Outback - car yard overpriced ?

[subanator]

What does the board reckon, I looked at a high km 98 Outback today, looks fairly tidy and neat, but done 230k km's. The car yard says negotiable at $9800. Could not find any receipts to head gaskets or other work done in the past to it. They got it through the dealer auctions with no details.
I thought is this a risk buy, or take in account that an engine swap could likely happen sometime and factor this price in, or just pick up an auction vehicle myself for chips?

This is the Red Book price:
http://www.redbookasiapacific.com/au/ve ... y=SUBA98AI

[PeeJay]

Not sure about Perth, but I saw one similar in Sydney for 8K.
You also need to factor in all new suspension and bushes, and possibly a new drivers seat

[Bumpty]

Well being negotiable is a tick in the right box haha
And car yards will put another grand or two more onto the average price for anything they have, its to be expected.
But seeing that Redbook suggest 9,900 for the lowest of the low and with 230 kms I guess it looks good for you?

Take it for a spin, get someone along who knows there subys well (thats if you don't of course) and take it from there.
If you think its neat n tidy and you have faith in the undercarriage, engine grab it for what ever you can, good buy.

Edit: Oh and in answer to your thread heading, Yes! Car yards are always over priced...

[AlpineRaven]

try see if you can get in touch with previous owner to see what kind of person.. if you can't dont worry..
Have a look at the service books to see the history of it.
Its an SOHC EJ25 and possible would have fixed up head gasket by then..
Does it have automatic climate control? If it does then the price would be worth getting...
Try bust yourself with the salesman - give him $8800 even worse - wave cash around at front of him.. worth a try...

If It was me - due mechanical knowledge, good access on rebuild/2nd hand engines etc I'd buy it.
Cheers
AP