Mark
Active member
In what is no surprise to anyone I have been looking into used WRX's for the past couple weeks to figure out my target range. I've noticed a few things. The first thing is that finally used WRX's have managed to fall comfortably below 10k, which used to be a figure only a few basketcase bugeyes had seen the underside of. At first it surprised me that I could get a quality WRX for under 10k. Then I compared it to what other types of cars you might be able to find in the 6-8,000 range. THIS is what surprised me.
LOADS of 3 series BMW's with reasonable miles from the 2000-2003 range. EVEN MORE Audi A4's. Even a few 5 series BMW's.
All of these in better condition for the same or less money than your average WRX. So what is keeping the WRX resale price so high? The thing that spikes my attention so much is somewhat of an anomaly in the car resale market. Private party sales prices are HIGHER than retail sales prices. Pape is selling a BEAUTIFUL 2004 premium WRX for under 10k because they realize that to the public it's a 7 year old subaru with 126k miles on it. Meanwhile I just saw a 2002 bugeye on craigslist with a bunch of cheap mods for 11,500.
That being said, I will end up with a used WRX in the next couple months and I'll be damn happy about.
To answer the obvious question first: I used BMW and Audi more because of the relative MSRP of those cars versus the WRX. NOT the abilities or uses. You can make the "maintenance" excuse all day about German cars but I'd bet a higher percentage of turbo Subarus experience problems private sale versus BMW/Audi. It's all about the previous owners.
LOADS of 3 series BMW's with reasonable miles from the 2000-2003 range. EVEN MORE Audi A4's. Even a few 5 series BMW's.
All of these in better condition for the same or less money than your average WRX. So what is keeping the WRX resale price so high? The thing that spikes my attention so much is somewhat of an anomaly in the car resale market. Private party sales prices are HIGHER than retail sales prices. Pape is selling a BEAUTIFUL 2004 premium WRX for under 10k because they realize that to the public it's a 7 year old subaru with 126k miles on it. Meanwhile I just saw a 2002 bugeye on craigslist with a bunch of cheap mods for 11,500.
That being said, I will end up with a used WRX in the next couple months and I'll be damn happy about.
To answer the obvious question first: I used BMW and Audi more because of the relative MSRP of those cars versus the WRX. NOT the abilities or uses. You can make the "maintenance" excuse all day about German cars but I'd bet a higher percentage of turbo Subarus experience problems private sale versus BMW/Audi. It's all about the previous owners.
