My SVX Purchasing Adventure

[DanSVX94]

I've always thought the SVX's looked cool. And my wife and I both drive Subaru Outbacks. We needed a third car so my daughter could commute to her summer job lifeguarding and teaching diving -- about a 20 minute trip each way, 6 days a week.

I went on Craigslist and saw a bunch of cars. Everyone said there car was mint and well-maintained blah blah blah. This all proved to be a bunch of bull. I test drove a 98 Chrysler with 42,000 miles that drove like crap, during the test drive I glanced in the side view mirror to see the left rear hubcap come off, roll towards me and actually pass me! The strangest experience was going to look at a 97 Subaru Legacy with 55,000 miles. The plates were off so I couldn't drive it very far. The guy wanted 4,000 for it. I brought it to a nearby station and they told me it needed 750 worth of repairs. They also told me they knew the guy selling the car and that he liked to race cars. The guy told me he was selling it for the owner, who name happened to be written down in the owners manual so I asked him what the guys name was and he couldn't tell me.

Finally I found a 1996 Black SVX LSI with 109,000 miles. I took it for a test drive and really liked it. The guy would only go down to 5,000. I left a $150 deposit. He was the original owner and had all the service receipts. The interior was mint, but the exterior had a ton of dings on the doors and rock chips and the guy had one brand of tires on the fronts and another on the rears.

A couple of days later the guy brought the car to my house and we went to my local repair shop to check it out. The mechanic couldn't get any of the 4 sensors readings that he would need for the car to pass inspection -- in NY 2 sensor readings are needed as a minimum. The heat shield was rattling, the rear wiper wasn't working, the washing fluid motor wasn't working, and there were a few fluid leaks. 5K was really my budget and I didn't want to spend more to get the car where it needed to be and I didn't know how much crap would be involved with getting the sensors to read. I told the guy I was passing on the car. He made me feel so guilty I told him to keep the $150 -- of course now I realize how stupid that was. I keep thinking of the scene in The Color of Money where Paul Newman lets Tom Cruise get his ass kicked for going soft on a mark.

To top it off, the day I left the deposit on the 1996 SVX I became a member of this site and incorporated the 1996 into my name

Despite all this, I still wanted an SVX.

I located a 1994 Laguna Blue SVX L FWD online near Charlottesville VA. It looked really nice in the photos and had under 77,000 miles. The present owner had it since 1999 when it had 29,000 miles. It was listed at $5,250. I asked the owner if they could do better on the price and she told me she wouldn't take less than 4K. It had new Nitto tires, new battery, new timing belt, new water pump, new rt rear bearing (installed with new grease). The lady was aware of the issues with the SVX and had taken steps to address them. The tranny fluid had been changed several times and replaced with synthetic. I figured the FWD was easier on the tranny, plus the car weighs 200 pounds less. It would have been nice to have AWD and ABS but I had to make compromises.

I called the dealer where the owner had the car serviced and everything checked out. I told the owner I would buy the car pending an inspection which I had done by Brown's Subaru in Charlottesville. They told me the car was very clean and in excellent condition. It needed an alignment, the CD player wasn't working (kicking out cd) and the headlights were so frosted that it wouldn't pass inspection. The car also had a two inch piece of vinyl missing from the drivers seat.

I rented a car to drive from Long Island to Charlottesville this past Monday 5/15/2006. I left at 2am and got to the dealer by 9:15am. Twenty minutes later the owner showed up and I paid her the 4K.

The dealer told me they had a new process for cleaning headlights that involved several levels of sandpaper, buffing, and sealing with silicone spray. Because I knew I would be driving home at night I had them do this service (175 -- 99 for a pair of headlights -- but they hit me up bad for the middle piece). I also had them change the oil ($30 I found out that the owner was changing the oil by mileage not by time) and do an alignment ($69). The dealer told me they had a guy who could remove all the dings from the inside and that he was the ding-genius. For $140 I told them to do it. It's a lot more expensive to have this done on Long Island. Best of all I had $500 in accumulated Subaru bucks from credit card purchases -- with the inspection my bill came to $494 -- so my total wound up being $4,494.

While the dealer was doing all the above I drove my rental car to the hell -- also know as the Charlottesville DMV -- there were about 200 people there and only 3 working clerks to handle the work load. They all looked like there Geritol supplier hadn't made a delivery in a long time -- they were that slooooooooooooooooow. 2 hours later I got my $5 travel permit for the rear window -- which I needed because I had insurance but no plates. The old DMV lady bumped her shin on her waste basket and said, "oops I almost kicked the bucket!" I told her that she was very funny and with 9 more jokes like that she would have an act and could do stand up comedy.

I then returned the rental to the Charlottesville airport and got a lift back to the dealership. It was about 2:00pm and I was really hoping they were done. The car was brought to the alignment place next door (which I later found out was not part of Subaru) at 1:15. Finally at about 3pm I was told the car was ready. I asked the alignment place if they had test driven the car and they told me no because there weren't any plates. I told them there was a travel permit. I wasn't impressed with them at all. I drove the car off and immediately noticed that when I was going straight the steering wheel was turned 20 degrees to the left. I brought the car back to Subaru and then back to the alignment place. They gave me a lot of attitude. After trying 4 more times they finally got it right. The guy said every once in a while this happens.

The trip home went well. The car drove great. It was very comfortable. The CD player was working -- I think the problem was that they used a bad cd to test it out -- or maybe the newer cd's have some compatibility issues with older players. The car had a lot of pep. I got almost 30 mpg on the highway. One thing I noticed is people really like tailgaiting SVX's. I think they think we're going to drive really fast or some thing. The only problem was that the Goethals Bridge was closed for repairs and I had to detour to the Outerbridge Crossing -- I of course screwed this up -- it was dark, raining, bad wipers, and bad signage. I lost about an hour. I finally got home at 12:30 am -- my 22 1/2 hours adventure over.

The next day I registered the car. The day after I had the car inspected ($40). Based on a conversation with another SVX owner I had the front and rear differential fluids replaced ($48). I also replaced the front hood ornament ($45). Later in the day I replaced my fuel filter ($24), new Bosch wipers ($36), and a bottle of Tekron fuel injector cleaner ($8).

I found some Leather seats for $500 that I will use to replace my current ones. So for about 5K I finally have a nice SVX. I don't think it needs anything else. I do notice that you have to be really careful with store driveways because you can bottom out on ones that aren't made that well.

All the adventure really took it's toll and I got a bad cold on Tuesday which is finally getting better. Getting older really sucks. When I was in my early 20's I could drive cross country alone in under 4 days.

Everyone thinks the car looks really cool and are very surprised by how little it costs. Of course it is 12 years old with 77,000 miles -- but it's so much nicer than the 99 Honda I got for my daughter last summer -- I sold it at the end of the summer. This car I'm definitely going to keep. I know my 14 year old son will want an SVX of his own in a few years.

I want to thank everyone on this site for their very valuable support and information. There is no way I could have done this without you. I don't know very much about cars, so there's not much help I can be to others.

Here are a few photos I took as the lady drove into the Subaru dealership in Charlottesville. I'll post more in the future.

[alltrac]

Are those pictures before or after the headlight cleaning?

The 96 SVX that you looked at sounds fine. The Subaru svx for 1996 and only 1996 is exempt from readiness test. A member here had problem and here is the thread http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/show...ght=obdII+smog


OBD Vehicles Exempt from Readiness Checks
The vehicles on this list include 1996 and newer vehicles that possess unique testing characteristics that prevent them from receiving a complete OBD (On-Board Diagnostics) emissions test. These particular OBD vehicles will skip over the readiness checks and go directly to the MIL (malfunctioning indicator light) check. This list may not be inclusive of all OBD vehicles that require readiness exempt inspections and is subject to change.

1996 Model Year
MAKE MODEL CYLINERS ENGINE DISPLACEMENT TRANSMISSIONS
EAGLE TALON 4 2 Either Auto or Manual
MITSUBISHI 3000 GT 6 3 Either Auto or Manual
MITSUBISHI 3000 GT SPYDER 6 3 Either Auto or Manual
MITSUBISHI DIAMANTE 6 3 Either Auto or Manual
MITSUBISHI MONTERO 6 3 Either Auto or Manual
MITSUBISHI MONTERO 6 3.5 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU IMPREZA 4 1.8 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU IMPREZA 4 2.2 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU IMPREZA 4 2.2 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU LEGACY 4 2.2 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU LEGACY 4 2.5 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU LEGACY 4 2.2 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU LEGACY 4 2.5 Either Auto or Manual
SUBARU SVX 6 3.3 Either Auto or Manual < I wish it was an option
VOLVO 850 5 2.3 Either Auto or Manual
VOLVO 850 5 2.4 Either Auto or Manual
VOLVO 850 5 2.3 Either Auto or Manual
VOLVO 850 5 2.4 Either Auto or Manual

[AFBeefcake]

Your car looks nice. Just the way my car looked when I first got it minus the door decals.

[DanSVX94]

Here are some photos I just took of what the headlights and center piece look like after cleaning.

Also, I wish I knew about the inspection exemption earlier. I'm going to let the place that did the inspection know about it too. I would have bought that car if it wasn't for what they told me. I don't know which is the better deal my 94 or the 96.

[RojoRocket]

Welcome to SVX Land!! The Laguna cars are particularly eyecatching. Hope you're not serious about paying for a fluid change on the rear diff on an FWD car???

Glenn

[lhopp77]

Did you buy those gray and blue seats that were on Ebay for $500? They were nice looking seats and actually included other trim pieces.

Lee

[DanSVX94]

Originally Posted by RojoRocket

Welcome to SVX Land!! The Laguna cars are particularly eyecatching. Hope you're not serious about paying for a fluid change on the rear diff on an FWD car???

Glenn

I told you I don't know very much about cars! Damn, the guy at the dealer whom I've known for a long time ... on their board with a list of items it says differential fluid change 48.95. They told me that's for front and rear -- I never stopped to think that the price was for an AWD -- they should definitely have charged me less. I'm really pissed at them and will call them tomorrow morning to complain.

[DanSVX94]

Originally Posted by lhopp77

Did you buy those gray and blue seats that were on Ebay for $500? They were nice looking seats and actually included other trim pieces.

Lee

Yes I did. I don't know what other interior pieces I might want besides the seats. I live about 2 1/2 hours from the seller. I was going to go there yesterday but I was sick, so I'll go there this coming Tuesday. If the sunvisors are good, I'll take those, and anything else that's easy to remove from interior -- I may try to take speakers. I would have taken the driver's airbag but it was deployed. I see lots of stuff listed on eBay and it goes for very little so I don't think I can recoup too much if anything from the $500. My big concern is making seats that had manual seat belts work in a car that has the automatic door frame seat belts. It would have cost me at least a $100 to repair my driver's side seat so I thought getting the ones on eBay was too good a deal to pass by -- especially since they're not too far a drive.

[AFBeefcake]

Those sets looked nice. I would have got them If I had the $500.

[intelisevil]

Originally Posted by DanSVX96

I became a member of this site and incorporated the 1996 into my name

Do you want to change your name?

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27786

Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the family!

[DanSVX94]

Thank you for the change name link.

I just spent 6 hours detailing my new toy. It looks great. I even armor all-ed the spare and detailed under the masonite trunk. Now I know why some people wish it was made from a stronger material. Without the spare it would break if any weight was put on it.

On the good side, I learned that the spare was never used, all the tools are there, and the jack was never removed. It all looks new.

I even used metal polish on the chrome exhaust tips and they came out fantastic and look new.

All I have to do is repaint the rear wiper piece that attaches to the wiper housing.

[It's Just Eric]

Looks to me that the car was well cared for. Also, you noted the fwd trannys dont suffer from the typical problems, and this is pretty damn true. I know of a woman with the original FWD tranny in her car. It has a little over 300k miles on it
I must say, the headlight cleaning worked out nice. I was thinking to myself "Gee....why would he pay someone to do that? He can just use rubbing compund..." But I must say the results seem better than you can get with rubbing compound. A little preventitive matinence...try waxing the headlights whenever you wax the car to help prevent them from yellowing again
Also, the seatbelt thing is no big deal. the only diffrence in the seat is that plastic clip thinger...but I think that was coverd in another thread
Good luck with the car, seems like you picked a winner

[Electrophil]

I was hoping for the soft back version of this thread would be coming soon.

[Earthworm]

Originally Posted by Electrophil

I was hoping for the soft back version of this thread would be coming soon.

Under "Thread Tools"-->Show Printable Version

[SVX92-97]

Dan, Im Dan too. Congratulations on your purchase of your 94 SVX. It really is beautiful. I love the Laguna Blue. Im glad to see someone who made a long drive as I did ended up with a gorgeous svx that they can drive. I live in connecticut, and Im sure you've seen my threads about my nightmarish experience with my 96 Lsi. I bought on ebay last October and the seller lied about the Title, which turned out to be salvaged, and I still havent been able to get a proper title to register it. What a shame, and what a stupid mistake on my part. Anyway, Im glad your trip was worth all the time and trouble, because it certainly looks like you got a beauty of an SVX. Best of Luck with it.

Dan