Ignore Lewis, he's "special".
1. Imports CAN be reliable (shock horror!!)
2. Cheap ones can be good too.
3. Bollox to FSH. If you're looking at an old car, you KNOW if it's been well maintained. Charloton slips from a dealer aren't worth the paper they're written on.
4. Mine's modified - and reliable. Walk away from one's modified "cheaply".
5. Mostly true. (Apart from big-power specials)
6. True
7. Yup
8. Look for non-coked examples that haven't been run a 1500rpm for 5 years.........
9. Yup
10.

Good hunting!!!
Moss

 

a petrol station.....

 

i just bought an absolutely lovely 95 jap wrx wagon,its done 55,000 miles i have just converted the speedo to mph from kph it has reciepts for full fluid and belt change on entry to the country, the interior looks like a 2 year old car ,no leeks or knocks or anything odd .the only bizarre thing is every now and then when i start the car i get the engine check there are no fault codes ,and the previous owner who imported the car said it started after he removed the cat and put the prodrive exhaust on ???? ,anyway i gave him £2300 and after a polish the metalic black with red and green metal flake looks amazing in the sun lol ..and the best thing is other than the exhaust its as standard as they come looks awesome ,anyone know what the standard bhp is on these ?

 

Thanks for all the great advice people! it has been noted!

Why walk away from cars with dump valves? I like atmos dump valves and have one on my current car....

 

This is possibly the worst bit of advice on buying a car, especially a scoob, I have heard.

Yes, service history can be faked. That's why you insist on receipts, or, if reciepts are lacking, phone up the garage that has stamped the service book and ask for the service history on the car.

Just because a car is old and still running does not mean it has been looked after.

I would never buy a car for a substantial sum of money without checking out its service history. - Without it, how would you know if a car that has done 80,000 miles odd has ever had, say, a cam belt change.

 

I don't think you need a full Service History maybe the last 5 years would suffice as it will tell you alot more than you think as dealers tend to put additional comment on the bottom of service slips stating what they think would be worthwhile doing either now or near in the furture, from that you can follow the route back to current day & know what you need to do to the car & what has been done.

 

Let me clarify..
There are 2 very good reasons that the service history of a car should be taken only as a rough indication of a cars condition. A service book full of dealer stamps & receipts will not tell you if a car has been abused for all of its life; you have to use your own judgement when talking to the owner and by your own visual inspection. Secondly, if a cambelt change (or any major service work) has been "shown" to have been carried out, you shouldn't blindly accept that it is a job "well done", or even done at all. If there's any doubt (dealer stamp present or not), replace the item anyway.
Lastly, I would personally prefer to buy a car complete with receipts proving maintenance by a knowledgeable enthusiast, rather than a main dealer. The receipts will be far more telling of the cars true history.
Having said all of that, there is no "internet forum buyer’s guide" that's infallible. All I can offer is the same advice that helped me to find a good example.

 

So, basically, what you are saying here, is that you would prefer to buy a car with service history

 

Not really...
An owners receipt stating "5 litres Mobil 1 and oil filter", is worth a lot more to me than a garage stamp stating "oil change". Enthusiasts tend to take more care over their pride-and-joy than a 16y.o. garage apprentice would.

 

Agreed.

Put it this way, when I but my next scoob, I would put far more value on a car that has spend the last 5 years being serviced by Len at Subaru4U, or scoobyclinic etc, than I would a main dealer.

Main dealers just go through the motions, speicialsts, like you say, take a certain pride.