Might be buying a WRX

[soundsinsilence]

Hi all, my name is Carlos and I'm new to the forum. I've been using this forum for a lot of the research I've been doing as I look for an '04 to '06 WRX.

I found one recently and was wondering if anyone could shed some light or share some experience.

The car I'm looking at buying is a 2005 WRX. Evidently it's a limited edition in Aspen White. It has leather interior, heated seats, and a sunroof. The salesman tells me this is an extremely hard to find model given the color and trim. Is that true?

As far as modifications go, it looks like it's got new springs that lowered it maybe an inch or so. It also seems to have a bit more rumble to the exhaust note. There's a chrome STi tip on the muffler and I tried to look underneath but couldn't quite tell if the exhaust had just been swapped for an STi's exhaust. Is that sort of swap possible?

Other than that, the car seems to be pretty bone stock. Has a big subwoofer in the trunk (which I'll be promptly selling if I buy the car). Car stereo is stock (not sure about the rest of the speakers).

As far as under the hood, everything appears to be untouched expected for a kind of cheesy "WRX" that's been sprayed onto the intercooler, and the cowling on the front of the engine that was painted the same red. Stock intake, wastegate (correct terminology?), and other guts near as I can tell. I guess it has a hood scoop from an STi too.

I've done some searching on this site and found a few things to watch out for and specifically look at, but other than that, I seem to have found a car that falls in the "yes, definitely buy it category".

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
-carlos

[timb]

The Aspen White limited edition is rare indeed. How many miles does it have on it? You might want to keep the Sub because Subaru is well known to have pretty horrible stock sound systems. As for the exhaust it may just be a cat back from an STI, but I am pretty sure that they would sound the same since the diameter is the same, 2.5 inches. I would take it to an Subaru dealership and have a technician check it out so you do not have any surprises after you but it. Good luck.

[soundsinsilence]

Great! Thanks for the confirmation on the rarity of the trim and color combo.

I may keep the sub for a while and see how it goes. I don't really want to draw more than the necessary attention.

Thankfully I'm buying it from a Subaru dealership and so they have to fix any issues with the car before they can sell it. So they're replacing the CV boots and adding a missing pad that goes in the bumper behind the lower grill. Other than that, they checked the compression and all was good there.

The car has just under 83K miles on it. So it's a little on the higher side. The previous owner bought it from the same dealer and he only bought it a year ago and only put 6K miles on it. Which is probably about what I'll put on it as I live in the city and won't be using it to commute. That means, secure garage queen!

I really appreciate the help. I'm about to put down my earnest money, so I think it's all set. I'll post a pic as soon as I can.

[anxiouz]

If it drives nice and you like it then go for it.

But one thing that does stand out is that the previous owner had it for less than a year's worth of miles (since the average is 12k/year). And it has kinda high miles on top of that.

It's possible the guy just didn't like the car after awhile but to see someone buy a higher mileage car and then get out of it within a year could be a sign that the car was problematic. Especially if the dealer needs to fix a bunch of stuff right now to even sell you the car. If the car came from that dealer to begin with (less than 8k miles ago), it sure seems like needing to fix things so soon may be a sign that they tried to let it slide last time.

That's my honest 2 cents. The car does raise some red flags but if it's all fixed up and it drives well then it could be the right car for you. But there are PLENTY of cars out there so don't get too attached to it unless the deal is right.

[soundsinsilence]

As far as the previous owner, the guy originally bought it from this same dealership (good relationship I guess). He didn't want to get rid of the car, but he needed the money because he had a sick parent. Thus the reason for the car being sold so quickly. Normally I would be skeptical, but they said the guy dropped it off about four hours before I got there and I could tell. His gym bag, water bottles, coffee mug, and CD's were still in the car.

I really appreciate the help guys. You've all been really helpful. Here's a picture of the car as it was last night. Does anyone know what that weird pig decal is on the side mirror? I'm having the dealer remove that.

[lytlec]

Is that the Rally Pig? Look it up...

[SeattleJeremy]

The 2005 Model Year did not have an option for Leather. The Impreza Premium Trim included: Sunroof, Spoiler, Heated Cloth Seats, Heated Mirrors, and Heated Windshield.

The 2006-2007 Model Year Limited trim included: Sunroof, Spoiler, Heated Leather Seats, Heated Mirrors, and Heated Windshield.

If the car is a 2005 then the leather interior was likely taken from a 2006 or 2007.

It's true that the Premium or Limited trim packages are not as available as the Normal or (06-07) TR packages, but they can be found on the market today.
White in with these packages are just as available as the next colors IE: Blue, Silver, or Black. It also came in Red, but they are hard to come by as less red WRX's where sold.

It's easy for any owner to pick up a take off STI exhaust and install it on to a WRX.

[SeattleJeremy]

Few more things.

• That car came with a rear wing (comes with the Premium package).
• The STI Splats (the front bumper things) were added later.
• The Black plastic just behind the lower opening in the front bumper is missing. That tells us that the car, at one point, had a Front mounted intercooler.

Got any more pictures?

Edit: I'm interested in this, because it looks just like the car I use to have. Except, mine looked like this when I had it.
http://jeremy.alloverlays.com/gallerywrx.html

[soundsinsilence]

Looked at your pics Jeremy, and yes the cars do look really similar.

This car did have a wing, it was removed and the holes properly filled. All badges on the back have been shaved as well.

Good to know about the STI Splats. I'll get more info on that.

The owner evidently has the black plastic piece for the car. He must've been messing around with something and knocked it out. It's all being replaced by the dealer. I didn't notice anything that made it look like the turbo had been switched to an FMIC. But I'll look again.

The only other pictures I have are closeups of the front pretty much. When I get the car, I'll definitely post up pics.

Thanks for the help guys!

[soundsinsilence]

Greeeeaaaat. I'm on a downhill slope now. I found the SPT parts listing on the Subaru site as well the rally sport direct site.

This is not good. So many goodies to be had. I think I'm going to immediately invest in a set of splashguards.

That's it for now though. I think...

[soundsinsilence]

Alright, well as of Saturday afternoon, I'm now the proud owner of a super clean, Aspen White, 2005 WRX.

I spent most of the weekend buzzing around town in it and it's been just awesome. The previous owner took the subwoofer (fine, I wanted the trunk space anyways), but the rest of the audio system (except the head unit) has been upgraded.

Dealer replaced the CV joints and swapped some fluids, but other than that, the car needed nothing.

Oddly enough, we ended up getting some snow in Seattle on Sunday and today. The car seems to handle pretty darn well. I'm sitting on Bridgestone Eagle GT All Season tires.

First purchase item will be a set of Rally Armor splash guards. I'd like to protect the car as best I can since it's in really good shape now. I also need to figure out if the up pipe on the turbo has been tweaked at all. I was looking at the HKS up pipe and that seemed like a good price and kept the flex section.

I appreciate all the help this site has provided. It's an extremely useful site!

[anxiouz]

Congrats and enjoy!

[SeattleJeremy]

Did they replace the black plastic that feeds air to the Radiator?

Congrats on the purchase!

[rightnwrong]

for the car soundsinsilence.