Hughieboy

Thanks Mr B! :-)

Thanks guys, that's really helpful. It make sense that 4x4's are going to be at a bit of a premium at this time of year but I chose to sell my other car before Winter set in so you can't have it all ways! There is a 55 plate 2.5 XT near me for £3750, it's pre facelift with 98k on the clock and apparently been fastidiously looked after (so the dealers ad reads!). It's a manual, and I tend to prefer autos but it might be worth a look. Is there anything I should know about manual vs auto? Also, are Foresters ok for motorway work? Most of my miles would be at weekends and although I only anticipate about 8k miles a year a lot of that will be 150-200 mile round trips on the motorway.

Hello out there! I've been looking around for a used Forester XT, preferably a 2.5 and almost certainly automatic. I was hoping to spend 3-4k so have been looking at cars from '04 to '06 age with around 100k on the clock. The reason for posting on here is that I'm new to the world of Subaru's and I 'm trying to get a handle on pricing as it seems to be all over the place! I have seen 55 plate cars that look great with 70 - 95k miles priced anywhere from £4.5k to 6k and beyond yet when you check Glass's, What Car, Parkers, CAP etc they nearly always estimate the values at £1500 to £2000 (or even more) less than the dealers (or private sales to some degree) are asking. Hence, not wanting to get stitched up, I haven't yet bought a car! I'm trying to work out whether sellers are over pricing or if the used car valuations are massively undervaluing. I'm happy to pay the going rate but I wouldn't want to fork out, say, £5k for an '05 car to find out a few weeks later it's only worth £2.5k if you see what I mean. Can anyone with a better idea than me shed any light on what's right and wrong here? Maybe supply and demand? It would be great to get some info on this. My other choice may be an Outback, the differences don't seem quite so great on these, Many Thanks, Hugh.