The year is 1995. They came in creme yellow and black in North America and are rare these days, especially wagons.
Like Klause said, with a few mods, these cars can be quite fun to drive. If the one you saw had a large exhaust and nice sound, I would assume the owner had definitely put some performance parts in it. I've got a cat back sport exhaust, cold air intake, computer remap and a few other aftermarket bolt ons on my T5-R sedan and it sounds awesome. Pushing the gas down past 1/4 way can give you whiplash as well. I would say the T5-R is one of the most under rated, sleeper cars.