Thanks to the United States’s 25-year-old-car import law, once-forbidden Japanese cars from the early 1990s are now legally making their way to American shores. As a result, we’re finally getting a chance to buy cars we were missing out on all these years—like, for example, this lovely sleeper of a 1993 Subaru WRX Type SA.
While it may seem like US buyers have been able to grab the WRX for ages, we’ve only had these practical high-performance cars that Subaru is known for for a fraction of their existence—and the ones we’ve received haven’t always been the peppiest examples. To put things in perspective: the first US-market WRX from 2001 cranked out a respectable 227 horsepower—but this WRX Type SA from almost 10 years earlier packed a turbocharged four-cylinder good for 250 horses. (Not bad for an all-wheel-drive family wagon from 1993.)
This ’93 WRX Type SA has just 49,000 miles on the odometer, equating to just under 2,000 miles a year—or, to use the industry term for cars of this age, “practically zilch.” The car is barely broken in, and the engine bay proves it; while there’s the slightest amount of corrosion on the intake manifold (to be expected after three decades), everything else under the hood looks damn near brand-new.
Inside, the sound system has been updated to a new Kenwood unit with USB integration, enabling those inside to enjoy better sound quality than the original stereo offered. In addition, the blue cloth seats look barely broken in—and if you’ve ever seen most 26-year-old cars with cloth seats, you know that counts as its very own kind of luxury.
At just $14,995, this WRX Type SA is one hell of a bargain. But there’s also one hell of a caveat: Coming straight from Japan, it’s right-hand-drive. That said, if you’re willing to deal with the headaches that come along with having the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car—think drive-throughs, toll booths, drive-up ATMs—you won’t find a better example of a $15,000 car that will swallow up a weekend’s worth of gear as happily as it’ll carve up your favorite back road anytime soon.
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