Jerry finally buys a berkleying WRX

Jerry wrote:

ssswitch wrote: Seems like a good purchase. 5x100 04 STI wheels are worth quite a bit on the used market (at least locally), you can probably finance the purchase of fancy wheels with them.

Any idea of how much? Someone's already offered stock WRX wheels and "a couple hundred dollars".

Regular WRX wheels go for $200-$300 a set up here. 2004 STi BBS wheels go for $800-$1000. I would be looking for more than "a couple of hundred".

They only came on 2004 STi's before Subaru went to 5X114.3mm bolt pattern's on all new STi's. So they are rare.

In reply to NGTD:

Holy crap. I had no idea. Yeah, his "couple hundred" needs to be like $600-700.

Even though my old "bugeye" wagon was finicky, I miss that car. it was a ton of fun!

My thoughts:

-That CF scoop has to go. I had a JDM STI scoop on my wagon. It was taller than the USDM WRX scoop, and you can get them pre-painted. At least you used to be able to. It looks a lot better.

-I'm not a fan of wingless either. A STI Limited lip spoiler is an easy fix, and even one in black would look cool. I'm sure there are replicas available on the cheap.

-The wheels, like others have said, are the 5x100 BBS 2004-only STI wheels. Those are good wheels, and worth a few bucks! I've always been a fan of the Enkei RPF1's on these:

Those are the wheels I always wanted, but I ended up with a set of Enkei RP02's:

A lot of the WRX people back in the day went with Rota wheels. Even I did at one point! Enkeis were about the same price, and are a better wheel.

Jerry wrote: In reply to NGTD: Holy crap. I had no idea. Yeah, his "couple hundred" needs to be like $600-700.

Check around your area for pricing. It may vary but those are the kind of numbers I see (keep in mind, I'm in Canada). I just saw a set for $1500 in Toronto, advertised as having almost new tires on them but that is the kind or range they run in.

RPF1 17s: Price of an 18" wheel, the look of a 16" wheel

I've always been a fan of 17x9 Rota Torques or Rota DPTs on early WRXs.

I showed SWMBO the red car and the giant wing, she went "eeew". Guess I'll stick with the stock spoiler.

if i still had the stock wheels from my last 02 i'd give them to you, but the guy who bought my car stole them from me

Another wheel option: The 2011-2014 WRX came with a 17x8 wheel that no one seems to want. They should fit earlier cars. The 2002-2005 WRX wheels are a 16x6.5. If you are changing wheels, don't get those.

also, dont get the 2008-2009 wheels either...17x7 but they are heavy as all hell....23 lbs a piece...I have a set in my garage that will probably remain there till hell freezes over. 

Jerry bought back his berkeleying WRX:

Sold it in 2020 to help pay for a very expensive roof repair  when insurance only gave me $1100.  Heard RX might be coming back to Dayton OH area, messaged my friend I sold it to in Cleveland half-jokingly asking if he was bored with it yet.  He said he barely put 1K miles on it in 4 years and had thought about selling for something different!

Last weekend we drove the Crosstrek to Cleveland for a parade on Sunday & this on Saturday first.  Drove it back after the parade with zero issues.  I had the snow tires in the Crosstrek that he included, unmounted from the old OEM wheels, which will likely get put on Sparcos soon.

In four years it grew an STI wing (which I like) and this shift knob. Which... I don't hate, it's fun, but not my thing and HUGE.

I went back to the original post, in 2017 GRM didn't have the convenient upload feature and Photobucket is, well, Photobucket.  So added two old photos of when I first bought it.

I ordered fluorescent yellow vinyl today, going to completely redo the vinyl stuff and go a bit more traditional, but try to keep it understated this time.  Hoping we get decent weather this weekend so I can attack the 4+ year old current vinyl.  I have a hair dryer, a heat gun, and plastic razor blades at the ready.

An epilogue to my buy-back story.  I woke up to this on Facebook by my friend (who had said he was interested in 850R's):

"As though his ears were ringing, the prior owner of the WRX reached out just days later out of the blue wondering if I’d gotten bored of it. I ended up selling the Subaru back to him last weekend. As fate would have it, a Volvo 850R popped up for sale just a day after I sold the Subaru, and after a week of dialogue with the previous Volvo owner, I find myself the owner of this new-to-me 1996 Volvo 850R! "

In reply to Jerry :

I like this car - hopefully you can do a build thread.

Even after FedEx attempts to screw things up, all 4 wheels eventually arrived at work. I mounted them Tuesday after I got home.

I'm pretty happy with the Sparco choice. And I went with the Sport Contact 02 that people seem to like, they weren't even much more than the Indy 500s I would have bought again.

Obligatory photo from a meet yesterday. Younger crowd so I took the WRX instead of the Celica. Also redid the Eibach vinyl that looked crooked before.

I got a few compliments. Actually, I've been getting random compliments almost every time I drive it. Parking lots at grocery shopping, going through an intersection someone yelled out Hell Yeah!