Assistance, Please: Budget value determination for WRX engine

If I take the engine out of the Farm Use WRX and jam it into the Silver WRX it'll be easier overall to get a working Challenge car.

Here is my understanding:
1. If I sell the yellow car, the value of the engine is the purchase price minus the sale price of the yellow car. So, I bought it for $750, and if I sell it for $500, the engine is a $250 budget hit. This is the way I plan to go, but if nobody wants it, I'll go onto option 2.
2. If I don't sell the yellow car, the budget hit is whatever is agreed on here.

Please help me agree on the value for this engine. It's stock, and, if the odometer is correct, has about 150k on it. It seems like the timing belt was changed at the proper interval.

It works a whole lot better if you suggest a value for folks to agree to or disagree with. Not knowing turbo Subaru pricing I guess the motor is probably worth 2/3 of the value of the car in fair market value as I see a lot more WRX is with blown up Motors then I do WRX motors with rotted out bodies

You can also use listing from car-part.com iirc.

LKQ wants 250-350 for a complete engine?  I think

I'm not seeing any bug eye wrx engines on car part or marketplace for much under what you paid for the entire car.

It's an ej20, right?

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Yes, EJ20.

option3: the yellow car is a "heterogeneous parts lot", and every piece of it has a value which you can get from car-part.com. be consistent how you choose the car-part.com value. for example, you could sort the list by distance and use the lowest price within 100 miles of your zip code.

so, you add up the values of each part, and you divide the price you paid for the car by the sum of the individual part values. that gives you some number less than 1. let's call it the "Relative Retail Value Multiplier (RRVM)"

then, for any part you are keeping for your build, you multiply the car-part.com value by the RRVM, and that's the Relative Retail Value that goes into you budget for that part.

EXAMPLE:  You paid $750 for the yellow car.  let's say the lowest prices within 100 miles of your zip on car-part.com are as follows:

• headlights $50 each *2 = $100
• front fenders $50 each *2 = $100
• doors $50 each *4 = $200
• wheels $25 each *4 = $100
• front bumper $100
• rear bumper $100
• taillights $50 each *2 = $100
• engine $250
• trans $250
• front seats $50 each *2 = 100
• stereo $100

that gives a total heterogeneous parts lot value of $1500.  you paid $750 for the car, so your RRVM = (750 / 1500) = 0.5

you're keeping the engine, which has an actual value of $250.  so Relative Retail Value of the engine is $250 * 0.5 = $125

Mr_Asa said:

LKQ wants 250-350 for a complete engine?  I think

Last time I looked it was cheaper to buy a shortblock, heads, and gasket set from Subaru than to buy a used engine, if you wanted a warranty.

If they can be had that cheaply, that's not bad for a core.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

 

If they can be had that cheaply, that's not bad for a core.

LKQ charges a set price for 4 cylinder engines, regardless of what kind they are. 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

option3: the yellow car is a "heterogeneous parts lot",

.....

that gives a total heterogeneous parts lot value of $1500.  you paid $750 for the car, so your RRVM = (750 / 1500) = 0.5

you're keeping the engine, which has an actual value of $250.  so Relative Retail Value of the engine is $250 * 0.5 = $125

 

This seems like a great way to do it. Thanks for the old hands for giving me some tips on budget stuff. With the hatch, doors, etc. it'll wind up being less than $125.

I'm going to let the thread ride for a bit, as I'm still not sure which car I'm going to take. I'm emotionally attached to running the yellow one with the Farm Use plate on it, but both options are still on the table. 

 

I'd consider asking the powers that be before I used Angry's interpretation of that ruling.

Just saying.

I don't think you could get one of those engines for $125 unless you actually did get a car cheap and actually part it out.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

the following is quoted directly from the current $2000 Challenge rules, found here:

How to Budget Parts Lots:

 

A part’s cost may be pro-rated by weight or quantity if from a homogeneous parts lot (example: zip ties, nuts and bolts, a box of 20 identical axle shafts, etc.), or relative retail value if it was purchased as part of a heterogeneous parts lot (all-you-can-carry sales, storage unit buyouts, garage cleanouts, etc.) Relative retail value is calculated as follows:

1. Assign and prove a fair market value to every part in the lot.

2. Add those fair market values together to calculate the total fair market value of the lot.

3. Express the fair market value of the part you are pro-rating as a percentage of the lot’s total fair market value.

4. Multiply the actual price paid for the lot by that percentage in order to determine the part’s relative retail value.

i used this approach in 2023 and 2024 to budget the parts of the C4 parts car that actually made it onto MonZora. 

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

 

If they can be had that cheaply, that's not bad for a core.

LKQ charges a set price for 4 cylinder engines, regardless of what kind they are. 

We exclusively used LKQ for engines where I used to work.  A WRX engine was $3500 with warranty.

I was astounded.... that they would put a warranty on a turbo Subaru engine at any price, without knowing the vehicle history.

At least they paid labor claims, like the time I did the same transmission three times in two months before they finally sent a good one. 

Using that for an entire car purchase, couldn't you just buy a brand new car and value each part at fmv and have a bunch of brand new free parts?  I mean a car would cost way more to buy it in parts versus buying the assembled car.

Not trying to be a jerk or ruin the thread, just trying to understand how this actually works.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

the following is quoted directly from the current $2000 Challenge rules, found here:

How to Budget Parts Lots:

 

A part’s cost may be pro-rated by weight or quantity if from a homogeneous parts lot (example: zip ties, nuts and bolts, a box of 20 identical axle shafts, etc.), or relative retail value if it was purchased as part of a heterogeneous parts lot (all-you-can-carry sales, storage unit buyouts, garage cleanouts, etc.) Relative retail value is calculated as follows:

1. Assign and prove a fair market value to every part in the lot.

2. Add those fair market values together to calculate the total fair market value of the lot.

3. Express the fair market value of the part you are pro-rating as a percentage of the lot’s total fair market value.

4. Multiply the actual price paid for the lot by that percentage in order to determine the part’s relative retail value.

i used this approach in 2023 and 2024 to budget the parts of the C4 parts car that actually made it onto MonZora. 

I asked about this specifically for my LS4.9 build. Tom said i couldn't take 3/4 of the value for my parts despite the fact that I was literally cutting a quarter off the parts (V8 to I6)

Not sure if that was with the current rules, though 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

 

If they can be had that cheaply, that's not bad for a core.

LKQ charges a set price for 4 cylinder engines, regardless of what kind they are. 

We exclusively used LKQ for engines where I used to work.  A WRX engine was $3500 with warranty.

I was astounded.... that they would put a warranty on a turbo Subaru engine at any price, without knowing the vehicle history.

 

At least they paid labor claims, like the time I did the same transmission three times in two months before they finally sent a good one. 

LKQ has a you-pull arm and a used parts for commercial purposes arm.  Different prices and part quality levels

wvumtnbkr said:

Using that for an entire car purchase, couldn't you just buy a brand new car and value each part at fmv and have a bunch of brand new free parts?  I mean a car would cost way more to buy it in parts versus buying the assembled car.

 

Not trying to be a jerk or ruin the thread, just trying to understand how this actually works.

No, they wouldn't be free.

There is currently no restriction on the dollar amount that can be spent on a parts lot. The only price restriction is on the amount paid for the challenger car.

Two questions one should answer before adopting AC's interpretation:

A) Does a parts car qualify as a heterogeneous lot?

ii) How far does it get broken down to establish FMVs?

Assign and prove a fair market value to every part in the lot. 

Why not just put the parts car in budget then sell the other parts? You likely have an engine that is better than free.

now that it's possible to recoup more than purchase price, you could probably pretty easily take the engine and resell the rest of the parts car for say $1500. Also seems much less fishy than trying to document fmv on every single part in a parts car.

now your engine costs you $-750

edit, from your OP, this is option 1, but there is a difference between hitting the budget at +$750 - recouped money, and simply hitting the budget at the sum. This is because recoup is limited. If you have not hit the recoup limit, option 1! But make sure you list the full $750 and the recouped items.

Is there a recoup limit?  I thought that was eliminated.

Edit.  I was wrong.  Here is the rule.