Which would you choose?
 

I"m looking to buy by my first SVX, and would prefer to keep the price down below $10K. I'm in the SF Bay Area. The dilemma:

A local '95 L AWD with 78K miles, with unknown history, so I have no idea what's been serviced and replaced. Asking price is $9500, but I'm sure I can get it down a bit. The car is clean and everything works fine at the moment. Are Subaru dealers connected so that the local dealer can see the car's history, assuming a subaru dealer has maintained the car?

or,

On the east coast, '96 LS-L with 46K miles, superb condition, recently replaced tranny, 60K service done, new tires, $14.5K, may not be able to get it for much less. It will cost an additional $1K or so to ship it out here. This is more than I wanted to pay, but in theory I'd be getting a better car!

Both have clean carfax histories. Which would you choose?

Does anyone know of a good mechanic familiar with SVX's in the SF bay peninsula area to check out the local car?

Thanks!

-steve

Re: Which would you choose?
 

Have the local Subaru dealer run the car through the "Star" system. That should tell of any warranty work done, while the car was under warranty.

As for the pricing, if I could afford it (even though it's more than I "wanted" to pay, I'd buy the 96 LSi (the only LS-L was in 92/93). There are more luxury amenities (sunroof etc on the "i" than an L. Plus, I think they're asking too much for an "L". I would try to talk them down some, though. Seems a little pricey. Check Kelly and NADA and do some homework on pricing. Also, check the area in which it is being priced. There is sometimes a variance.

95L sounds ok to me. Although you might want to check and see if it is really an AWD SVX. A decent amount of L trimmed SVXes are FWD.

Lwin

Not knowing that there is such a thing as an AWD "L" (I thought all 94-95 L's were FWD), I looked under the car, and sure enough, it has rear axles! The VIN number also comes up as an AWD L on Carfax.

$9500 is too high, and I wouldn't pay anywhere near that. Somewhere around $7500 would be closer. The '96 LSi would be fairly priced at $14K, and I'm betting it can be sold at that price. Picking the '95 L is a big savings!

And thanks for the tip on the Subaru Star system!