Is there such a thing as a stock WRX?

ONce they reach a few years, it seems like every WRX has mods. 

Not around me. Even the VERY questionably modded ones are several thousand above blue book. 

So I bought a Speed3. 

VaPeZ AnD hElLa HoRnZ yO (jk)

With the exception of the wheels, that were put on in 2007, my 2002 is dead stock down to the Subaru stamping on the muffler.  I have all the receipts since new including the dealer documents showing a 1995 m3 was traded in on it.

My 02 is bone stock besides the stickers.

Around me, the ones that weren't modded were driven in NY winters and have non-existent quarter panels and a salvage title from Ken Block Jr. hucking it into a ditch.

For the most part, stock WRX usually seems to mean "automatic WRX"

I was on the hunt last year for a few months, the only stock one I found was at a local dealer that said it wasn't ready yet because someone left the lights on overnight and killed the battery...except you can't do that in a Subaru.  So that means electrical gremlins.  Settled on a $5900 '02 WRX put together by a decent shop in Columbus, 99% rust free.  I'll take it.

That brings up the other thing. What is it with the crazy prices? At the 15k-20k price point, there are almost no Evos, only some newer WRXs. That is 996 money and the 996 is A LOT more car. But the 996 doesn't come in a wagon.

In reply to Patrick :

Traded in a '95 M3 for an '02 WRX.  Kinda seems like a down grade...

A quick check on the internet lists Subaru as one of the top, if not the top car brand for retaining it's value.  I have been driving WRXs/Stis for years and always purchase, never lease as they hold their value so well.  I purchased a new STi in 2004 for $31K.  In 2008 a woman in a SUV hit me and totaled the car.  AAA paid out at $27K for the car. Shocking. I love Subarus and will always drive them.   Oh ya,  after seven of them I have never had any problems with any of them. 

Jerry said:

I was on the hunt last year for a few months, the only stock one I found was at a local dealer that said it wasn't ready yet because someone left the lights on overnight and killed the battery...except you can't do that in a Subaru. 

Oh yes you can.  We used to get a couple of those a year, when people would bump the parking light switch on top of the steering column.

markwemple said:

That brings up the other thing. What is it with the crazy prices? At the 15k-20k price point, there are almost no Evos, only some newer WRXs. That is 996 money and the 996 is A LOT more car. But the 996 doesn't come in a wagon.

You know what DOES come in a wagon?

I am still astonished at how much these cars have depreciated, versus how reliable they are and how much car you actually GET.  And you're not likely to get one that has been Ken Blocked to death.  (Which is probably why they depreciated hard)

docwyte said:

In reply to Patrick :

Traded in a '95 M3 for an '02 WRX.  Kinda seems like a down grade...

I knew someone who worked at a Saturn dealership who picked up a very clean, well maintained, unmodified series 5 RX-7 Turbo II for challenge money because the owner traded it in on one of the fancy new three door SC2s.  Car needed nothing, owner just wanted a Saturn.

docwyte said:

In reply to Patrick :

Traded in a '95 M3 for an '02 WRX.  Kinda seems like a down grade...

Said person put 40000 miles on the wrx before the first year was up, so i would assume the m3 had a metric buttload of miles.  

In reply to Knurled. :

Love Volvo R wagons. Near impossible to find with a stick. Also love Audi wagons. An RS6 wagon with a v10 would be sooooo sweet. But I'm not looking at that kind of money. More bugeye wrx money right now.

I definitely couldn't find any for reasonable money that weren't already driven into the ground. Ended up getting my ms6 for thousands less than the most ragged out WRX I looked at. 

In reply to MazdaFace :

Disgusting, isn't it?  The really super clean Mazdaspeed6s at dealerships were in the 6-8k range, when I was looking.  Heck of a lot of car for the money.

Knurled. said:

Jerry said:

I was on the hunt last year for a few months, the only stock one I found was at a local dealer that said it wasn't ready yet because someone left the lights on overnight and killed the battery...except you can't do that in a Subaru. 

 

Oh yes you can.  We used to get a couple of those a year, when people would bump the parking light switch on top of the steering column.

 

 

I have done this. Super easy to do by mistake when cleaning the dashboard. 

I feel like I have the only 100% stock STI on the planet. There was somebody who bought at my dealer brought the darn access port with him as reported by my sales gal. 

My '14 is completely stock besides the gold RPF1's.

Knurled. said:

Jerry said:

I was on the hunt last year for a few months, the only stock one I found was at a local dealer that said it wasn't ready yet because someone left the lights on overnight and killed the battery...except you can't do that in a Subaru. 

 

Oh yes you can.  We used to get a couple of those a year, when people would bump the parking light switch on top of the steering column.

 

 

Ah forgot about that switch, it caught me off-guard in Subarust one day after crudely wiping out the previous weekend's rallycross dust & hit it.  Got to work and was like "WTF are the lights stuck on for?"  Thought it was a new short circuit until Google (& GRM) learned me.

markwemple said:

In reply to Knurled. :

Love Volvo R wagons. Near impossible to find with a stick.

It seemed like one in four were manual when I was looking.  The problem with manual is they still have the failure prone angle drive collar, and Getrag seems to have basically discontinued everything for the M66 so if you own one you are forced to salvage old parts Mad Max style.

Which is also kind of a good chunk of why I was soured on the Mazdaspeed6.  A whole lot of parts that are NLA on the books.

Manual transmission cars are more likely to have been abused, anyway, because of the kind of people who insist on having a manual trans. 

nervousdog said:

My '14 is completely stock besides the gold RPF1's.

If a car is stock "except for..." then it isn't stock.

For that matter,  my RX-7 is stock except for the Megasquirt and the 13B and the FC subframe.  And the stereo headunit. And the carpet is missing.  And I may have tinkered with the rear suspension geometry a bit.  But other than that it's stock.

FWIW, one of my customers DOES have a completely stock '11 wagon.  I lust after that thing until I need two feet to push down on the clutch.  Then I lament its existence.

In reply to Knurled. :

Are the hydraulics on a WRX clutch that bad?