dgoodhue Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 I have been toying with idea of buying a used '12 2.5GT while I can still find low mile examples and before I spend money and time upgrading my 2.5i suspension which I had planned to do this spring/summer. I am particular about my cars, so I want an example as nice as my 2.5i. It seems like many of the cars ads have one or more of the following flaws. -Plastic/speaker portion of the lower door panels are all scuffed up. -Leather seats issues scuffed perforated portion or wrinkled up lower sider bolsters. -Curbed wheels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2baru Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 All of which don't affect the drivability of the car in terms of mechanics. Soooooo just go buy one of those. If you want a perfect LGT...go buy a diecast model and just observe it. Give and take, you gotta be realistic here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrD123 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 There aren't a whole lot of them out there, so finding a used '12 is going to be a challenge - all of the issues you mentioned are readily addressed for comparatively little $, so if you find one where the engine/transmission are in great shape, and which has never had a significant accident (frame damage, etc.), you should jump on it. Wheels can be reconditioned, wrinkled leather can be addressed, and a scuffed panel (or any other interior issues) can be repaired or replaced. A used 12 will be at most a little over 4 years old, so they shouldn't be too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zee199969 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Wheels can be replaced. Very few gt owners have their car for the sound system. I'd say as long as the engine/tranny are in good shape BUY IT. you likely won't regret the purchase My "Build" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellesedil Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Curbed OEM wheels? Well... you'll probably want new wheels anyway because the OEM ones are cast concrete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy.B Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 It's like finding a unicorn that doesn't have a bad hair day. It's a still a unicorn. Timothy.B's 2011 LEGACY 3.6R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_419 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 If you look hard enough (i.e. willing to spend enough) you can find the pristine 5th gen GT you're looking for. Personally I had an opportunity to pick up one with over 100K miles, very good interior, and a little exterior cosmetic challenges. I bought it and don't regret my decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 I was planning on buying a set of summer rims/tires and using the stock wheel for snow tires, but a highly curbed set of wheel would drive me crazy even on snow tires. I have seen nice stock wheel for sale for $600 so it isn't that bad. I looked up the door panels and they are much less expensive than I expected. List price is $150. The leather seat bottom aren't too bad either. I also looked a up few of the other interior pieces, I guess Subaru cheap plastic interior pieces generally aren't that expensive. I don't want to get into an extensive reconditioning of the interior though. I am also not trying to turn this into a big project either, just my daily driver. I guess I don't have any good excuses, I will have to make on decision on whether or not I want to make the change from my 2.5i to 2.5GT or not. I was going to rebuild the suspension with Koni's, Springs and blacked outed headlights this year. I don't want to 'invest' that money & time into my 2.5i to turn around and sell it. My car is in great shape and I owe about $8000 on it so I see an end to the car payments. Buying a 2.5GT would add about 2 years more of payments and I would have to work hard at resisting the dark side of the enabler around here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 http://images.autotrader.com/hn/ef5137dcabd34b6a87753f9476d143ea.jpg On the passenger seat, is this normal? I have seen a couple like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrD123 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 well, mine aren't doing that - I am guessing they have had someone who was rather large sitting in that seat a lot, and maybe the pleather panels (only the center is actual leather) have stretched a little? Drivers seat looks just fine... they have been using something like armor all to treat everything which I am guessing is why the steering wheel and seat material is so shiny. How many miles? did you drive it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 It is in Utah and has 55K miles on it. I did not drive the picture car. [i have never test driven a GT] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrD123 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 You really ought to drive one and see if it's going to offer what you want. (the 2010-2012 should feel pretty similar driving, to get a feel for the engine and what it offers over the 2.5i) - I'd be pretty nervous buying a used car without being able to lay hands on it, have some basic tests done (compression, etc.), and so on... If I were going to do that, I'd try for a southern car (no rust - I grew up in MA, so I am familiar with what cars look like after 5+ winters, road salt, etc. up there - compare that to down here - when I work on my wifes van (an 05 with 215k miles on it) the undercarriage looks new (dirty, but new in terms of rust) and bolts come out clean, etc. Carfinder shows a few of them, but they are in PA, so still a bit of a drive to take a look at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 My 2.5i is a fully loaded Premium model. I am comfortable not test driving 2.5GT until I am committed to buy one. I highly doubt that I will dislike the Limited upgrade or the extra hp and torque of the 2.5GT. I test drove the prior gen 2.5 turbo motor, before buying my 2.5i. I have bought car long distance before. I would never buy a car without seeing it person and test driving it. If it was a long distance purchase, I would have it inspected before I traveled for the test drive before the final transaction. I do all my own work on my car and I am familiar with NE cars. My truck is 25 years old and is garage queen that has never seen NE winter. All the bolts come out like a 1 year car. It is tough enough to find a now low mile '12 LGT, never mind a southern car. I would probably keep it until it was 10-12 years old, which is usually when I start noticing the rust starts making many repairs challenging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_419 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Scuffed up seats especially the driver's seat is going to come down to how often the previous owner got in and out. It's a natural wear point. Wrinkled side bolsters are strange. I've never had that happen to me. The scuffed up corner of the door is another natural wear point. It happens more if you're not careful getting out, but it's going to happen from time to time. It's next to the kick panel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blklgt05 Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 I think most of that stuff can be taken care of at a good detail shop. Door panels tend to get scuffed up cuz passenger/driver may scuffed it sometimes with their shoe. You could always get a black/leather door card and just swap it. Leather seats gets wear and tear over time, can also be repaired/steam cleaned, and or replaced if you are willing, not really necessary imo. I wouldn't worry about wheels at all. OE ones are pretty cheap and you can just get aftermarket wheels. 12' LGT in good condition (performance wise) is pretty rare as it is, I'd find a local 5th gen LGT guy and have him test drive it and see if he notice anything. I've done that for a lot of my friends here locally. mod journal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy.B Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 I might take a pic of it but my driver seat is doing the same thing except in the middle, not the bolsters. Like my butt is stretching the seat out I use the seat heaters a lot so I bet that's doing it. Timothy.B's 2011 LEGACY 3.6R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandon.mol Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 If someone sat with legs crossed and feet on the seat that might do it. Or its a defect. Solution: add some stuffing material to the bolsters under the cushion. OEM rims are painted, so if scraped could easily be repainted or plastidipped for winter use. Not sure why you'd use 18s for winters though. The savings going to 17s on winter tires will pay for new wheels, pretty near. And 17s make much better snow tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrD123 Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 It is tough enough to find a now low mile '12 LGT, never mind a southern carYou aren't kidding - with only 227 of them sold in the US, they are rare to find used. Looks like there is a red one with 39k miles in PA, a graphite grey one in Kentucky with 18.5k miles, and a red one with 55k miles on it in Utah (your wrinkly seat one). I don't think you'll find many with fewer miles than the 18.5k one! and it's a southern car (well - it's in the south - could have lived elsewhere...) http://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/654914695/overview/ http://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/651501523/overview/ http://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/651501523/overview/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLlegacy Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 The seats on these cars are not the greatest most comfortable or even longest lasting. So I plan on either replacing with aftermarket covers or better seats at some point. The door panel, well the pocket just gets in the way lol mine gets dirty but you would have to be wearing some pretty tough shoes to actually damage the door. You should buy the lgt swap over everything you don't like to your current car and then sell it. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NVAKeith Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 When inspecting them, check the drain holes alone the bottom of the trunk lid for rust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copyboy311 Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 When inspecting them, check the drain holes alone the bottom of the trunk lid for rust. Yeah, what's with that? My 2011 is starting to rust around the drain holes. Is this a known and common issue already? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLlegacy Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Mine isn't rusting... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandon.mol Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Common, known, and ignored by dealers. I'm probably going to grind the holes bigger and blast it full of rust inhibitor/rust paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thsubaru Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 I have been reluctantly toying with the idea of selling my tastefully modded gt 45000km(27 900 miles) considering my wife doesn't drive manual and we need a second car she can drive without moving the baby seat a million times, (yes I could buy baby seats and leave it in my car but i donèt want the leather to get damaged for the occasional need) but it is a 2010 and pristine and,I live in Montreal. We could have a chat in PM if you would consider a cross border purchase. I can't believe I am even suggesting this. I have been toying with idea of buying a used '12 2.5GT while I can still find low mile examples and before I spend money and time upgrading my 2.5i suspension which I had planned to do this spring/summer. I am particular about my cars, so I want an example as nice as my 2.5i. It seems like many of the cars ads have one or more of the following flaws. -Plastic/speaker portion of the lower door panels are all scuffed up. -Leather seats issues scuffed perforated portion or wrinkled up lower sider bolsters. -Curbed wheels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 An update to my post, at the time I decided that I was going to wait until I paid off my 2.5i and then make a decision. 2 week ago, I was on vacation. My son is starting kindergarden this coming week and the end of the payments for private preschool is in sight. My Subaru isn't quite paid off, but it should be paid off around the new year. While I on vacation relaxing, I was debating should I either waiting a few more years and buying a new 6MT WRX or buy a 5th Gen LGT. Ultimately I like my Legacy, I came to the conclusion that I am going to buy a 2012 LGT. Ideally, I would like to buy one in 2017, but if the right one came up I will jump on it. I have lot of frequently flyer miles, so traveling to buy a car long distance isn't a big deal. Anyways, a 2012 GGM, came up for sale at my local dealership 15 miles away. Today, I checked the car out. It had tons of scratches on it from someone seemingly going cray with snow brush. I didn't notice most of them until after I had them wash the car off after I had test driven the car. I also noticed the driver door painted didn't match after cleaning. On the test drive, here are my couple observations. It felt a lot like my car in driving at low rpm, the way it handled, drove, part throttle low rpm acceleration, etc. I notice the higher ratio 5th and 6th gears on the highway, mostly in the tach rpm. In normal driving the rpm don't overshoot in LGT when i put in the clutch. [if shift my 2.5i at 2500rpm, my rpms jump to 2700-2800rpm. I can take my foot off the gas just before I shift to eliminate it, but its PIA to time it just right. Too early and the car decelerates - I now just let the rpm overshoot.] I was surprised at how much heavier the clutch was than my 2.5i. [The only replacement part that is different between the 2.5i & 2.5GT for a clutch replacement is the throwout bearing.] It is no big deal, I will get used to it. The HK radio sounded noticeably better than my premium's radio. I thought the door rest and armrest were leather looking at the dealer brochures, but it is the same vinyl with gray stitching I was expecting a little more in how it accelerated. I know Subaru limits the boost in 1st and 2nd, so maybe that is a big factor. I drove the car sanely but I did got WOT in 1st and 2nd gear. I have idea of what I want my car to feel like. I like the way my stock Syclone and my Corvette felt as well as the stock Evo VIII and IX I have test driven. Those were all mid 13's car. Initially I was think I need to find another local modified LGT to drive in to see if the LGT is going to meet my expectations. However, the more I thought about it, I will just take a leap of faith that I will be able to meet those expectation with a stage I or II. I was planing at least modify the car to stage 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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