Today I had a look at a Type R claming to have done only 21,439 miles. Very low for a car sold in 1999. My question is this. Is it normal for the engine bay to be painted in flat dark grey? It also has what looked like 22B front bumper. So I'm a little suspicious. Any advice/thoughts welcome.

 

Could be wrong but Type R's came as WRX's and STi's.

The one you are looking at could be a WRX and not an STi with the red top engine. Mine was an STi V5 with red top engine and STi logos all over the shop.
Someone could have replaced the front bumper during its life, very low miles for its age.

 

Also if its an STi the model code will be, for a V5, GC8F2DD.
WRX should GC8F27D

 

The engine is, or I should say looks like, an STi red top with everything unmolested. Its the colour of the inner wings and the bulkhead that worries me.

 

It's usual for the engine bay to be painted in a flat base coat/primer colour, depends on what colour the car is i suppose, how dark is dark?

 

Perhaps I should of said matt grey in my question. And its tone is just a bit darker than primer grey. In fact thinking about it. It was very like the underside of an import before underseal is sprayed on. Oh and the car is sliver. So it could be that its how it would look if there was no flake in the paint and no lacquer was sprayed on.
I was hoping a type R owner would say "Yeah my car's like that."

 

In that case yeah that's normal.

 

Great, good news. Next I've got to check if the mileage is correct. Hopefully the seller will let me take it to somewhere like API to suss out if it's all genuine.

Thanks for the advice, Dinsdale

 

Yea my cars like that.