Today I came across a '98 Legacy wagon for sale. Red, clean interior, auto, and 220k. Asking $600. The bad is it needs a new steering rack and rust. A remaned rack looks to be $150-200. The rust on the unibody looks to be limited to the front of the rear arches, bubbles on one side and a hole on the other. The door skins are bad on the bottom corners, holes on at least 2 doors. One front fender has a hole at the bottom rear of the arch.
How hard is a steering rack R&R? If I ignore the rust I can have it turned around with less than $800 out of pocket, maybe $1k if I also throw on some new brake pads and tires. Or I could possibly keep it as a backup/winter beater/kayak&bike hauler.
As far as selling it, The local market is good for selling a subaru, the only hesitation is it would sell best in the fall.
If you're trying to make money at this, your location is crucial. I've seen those subie wagons (auto) with a million miles go for gold where I live because it's ski country. 3500$ All. Day. Long. If don't live somewhere like that, consider the going rate...
I had a beautiful '99 Outback Limited a handful of years ago, always dealer maintained. Up north in going rate for them was over $6k. I got I think $3400 in Texas, which was $200 more than we'd paid for it 18 months prior.
I think by now, at least down here, going rates are about 1/2 that now.
You say the market is decent where you are then go for it. As long as the rust isn't worse than it seems, and nothing is majorly wrong with the car. It's hard to beat a driver for less than $1000.
NGTD
UltraDork
4/22/15 1:49 p.m.
Look at the rust REALLY carefully.
Rust on a Subaru has been known to migrate up into the rear strut towers, from the door/rear quarters areas.
Racks are easy and rarely go out on Subie's. The ratio's change with the different models, only change is the inner and outer tie rod ends.
Look under the car and you'll see it's accessible form the bottom.
If its that cheap I'd fix it, but when you crawl under to look it over, look for wetness where the heads meet the block on both sides. The bad thing about the older DOHC motors is that they leak primarily on the inside, but sometimes from the outside as well.
Last thing I'll say is that rust makes a car really hard to flip for decent money.
