Thinking about trading

I am thhinking about trading my honda for a 97 subaru legacy gt 2.5 its a 5 speed and it has 163,000 mile. Now i wasnt to know if its worth the trade the subaru has cross and drilled rotors. I dont know if the headgaskets have never been changed and the guy that has it doesnt know to but its his dd. He did tell me that he got it hot because it needed a new thermostat. So I want your guys help in telling me if i should trade. Does have rust on the back panels to.

It sounds your just trading a car of similar value, right?

Why is the other owner wanting to trade? Its an old car and he isn't upgrading. I would just be skeptical he is getting rid of his problem. 15 year old car are already a crap shoot to begin with. Anyways I probably wouldn't trade.

Ok well mine is a 96 accord with swap in it and he told me he wants to get rid of becasue if it breaks on him he doesnt know how to fix it.

Overheating at 160k or so is most likely due to head gasket failure, not a faulty thermostat. The OEM head gaskets of that period are prone to failure more often than not. The new replacement HGs are great and won't have similar issues. If you replace the thermostat make sure you only use an OEM new Subaru thermostat. They are only $23. Head gasket failure is very common in the 2.5s right at the mileage that the GT is at. The cross drilled rotors should not factor into your decision to buy the car, in fact cross and drilled rotors are not any better than regular rotors, and if cheap are worse.

Fixing Subarus is pretty easy and straightforward once you are familiar with them. This trade sounds fishy and unless you are willing to tackle the potential head gasket issue I would walk away. If he has been overheating the subaru the heads could be warped as well and coolant and oil mixing destroying the bearings.

Has the timing belt done recently? If not, that should factor into your decision. If you do it yourself it won't be too expensive, but taking it to a shop will cost you anywhere from $650-1000. You need to know this because if your timing belt breaks your valves will be trashed and you will need to do some major head work at the very least.

Subarus are plentiful. If you really want one, shop around and do some more research. Good luck and welcome to the site. We'd love you to get out of a Honda into a Subaru!