What to expect parting out a donor?

[turbomacncheese]

Upon the encouragement of some forum members, I've been looking at legacy GTs and foresters for donors. I found what looks to be a pretty nice legacy with an upgraded turbo, some suspension junk, fresh timing belt/tires/water pump. Seems to be reasonably kept, but he wants more than I want to pay right now ($7500). The up side is that it apparently runs well and has been maintained, so a nicer experience and guaranteed runner. Downside is that if I can't get a lot of cash for the parts I need, I can't afford it for this project. So the question: does anyone have any experience parting these things out? What should I expect? I would think the WRX has a hotter market than the legacy, so it would be more difficult to sell legacy parts. Am I right? Also, what about a forester? Seem to be in the same neighborhood price-wise.

[NevaLift2Shift]

I think you are on the right path. I think the popularity of Legacys and Foresters depend on your area. I know in Texas, they are very rare and not much aftermarket. It would be very hard to part out a Legacy here. I bought a wrecked 2003 WRX (for around $2k, was a little rough) minus most of the body parts. After stripping it and keeping what I needed, the rest parts were gone within a month or so. I was a little surprised at how fast all the parts were sold.

Budgets are hard to stick to on these cars. Factory Five did a great job marketing these as a cheap kit car. They can be cheap, but they know most people are going to want upgrade some things, add extras, refurbish used donor parts. It does start to add up, but the majority of the added expenses come when you start adding horsepower. The best things about these cars is all the support you can get from these forums. I haven't found an issue yet that hasn't been discussed in great detail on this forum.

[turbomacncheese]

I agree. There are only a few rocks that haven't been well polished in the river. Not a lot of subaru's out here. Only things I can find either require a lot of shipping to get here or are priced way over blue book. I think I offended a guy asking him to list the parts he upgraded to get from a 4000 blue book to a 7500 asking price for a legacy GT. Seriously, if he put a great turbo on there, a bigger intercooler, wheels and tires, he's have been most of the way there. Whatever. I guess when you think replacing the timing belt at 140,000 miles is called an enhancement and not maintenance, odds are small that we would agree on a price anyway. Thanks.

[Shawn818c]

You'll be hard pressed to find any turbo Subaru selling for KBB. Not sure where KBB gets their data from but Subaru's have the highest resale of any manufacturuer.

[turbomacncheese]

That seems to be true, but dealers are pretty close. I think part of that is that it's hard to find any turbo subaru that is still stock (at least out here). Like I said, though, if he could have listed off some reasons why he expected to get that much, I would listen. His car has been listed since I started looking at Legacy's, and according to the website, he's gotten two emails...one was mine. I'm talking to two guys right now that seem more reasonable. Hopefully I'll end up with one of the cars.