Used Car of the Day: 1998 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS

by Tim Healey

Published: February 6th, 2024

used car of the day 1998 subaru impreza 2 5rs

Today we go back to the 1990s and bring you a 1998 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS.

This one is a bit rough -- there's obvious rust in the photos -- and the mileage is high at 276,000. This Arizona-based car has a five-speed manual transmission and some modifications.

Those include JDM tailights, clear headlights, carbon-fiber cubby trim, WRX seats, aftermarket CD player with Bluetooth, full-size spare, sport muffler, and leather shift knob and boot.

The seller says the engine runs well and the car is daily driven.

Apparently the power steering does leak, though, and a rusted-through exhaust is leading to the CEL being on.

There's also a dent on the body and the interior has a quarter-century of wear and tear.

There's a lot more copy -- this seller is the opposite of yesterday's. If you're interested, go take a look.

You can do so here. The ask here is $4,000.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 27 comments

Lorenzo on Feb 07, 2024

Too bad it's the 2-door model. Dump the hood scoop and spoiler and make it look stock. Then have fun at stop lights!

1 Reply
ToolGuy on Feb 15, 2024

"Sale fell through, still available" as of 3 days ago.

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Recent Comments

MrIcky I bet these will sell ok- as fleet vehicles. They will take on in town pick up duties for power companies when an hd with tool boxes aren't required, they will show up on any company that wants to push a 'green image' but still needs to haul ladders and such like solar and roofing. It will be a strange truck in a strange market but I bet it doesn't do too bad
2ACL If your driving and/or maintenance regimen wrecked the valves, what other horrors await me? A maintained 2.slow can be decent basic transportation, though many of the models carrying it are old enough to have age-related problems. This is impending heartbreak for anyone not intent on getting their hands dirty.
Theflyersfan If cutting costs (which usually means cheaper parts and materials) is their plan of attack, all the while dealing with millions of cars recalled and with serious quality issues, I think staying away from Ford is the best thing possible. When you hack and slash away like that, it tends to be a race to the bottom. (See: Nissan and Mitsubishi. )How about, instead, focusing on what is breaking and forcing expensive recalls and emergency service bulletins because it always costs more to fix it after the fact. And then the reputation can be improved and you can charge $100,000 for a pickup without a guilty conscience.
EBFlex Translation: “We want to lower quality even more”How about stop with the EVs that nobody wants and is a dead end road and invest that into making quality vehicles?
Jeff Agree but manufacturers in the US have discontinued manuals on most vehicles and eventually discontinue all manuals. The problem is that most vehicles made today have computers controlling most functions in vehicles. HVAC, power steering, power brakes, parking brakes, transmissions, and many other functions that were manual and now electronic. The mechanical functions were easier to repair and more reliable. The Maverick has a lot less technology than many of the newer vehicles at least you can control lights, temperature, and radio without going through a screen but compared to past vehicles I have owned it has more technology than I want or need.I am not looking forward to these recalls as a Maverick owner but I will get them taken care of. I do not like the trend toward mechanical functions that have worked well for decades being controlled through a computer function or CANBUS. It is cheaper for the automakers to buy preassembled components reducing time on the assembly line but it makes it more expensive to work on and the parts are usually more expensive. Hoovie and the Car Wizard have some good videos on the difficulty of working on most modern day vehicles and the increasing expense of replacement parts.