanks again for your input!

The shop takes a bath on the bill, pursues the title, then 6 years later buys upgraded pistons and rebuilds the motor?

 

Ask for receipts

No. The car sat with a blown motor for 6 years and they just finally received the title for it and have just recently rebuilt the motor and gotten the car ready to sell.

With upgraded pistons and rings?

 

Sounds legit

I'm sorry. Did I post something to warrant your smart ass comments? Do you have any legitimate info to post on the value of this car?

 

Yes it has aftermarket pistons and rings in it. It's not uncommon for them to upgrade them when rebuilding motors especially considering how easy cylinder #4 likes to go on the stock internals on these motors. It is legit dude. Do you have an opinion on its value or would you like to continue with your useless replies?

If the car is in great shape and running good and passes the usual inspections...compression and leakdown at an independent (of owner ) shop. I would put value around the top of retail range according to NADA.com is $10k.

 

I think that is high personally. It is still a 10 year old car that has spent 6 of those years sitting and rotting. It is impossible to know what problems all that time has caused and they will creep up eventually. If you really trust the shop and it is worth more to you and you don't mind paying for your emotional attachment then have at it and enjoy the hell out of a rare and getting rarer car.

 

In the utmost wisdom this car is only worth what someone will pay for it, period. Book values are for banks and dealerships, but I have seen very clean versions of this car with higher mileage going for around $8-9k in florida.

Cool. Thanks for the input. Yeah its hard for me to put a price on it since everywhere I look on line I get a different price. It would be one thing if if the pricing was close, but I am seeing a drastic price difference between sites. Edmunds says $7300 private party value and KBB says 13k! That's a huge difference. NADA is pretty much right in the middle at $10.7k.

 

I did here from a guy on here that recently sold his wagon (same specs, different color). His had just under 90k miles on it and it needed a new clutch and a few other misc. things. He said he sold his for 10k.

 

They want 11k for this car, which seems about right I guess, considering the condition of the car and what the average price is between the 3 online sources.

 

Thanks again for the input FLlegacy! If anyone else has some real world input I'd love to hear it.