I cant believe I am even saying this...but...

[vtwinjunkie]

In October of last year I purchased a brand new 2016 fully limited 6 spd wrx. I love the car, Its fast and fun and of course new!

 

2 months ago I got a ridiculous deal on a 2005 outback with auto trans (relatively low miles at 97k) that I just could not pass up. The original owner passed it to me with all service receipts and a relatively clean bill of health.  After minimal work to get it on the road reliably I have hardly driven my WRX. 

 

I hate to say it but I have been strongly considering selling the WRX as it just sits! Don't get me wrong I love the car and it is beautiful to look at every day but when I need to drive places daily I find myself just grabbing the keys to the outback. It is of course older and I dont worry about getting it dirty or messy since it has had a great life up until this point and was well used!

 

The struggle right now is that the outback is paid off and I just cant justify having a payment on a vehicle that I dont drive!

 

Has anyone gone through this?

[Fairtax4me]

Yup.

When I bought my 96 Legacy my daily driver at the time was a 2002 Lincoln LS with only about 65k miles on it. The one in my avatar.

I hated to take the Lincoln anywhere because it was flawless inside and out. I was always afraid someone would wreck it, or it would get dirty, or the doors would get dinged in a parking lot or something. I loved that car, but I was constantly worried about it. 

When I bought the Subaru, it was already kinda beat-up. Minor dents in the hood and fenders, faded paint on the bumper. I could drive it in the snow in the winter (which we got plenty of that year) and it got better fuel mileage than the lincoln, along with being able to use regular gas, which at the time was over $3 a gallon. Premium for the Lincoln was around $3.50. Between car payment and insurance I was spending about $300 a month for it to mostly just sit in my driveway.  Not to mention the County taxes I paid on it every year as well. 

 

It took me two years to decide to sell the Lincoln. I had it appraised by Carmax, liked the offer, but still wasn't ready to let it go. I held onto it for another year, and only put maybe 1,000 miles on it. Took it to Carmax again and had it re-appraised, and they offered me MORE than they had the previous time, so I finally caved and sold it to them. 

No more lincoln, but no more car payment either, which was a bigger relief than I imagined! And the Subaru has done me just fine ever since. I bought my 95 not long after selling the lincoln so I would have a second car. (Kinda necessary for me) I'd like to have a newer car again, but right now to me its just not worth having the car payment. 

[iluvdrt]

I am going through the same thing. I have a 2015 Crosstrek that I have driven once the past 3 weeks, and that was to pick it up from the dealership. Its been in and out of the dealership so much for a suspension issue, I just lost interest in it and have been daily driving the brat 100 miles a day to work and back. Sometimes I wonder why I even still have it. My wife drives her Outback Sport so the CXV just sits there.

[MR_Loyale]

It all depend on what you can afford. The wrx is depreciating but the still holds their value well. Every 16 yr old punk dreams of screaming around in a wrx.

 

Did you buy the wrx as a daily or sporty wekender? If you don't drive it much and it was to be a daily, might be better to sell it and sock away the payments you would have been making.

 

That's what I'd do.

[whynot]

tough choice. 

Been there on a couple of cars, all of them I eventually let them go, because just sitting around and making the payments was not good. I realized that I was keeping them to "keep up with the neighbor" and started looking for cars that were a fit for me. Loved some of the cars that I got rid of (85 shelby charger for one) but just had more reasons to get rid of them than to keep them. IF you love the outback so much, and could get out of the WRX ahead of the game, I would think hard about it. Car payments make for expensive yard art.

[vtwinjunkie]

All very good points. I purchased the car as a sporty weekend/road trip warrior since I commute to work by motorcycle daily. My mind is telling me "I can afford it", But my mid-30's sensible self is hard pressed to justify this expense as a necessity. 

 

Now that I have the outback, Both cars fight for my attention on weekends!

 

The only thing that bothers me is the bath I will take if I try to sell this 36k dollar car. 

Edited April 21, 2016 by vtwinjunkie

[1 Lucky Texan]

My wife wants a new (well, different) car badly. But I really doubt I will be able to let her Outback go. So, kinda wondering about having 3 cars myself.

[vtwinjunkie]

Edited April 21, 2016 by vtwinjunkie

[idosubaru]

You can always get right back into one too, it's not like you can't buy another one.  And yeah you'd be out some loot - but you're paying insurance and loosing (in payments and/or depreciation/liability) right now anyway if financial is the driving force, but it's not. 

 

Some possible lines of thought:

 

if you go through cars fast then yeah just move on and own what you want/drive at a given time.  It's not like you're the only person changing vehicles ever year or three. 

 

maybe wait the whole summer to decide so you get a full years driving experience out of it - maybe the WRX will change your tune in the summer?

 

there's a heavy novelty in owning a vehicle - or most things in life for that matter - what's in your garage, what other people see, your ability to say you have/own/did/earned something, knowing you have a recogizably performance driven car....for most people the loss would be greater than you can put down on a piece of paper.  if you're prone to change your mind and likely to dread getting rid of it, then you might want to hold on to it.

 

 

 

My wife wants a new (well, different) car badly. But I really doubt I will be able to let her Outback go. So, kinda wondering about having 3 cars myself.

 

i love having multiple cars for the two of us, i guess life changes but i wouldn't want only two vehicles any time soon. i can dedicate one as a tow vehicle, winter snow vehicle, road trip vehicle, have options (manual, auto, cargo space, passengers space, gear space), i'll  run low tires on a summer daily driver when it doesn't rain to put off new tires until snow season, and can someone borrow a vehicle, less worry about down time if i want to do some maintenance to a vehicle. 

 

it can be quite practical.  there's minimal costs like insurance and registration, and this varies based on how you buy vehicles, but for me it ends up not costing any more in terms of dollars per mile to own multiple vehicles. that might be tougher to pull off if i were buying brand new vehicles. 

[AdventureSubaru]

Financially it makes sense to be rid of it. That payment would stay in your pocket each month. And the longer it sits the more it depreciates in value.

 

It's a good place to be in to not have to rush to buy or sell a car. You can hold onto it until you get the right price.

 

As mentioned, it's not like it's a rarity that could never be found again. Part of the reason I held onto the Ski team wagon as long as I did was because it is probably the only one out there. But you can always find another one if you decide to. And save some $$$ in the meantime. They make expensive yard decorations if they aren't being used.

[fishy]

I've also got an 05 Outback and my wife has a much newer Civic that gets much better mileage ($)... but which one do I grab the keys for even if we're going to be going 2-300km that day? Yep. my old high-mileage Outback, every time. There's something jusssst right about those 3rd generation Outbacks. 


As much as I'd love to have a WRX too I have to agree with the others about the financial burden of it sitting there as expensive lawn art. Good luck with your choices. Life's short, be happy.

[vtwinjunkie]

Has anyone had any experience with the subaru gauranteed buy back program? wondering how much they will offer me for it. 

[Bushwick]

If mileage is low and car is perfect, you won't loose as much on it if you hold onto it and store it properly. Many of these cars will be tomorrow's desirables, and the lower the mileage and better shape, the easier it'd be to sell it for a better price. On the other hand if you enjoy it and it brings pleasure to a boring weekend and you can afford it, why not? If you find you are "maturing" and it's not as appealing as it would have been in your early 20's, wait about 8-10 years when you get a 2nd wind for something fun as a mid-life crisis hits. You'll know it hits when your hair starts jumping off your head like lemmings off a cliff to avoid a Bieber concert and you start missing the youth that's getting further away

Edited April 21, 2016 by Bushwick

[1996BlackBauer]

For real, keep whatever you enjoy more. sure you can have more fun in the WRX, but will you? I know for sure I have WAY more fun in my Impreza, because I don't care, plus everything is so cheap to fix or replace. I actually let my Baby(my Ford Explorer) sit most weeks, just because the impreza is such a blast to drive, and WAY better on gas. Now granted this is my particular situation, yours may differ.

[Bushwick]

Another thing worth pointing out is you own that Outback outright. If you like having something a touch more "fun", you might consider trading that WRX with someone that has a slightly older model in similar shape or just sell it outright and let someone else take over the lease, or get the dealership to try and get you in something about half the price. Then, you could feasibly own or quickly pay down a less expensive car and own both outright. It's not like these cars don't run forever, so a 35-60k mile ultra-clean model a couple years old might give the same joy

Edited April 22, 2016 by Bushwick

[1 Lucky Texan]

"It's more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow."

[daehttub2000]

I was in a reverse situation a while back.  My daily driver was my 1995 Legacy L Wagon AWD  5 spd.  Completely paid for.  During a routine maintenance stop, the Subaru salesman I forever harassed about the absence of the WRX stateside gave me a heads up on a killer deal.  Some poor bloke had purchased a WRX Wagon 5 spd and loaded it with everything under the sun plus literally every mod that was available and then got reassigned overseas a couple months after he purchased it.  I was able to buy it at list price.  In 2002.  It was my hanger queen for about 6 years.  I only drove it on dry sunny days once in a blue moon.  When my 1995 Legaly L Wagon finally got too rusty for my little patch & bondo jobs, I had to sell it to a pizza delivery guy.  Today I still drive my little jewel of a 2002 WRX.  It's in mint condition and really is kind of a 2008 mechanically and mileage wise.  Was it financially unwise?  Yeah.  But I now have a perfect 5 Speed Subaru WRX Bugeye wagon that they don't make anymore.  Before you sell your WRX, consider the loss you will take and balance that against your insurance payments for a hanger queen.  If, in 5 years, you would not mind driving an older but perfect condition WRX, just hang on to it.  For now, you can just drive it on those special days with that maniacal WRX grin pasted on your face.  Good luck. 

[Durania]

Yep, been in the same situation with my 95 Outback over my 05 STi. It was just so much more convenient to hop in the wagon and not have to worry about where I park at a store. I have recently sold my wagon and looking to upgrade to an LL Bean Edition H6 Outback. I honestly feel like I loved the wagon more than the STi that I am currently daily driving.

[Cougar]

I tend to think you will get more money if you sell the WRX yourself rather than some buy back deal. They still have to resell the car at a profit. You will lose some money doing that but you can use some of the money you would spend on monthly payments to save in a repair fund for the Outback when you need it. The rest of the savings could go into an investment or retirement fund for yourself. Money that will work for you, not going out on a depreciating vehicle, and make up for the loss you take.  Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman would be proud of you.

 

Nice looking Outback BTW.

[WRX-ish]

that is one clean looking outback...I had an 07 like that with the 6 cyl and it was so much fun, quick, good handling and great in slippery stuff...I lost it in a divorce...that wont happen again.

[WRX-ish]

I have an 09 wrx that sits more than I drive it, but I have recently done some upgrades that make it the go to car for any kind of serious rapid transit. Easily the most capable car I have ever owned and while I dont drive it much I cant realistically consider letting it go. When I do drive it, the enjoyment makes it all worthwhile. I understand the mental gymnastics you are going through though....making payments on a toy is something that gives one pause and makes you consider if it is worth it. Ultimately you must decide. I would keep it if I could, but that is just me.

[Stelcom66]

That 2005 Outback is nice - I see why you want to drive it often. I like the color and tinted windows - which look like they were a factory option (don't think they were offered) or professionally done. As other posts mentioned, insurance cost is a significant factor. My son traded in his '95 Legacy for a 2011 Maxima. He didn't have collision on the Legacy, does of course now. He was paying about $70/month for the Legacy's policy. With the Maxima his monthly payment more than tripled. 

 

I'm perfectly fine with my 2002 Forester, but I don't drive it for work. 

[vtwinjunkie]

Thanks for all of the responses!

 

I think I am going to hold onto both until a time comes that I cannot afford to keep the WRX anymore (hopefully that doesnt happen). Keeping the miles low will pay off if I need to sell it and in the mean time, I get to look at it each day as I come and go

 

If I can wait 4.5 more years, Then I wont have a payment anymore haha

[1 Lucky Texan]

2 strangers have approached me about buying my 06 WRX AND my wife has had guys ask about selling her 03 Outback ! it's weird. The guys interested in the Outback were already driving soobs - I guess it

s the H6 they seem interested in?

 

I really don't want to ever get rid of either of my current soobs - maybe when my wife demands a new car, I'll drive the Outback and park the WRX more. maybe slap a few mods on it.

[keith3267]

I was in somewhat the same predicament When I bought or 14 Legacy.  Between my wife and I, we had the new Legacy, 97 Nissan PU and a 2002 Saturn.  The PU is used for hauling garden supplies and trash mostly, occasionally lumber from the yard for projects around the house.  Its noisy and uncomfortable so I don't like driving it very far.

 

After buying the Legacy and keeping the Saturn, it took 6 months to put on the first 3k miles so it didn't make sense to keep the Saturn and let the Legacy sit around so much.

 

I wish I had kept the Saturn.  We are racking up the miles now to where we have exceeded our insurance policy limits for mileage (12k/yr). 

Edited June 3, 2016 by keith3267