Hey, look what I bought last night!  Read on for the epic story of how I came into possession of this lovely 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX (hereafter referred to as “the WRX”, as most of the right-minded world calls it).

For the past couple of months I’ve been looking for a car on-and-off.  The Civic I used to drive (it was a great car) now belongs to my brother, and I’ve been relying totally on public transportation and my family for my commuting needs the past year or so.  However, with my internship in North Carolina ever-looming, I’ve been watching the typical sources for a vehicle I might like (Auto Trader, Craigslist, newspaper, etc.).  Of course, reconciling “vehicle I like” with my budget constraints can be frustrating at times.

For a while I tried to find a 5-speed BMW E36 (1992-1998 3-series) in good condition at a sane price.  Turns out this is pretty difficult; it seems that by the time 3-series depreciate into my price bracket, a lot of ricer kiddies line up who are willing to pay way over Blue Book value for them.  That rather puts me at a disadvantage since I rarely feel compelled to pay more for a car than the various book values (there are some reasons you might, but these weren’t at play with any of the cars I looked at).  Somewhat discouraged from a month-and-a-half of searching in vain and dealing with a lot of shady, uniquely Craigslist-esque characters, I had nearly resigned myself to just finding another decent Civic or Accord.  Can’t go wrong with a well-maintained Honda, even if they are pretty bland to drive.

Well, it turns out that even the market for Civics and Accords sucks right now.  According to a friend who is in the used car business, rising fuel prices have caused a major scare, and reliable fuel-efficient cars in my price bracket ($5,000-$8,000) are rare and selling for inflated prices.  Great.  Well I figured I’d find something with my friend’s help; maybe with luck I could still pick up an okay Civic or Accord at auction for a price I could live with.  However, at this point I was rather miffed at the probability that I couldn’t even find another Civic in nearly as good condition as my last one for around the same price (immaculate 1998 white 5-speed Civic EX coupe with 72,000 miles: $7,200 in 2004).  Thanks, petroleum energy economy!

‘Twas not to be, however, as I had checked out Craigslist again the morning prior to the day I talked to my dealer friend.  Not any promising-looking BMWs, but there were two WRXes way out I-20 West past Six Flags.  Previously I had more or less given up on finding a WRX for a number of very convincing reasons:

• People who have them usually drive them hard
• People who have them usually drive them until they cease moving due to abuse or high-speed impact with another substantive object
• People who have them usually drive them really hard
• People who take care of them usually keep them until bullet point #2 intervenes

All of this adds up to a car that is very difficult to find on the used market, and even harder to find in a condition that a sane person would wish to purchase.  The rare used WRX in good condition that does surface usually gets snapped up by someone pretty quickly (heck, even the trashed ones will sell to the right people).  Now, no matter how much fun a car is, if the drivetrain has been dogged you don’t want to touch it with a ten-foot pole.  However, after a few vicarious conversations (via my brother due to my wisdom teeth) with the owner of the 2003 silver WRX, I had built up a pretty good feeling that he was being honest and candid and that the car was in good shape.  Even better, the CARFAX report was pretty clean and agreed with what he told us (always get a CARFAX!).  The 2002 blue WRX was listed by a dealer, and while I didn’t get the same warm fuzzy feeling from him, the CARFAX also told a good story and he was located within ten minutes of the first WRX.  Both were one-owner cars with comparable mileage and asking prices within my range.  Cool!  I hoped one of these would work out, because this was realistically my last shot at getting a car I like before settling.

After rounding up my brother—an apprentice auto mechanic—and the family “expert negotiator” (you know to whom this refers if you know us), we made the hour-and-a-half trek to Douglasville to check out the cars.  After a test drive and much poking around over, under, beside, and inside the car, my brother felt that it was in pretty much the condition previously elucidated to us.  The A/C did not work, it needs a new windshield, and one of the inner C/V boots needs reworking.  However, the drivetrain felt and sounded solid, and the guy was old enough to make a convincing case that he hadn’t driven it recklessly and had mostly logged highway miles.  Of the known issues, the big kicker was the air conditioning; A/C is often something that is difficult to diagnose until you actually start fixing it.  The owner claimed that he was told it is a minor issue, but this is nearly impossible to quickly corroborate.  The compressor clutch didn’t catch when we turned the A/C on (which may in itself mean nothing), so we really had to operate on the worst-case assumption that it would need a new compressor (about $1,500 installed, though you can do better if you try).  The car wasn’t exactly immaculate either, so we decided to go see the second WRX as well.

The second (blue) one was at a storage facility for a small auto dealer.  It looked really immaculate and the A/C worked well, though in typical dealer style it had just been detailed.  It was getting dark so we skipped the in-depth look-over and test drove it.  It didn’t take very long to notice a rather loud gnawing, winding sound which started around 20 miles per hour and seemed independent of the engine revs, clutch engagement, and transmission gear.  Goody, probably the differentials or something in the AWD linkages.  Shortly thereafter I noticed that the transmission kept biting whenever I shifted into first gear, even at a dead stop.  The only way to avoid it was to engage the clutch in neutral for a few seconds before shifting into first.  Oh boy, the first-gear synchro is chewed up.  At this point we were fairly confident that we were riding in a typical “has-had-the-living-daylights-beat-out-of-it” WRX pursuant to bullet points 1 and 3 above.  We thanked the dealer for his time, and made an expedient exit.

I’m going to spare the rest of the narrative because I’ve already rambled on far longer than federal regulations likely allow.  Thanks to the expert negotiator, we bought the silver one for $700 less than the asking price, at a cost which I believe to be very fair based on book value and the assumption that the A/C is dead-in-the-water.  I’m going to replace the windshield and fix the C/V boot immediately, then get the car checked out by a Subaru dealer and assess the A/C system.  Frankly, if the A/C turns out to be worst-case then I’ll go without for awhile, as I did a few summers back with the Civic.  I took a bit of a risk not having the car fully inspected on a lift, but between the good feeling the owner gave me and my brother’s inspection, it’s one I’m willing to take (knock on wood).  I started to detail the interior today because it needed a good scrubbing, and it’s actually starting to look really nice after a bit of vacuuming, Windex, and Armor-all, though I still need to shampoo the upholstery with the trusty ‘ol Rug-Doctor as well as detail the exterior and engine bay.

How do I like it?  Love it.  How many dumb jokes will I make about the TURBO BOOSTUU gauge?  Innumerable.  How does it feel?  Let’s just say that it’s really nice to have a car that can do 70-100 effortlessly in fifth gear and still corner like a dream.    Sorry Civics and Accords, I still love you, but it’s time to see other people.