Turblue Wagon #2 - 2011 WRX

[Steve85]

My first two cars were 84 and 110 HP. I would be dead if I had any more than that (almost died a few times anyway), but I'm guessing you're a better dad than my absentee father. 

Depends on which kid you ask...   

Steve, you're the man.  you cannot fabricate a genuine moment like that, he'll remember it forever particularly the length you went to get the "right" one for him.  high five!

Yeah, you don't get many moments like that, totally worth the trip to make it happen.

awesome car, THE color to have, and a 5 door will be perfect as he grows, wants to take trips with friends, moves into one place or another...and its a very safe car in every way.  structurally they're beasts (massive B-pillars that are so thick, they require special EMS training to cut through in the event of an extraction), very predictable handling, no bad habits.  service on these is cake, all the accessories and belts are dead front/center and you can change the oil one-handed once you get a few under your belt (pro-tip, jam a red solo cup on the filter when you unscrew it, it'll catch all the drips since the filters completely a straight up/down orientation).  put a good 40wt oil in it and change the trans fluid every 2 years or so and she should drive a long time.

We've been looking for several months and the search evolved, it was definitely worth the wait to find the. right. one.

Thanks for the pro-tip, I broke him in with a headlight replacement, time to get dirty now!

The structure and safety was pretty important. It's a pretty "sporty" car for a young driver, but my friends that died in car accidents all had slow cars so I'm not sure the power matters (to a point) as much as the responsibility i.e. don't drive drunk and high. Our daughter was involved in a pretty bad accident in her Nissan Versa and the modern crumple zone no doubt saved her life. This was probably 50 mph into the back of another car (exit ramp was backed up onto 81, she couldn't tell as she moved out from behind an 18 wheeler to get in the exit lane)

love the extra goodies the PO had on there, and believe it or not the tune is a massive plus as a reliability mod.  the stock tunes on EJ subarus are awful, and run very lean into the onset of boost (look up closed loop/open loop transition, its janky tuning likely due to trying to sneak out better emissions and MPGs) which is one of the reasons they have a reputation for blowing ringlands.  a tune will smooth that fuel enrichment so the engine sees proper AFR's once it ramps up boost.  definitely well-bought!

enjoy it...looking forward to some trip reports and you and the boy get to some events and let 'er wind out a bit.

I couldn't believe it, $1K in extras not priced in at all! That is exactly how he described the factory vs stage 1 tune and the only reason he did it.