One of the best cars I have owned was a Subaru Impreza WRX. Whilst it functioned very well as family car doing the school run it could magically transform into a monster of a car using its Turbo’s and four wheel drive.
However a change in circumstances meant that we needed to get an estate car and a trip to the Audi garage followed for an A4. The part exchange negotiaitions went badly (It was clear they didn’t really want the car) and on offer of £1200 for an eight year old Subaru with 40 000 miles on the clock was firmly rejected.
I kept the car for a few years as a spare car and then 5 years ago I put it away in a garage where my wife eventually forgot that I owned it. It is still sitting there in good condition with low mileage and I have watched the values steadily rise, especially for unmolested examples. It seems that this decision is going to pay off as values for these Japanese Classics are really taking off.
Gary Dunne of CCA, explains: “We’re often asked: ‘How is the car market doing at the moment?’ A simple answer is that changing trends and economic fluctuations mean some things naturally plateau or come down in value, whereas others will rise. No one could have predicted the rise in the Japanese cars but for a generation who grew up watching Fast and Furious, playing Gran Turismo and Need for Speed these halo cars have fond memories and becoming increasingly desirable.”
The Japanese collectable story is very similar to what happened with ‘Fast Fords’ – when car values dropped many cars were ragged about, crashed, scrapped, rusted away, or broken for parts. So the good surviving/restored examples nowadays rightfully command a premium. The upward trend in popularity and desirability of these cars continues to grow with the cars becoming rarer, which has led to increasing sales results.
So what next for my Subaru? Well the values mean that it has become viable to spend some money on restoring it back to road going condition. I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment but the Subaru is now next on the list.
Heart warming story. You were fortunate that you could refuse the derisory PEx offer and keep the car, and all these years later its good to know that there is an unabused example just waiting to be brought back to life and enjoyed again. I don’t know if the pics are of your own ‘bug eye’ version, but I’ve always liked them, despite all the criticism of the look when they were introduced. Probably looks even better today.
Yes that is my car. I agree about the bug eyes, it grew into them.
It looks great, youre lucky to have it.