I guess we should start this out with when I first got my 1997 Impreza Outback Sport 5mt.
It was October 1, 2012 and I had been working at a theme park for the better part of 6 months making minimum wage and only working about 12 hours a week and going to high school.
I found this car on a local Honda forum that had been posted literally for an hour with one picture at $1,500. I didn't know anything about Subaru nor did I really know what I was going to look at, but I went to check it out. I loved it.
The car was rough. 32 engine codes. I ended up paying $650 for it and bringing it home. It wasn't much, but I was damn proud of buying my own car.
Over the course of 4 months, I had completely stripped the interior and cleaned it all as much as I could, put all interior back in minus the headliner and pillars in because I was planning on fixing some roof rust. I got all engine codes except for a MAF sensor fault code to go away also.
It was finally time to drive it. With the MAF sensor not being there, it got around 10mpg and didn't drive very well so I didn't drive much.
Fast forward to April 25, 2013 and a lot has happened in both my life and for the life of this vehicle. I had a house fire and the interior that hadn't been replaced was inside the garage, so it was gone. (Thank God we got the Impreza out quickly, no damage occurred to it.) All engine codes were now gone and the car was pretty decent for what it was, but it was time to sell it for a more reliable vehicle. So that's what I did. It was sold for $1,950.
Now as of January 19, 2014 it is back in my possession. I missed it so much. I'm a full time tech at a large dealership now so I got in contact with the previous owner and bought the car back over the phone for $2,300.
All interior was replaced, clutch and flywheel job, all new seals/gaskets other than oil pan (which he gave me with the car) and cam seals, and 10k extra miles.
The body is beat to hell, the interior could be nicer, it has steel wheels, 201k miles, bald tires, it's slow, but it's mine and that isn't changing. To me it's more than a car, but a symbol of accomplishment and the sentimental value of it far exceeds what anybody could pay.
Anyways, my plan now is to keep it as maintained as I can as far as the engine and transmission go, but I will be slowly upgrading to stiffer street suspension, big brakes, nicer wheels, subtle but deep exhaust and maybe start putting nicer interior in it like the newer steering wheel, shifter and knob, short shifter, etc, etc.
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It was October 1, 2012 and I had been working at a theme park for the better part of 6 months making minimum wage and only working about 12 hours a week and going to high school.
I found this car on a local Honda forum that had been posted literally for an hour with one picture at $1,500. I didn't know anything about Subaru nor did I really know what I was going to look at, but I went to check it out. I loved it.
The car was rough. 32 engine codes. I ended up paying $650 for it and bringing it home. It wasn't much, but I was damn proud of buying my own car.
Over the course of 4 months, I had completely stripped the interior and cleaned it all as much as I could, put all interior back in minus the headliner and pillars in because I was planning on fixing some roof rust. I got all engine codes except for a MAF sensor fault code to go away also.
It was finally time to drive it. With the MAF sensor not being there, it got around 10mpg and didn't drive very well so I didn't drive much.
Fast forward to April 25, 2013 and a lot has happened in both my life and for the life of this vehicle. I had a house fire and the interior that hadn't been replaced was inside the garage, so it was gone. (Thank God we got the Impreza out quickly, no damage occurred to it.) All engine codes were now gone and the car was pretty decent for what it was, but it was time to sell it for a more reliable vehicle. So that's what I did. It was sold for $1,950.
Now as of January 19, 2014 it is back in my possession. I missed it so much. I'm a full time tech at a large dealership now so I got in contact with the previous owner and bought the car back over the phone for $2,300.
All interior was replaced, clutch and flywheel job, all new seals/gaskets other than oil pan (which he gave me with the car) and cam seals, and 10k extra miles.
The body is beat to hell, the interior could be nicer, it has steel wheels, 201k miles, bald tires, it's slow, but it's mine and that isn't changing. To me it's more than a car, but a symbol of accomplishment and the sentimental value of it far exceeds what anybody could pay.
Anyways, my plan now is to keep it as maintained as I can as far as the engine and transmission go, but I will be slowly upgrading to stiffer street suspension, big brakes, nicer wheels, subtle but deep exhaust and maybe start putting nicer interior in it like the newer steering wheel, shifter and knob, short shifter, etc, etc.
