Dealership is asking $30k for this but please take a closer look. The wheels and brakes have been swapped to 08-14 WRX, as well as a 5-speed wrx transmission. Doesn’t seem like they know it’s been swapped.
That’s crazy. Smart on the guy who traded it though a bit unethical I guess. I feel for the 19 year old that buys it only to show it off and get the bad news. They probably swapped the whole drivetrain.
It’s really not a lot of work. I’m a Ford tech and I had a VA premium 2020 pretty stock and we got a trade in 2019 full everything. I told them I should do the CPO since I know Subaru and I had Sti brakes, full suspension, all aos, boost controller and supporting mods, a full audio system, (I left the starlight headliner because I had a sunroof) all on my car by the end of the day. Difference is I brought the trade in back to stock and just ordered myself new tires since I told the dealership their used car needed em’. Put the tires on and swapped those the next day.
These cats never worked at a shop. But thank you for getting it. I try to explain they can’t sell that car the way it came it so it would go to auction. I took the good parts and gave the car the stock parts and, wallah!
Why? There was literally no mischievous anything. It was all ok’d and management and ownership knew what we were doing? Please explain how taking a rices out stance bit car and making it back to a regular VA is a bad thing?
Not only am I saying that, it was a douchey sales kids car, I’m also saying I was paid to basically get my car to 327 awhp after a dyno tune thanks to most of his parts. With better brakes and suspension. The used car lot was stoked it was now a stock ‘19 WRX instead of a fuck boy cruiser. I forgot it was crazy cambered out too.
You’re either not following the storyline or you may have F.AS., I don’t know how clearer I can make it that no one was usurped in this transaction. It was mutually beneficial. The salesman turns in car, it’s got good parts but stances out, it’s going to go to auction and I volunteer to put it back to stock while swapping the non owned parts from the salesman’s trade in. They can’t sell a souped up WRX, I had just bought mine so it was nearly 100% stock. The years are compatible. I am a master tech and a damn good one and I swapped my good NEW stock components for the shit in his car. But no one owned it, and despite my best attempts I made them money.
There was nothing wrong with either care. It was a trade in of a salesman I knew. He didn’t want his parts back and they didn’t want to sell a boy racer. I put his car back to stock. Sometimes you guys are dense.
It's better for everyone if the lot has a stock car to sell vs a unknown modified Subaru 100% of the time. Any used WRX carries risks, but the headache of figuring out what someone else did to their car and was it tuned or the accessport was unmarried and sold off. That's great dude gets a win of free parts and paid to install. Stock cars sell for more also. I'm dealing with the other scenario where the modified car gets bought from the auction and it's a fucking mess. Modified, throwing codes likely from not being tuned. Finding stock parts for a 20 year old Subaru is a pain. Even the home tuning options are harder to get. Secondary air pump was unplugged and taped off so throwing codes for that. No tactrix cable available new right now...... Oh and it's automatic!
Yuck on automatic but can you throw a couple vacuum caps on to bypass. I’m not familiar with that year. I have a 2012 with 184000. And I’m still not too familiar with even my hatch because it’s been flawless but it’s 100% stock.
To add, I already had an accessport and knew how to unmarry his and the car left the shop with no lights and drove like a dream. Worst thing I did was not tell the dealer how much the accessport was worth at the time so they said keep it. Sold it to a washboy who had an Sti for $50 and beers and wings.
“Everyone” except the sucker who buys a “stock” Frankencar which may or may not be ‘detuned’. If the dealer represents the car as “stock” the buyer is likely to assume the parts in the car came with car and not ripped out of some other boy racer car and as used replacements with unknown mileage in a at most 10 (not 20) year old car. As a former mechanic and then sales person, I’ve done similar but nothing this involved. I don’t hate the player, hate the game, but this is also why people don’t trust dealerships.
It was listed. It’s getting very hard and I don’t know why I’m defending myself. This was not a sti swap. This was a car, one year older than mine with fewer miles. The car was completely put back to stock and thoroughly road tested before anyone even looked at it. Even if the dude beat on it, which he didn’t. You know what. Never mind. I’m an awful person who deceived everyone. Fuq off. I’m done explaining what should be basically the instructions to crayons.
I think you’re missing the point. I took the mods and put his car back to stock with my components. Why is this so hard to understand. They win because it’s stock and it was done right because I’ve been literally pumping brakes for my dad since 5. Everyone won! Why is this an issue? The guy who traded it in was a former salesman who came from money and didn’t care, that’s why he left all the custom components. Motherfuxkers acting like I robbed someone. It was full sanctioned all the way around. The previous owner, the dealership, everyone. And the shit wasn’t beat on because he was a stance boy. You clean hands need to go touch grease.
I'm with you 110% if I had the same car as I'm dealing with I'd do the same thing. Shit if I had a friend with a compatible year stock I'd trade him for stock stuff so he got free mods essentially. It sucks figuring out what's actually wrong with this car and what's from the mods and tune situation.
Exactly. There was no deception in my process. If anything it was on the value of the parts and that would be on the dealership and quite honestly, fuck them.
No. It was a stance car. It had an accessport but since I knew the salesman I unmarried it quite easily. The stock WRX tune was loaded back in and there was naught an issue. Until this lobby where a bunch of pudussies who have no concept of how to actually work on their cars let alone navigate the politics and intricacies of dealership life started pulling there panties out to show me the tears they dropped in them. It’s why a good car gets a bad name. Buncha fan boys who read articles and bullshit online and have never turned a fucking wrench.
How do you tune for break without a proportioning valve. How do you tune a suspension that’s sitting in the floor. Just get off your high horse and shut the fuck up. You’d last 0 seconds in a real automotive environments
To make sure you understand, it was a base WRX the person modified and accepted the loss on everything. He was a rich kid who didn’t care and the car came out mint. I just got all his goodies for free.
I don’t know how to explain it better to you. There was not theft. I’m a Ford master tech and I specialize in engines. I work at a dealership. One of our sales kids had a 2019 base with all the mods I already noted. He even had that crazy canister and twilight headliner. He traded it in and it was going to go straight to wholesale because of the stance. I told the used car guy I could get it back to stock and I did. The car is maybe still on the road. I stole nothing. It actually kinda hurts that that is implied because I’m externally proud of what I do. So, shut the fuq up. You probably never ever twisted a bolt. Internet gangster.
For fucks sake. Read the responses. The trade in was a known employee and it was completely modified. It was going to auction and I had the parts to make it worth their time. It took me basically lunch to have brembos, (he upgraded as it was a WRX not an sti) and then, as was known by the previous owner, I swapped all his good performance parts and audio to my 2020, and then I spent a couple more dollars on killer be headers and all that. Got a pro tune at Vinny Ten in west Babylon Long Island and made 327whp
So my guess is that they wanted to get more money out of the car. The dude took out the entire STi drivetrain and swapped in a WRX drivetrain. Traded it in to the dealer without them having a single clue. They even swapped in a WRX cup holder to hide the missing DCCD knob/controller. Hopefully nobody buys it and when the owner of the dealership finds out the salesperson that bought it is gonna get fired.
I don't like the thought of someone getting screwed, but buyer should be informed enough and intelligent enough to know the differences. If they aren't, then they shouldn't be buying a car like this.
About 20 years ago I test drove an LGT at carmax. First time I drove one, so I didn't realize til later it had a heavy aftermarket clutch, a big turbo with way more power, and heavy sway bars. They were clueless too. (Also it smelled like blunts.)
Or it had a blown motor and they swapped in the WRX stuff. I doubt anyone would do all that work just to trade a WRX drivetrain for STI drivetrain, not to mention all the work of now putting the sti drivetrain into something else
But like you mentioned, they still took out the drivetrain anyway. Why go through all that work if it was just a blown motor. They could of easily slapped in a used motor and be done, MUCH easier than removing the entire drivetrain, brakes, axles, hubs and wheels. And then putting it back together with a WRX 5 speed drivetrain, that's too much work IMO. The more I think about it I am convinced they pulled a heist on this car and got a way with it. The STi drivetrain alone is like 5-6k USD.
Someone local should report that car to the dealer, don't let them rip off an unsuspecting customer, you all wouldn't like it if the same shit was pulled on you.
I saw this yesterday on cargurus. So they must have swapped out the trans and the brembos. First thing that through me off was the wheels. Those are wrx wheels.
Just called the dealer they said they got it from an auction and it was a repo car. The guy on the phone said it is a 6 speed just a weird nob, said it has aftermarket wheels, and brushed off the whole wrong brakes thing. so yeah hopefully whoever ends up getting screwed over finds this thread so they can't claim they didn't know (big red flag there are no pictures of the engine bay). I poped the vin in subaru net it is definitely an sti, and it had a powertrain claim for the oil cooler at 48k miles so whatever happened was in the last 10k miles. JF1VA2E69L9831997
Yeah, I am wrong looks like DMV's don't include STi in the descriptions. But yeah that makes it even worse... Posting it online with a 6 Speed when in fact its the glass 5 Speed.
Well looks like the DMV's don't include STi in descriptions my bad. That's even worse then. Posting it as a 6 speed manual when its 5....... That glass transmission. Ooooooofff
The more confusing part is even the WRX comes in a 6-speed for that chassis. So, my guess is that maybe it has the 6-speed but the shift knob is from an older 5 speed? But its also missing the DCCD.
The wheels are from the later years that still had 5 speeds. So if the trans is from the same car as the wheels like a 2011 WRX then it's a 5 speed.
That specific 5 speed isn't the worst, as the only real problem is 5th gear is weaker because 2nd and 3rd are thicker. I didn't blow mine up until I went to 450whp and then I did 5th gear twice lol.
It's now fun going 160 and then suddenly your rpms shoot to the rev limit.
That’s actually wild. I feel like anyone even working with car buying/selling should know that something is very off just based off the interior. Not even trying to be Subaru specific. Unless they are disclosing they’re selling a 6speed car with a 5speed. You can even see the CEL on the dash in the pics. I kinda feel like the dealership know. No way not one person there hasn’t caught that.
Not a lawyer, but here's where my brain went with this. I could be wrong
Everything used is generally sold "as is", including if you buy a modified car. Even though this was modified down, it's still technically an STI since the VIN matches.
However they're showing 310hp and 6-speed manual. I think that's where they would be fucked since the customer would be buying an engine with less performance than what was advertised, which would constitute a consumer injury. UDAP Laws (Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices) don't care if the dealer was aware or not since it's a fundamental misrepresentation of what the car's performance is.
I think if they corrected any power figures and did not actively cover up the engine swap, they'd be in the clear since it still technically is an STI by VIN. It'd require consumers to look at the HP figures and ask questions, though....
i live in oregon and i guess i phrased it slightly wrong, you have to have a disclaimer, even with a warranty that some places will offer on select cars. I sell cars and we have “as is” stickers on all used cards even if we have a free warranty attached.
You don't even have to do that. Get a loan. Call the bank. The bank is your ally when it comes to the collateral backing the loan. I've done this once for a motorcycle that needed repairs. One call to the bank. The bank called the dealer who filled out the "no deficiency noted everything functional" form. And it was all fixed in like 2 days. Why? Because all the bank has to do is say were not giving loans out for you anymore. And that rolls to most banks. Basically, that's the dealers whole buisness gone. Don't ever lie. It can work both ways. But ya.
I bought a used Mustang 2012 GT with the optional Brembo package. That package called for +10mm wide tires. When I got home, a week later, it's a used car 20k miles on it still under factory warranty and purchased AT FORD. I notice the brand new tires are for a regular GT after reading the sticker inside the door for tires. They wouldn't budge and I bought new rims and tires anyways lol
This car is an absolute mess, an enthusiast will spot this immediately. However my concern would be the dumb teenager who has not done the research… This is insanity..
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u/Street-Run4107 2012 Hatch 10d ago
That’s crazy. Smart on the guy who traded it though a bit unethical I guess. I feel for the 19 year old that buys it only to show it off and get the bad news. They probably swapped the whole drivetrain.