BikerDarren24

Hi all,

I have the wonderful choice of a 55 plate hawkeye sti with seriously low miles (<20k) for £13000 from dealer or another 55 plate hawk sti with 58,000 for £10000 from a private seller who is a Subaru enthusiast and has spent a bit on it, in very good taste.

Both have only 1 previous owner and all serviced according to mileage (not age)

My problem,

the £13k hawk is at the bottom of England and £3000 more than the one just 8 miles away from me in Glasgow at £10k. It will cost about £350 to get it up to Glasgow. (petrol, getting down there etc)

The £13k hawk has very little miles but wouldn't it still need things replaced (cambelt etc) due to its age?

Also that's £3k to play with and get anything needing done on the hawk at £10k. (3k is a big saving!)

Which one do you think would be better, doing roughly under 10000 miles a year for 3 years?

Any help and advice would be very much appreciated

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

Has the private one had a rebuild??

BikerDarren24

No rebuilt mate, just PPP, K&N air filter, spark plugs, H & S cat back exhaust, anti lift kit, bc coilovers, front tarox brake disks with pads and braded hoses

Is that a good sign or bad?

irondrew

iTrader: (1)

For me personally I would definitely go for the higher milage depending on your own assessment when you actually see and drive it. High milage doesn't always mean a bad thing. In this case, neither are high in my opinion anyway. And a 3k saving and 16 mile round trip is a good bonus. I'm sure both cars will need work anyway so may as well get a head start. Post up some pictures?

BikerDarren24

Thanks man, that makes a lot of sense and 3k in my pocket is a lot. You are right about the mileage they both are low and the 10k car is a 15 min drive away. Thanks very much for your help mate, you have definitely clarified and made a lot of sense in your response

Cheers bro and will do with the photo's if I buy

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Buy the £10k one and keep the £3k to one side for when you need to forge it, or better still save yourself some cash and just get it forged straight away, then you can have things like water pump, oil pump and cam belt, clutch, done in with the price as at 55k these will require doing anyway some time soon, as the engine WILL let go sooner or later, i'd aso consider a power hike ie new turbo decat and remap, spend the £3k well and you could have a pretty safe 400bhp.

marshall332bhp

took the words out my mouth. use that 3 grand towards the engine rebuild WHEN it goes pop

adamroutley

another vote for the private one with the spare 3k.

I couldn't justify spending an extra 3k and a round trip of 600+ miles for a few less miles and dealership owned.

Generally speaking, if an enthusiast has owned it, then it has been looking after.

Markfey

iTrader: (7)

I can only pressume you've seen the sticky thread about 2.5 engine failures, head gaskets etc. Option 3 could be... keep looking for one with it already done.

Option 4... and my personal choice, for that sort of money you're in the JDM hawk market which is the way i would go every time....

I believe it's BODSKI who bought one before Christmas for about £10k and is over the moon with it.

MattyB1983

iTrader: (51)

Id be putting 10 grand into a blob if it was me, thats spec C money. Much better car and you can always facelift it if its a hawk you really want.

MattyB1983

iTrader: (51)

Or something like this.

https://www.scoobynet.com/subaru-444...-5-372bhp.html

I know its now sold but this was less than 11K.

Markfey

iTrader: (7)

^^^^ That's exactly what i was thinking!!!!

JohnD

iTrader: (5)

Oh dear - what a sad indictment of the 2.5 engine!

JohnD

thenewgalaxy

I'm not sure they all go boom. Even though mine did, it was an early Spec D with the dodgy HG.

But if you're worried you can always go for a late Blob like this one, even if it is a little bit on the steep side. I liked my blob more than my hawk.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifie...ti-ppp/1184259

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

https://www.scoobynet.com/showthread...7#post11046282

Spec C

DantheMan2605

Just as a warning. My 55 hawk sti has just broke 52.5k miles and rings have gone.

Car is enthusiastically owned and cared for never boosted until oil is 80 degrees etc...

It could happen anytime low mileage or not and having 3k waiting for a forged build is handy

jazzyjembreaze

iTrader: (11)

My 58 plate started showing signs of HG failure around 18500

Yep I agree go for the 10k car

JamesDundee

iTrader: (2)

Another thing to bear in mind is that on a car that is used as a weekend toy with mega low miles, for it to then go to being a daily driver, things start to fail. A couple of guys on the Legacy owners club had this issue with cars that had mega low mileages that then became dailies, and then things started dropping off.

Tidgy

Low milage doesnt mean low age, they have been exposed to the elements for the same time, thats why things drop off, also lower milage tend to get used then stored, perfect for rust build up over time.

O also if you can, stay with one on an 06 reg plate and reged before 23rd march 2006 (falls into lower tax bracket)

Tidgy

dont know this car but hmmm,,,

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifie...owered/1090929

lcs_turbo

I'd be seriously tempted by this:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/subaru/impreza-sti/litchfield-type-25-jdm-wrx-sti-forged-cosworth-360bhp/986427

Tidgy

is that the one that got binned and it never got recorded?

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

I wouldn't touch a hawk sti unless its had a forged rebuild. It will just be a case of waiting for it to go 'POP'.

As already said, you could get a serious car for your budget!

Berks-Jack

iTrader: (10)

Looks a lovely car for the money. Wish I was in a position to buy that.

OP - have you driven a 2.5? Very different feel to the 2.0 engine.

lcs_turbo

Oh... dunno about that. If it is I take my last statement back!

theboy

The more i read about these 2.5 engines the more im inclined to go to the dark side rather than risk it going pop

LMC

Which is the 'darkside'?

Infected by sti

iTrader: (6)

Evo's aint bomb proof either mind

That's just believing a false sense of security IMO, friends have had them an they have gone wrong more times than I care to remember, way more than the scoobs they have owned! I can remember the day a good friend of mine picked his first Evo up, got it near enough home, give it a bit of boost down the local bypass only for it to spit a rod out the block and proper throw its toys out of the pram, the engine that went back in was also more hassle than it was worth, then it was rebuilt and smoked like a bastàrd after a few miles, not what I would call an ideal car nice cars and I would probably have one, but to think they are more reliable than any other car of similar performance is just sticking your head in the sand, they have their own fair share of problems and cost just as much to repair

LMC

If i was spending 13k theres a forged hatch in the classifieds now thats were my money would be going..

Tidgy

there was a thread a while back and a couple of cars got mentioned as being accident damage but unrecord, somethign about reshelled.