The deal was simple, when I graduate, my parents would buy me a car, or help buy me a car with a spending cap of $17,000. Some people say that I am spoiled, I say that I am blessed (but lets be honest, I am pretty spoiled). They just wanted to set me up with a nice reliable car that I could be proud of when I entered "the real world". So my final semester I pondered on what car I would like to have. My first choice was an Acura RSX type S, a somewhat sporty and relatively cheap car. I pretty much planned on getting that until I found out that I could get an even sportier car for about the same price, around $12,000, a Honda S2000... This was a much improved decision because of the bullet proof engine and wealth of aftermarket options.
My best friend Eric (more on him later) then chimed in and ruined all of my plans... He proposed the Idea of a WRX, because I was moving back home to Idaho were the winters are long and icy, the idea of AWD was very appealing. Don't ask why I was about to buy a RWD car in a state that has ice/snow for 5 months of the year... I was finding WRXs for nearly my spending limit and was a little discouraged, because now I was dead set on getting one. This meant less money for modifying it, and less money for maintenance/registration/sales tax. as I was browsing one day for WRXs, I found a STI for around the same price, and pounced on it. Later that week I drove 4 hours to go look at it.
I was wary about this car though because it had 97,000 on the odometer. When I saw it though in the shop, it was immaculate, and made me feel better for driving so far to look at it. Peaked in the engine bay (completely stock) interior was stock and clean besides A pillar gauges, and the exhaust was stock. Took it for a spin with the gentleman selling it, and he gave me the low down while I was learning how to control a turbo powered car. Mostly highway miles, no funky smells, started right up, no rust, but there was a clunk in the rear when we went over bumps. I thought it was the subwoofer bouncing around, since it wasn't exactly secured in the trunk... Yup later I found out that it was strut clunk (apparently common for the 04 STIs).
I went ahead and put the deposit down, and returned the following week to pay the rest in cash. I had to wait for the bank to process the cashier's check. I ended up reaching my spending limit of $17,000, but it wasn't a Honda, or a WRX, it was the cream of the Subie crop the STI, so I was happy regardless of an empty bank account. Some say I shouldn't have paid that much for a high mileage STI of that year, maybe I shouldn't have, but as of today with 115,000 miles, she still runs fine with no leaks, no oil consumption, and no weird smells.
Jesse
