Need Buying Advice 05 GT

I'm looking at buying a 2005 Legacy GT Limited, its an automatic transmission with 79,000 miles and listed at $11,900. Car is extremely clean inside and out and appears to having been well cared for over the years. The CarFax is clean, but there are a couple service records that stood out.

1. The turbocharger was serviced at 62,000 and checked again at 74,000.

2. The car failed emissions at 72,000 before having the emissions controls serviced and the drive axel serviced and passed emissions at 73,000

Any advice on pricing, issues and/or common problems with the car would be greatly appreciated. I'm having a mechanic look at the car later this week and would like to be able to suggest things for him to look out for. Thanks in advance.

Here is the link to the original listing.

http://www.texashotrides.com/2005-Subaru-Legacy-GT-Ltd-Addison-Texas-75001/4753091

And the link to the vehicle CarFax.

http://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/p/Report.cfx?partner=AVR_0&vin=4S3BL676254207986

The 5 previous owners, just by itself, would put me off. That's a combining effect that I wouldn't want to be concerned about.

The 5 owners is a little misleading. Dug a deeper and found out the following.

Owner 1 - Corporate Car

Owner 2 - Personal (Title transferred to employee's name from owner 1)

Owner 3 - Personal

Owner 4 - Dealer (Acquired as Trade In)

Owner 5 - Dealer (Bought at auction from Dealer #4)

Compression test, Factory Momo steering wheel not option. Finally not STI wheels they a 5x114 Legacy should be 5x100. IMHO

Getting a compression test done and I'll have results tomorrow. From what I've read I should be looking for 140-170 with less than 10% difference between cylinders. Anything else I should keep an eye out for?

Pardon my complete ignorance with aftermarket parts, but please explain the issue with the MOMO steering wheel and STI wheels. I understand the 04 STI wheel is 5x100 and should theoretically work, while newer models are 5x114. So could this simply be the 04 STI wheel or are these actual the newer/wider model, and if so what problems would that create? Thank you!!

Getting a compression test done and I'll have results tomorrow. From what I've read I should be looking for 140-170 with less than 10% difference between cylinders. Anything else I should keep an eye out for?

 

Pardon my complete ignorance with aftermarket parts, but please explain the issue with the MOMO steering wheel and STI wheels. I understand the 04 STI wheel is 5x100 and should theoretically work, while newer models are 5x114. So could this simply be the 04 STI wheel or are these actual the newer/wider model, and if so what problems would that create? Thank you!!

See my thread from this week in this forum. Compression alone wont tell the whole story. I was looking at a clean 05 GT MT LTD that the compression was low but the leakdown showed the car needed a valvejob. Don't buy with out both tests being done.

Getting a compression test done and I'll have results tomorrow. From what I've read I should be looking for 140-170 with less than 10% difference between cylinders. Anything else I should keep an eye out for?

 

Pardon my complete ignorance with aftermarket parts, but please explain the issue with the MOMO steering wheel and STI wheels. I understand the 04 STI wheel is 5x100 and should theoretically work, while newer models are 5x114. So could this simply be the 04 STI wheel or are these actual the newer/wider model, and if so what problems would that create? Thank you!!

There is no issue. It just seems "to me" that they are advertising that the factory Momo steering wheel and the older STI wheels are some "WOW" factor. Granted the wheels are a postive in the looks department if you like them or negative if you don't. I guess it was in my opinion that they don't make the price of the car any better or worse.

Compression test results

151, 163, 148, 158

Just outside the range I was hoping for, but still pretty consistent. Any thoughts?

It's not 5 owners as stated above BUT the one that would make me EXTREMELY nervous is the fact it was bought ~11/10 by someone with ~73,xxx miles. 3 years later it's only got 6k more miles on it?

That tells me whoever bought it had nothing but trouble with it and dumped it.

Just my opinion.