If you do find a dealer that will swap parts like that you are probably going to pay out the nose since they're doing you a favor. As for waiting for the 05 if you can wait I would because even if nothing changes that puts subaru one more year into the model and that never hurts. And if it doesn't change that much you can get an 04 for less once the 05 comes out.

 

I don't know if you'll be able to find a used sti for $25,000 yet, you'll probably have to wait another year or so before it goes down that far, unless it has tons of mileage. That's a pretty big drop in price for a car that hasn't been out long at all.

 

I just did a search on autotrader, the lowest I found was around $27,000 and that one had 17,000 miles on it, so you might be able to find one for lower, but you're going to have alittle bit of a tough time. When I was buying my 04, they were still selling 03's for the same price, subies just don't depreciate that much, and the STi will deffinetly hold it's value for a while. So happy hunting, just don't set your hopes too high.

 

I saw an STI for like 15,000 once on one of the Suby forums. Forgot which one. Wonderin why so cheap? Had major suspension damage I believe in rear and some body damage. Engine all right though. Other than that, they'll stay above 27 like the guy said above unless something is wrong with it.