2004 Subaru Impreza WRX – Auction Car of the Week
July 17, 2022
The history of the automobile has been a somewhat noisy one. Forcing oxygen and fuel to explode is, as it turns out, a loud old business. But this glorious sound is the song of our people, an aural assault on the bits of our bodies that can tingle. You know exactly what we mean. We know you’ve had a shiver of electric delight run down your spine at the mere burble of, say, a nicely tuned V8. Or maybe it was the unapologetic thrum of a flat-six? Maybe you’re tickled by the tantalising tingle of a tightly tuned twin-cam? Or, you might be of the generation that is set to weak knee status by the unmistakable ‘wobwobwobwob’ of a turbocharged flat four. You know, the noise a Subaru Impreza WRX makes.
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Looking back at the chronology of the car, the Impreza was a latecomer to the automotive sound-off. There had been around 100 years of cars before it, yet despite this, it managed to bring with it a noise that would separate it from the rest. And while we’re not here to only talk about the noise the Impreza WRX makes, there is no denying that it’s one of the many things that make this car appeal. It makes it more exciting and more identifiable than anything else. It also makes us feel that bit closer to the world of rallying, the branch of motorsport that truly introduced the world to the Impreza WRX. McRae, Burns, jumps, crashes, 555, it was and still is a slice of action we all want for ourselves. And thanks to Subaru building a a great many Impreza WRX models, a fair few of us have felt that excitement first hand.
The problem with the Impreza, however, is that it went through that unfortunate lull where it wasn’t worth a lot. And when performance models fall into the deepest troughs of the depreciation curve, they end up being bought and abused. Or, they end up being modified into garish caricatures of what the designers had originally intended. The Impreza was no exception, as the cover of Redline, Max Power and Fast Car during the ’00s will vibrantly attest. This means that today, with the Impreza WRX now a bona fide modern classic, it’s hard to find a good one. Or one that hasn’t ever gone through a bust stop. Backwards.
This brings us to the 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX you’re looking at here. Currently available on our rather swish auction platform, this big-booted beauty is a true unicorn of a car. As the pictures show, it’s in incredible condition from front to back. But the condition isn’t the only thing going for it. This Impreza WRX was fitted with the Prodrive Performance Package from new, meaning more (261bhp) power, bigger four-pot brakes, an engine remap, better intercooling and a stainless steel exhaust system. The PPP is the one to have, make no mistake. 0-60 in 4.8s, 0-100 in 14.1s and a 13.7s quarter mile, this car was and still is a weapon. If you still need swaying, did we mention that this particular Subaru Impreza WRX has only covered a mere 16,000 miles? Told you. Unicorn.
It is, make no mistake, an incredible find. One that is unlikely to be repeated. Especially when you add in the fact you’ll be the second owner. If you want an Impreza WRX, there simply can’t be a better one out there. This has been cared for from day one, it’s never been abused, it’s never had so much as a whiff of the Ripspeed isle and it’s all the more glorious for it. A motoring icon from 2004, but that exists in near-new condition here in 2022. You could buy it, put a couple of thousand miles on it, enjoy it for the all wheel-drive B Road monster it is, then sell it on again and make your money back. If not more, because let’s face it, cars this rare and this special are only going one way when it comes to values. So bid on this one, because if it ever does come to market again, you can bet it’ll be a lot more. Miss it, dear reader, and miss out.
