Someone Else's Problem: Slowbaru impossibru: My 2005 Subaru Impreza 1.5 Sports Wagon

I don't know if I ever remember seeing a Subaru estate like this, it seems a very undesirable spec to go to the effort of importing...
 
It's a weird thing to import privately! Must have been very cheap.
 
Tactical fail received at the MOT center: last day for inspection today so I just had to get any result to be able to drive the car around legally. Surprisingly the open recall didn't cause any grief despite the warning letter I got from the state, and the car just failed due to the blowing exhaust and the lights having various issues. I'll try to whittle the list down to three and see if it'll pass the recall work dealership's inspection.
 
Yes :D It enables me to have a month or two to "get my shit together" while driving the car freely instead of needing a specific permission or transport sticker plates.
 
@Matt2000 You know, the quick fix is to make it run in FWD only (by the means of a fuse) but ... :D
I'm like 97% certain they never fitted that on the manual transmission cars and it was an automatic-only thing (and even then they dropped it sometime in the 90's)

(the fuse holder for it is in the engine bay, separate from the fusebox, up by the firewall on the right side of the car)
 
Couldn't resist:

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Will restore AWD when the weather actually calls for it but the car's so much more driveable now without torque bind jitters. It feels like a happy camper.
 
In the earlier pics you might see that the front grille had some fading and hazing going on. Since I pulled it when working on the front end today, I decided to see how little work it would need. Turns out, not much.

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I sanded it with some foam backed 1500 grit I had lying around until it felt smooth enough to paint with a matte black rattlecan.

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It looks so much better! Maybe perhaps because I knew it was kind of crappy before, but now it doesn't stand out.
 
Inspection passed: the driver side headlight still points wrong as the beam doesn't fully illuminate the roadside the way it's supposed to. However, that's still only a demerit as is the blowing exhaust center muffler (bought a new center pipe which is probably close enough) and the inop rear fog, meaning the car only had three strikes today which is fine. I also had the Takata recall performed earlier today, so the car is reasonably legal and non-lethal ish.
 
Sold! I posted it online when the car passed MOT and some weeks later a guy called very eagerly that he wanted to come see it tonight. He had had some JDM oddballs earlier and this was within budget, so he drove cross country with a friend to come see it. That's that, then.
 
Did this get the special Black Forest exhaust pipe before getting sold?
 
They were part of the deal so the buyer didn't haggle as much. I would have sold them on if he'd turned sour...
 
Thread necro: it still lives! The guy who bought it from me sold it on in August having made some light mods on it.

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The quick release bumpers are a big plus knowing the car's history. Otherwise, that's a Maxspeedingrods coilover kit, WRX tailgate and steering wheel, with other cosmetic mods here and there as well. Strut bars, audio upgrade and so on. Still 99hp, still needs a cambelt and AWD service... But I'm happy seeing it got those upgrades.
 
That looks great, I think this generation of Impreza has aged really well. I would've personally gone in the battle/rally car direction but this still works well.
 
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