Hey, Scotty. Big fan of your YouTube channel. I am shopping for a starter car for my daughter, who will be getting her license in a couple of months and probably taking it with her to college after her senior year. I have been trying to stick with Toyota and Honda badges, but most of what I’m finding in the $8-12k range here in New Jersey are slim pickings.
I am looking at 2 cars, both at dealerships. The first is a 2016 Scion iA base, which as you probably know is a rebadged Mazda2. It has a standard automatic transmission, 1.8L Mazda Skyactive engine, and 122,000 miles. They’re asking around $11k but I might be able to get them down a bit. It runs pretty nice, shifts smooth and everything looked bone dry in the engine and underneath. Still seems pricey for a car that sold for $18k new, albeit 7 years ago.
The other is a 2017 Subaru Legacy, fully loaded, but with 200,000 miles on it. The Carfax looked great and the guy at the BMW dealership said the single owner had a job where he travelled around a lot, putting on about 20,000 miles a year, mostly highway miles. They’re looking for around $12k but I can get them down a bit there too.
I know you can’t tell much from this limited information, but I’d like to get any thoughts. The loaded Subaru is a great price and I love the way they drive, but I just don’t know what I think about a CVT with 200,000 miles on it, even if they are highway miles and the guy took really good care of it. Thanks!
The Carfax looked great
Bear in mind that a "clean Carfax" is basically meaningless since not everything is reported. (In fact we had a member on this board thanking his lucky stars that his accident was not reported, and therefore will not show up on a Carfax report to reduce the value of his car.)
the guy at the BMW dealership said the single owner had a job where he travelled around a lot, putting on about 20,000 miles a year, mostly highway miles.
Never believe anything a seller tells you. That goes double for dealerships.
I'm not familiar with the Scion but as far as the Subaru goes I would not buy any car with a CVT that has 200K miles on it. (A Subaru CVT costs about $8000 to replace.)
Whatever you choose be sure to have a good mechanic check it out before purchase.
Yeah that price on the Subaru is crazy.
That's why they are called "stealerships"! 😯 Not to mention that early Subaru CVT has to be on its last legs at that mileage. It's actually amazing it lasted this long.