Toonman1

But there is little comparison. Skoda make cheap, good value cars. Subaru produce technologically advanced machinery, that is capable of winning the World Rally Championship.

Cheers

NACRO

What do you think any road going car has to do with rally cars? Sod all.

We are comparing road cars. The Skoda is better built and has better interiors and compared to a new age 215bhp car similar performance for far less cash.
BTW I own an Impreza in case you think I have some kind of hidden agenda. I'm just being as objective as I can

MooseRacer

and anyway, Skoda have won an awful lot more Rally World championships than Subaru

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

NACRO, oh dear, you seem to have missed the point. This is a friendly bun fight that was started a while ago and is reserected every now and then. Objective has nothing to do with it. Lighten up will yer - its Scoobs against Skodas -get it now?

F

Toonman1

Really? World Rally Championships? Not class wins on the World Rally Championship? Certainly not in since I saw my first RAC Rally in the '60s. Certainly not in the time Subaru have been competing with the Legacy or the Impreza.

I've no hidden agenda either. I did consider the Octavia RS, but drove it and discounted it. Tacky interior, not fast enough and lacking the AWD ability I wanted. An okay car though. I also got as far as test driving the Skoda Challenge Rally car when I competed in the European Rally Championship back in the early '80s. The package was a good one, and the incentives in the Championship, tempting. I just wanted more power.

I've never told a Skoda joke in my life, but I wouldn't pick one over an Impreza either.

And what has Rallying got to do with road cars??? Oh dear...

pappasmurf

"Never told a Skoda joke in your life"....you don't know what your missing.
Here goes.....What goes round and round in circles?

smurfy.

MooseRacer

I knew as soon as I posted it someone would pick that up Let me rephrase to more class wins on the WRC

Like everyone else it seems, no hidden agenda here either, but how can anyone with a Scoob say an Octavia has a tacky interior and keep a straight face!

Interesting, would that have been the Favorit, or still the 130's?

Nor me

Absolutely ****-all, but try telling that to a fair proportion of Scoob owners

NotoriousREV

Badge snobbery on a Subaru website, hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

NACRO

Oh and what has rallying got to do with road cars?

More or less the only thing that the road going Impreza share with the WRC contender is the badge. Manufacturers know success on the track/stage lead to showroom sales so they play up the links. In reality it is 2 very different worlds.

Toonman1

Dead easy. I'm on Scoobs 4 & 5 at present. The first three did 50K, 50K and 55K miles. No rattles and no bits of trim fell off. Same with the current cars.

The much revered Audi interior came with the Seat Leon Cupra I bought - loads of rattles, leaks, truculent trim, and unreliable switchgear in 9 months and 12K miles. It looked and felt tatty when I sold it.

Subaru may not have used the quality of plastics etc that some other manufacturers use, but all the bits work and come trade in time, the interiors have all looked like new.

The Impreza didn't win the JD Power survey 2 years running for nothing.

Cheers

Toonman1

Rallying has been used for many, many years as a means of developing road vehicles. That's one reason why it started in the first place, but believe what you wish.

Cheers

Muffleman

I will be the first to admit two things...

1) Skoda's are now very good cars, and
2) I STILL don't have the conkers to own one !

I know it's a personal flaw that I care too much about what others will think of me, but I still can't do it !!!

Just can't I'm afraid, even though they're good cars.

EvilKyote

Most of the cars are designed as road cars, and then some used as a rally car. The Impreza was designed specifically as a rally car from the day it was born. However to be ledgable for the rally, it had to also have a certain amount of production models made, hence the fact that impreza's are sold as a production car.

So mooseracer, the rally is at the heart of the impreza! it has ALOT to do with it!

EK

NACRO

Do you really believe that? You think the Impreza was made for homologation purposes? That's news to me although I am willing to be educated. I thought it was a pedestrian Japanese saloon car that found fame through its rallying counterpart rather than the other way round.
You learn something every day.

KentStu

Comparison re: Seat and Skoda is valid in that much of the same bits are used but the comparison ends there - the Seats have been having massive problems with build quality ever since the Cupras started getting built in Spain (the early ones werent bulit there and were much better)- the Czech built Octy RS is much more solid in feel.

... and if we are talking rallying - Lancia have won tons of WRC championships but I don't see many people clamouring to buy their cars anymore

scooby L

not without a tin of hammerite handy...


My STI 8 interior is not tacky... just as good (if not better) as the evo 8, and much better than the focus!!

Floyd

iTrader: (9)

Narco, "it was about as quick as my classic Impreza (before I had it remapped)"
There's the problem, how many scoobs are still running standard power - not many I'd guess. If you have to tune the Skoda from 150bhp in the 4x4 to 225bhp just to be on par with a std Scoob, then is it realistic to get real power reliably in any 1.8 T Skoda? Prepare to be 'toasted' on the road when you meet a Scoob that's not std.

F

Mortywrx

I went to look at the fabia vrs the other day and couldn't believe how well it went not sure how this works out but 130bhp & 310nm of torque god knows what that means but it doesn't half pull and at book speed of 127mph its not slow by all accounts(for a diesel) As for the octavia i was going to buy the Vrs estate but speaking to the chap at D.M Keith he adv to hang on for abit cos he hinted at a 4x4 vrs coming out but wasn't sure when? maybe my next car Skoda Octavia Vrs Estate 4x4 blooody hell can you imagine the badge for that on the back of the hatch

Darren

NACRO

I agree that most Imprezas are a little bit quicker than most 'tavias. However this thread was about them outperforming the Impreza in other ways to start with wasn't it?

I think the Jabba remap of the 4x4 is about as reliable as these things get, haven't heard a bad story yet.

There aren't many standard Imprezas on this board I'll agree but I'm sure there are a fair few out there. Any car that can give them a run for their money at a fraction of their cost, while having a better driver environment has to be worthy of a second look don't you think?

GammonRoll

Why do people find it necessary to discuss this kind of stuff via this bulletin board?

Awa' doon the pub and discuss it with yer mates instead.



Gamm

EvilKyote

Thats right narco,

In order to be allowed to use a car as a rally car i think they must make something like at least 400 or more as 'production' cars available for sale to the public.

The impreza was Subaru's answer to winning the world rally championship! that ultimately why they designed it! of course to be able to sell it as a 'production' car they obviously had to meet certain requirements on safety etc etc, hence why they cars you and i can buy are not the same exact specs of the true rally version!

EK

Little Clanger

I had an Audi quattro "sport" and I think - a VW is a cheap Audi and a Skoda is a cheap VW. If the soopa doopa Skoda drives anything like my Audi "sport" did, it must be like gettin a massive injection of Ketamin in the butt (horse tranquiliser) No fun at all! The car was quick, but more sterile than a surgeons apron. After caning the **** off it, it took 10 minutes to get the sleep out of my eyes cos the sand man is always with you in one. Got a Subaru now, and wonder why it took so long. Apparently, if you remove the paint from the side of a Skoda, the words "NO FIRES" and a phone number for the skip hire company appear.

Flat 4x4

Value for money seems to be taking a bit of a backseat here ?
For me it came down to buying another Impreza (Bug Eye from Classic) and year for year it would have cost me 50-55% more for a year old WRX wagon as opposed to a 4x4 (including remap).

I'm impartial as they come - and Top Gear are pretty sane as well!

ianc

Thats actually quite an original one - cool!

(although ironically, if i remove any bits on mine I find Audi badges )

Ian

NACRO

lol- the Impreza wasn't built for homogolation purposes AFAIK. To suggest it was is laughable. I'm not saying your wrong but I'm sure someone will be able to settle the argument- my bet is it wasn't

As for the skip comments- get a life or at least try to add something to the discussion- you sound like a prize c*ck coming out with that kind of stuff.

VFM the SKoda wins hands down- in fact I'd like the morons who think it's a skip on wheels to keep thinking that. It will save the one I get being a theft/vandalism/jealousy target unlike my Impreza.

MooseRacer

Seriously LMAO at some of these posts

ianc

That was one of the main reasons for my choice, as I nearly went for a classic wagon when I joined scoobynet (look at my registration date!) I do a lot of miles, and leave the car parked in a lot of main cities, the skoda never gets targeted for scratches or theft (thus far) and out driving people leave you alone, including plod, unless you do something to provoke them.

I'd owned the "obvious looking" hot hatches in the past, and got tired of 17yr old nova drivers sitting on my boot, or countless "spot checks" from plod, a skoda estate simply doesn't get that attention.

The Octavia RS is starting to get known, but I think I'm safe for a few years yet.

Ian

Little Clanger

Lighten up NACRO, dont b so touchy. Octavia RS not that bad. If I could have got past the badge, I would have got one instead of the Audi. Have a cup of herbal tea and watch songs of praise or summat.

NACRO

I think you are the one who needs to lighten up- I'm p1ssing myself laughing at the idea of all these people who don't buy a Skoda because of the badge and have instead bought a Subaru- irony!

mutant_matt

Nope. You're right, it wasn't. The reason motor manufacturers enter motor sport is to gain brand recognition which leads to increased sales. Subaru are no different. I'm guessing they wanted expand out of the agricultural/farmers market that they were in and WRC gave them that opportunity. Look where they are now, it worked quite well.

The Legacy road car was the basis for the SWRT/Prodrive originally (this is where some Rally geeks tell me about how it actually all started off in 1969 with some unheard of Subaru ) and did quite well considering, winning a rally stage just before the new road car, the Impreza came along. The Impreza was also designed as a road car but when designing it, aparently Subaru had the WRC in mind a little (i.e. the Impreza was an evolution of the Legacy with a view to being better suited to the WRC).

The body shell and the engine (in it's simple conceptual form) make the basis of the WRC car, obviously highly modified and augmented with "proper" rally parts but you can still buy a "Rally" car from Subaru that has been homologated for Group N in the form of the STi 7/8 RA Spec C (the Rally version, not the one Iain Litchfield sells).

I've got an STi and I bought my wife a Cupra and I think both cars are superb at different things. I think the vRS is a top car and very similar to the Cupra (same engine, turbo, drivetrain, brakes, VAG Climate thingy, possibly suspension too) . I think it is much better VFM than the Impreza, but then I don't think you buy an Impreza for VFM?!

Matt