How reliable is AA inspection report? Help buying used car.

[Guest]

Hey guys, I'm moving to NZ soon (yey!) and looking to purchase a car (subaru's on the shortlist!). I've been looking around trademe and autotrader (for '00 and '02 B4 Blitzen) and I'm a bit wary of buying a car. A couple of questions for you car (buying) experts:

- How reliable is the AA Inspection report? If the report comes back super clean, is that about as good of a guarantee as I'm going to get?

- I've read that there are such a thing as TOO LOW of an odometer reading. Not necessarily because someone might have tampered with it, but because it means that the car hasn't been used too often during its life, and it causes issues? I've read different reports saying that a good car will have been used an average of 19,000km/year. There are other places where I've also read that the following average per year is fine: 13,000km/year, 16,000km/year, 24,000km/year. As you can see that's a huge gap.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Guest keltik]

The reports are good for the most part. What area are you moving to? Your best bet would be to get a local Subaru expert to check it out. The AA can check a car - but they dont usually check model specific things

[Guest]

I'll be moving to Auckland, the Flat Bush area. I hope that makes sense, I basically just asked my relatives to tell me what the area is called. Once I know more about which person/dealer I'm buying from, it'd be great to know who some of the expert Subaru mechanics are in Auckland, so I can take it to them.

Any idea regarding the odometer thing?

[dubbedup]

re odometre, anything not nearing the 100,000 km mark as the expesnive service time is coming up

[funkytown]

anything low is good..

****** there are 100000000000 and 1 exceptions to the rule.

[pl0x]

i think if aa says the car is good but its not they pay to fix it?

[Guest]

 Grifter730 said:

I'll be moving to Auckland, the Flat Bush area.

+1 good car alarm

[Guest]

 dubbedup said:

re odometre, anything not nearing the 100,000 km mark as the expesnive service time is coming up

Oh man, this completely slipped my mind, d'oh! Oh boy. I wonder how much a 100km service for a Blitzen will run, daaaaang.....

[Guest]

around $1500 depending on exactly what gets done

[sti_v9]

I live in Flat Bush. There's Highbrook Auto and Sublab close by. However, I don't know if they will go out to see a vehicle and I doubt a dealer would let you take the car off the lot for an inspection. IMHO, never trust the mileage on a used imported car and always be prepared to do the 100k service as a precaution. Replacing a blown motor will be a lot more expensive.

Flat Bush is not bad in terms of crime, I have parked my V9 STi and Skyline on my driveway overnight on a few occassions and never had any dramas. Insurance will insist on a 5-star alarm.

[Guest]

I'm told that I'll be living in the Dannemora/Mission Heights area of Flat Bush.

I guess I'll have to ask those two places you mentioned and see if I can pay to have a guy go out and inspect the vehicle for me. I doubt the car lot will allow a car to be taken away for an inspection, but I suppose asking them won't hurt either.

[Guest r0ksta]

Had AA Inspections on all vehicles ive owned in the last 5 years really, they do a good job, sometimes, too good. They DO bring up everything possibly marking the vehicle, and sort of make it sound WAY worse than it is. Found my Subaru RSB im driving now through them and they made it sound like it was a heap but they pick up every scrach, every oil drop, everything little thread coming away from the seat and blow it up like its a big deal. Get one done, its saved me buying a 'actual' heap of a subaru before, but then you must take it with a grain or tin or salt and be prepared to go look at the vehicle yourself.