I’m considering this Subaru. The price is right, the car looks clean with reasonably low (130K) mileage, but it has had six owners since new, has been a rental car, and spent the first eleven years in the frozen north (Maryland, Wisconsin, Illinois) before being relocated to Texas in 2019. (Carfax available on above link)
It looks like its been taken care of despite its rental/owner history… what should I be especially wary of with this car?
I don’t like the fact that the most recent two owners were personal owners, i.e. not dealers or resellers, and owner #5 only kept the car for 5 months, and owner #6 only kept it for one month. Something tells me that this car has issues, and I don’t really trust the “car lot” selling this. I’d keep looking.
At 130,000 miles, all bets are off. Name a malfunction and it could happen. None of the people who repair Subarus seem happy about ease of repair.
Hard to sell a northern vehicle in the south. Mechanics dislike the chassis rust: suspension, brakes and exhaust systems are more difficult to repair with rusted fasteners.
All good points… Run away, this is very likely a money pit.
I have owned 3 Subarus, and I was extremely pleased with their reliability and their durability. However, the chance of mechanical problems with any car grows when it has logged 130k miles, and the probability of those mechanical problems with an AWD vehicle after 6 people have owned it will grow geometrically.
I vote with those who say that the OP should run away from this deal.
It is probably not going to work reliably for you, but if you really like it after a long test drive, pay a mechanic you trust to check the car and see if there are any issues with it. If it comes back with a clean bill of health, consider buying it. There are likely at least a couple of issues that need attention and I’d get a price from your mechanic on them then reduce your offer and include the price of repairs. Your mechanic will probably charge around $150 for the prepurchase evaluation so make sure you are really interested before you have it done.
Thanks much for the great responses! I’ll do as everyone suggests and give this one a miss but at my meager price point ($6K) I’m probably stuck with the mileage.