2015 Legacy 2.5i Premium high millage

Hey everyone,

I am a first time car buyer so a little new to the whole process but have been doing a lot of research and landed on trying to get a subary legacy. I've driven a few of them before as family vehicles and like how they hold the road and enjoy their all wheel drive.

Ideally I was looking for something in the 2012-2014 with under 100,000 miles on it but a local used subaru dealership has this currently on the lot.

https://tinyurl.com/y2syboap

It's worth noting its been on the lot for about a month now and they've reduced their starting price twice in an effort to sell it. I worry about the high millage because I am going to try and run this as my main vehicle for 5+ years and want it to be reliable.

My question is, what in your experience are typical problems that come up with a subaru around these miles and what kind of costs can I expect in normal wear and tear maintenance over the next 50-100K. Is it worth getting this car if I plan to run it as long as I do?

Sorry if these are nooby questions. I'm a noob and am learning as I go.

It would be really hard to say. That's a TON of miles for a 4-5 year old car. Probably a salesman's car. That could mean he was reimbursed for all maintenance and he did everything on time, or it could mean he saw it as "not his problem" if something went wrong and did none of it.

If they have the service records, then maybe. But if not, I'd stay away from a car that accumulated 40K miles a year

I have this same car. a 2015 legacy 2.5. have about 130K miles on it. When I first bought the car (brand new) i planned on keeping it until i hit 200k miles.....more recently that was revised down to 175k then down to getting rid of it next fall at about 160k miles.

other than routine maintenance (new brakes and tires and spark plugs) the only repair until recently was a new wheel bearing. currently for the past month I've been dealing with a P0420 code issue. Dealer says both of my catalytic converters are dead. $2500 for those. but i'm not sure that fixes my car as i may still have low power issues once those are put on. dead cats are a symptom of another issue and we're not sure what that is yet.

My car burns oil, this didn't start until about 75K miles. i don't have to add oil until I've driven about 3k into my new oil change, then i have to add 1 quart per 1,000 miles. so i buy oil by the case and keep oil in my trunk.

I have a feeling my oil consumption led to my eventual catalytic converter issues, but we'll see.

I like my car, the drivetrain rocks, but i don't like the oil consumption issues.

Not sure i like the car in that link.

I paid almost that amount for a 2009 2.51 SE with 52K miles on it two years ago. That's too many miles for that price

Oh geez! I didn't even look at the price! Yeah, maybe $6500 - 7 tops

Edmunds suggests an average dealer retail of $8900 for a clean car with that many miles (about $7200 for a private party sale) - at $9500 they are a bit out of line, I think. If you consider it to be in "exceptional" condition (which, with visible damage on the sunroof, an unknown maintenance history, etc. I wouldn't until I had a much closer look) then Edmunds suggests $9600 as the average dealer retail.

If you really like the car, and it checks out mechanically (compression, leakdown, etc.) then offer low and see where they will go. I would guess they'd just say no if you go too low, but maybe $7500 and see if you can get them to settle at $8000-8500 or so.

Looking on Cars.com, there's a 2016 2.5i premium with 100k miles listed at $9995 in Cleveland, OH, a 15 2.5i premium with 87k miles listed at 9741 in FL, a 15 2.5i with 176k miles listed for $6995 in OK, etc. - none of those cars have the sunroof, though.

Thanks for all the great info everyone! It's been very helpful. I'm heading to that lot on Sunday to take a look at that car and another 2010 SUBARU LEGACY 2.5I LIMITED with 76k miles on it that they also have listed at about 2k over KBB or Nada value. We'll see what they are willing to do and what I can find out from inspecting it. I'll start them at about $500 under top of the KBB and see if they want to walk me off the lot or not. It is the end of the month so hopefully they want to play ball and not #$%@ around.

Again thanks for all the advice. Any other info you want to give to a first time used subaru buyer I am more than happy to listen to.

Edmunds suggests an average dealer retail of $8900 for a clean car with that many miles (about $7200 for a private party sale) - at $9500 they are a bit out of line, I think. If you consider it to be in "exceptional" condition (which, with visible damage on the sunroof, an unknown maintenance history, etc. I wouldn't until I had a much closer look) then Edmunds suggests $9600 as the average dealer retail.

 

 

If you really like the car, and it checks out mechanically (compression, leakdown, etc.) then offer low and see where they will go. I would guess they'd just say no if you go too low, but maybe $7500 and see if you can get them to settle at $8000-8500 or so.

 

 

Looking on Cars.com, there's a 2016 2.5i premium with 100k miles listed at $9995 in Cleveland, OH, a 15 2.5i premium with 87k miles listed at 9741 in FL, a 15 2.5i with 176k miles listed for $6995 in OK, etc. - none of those cars have the sunroof, though.

Glad you added to that. I had edited my comment to add about the same but the server took a dump and then I was out the door for a concert.

My update was "of course, that's private party, and this is a dealer. The dealer is probably in it for at least $6500 after their purchase price, new tires, and other trade-in related maintenance/cleaning/detailing, etc. So they probably can't go any lower than $7500 - 8"

I'll start them at about $500 under top of the KBB and see if they want to walk me off the lot or not.

If that's your strategy, go $1000 under. But I'd suggest just using the low end of NADA. In my experience, Dealers don't look at KBB, and live entirely in NADA. They *know* what the NADA values are, and if you're anywhere in the range, they'll know you're in the land of reality.