I beginning my research for the next car. The current frontrunner is a 02-07 WRX. Budget would be 6-8k maybe 9k for a really nice example. But. I talked to a friend about it and he advised me to look for a same generation STI instead. His arguments were that it is much better car from the start and that it would maintain or even increase it's value even after I put miles on it. The cheapest STIs that I have found are in the 14-15k range.
So, the question is, would it be better for me to get a nice WRX and not have to finance it at all or to buy a cheap STI and finance 6-7k of it?
Car would be my daily driver. No track racing and only a little autocross.
Given your plans for the car, I think the biggest thing you'd be missing out on with a WRX vs. an STI is that sweet, sweet 6-speed.
My advice would be to drive both, and decide whether you think the WRX 5-speed is okay or not.
If you can find STIs that cheap that are not thrashed and torn up, I'd say go for it. Do be mindful that the EJ257 engine is the one that ringland memes are made of, but you do get the better steering and brakes and transmission and everything else. It makes sense to get all the good stuff all at once, you know?
The downside is that a lot of things are STI specific. WRX seem to mostly be regular Impreza for most things, STI have their own axles and even things like the rear trailing arm brackets are STI specific (mounting point is about 10-15mm higher than WRX, good for lower ride height)
The upside of WRX is the EJ205 in the '02-05 models (the '06-07 has the EJ255, basically a lower spec STI engine) is a remarkably stout engine within its reasonable power window. But it has the glass transmission and no fancy active center diff etc. Unless you find an automatic, which does have a fancy active center diff but no manual control over the diff like the STI and its regrettably labeled C.diff dial.
RIngland has already been covered.
As an ex- WRX owner, STi all the way. Though I would say drive an Evo first. You will never buy a WRX/STi once you drive a good Evo.
Good luck.
At that price, they'll all be beat to E36 M3. Probably.
I'm all for financing fun cars, but I can't imagine financing a 15+ year old beat up subaru (yes I know it's a special model, but scraping the bottom of the budget range is going to be a rough example most likely). Especially since in the current financial climate you're probably talking about a 10% or higher interest rate personal loan. For normal street driving and mild autocross use I'm not sure you'd miss the six speed and center diff very much. Our '05 WRX was really good to drive on the street even on snow tires and 160k mile suspension, just needed a bit more power. Given those choices I'd have to think I'd go for a good WRX and some leftover budget for *MILD* performance upgrades.
$250 takeoff VF43, decapped stock injectors, E85, and a Carberry ROM, just to see what the miles per second gear economy is 
Buy the best one you can, much more important than anything else.
In my case, six months with my dream car, an 04 WRX wagon, cured me of my Subaru want. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.
I'm the debt free guy - where are you getting a loan from? My local credit union won't give a loan that old. There's another rant on those rates.
In reply to Datsun310Guy :
Mine will, but only as a personal unsecured loan and not an auto loan. The upside is, the title is yours. The downside is, higher interest rate. When I bought my S60R in 2017 it was just on the edge of what they would do as an auto loan. The difference in monthly payments amounted to five dollars. I took the higher interest loan just so I could have the title and sell the car if I ended up hating it, and paid the loan off 18 months early anyway. And still have the car 116k very fun miles later.
Another option may be if they have a super awesome rate on a credit card consolidation loan, and then just put it on plastic before getting the consolidation loan. No idea what, if anything, this may do to your credit rating. (I did buy my WRX courtesy of Mastercard but its purchase price amounted to about half of my normal monthly CC bill, so this kinda made sense. It was NOT a nice car)
I'm still deeply curious about $15k STIs, as when I bought the Volvo I had been looking at STIs and I could not find any GDs for under $20k that weren't modified or thrashed. I can't see them having gotten cheaper in the past five years. I tell myself that I already HAVE a 300hp 2.5l techno-wizard AWD sedan with blue interior and accents, but it just ain't an STI... and it's a 2.4 now anyway 
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:
Buy the best one you can, much more important than anything else.
In my case, six months with my dream car, an 04 WRX wagon, cured me of my Subaru want. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.
What made you change your mind so fast?
Datsun310Guy said:
I'm the debt free guy - where are you getting a loan from? My local credit union won't give a loan that old. There's another rant on those rates
Hmm..... I haven't actually looked yet since I have to this point always bought my cars cash. My wife does work in the loan department of a bank so I was counting on that if decide to go that route.
Daeldalus said:
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:
Buy the best one you can, much more important than anything else.
In my case, six months with my dream car, an 04 WRX wagon, cured me of my Subaru want. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.
What made you change your mind so fast?
I bought a single owner, un modified car, so I thought I would be set. It had some deferred maintenance, like the timing belt, which I took care of, but it just had stupid issues keep occurring.
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:
Buy the best one you can, much more important than anything else.
In my case, six months with my dream car, an 04 WRX wagon, cured me of my Subaru want. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.
Wow that is a long time. LOL.
After tons of subarus, Loyale, DL wagons, Justy, Outbacks, my brand new WRX 16 Limited, lasted me 28 days and 800 miles. World's biggest POS. Last subaru I will ever buy (after 8 of them in my lifetime)
Bought the WRX to replace the Ralliart wagon, pass the Mitsubishi on to my son.
Besides having a continuous string of annoying problems, I found out that the WRX will oil starve and spin a bearing if you track it without modifying the oil pan and pickup. For an example, you can read about it on the WRX project car articles on this website.
On the other hand, this thing has been bulletproof for me since 2009.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
You are smarter than me. If I got my EVO, back in the day, would have never had to live with the garbage Subaru headaches and heartaches. Live and learn.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
A lot of it for me was that I could get a wagon (old guys love their wagons).
I also could never afford an Evo. I scored the WRX for a ridiculously cheap $2000 at the start of the pandemic. Fortunately, I also sold it at the right time and almost broke even.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
I am a wagon fan as any. Started with my 1981 Subaru DL Wagon. Few Honda Wagovans (86 and 90), Cressida Wagon, Accord Wagon (93 and 97), Camry Wagon (3rd row seat), IS300 Sportcross, and finally TSX wagon.
In the Subaru world, aside from my DL, the Outback ownerships (headgaskets all the time) were the only other experience.
I live very close to the famous EVO Wagon owner that is all over the net. He has 2 (white and black).
I would love E63 AMG Wagon (can't afford them).
When new at that time, I could not afford an Evo either. Then when I could finally afford new, I decided to buy new S2000 and new Elise. Who needs 4 door cars.
Of course, life dictates 4 door car, and I paid same for the EVO now that it cost 15 years ago. (I am stupid).
But the enjoyment I am getting out of my 4 door 1 owner, all stock, mint EVO, I co uld have skipped a lot of cars over the years.
Wish I had your wisdom, doc.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:
In reply to Datsun310Guy :
Another option may be if they have a super awesome rate on a credit card consolidation loan, and then just put it on plastic before getting the consolidation loan. No idea what, if anything, this may do to your credit rating.
I recently discovered (through a friend) that discover will let you pay your personal loan with your newly opened, zero interest for 18 months credit card.
Like i said I'm not against financing fun cars in principle. But this seems like a recipe for having a $6k loan on a car with significant risk of blowing its engine and becoming worthless a month after buying it. Or in the case of our saabaru, about fifteen minutes after taking delivery. Luckily that car was a "gift" from a friend of a friend so our only cost was the shipping.
Daeldalus said:
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:
Buy the best one you can, much more important than anything else.
In my case, six months with my dream car, an 04 WRX wagon, cured me of my Subaru want. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.
What made you change your mind so fast?
Let's put it this way...I've owned well over 150 cars in my lifetime and only one was a Subaru. That was 30 years ago and the car was an '81 DL wagon. Bought it for $300 and drove the E36 M3 out of it for about 18 months. You'd never guess how it died....
But if you must have a Subie, I'd go with the very well kept WRX. Your wallet will thank you, kinda sorta.
Do not finance the STI, if you must fulfill your Subaru fix buy the less costly version and start saving for a motor...
Cheap STI is like a Cheap Porsche....It's never cheap.
Cheap STI? Sounds expensive to cure.
Oh, we're talking about Subarus. Yeah, same thing. Guy I used to work with had a bugeye STI and even by my standards of explody vehicles, that thing was a moneypit. Yes, he did drive it like he stole it, but IIRC it was more or less stock and still was in the shop a lot.
I haven't seen anything verbally degraded in this forum this much sincere the last time the mob went after Frenchy.
The major issues with these cars is rust in the rear quarters, abuse from POS, and neglected maintenance. That applies to lots of cars, however these cars seem to attract a certain PO more inclined to abuse them and defer maintenance.
If you do buy any 15+ YO turbo suby make sure you have a good shop on speed dial and the cash to pay for repairs. About an hour away from first start on my baja turbo, EJ255 motor. After chasing mis fires for a few months I thought it was fixed then it made a big pop and it was worse. Broken ring lands, every piece of rubber was dried up and leaking, wire harness was dried and cracking. Hopefully all the demons have been exorcised from the engine bay, sure did kill my savings account!
