rooby wrote:Agreed on the 80000 comments.
I bought mine at around 80000 and it needed major service (based on time, even though it hadn't done 100000 yet), tyres, cv boots, LCA bushes. It all starts to negate the good price I paid for the car pretty fast.
I also agree that full service history is worth squat.
It doesn't tell you how the person drove between services.
It doesn't tell you whether or not the apprentice did all the log booked services.
It doesn't tell you if the owner was actually good and did additional oil changes between the regular service interval.
Etc.
Full service history should be taken with a grain of salt.
Funny part is I reckon the service history on my car is 90% bullshit, the brake fluid that came out of the ABS lines was utterly fucked. The dealership had no idea how to bleed the brakes fully, or simply just did a shit job.
A pad wear indicator clip was bent inside the caliper.
The handbrake adjustment pre stroke was never ever changed, the dust boot had no sign of being removed, and the adjuster no sign of a tool ever touching it. 90% of subaru mechanics have no f*cking clue it exists in the hub of a gen4 (hidden nicely). 2 clicks and my car doesnt move for 20 seconds work with a flat blade screwdriver.
I look at the logbook and then know what I changed and when, and know what the fluids, bushes, boots, joints, etc looked like and its easy to tell some had been skipped, were not done and needed to be, or not even addressed.
When I got the car, there was just so many small things. Sloppy bushes everywhere, gearbox, gearstick, diff, cradle, lat links, control arms, etc etc etc. Old owner says he kept 42psi in the tyres for economy...Well on sydney roads 42 psi means your tyre provides ZERO suspension travel in sidewall, thus every bush gets flogged out in a much quicker time frame. Years of being driven about with nothing but subarus castrol stuff back then meant it was all fairly messy. Some ATF in the oil, then some dino oil and hard driving, then ELF and its all squeaky clean. Oil goes in and comes out clean 2-5000km later every time, able to do its job, instead of being a transport medium for carbon deposits.
So yeah, that logbook stuff...credibility shot.
What was fairly cool though was to know it had been driven properly, old owner was a proper hoon for an old dude, got up it plenty...Thus engine works perfect, was run in properly (plenty of engine braking, lots of load), always warmed before giving it a hiding, just good mechanical practice ya know...not being a dickhead, but still driving with some enthusiasm (and the gen 4's encourage that, being such a great chassis). He told me this on the phone and I booked a flight and picked it up next day knowing it would be right.