The Death of a Subaru WRX

"wagon guy now drives a boostang" (wagonguy) 11/21/2014 at 10:03 • Filed to: Subaru, WRX, Bugeye

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The first weekend of November 2014, my 2003 Subaru WRX bugeye wagon took its final road trip.

I loved this car. Yes, it was twelve years old, but we had been together a while and I had fully anticipated a few more years before it would need to be replaced by something younger. I'm a fan of older cars, wagons, and manual transmissions, so a few years back when I found this car with only 70,000 miles on the clock I jumped on it. It served me well for three years and 30,000 miles needing only regular maintenance and common failure items to keep it on the road. It never left me stranded.

It handled everything I could throw at it without complaint. I drove it through the snowy mountains of New Mexico and the sandy beaches of south Texas, and the all-wheel drive kept the shiny side up no matter what it faced. I drove it everywhere and was always proud that though I am a fast driver, my actions never caused any harm to my car and it was in nearly perfect condition for its age.

Then I got hit in the ass by a 2013 VW Jetta. While stopped at a light on a rural Texas highway I got plowed into by an older lady who was wearing a neck brace at the time.

The impact was hard enough that it shoved the car into the back end of a full sized Chevrolet pick up, making my formerly pristine black wagon look more like an accordion.

What this photo doesn't show is the frame damage and the crumpled floor pan. She hit me hard enough that the cargo cover popped off of its mounting and fell to the floor of the cargo area.

Of course having damage at both ends made the car undrivable.

The drivers of both the VW and Chevy left the scene under their own power while we got loaded on the back of a flat bed and hauled 50 miles home to start the long drawn out discussions with the insurance company on the value of my faithful older ride.

Rust in peace old friend.