There are a lot of things to debate in this world, but this is hopefully not one: If a person spends a lot of money on a new car that will depreciate immediately, it should be clean. Right? And if a dealer tries to sell a 2018 Subaru WRX STI Type RA for more than $11,000 over MSRP, it shouldn’t have dirt everywhere. Right?
The new Type RA is a special edition of Subaru’s longtime budget all-wheel-drive performance car, the Subaru WRX. The 2018 base WRX can give a person 268 horsepower, AWD and a manual transmission for $27,000 off the lot, and the hardcore Subaru fans can get 310 HP, a more aggressive suspension and red accents on the Type RA for almost double that at a nearly $50,000 MSRP.
But not all specially badged Type RA cars commemorating Subaru’s “Record Attempt” at the Nürburgring, which Subaru will only make 500 of, are going for MSRP. There are nearly 20 listings on Cars.com for more than the car’s $50,000 MSRP, and the highest one comes from Schumacher Automotive in Florida.
That dealer wants at least $60,888 for its Type RA, and obviously thinks it will be an easy price to get—so easy, in fact, that nobody even bothered to clean the car out before taking photos to put on the online listing.
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Forget the red accents, forget the manual shifter just waiting for someone to pay $61,000 to have the honor of driving it, and forget the handbrake ready take someone for a turn. That, right there, is a nasty car.
Let’s take a closer look at that floorboard, shall we?
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“Get your dirt-covered Type RA right here at Schumacher Automotive, folks, for nearly $11,000 more than Subaru suggests we charge! You won’t regret it!”
“Only 6 on the odometer,” the listing reads. And who, exactly, put those miles on the odometer? Bigfoot, after taking a walk on the beach with no shoes on? Some inconsiderate person who decided to wipe their dirt-covered shoes on the floor mat like the poor thing said “welcome” on it in large, cursive, passive-aggressive letters warning visitors to leave their nastiness outside the house?
Did the beach itself drive the car? With the looks of the floorboard, probably.
Who, also, decided it would be a good idea to take a photo of a car in this state for an advertisement aimed at selling the car? This went through a lot of layers to end up in an online listing: The car arrived at a dealership, with everyone in awe of its Type RA badge on the back and somehow missing the fact that it had a nasty floorboard. Then, someone opened the driver’s door and took a photo, said nasty floorboard included. Then, someone uploaded that photo online.
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Dealer photos are supposed to be nice, clean and covered in paper to protect the floorboards, whether it’s a new $61,000 Type RA or a $2,499 Honda Civic with 364,000 miles. Nobody wants evidence of someone’s nasty shoes in their new car. They want the illusion that it’s fresh, clean and straight out of the factory for them—justifying the silly markup. This does not give that illusion.
There’s no going back now, except for maybe telling every potential buyer that this is authentic, collectable German dirt from the famous Nürburgring.
But it’s still nasty.
[h/t James Patrick/12eight]
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