My son blew up his '02 WRX - still a viable donor?

[Arrowhead]

It's his baby and I feel bad for him, he travels extensively for his work and was on his way home late at night and it appears the turbo seals went and started spraying oil. The intake track from the turbo to the throttle body was filled with oil and no compression on the pass rear cylinder so I'm assuming it ran lean and took out the ring land which I guess is a common problem. He has no time to fix and I'm searching for another car for him.

I told him I'd float the idea of a donor on the forum to see if it would be worth listing it that way. The motor will need a rebuild, but I'm sure some builders are going to do that anyway. The good thing is it has a clean title and the whole car is still in great shape so there are lots of good parts to part out. If he doesn't sell it as is, he might rebuild next summer when he has time off.

I don't have a feel for how much of the car is used for donor parts on the 818, so my question is would it be worth like $4k as it sits, or is a it a $2K or less donor at this point? It's got about 130K on it and just had new front axles put in.

[tirod]

One way to estimate it's current value is the cost of a used motor plus labor, deducted from it's "lot price" the day before the engine blew.

In my specific case, I have a 99 Forester I paid 2,400 last May, lost the #2 rod bearing. The engine shipped in from Indiana cost $1,400 (and outside labor at shop rates would be $600.) Basically, I could spend another $1,400 to fix it on my time, or scrap it for $100. Nobody wants old Subarus around here but the salvage yards.

Your circumstances are only enhanced by the value of what's left as a donor, not as a viable car. The cost of rebuilding the long block and turbo will offset the value of it when it was running. Using Autotrader as one reference, the car was baseline lot priced just over $5,000, less the value of a reman motor at $3,000, less labor to install at $600 to $1000. Checking Craigslist, cars over $1000 in that age category rarely move. Nobody can foot the expense, do the work, and make a profit selling it - the value of the car as parts is higher. Wheels, interior, transmission, glass, and more importantly, the front clip for collision repair.

Much of that isn't in high demand for an 818 - you will likely maximize your value disassembling the car and selling it off piecemeal, or having the motor remanufactured as time permits. Either way, space in a covered building is needed.

With that in mind, your buyers will make their offers.

[SixStar]

We've bought 3 cars now as donors and decided they were too nice to take off the roads.

There are cheap options out there for engines, we've had good luck with older Japanese takeouts. And if you spend a little more ($3-4k) you can get some late model motors that make 280-300whp right out of the box.