So I found this Saab on my now very short drive to work. Stopped by to look at it and surprise its a Subi ? 2005 2.5 non turbo 5 speed. Cars from up north and the motor looks like it came out from under the sea. Runs and drives good.check engine light on and cruise light was flashing. What's the 411 on these ? Run away ? What's it worthy? It's funky and I like funky.
scottdownsouth wrote: Cars from up north and the motor looks like it came out from under the sea. Run away ?
I think you answered your own question, unless the car is near scrap price.
Yes, it's basically a rebadged Subaru.
It's an Impreza with different body panels and better interior. Check carefully for rust, especially since you say the car came from up north.
It's a 2005 so if it's a 2.5L then it's N/A. Find out if the head gaskets have been done. If not then you are looking at $1500 sooner or later unless you can DIY.
HG will leak externally not internal, unlike older (97-99) Subaru's. So if you can live with it, they can leak for a while without too much worry.
Yep, it's basically a 2.5RS. I've had 2 Aeros (WRX), they have all of the issues that the Suby does, well documented on the web. In addition body panels are getting hard to find (bumpers and fenders are different, I think maybe the hatch too) and they tend to sell cheaper than the equivalent Suby. I think they look pretty great though.
So do all the cars up north look that bad under the hood and can it be cleaned ? Any power upgrades ? Then again, after driving a TDI for 9 years, this thing was a rocket,lol.
In reply to scottdownsouth:
No power upgrades worth spending money on. If you want faster get a turbo.
Do you think it was actually submerged or is it just some surface corrosion? Hard for anyone else to say without seeing the engine bay.
Timing belt is 105k miles or 105 months so that is something to take into account. If the coolant doesn't look bad don't worry about the head gaskets. There was a recall on the front LCA to check for corrosion so if they look swiss-cheesey you can get that fixed. Clean with around 100k I think $5k-$6k is fair.
In reply to scottdownsouth:
Sometimes the crap under the hood is corrosion-resistance stuff. Crap sticks to it but its better than rust. Any pictures of what you are looking at?
As Ojala said - no power upgrades worth doing on a 2.5 NA. Apparently there is a Cobb AP for the NA but its rare. Some guys put UEL headers on them but that is for sound and can actually hurt performance.
As mentioned above be prepared to do the timing belt and more than likely the head gaskets. Like NGTD said the head gaskets leak externally so you will not see it in the coolant but you will smell it burning off on the exhaust as it drips down on to it.
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