My brother just bought an Outback and we were wondering if there's anything to look out for.
Obviously, this question would have been better asked beforhand, but he just walked into the auction on a quiet Monday night and picked one up for £650. His hand was up befire he knew what was happening - you know how it is.....
That's for a '98 R. Completed auctions on ebay go from 2 to 4 grand for the same age.
So - what goes wrong ?

It has a hamster for an engine?

For £650'worth (unless is been company owned) you can safely say something and it'll be expensive. Let's hope you gave it a good look over before bidding...

Sounds alright for an auction price, probably what a dealer would pay and mark it up to £3000. A friend of mine visited a dealer auction with a mate of his and saw 'R' reg Fiestas going for £200.

No.3 bearing has a habit of letting go in Subaru engines (if they've been abused) and putting a rod and/or piston through the block. My Legacy did this, but it would run - it could easily have been driven through an auction. Just make sure you have a good look at the engine, especially underneath.

No 4 Piston seems to develop a slight knock, but the dealerships never see it as a problem.

Its not on every engine, just a high percentage

Great.

I'll tell him tonight when we pick it up...

If it's a minger, it's straight back through the auctions.

Personally, I would at least have looked it over before jumping straight in.

It's a minger.

Lesson learnt.

Straight back through it goes.

A bit of a shame really, the chassis and transmission are superb - the engine is not.

in my experience, around here anyway....they are driven by people who shouldn't have been allowed out of the funny farm..that and bloody range rovers!