I am in the market for a used wrx. Up untill now I have been looking at the 02-03s, but while surfing ebay I came across an 04 that appered to be in decent condition besides a note stating that "the previous owner did exhaust mods, which now show a check engine light" So I emailed the guy and he tells me his reserve is only 15k! for an 04, and it only has roughly I believe 14k on it. That is very tempting, but should I stay away from it because of the possilbe problem the check engine light may mean for me?
THANKS GUYS!
__Matt---


EDIT:HERES A LINK http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=31868

 

looks clean, and it is a dealer, not like Joe in the street. Call them.....
although the reserve is 15K, that doesn't mean the car will sell for that though, and you should ask about fees. Many e-bay dealers will charge up to $500 in fees on top of the sale.

If you have an aftermarket exhaust, a lot of times you'll get a CEL from the O2 sensor, especially if it has a straight pipe. This doesn't inhibit the car's ability to run, and can be eliminated with a $20 kit. However, if your state has emissions requirements, you may have to replace the exhaust, or at least weld in a cat.

Also, if you have to have the car shipped, make sure they won't charge a per day storage charge or a loading charge or anything like that, and get a shipping quote before you bid. nationwideautotrans.com is the company I always use. I've shipped with them about a dozen times, and they are generally among (if not the very) cheapest, and very timely and careful.
Hope that helps...

 

Ok, thanks for your help, sounds like good advice which I will consider. Does anyone else have any insight for me/

 

Yeah the CEL is pretty common after a full turboback exhaust unless you do the REALLY cheap mod to stop it or you so an engine management upgrade.

 

The guy told me its mine for 15000, and its an o4. So should I grab it? Should I buy it? From what you guys said I am thinking its not a big deal right?

 

The CEL in and of itself, is not a huge issue, but as I mentioned before, there are tons of other things that ought to be addressed before you jump, and $15K is VERY cheap for that car.
Have you checked:
1) Carfax
2) other fees associated with sale
3) cost of getting the car back to you

If it were me, I'd tell him I'd hop a plane ticket down there to buy it in person. It'll probably cost about the same as shipping it , and you have the peace of mind of looking over and driving the car yourself. I'd carfax it first to make sure it hasn't had major accident history.
If you fly down, it's a $300 insurance policy against what could be 1000's in repairs. Worst case, the car is a rat, and you fly back, having blown $300, but saved yourself a lot of grief.
Try to find as much about the history as you can though.
Once, when I was with Volvo, we sold a new XC-90 to a couple, which had so many problems in the first 2000 miles that as a courtesy, we took it back (it wasn't lemon-able because they were all different problems) and gave thenm a new one. We used it as a service loaner for 4000 miles, and monitored the repairs we did, and thought we had it fixed, so we retailed it. It went completely ape-$%&T again, and the new owners traded it back to us 5000 miles later. We wholesaled it at that point, but someone else somewhere bought that car from some other dealer, because they were too stupid to check a carfax and see that in 9000 miles, it had had 3 previous owners.
Don't be that guy
I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just saying that $15K is REALLY low for that car. I paid around $16 for mine 6 months ago, and it was an 03 with 28K, and I got it straight wholesale.
It may be just fine, and they may just be looking to get out of it, but be careful.

 

Can you help me getting this information, or tell me how. That would be awesome.

 

I'd make the dealer do it. If he's half worth his salt, he has a free subscription to carfax. Ask him to carfax it and fax the results to you. Otherwise it'll cost you a few bucks, but yeah, otherwise just punch the VIN into www.carfax.com, and pay the 10 bucks (the free report is BS, you need the full one). As far as the fees and stuff, you really just need to call this guy and make sure he's giving you 100% of the story. His name and # are listed on the auction

 

Well, you should assume that it won't have a factory warranty either, because the exhaust mods usually get stink-eye from Subaru.

At a minimum, you should check the title (do carfax) and check the body for repairs that aren't on the report. Usually if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

I checked the free carfax link he had on the page , but is that the right one? Can you guys check that out and tell me if that tells me the correct information. I am taking your advice and going down in person, but want to get as much info as I can before I do that. thanks guys.

 

that's the full carfax. Looks pretty clean to me. If I were in the market, and if you've called and checked the other things we told you to check, I'd hop a plane faster than a rat off the Titanic. It looks like this is actually a legit deal, and people are just scared by the CEL.