l am thinking about buying a 97 legacy gt wagon 2.5 man. tran. with 200,000 miles . Motor seems to run fine with good power but the trans. bothers me. The shifter has about 2in. of travel or play in it even when in gear, it does not pop out of gear just loose. Also the cultch is soft . My questions are 1) are these normal 2) how much to fix 3) is $1900 to much to pay for this car.

Shifter play even when in gear might be because of the front & rear bushing being worn. They r both rubber pieces so with 200,000 miles, it is probably normal. l upgraded mine on my new car & it was pretty easy & cheap. About $20 for the front bushing & $35 for the rear from a company called Kartboy. They have a website & good people to talk to & it really stiffened up my shifter. As far as the clutch being soft, sounds like the springs on the clutch cover r soft. Sometimes people just find a cheap clutch disk & keep their cover & they just get soft over time. $1900 seems pretty fair if the motor is in good shape. It will be due for another timing belt change within another 10K to15K miles. costs about 400 to 500 to have done so maybe use that as bargaining to reduce the price a little bit.

Subarus are worth every penny. l have a 97 legacy GT sedan and l dont think l ever want another kind of car.