New Car
February 2nd, 2008 by matt
This past Wednesday I bought a new car. Well, a new-to-me used car. It’s a 2006 Subaru Baja Turbo. For those not familiar with the Baja, which is probably most people, you can get more details on sites like edmunds.com. Basically, it’s a cross between a truck and a sedan. It gets better gas mileage and rides better than a truck but has more hauling ability than a car.
The car had 6,000 miles on it and has upgrades over the standard features, including an auto-dimming mirror and a 6-speaker stereo system with a subwoofer and an in-dash 6-CD changer. And it’s also the turbo model, which is as bad-ass as it sounds. In doing some research on this car, everyone’s same complaint was the engine was pokey. If you were trying to pass someone or had a load in the bed or four people in the car (or both), you really had to floor it in order to move the vehicle. Subaru added a turbo model in 2005 to help alleviate that problem. And does it ever. I can get up to 50MPH in no time in this car, probably in half the distance it would take in my old Mazda Protege5.
I got a fair deal for that car. The dealer gave a little and I gave a little. I didn’t get as good a deal as I did on my Mazda, but that was a phenomenal deal (I got a $17,000 car for $12,000). So why did I get a used car instead of a new one? Subaru stopped making the Baja in model year 2006, so the only option for obtaining one these days is to go the used route. But in this case the car is practically new. It turns out the dealer got 10 Bajas to sell that used to be in the corporate fleet (which explains the optional equipment upgrades). Being in the corporate fleet, the car is absolute pristine condition. I got the last one.
So far I’ve very happy with the car. Obviously we’re still in the honeymoon stage, but I’m very happy with my purchase. Gas is going to suck, because I have to put in minimum 91 octane due to the turbo, but that’s the only downside to the car at the moment.
Below are some pictures of my new car. I think it fits me very well. It’s something that not everyone has or even knows about, which enhances the value of the car to me. 
