Which? say that to buy an Impreza Turbo WRX STi Type UK at £26,000 is not a clever thing to do when you take into account depreciation.

Which? says that the Impreza at 3 years old is worth around £10,000 - yet the Focus RS would be worth £14,000+

Now, I bought an Impreza in 2000 - when they still held their value amazingly well ..... what has happened? Why does no-one want one secondhand?

Makes a 3 year old Impreza STi something of a bargain .... if you can get one that has not been modified or thrashed - when will the oldest hatchbacks be 3 years old? - I may just treat myself!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/content/...e_3_124x69.jpg

 

when I looked for an RS, they were all 29k ie lux packs

Anything other than white is extra.

I couldnt find a standard car (£26900 now), they all had extra. also I got offered below trade price for my trade-in - so I told the dealer to get lost.

£29-£14= £15k over 3 years or £5k depreciation per year

realistically in the real world you can get a hatchback Sti for 24k new
so 24-10=£14,000 depreciation.

so they are similar, I'm assuming the average price of a stock RS will be closer to 28k

You need to look at the figures closer, the uneducated idiots who work for magazines dont consider real world figures and verbatenly turn-out book figures.

Both great cars, they both have their values in different areas and they both shine.

Finally given the low numbers of Sti hatchbacks sold, I think the 10k value after 3 years is based on the previous STI and doesnt take account the hatchback with low mileage are rare and may command a premium, so I think closer to 12k trade-in value if well kept. But £10K is worst case.

 

is there a limited number of the mk2 frs like the mk1 frs , i heard at first it was 2500 but it has doubled so i can in the future aswell it all depends on how fast they sell them. so the mk2 frs will loose value greater than any other rs imo

 

I'm thinking that, because the hatchback has not sold in numbers, they expect that secondhand it won't sell either - for the same reasons.

But, it comes to something when a Ford Focus holds its value better than a Subaru Impreza. The Foresters and Lagacy's have always lost value rapidly ... but, the Impeza used to be immune to the worst effects of depreciation.

 

The market is a mystery, mine is seven years old and is maybe worth £7K, so I have lost an average of £3K per annum, most at the start of it's life. Next year it will still be worth about the same, given the mileage.

IMHO

dunx

P.S. I found a 2 year old STI for £18K locally.....

 

Mine is 10 years old, next May. Worth about £3000? Cost = £1,900 a year ........ of course, at £3000 it cannot get much cheaper?

The best way to buy a car, in my opinion, would be to buy at 3 years old and keep for ever ...... until about 10 years old.

 

I bought my 51 plate wrx in May 2005 for £9,800 and sold it in March 2009 for £4,900, a depreciation of £1,278/annum, which isn't too bad. I obviously spent quite a bit modding it over the years, most of which I wouldn't have recovered in the sale price, although the money spent probably made it a more desirable and therefore saleable car, over a standard wrx. If a car's been modified it's difficult to gauge the actual depreciation.