As more and more Impreza's seem to be appearing on the roads, I have started to become slightly dismayed with the portrayal of the car by some.

Filling my freshly cleaned STI up with fuel the other day I heard a screaming of tyres and roaring of Engine as this WRX steamed onto the garage forecourt. Sadly, the owner felt the need to turn his stereo up very loudly as he exited his car.

He then shouted across the forecourt "F#####g awesome motor innit mate".

Now the world would be boring if we are all the same, but members of my family and my friends are starting to take delight in pointing out various Impreza's driven by a new generation of owner.

Loud music, lowered to within one inch of the road, and the worst offence of them all

The rear window sticker!!!

E.g. Seen on Red WRX recently

"On a mission"

Enough is enough. This was previously confined to 17 yearolds and their Nova's and Astra's.

Please don't confuse my thoughts as those of a sad old man(I'm 26). I did not buy my Impreza to be cool, but don't won't to be labelled as a wide boy either.

I love my Impreza, but if it turns into a modern day Sierra Cosworth/ Escort RS Turbo.............

Am I being over sensitive?

Thoughts?

Chris

 

What did you really expect though ...
Just write in to all the motoring magazines and sing the praises of the Evo VI.

 

It was always going to happen.....the Scooby is the new Cosworth (i.e. every boyracer wants one, every joyrider wants one, every getaway driver wants one). The general opinion of my work colleagues (prior to realising my feelings) was that the subaru is a '****ers car -just like the cozzie used to be....'

I must admit it was nice when no one knew what it was - "A soobawhat? - isn't that Korean? etc, etc.".

When people didn't try and make life difficult for you when you tried overtake. When other drivers didn't want to treat the traffic lights like Santa Pod - just so they could boast down the pub that the out-acclerated an Impreza. When you could park it in public and know the joyriders thought it was a tarted up Honda. When the police didn't use it as an excuse to pull you over.....


Still, that's life, huh? The benefits are it's fun to drive, it's enormously quick, it's safe and, at the end of the day, I know I'm neither a boyracer or a drug dealer...

 

Not entirely relevant but my Renault Alpine GTA V6 Turbo had a dark tinted sunvisor band at the top of the screen, that had a sticker on the inside of it which was dark colours so you could hardly read it.

If you looked close enough you could just see that it said <B>Capable of evading high speed pursuit</B>.

 

Unfortunately there are more and more of these idiots becoming owners of Scoobs. The upside (purely from my point of view) is that they will NEVER be allowed access to SIDC track days, meetings, social functions, the BBS etc. Also, the "crainially challenged" bridgade are less likely to be able to afford repairs when they damage the car

PS: Mike, were you the guy who came over to the red A310 at Donington? My mate currently has the car at a specialist restoration place for a full going over, including a respray. He will be bringing it to another track day this year if you are interested.

Yex

 

Bound to happen sooner or later.
The Impreza Turbo is now 6 years old in the UK & prices for older ones are dipping below 10K which means its more affordable for the yobs to get into one.....
I have been driving Turbo's for many years now & maybe - just maybe - its time to move onto something else.
Sad, but thats the way its looking for me personally.

Ro

 

Worrying isn't it? I've had mine for a couple of years now. When I got it, it was just becoming known and recognised. It was also too expensive for the wide boys. Now though, by driving a my94 I am running the risk of being automatically classified as one of them! It makes me seriously think of replacing it (for a my2001 or a tvr though!). It would be nice however, to be able to drive it for another year without being automatically branded a boy racer and suffering the jealous abuse other drivers give!

 

Leeds has its fair share of Impreza Turbos around at the moment (mine included) and I have yet to see anything untoward. The camaraderie is wonderful from all age groups! I had quite an ageing guy wave the other day in Otley from his silver T reg, and a young lad (well, younger than me and I'm 26) with a load of mates wave. The shocking thing was that the young guy was driving sensibly, car was devoid of any stickers and only mod was high-level spoiler on a P(?) reg Red turbo. Kudos to him for that.

Someone was saying that Car recently didn't rate the RB5 as high as before. That suits me down to the ground. Whilst I've only had the car for three months (after lusting for three years), the car is now well known. When I first discussed them with colleagues, "whussat" was the normal response. Now it's, "aha, boy racer eh?"

To be fair, I've been accused of that before. If we all try to drive responsibly, hopefully the majority won't spoil it for the minority. Still, I do occasionally live up to the reputation as that's what it's all about. And, if we're on the confessional, I did have a Fiesta (a 1.4, mind!) with a paltry 2 12" subs, no boot and "kenwood" sticker. I feel cleansed to have admitted that.

[This message has been edited by Nick Lines (edited 25-01-2000).]

 

So the Impreza has become a boy racer/yobs car has it???

Personally I think it always has been and many BBS'ers are guilty of branding the car with this tag.

1. maxing out on the public highway....guilty

2. improper use of fog lights - why, coz it looks cool. I though impreza drivers weren't interested in looking cool.....guilty

3. upgrading wheels/tyres/exhaust/spoilers/splitters......quilty

4. Racing of other cars on the public highway AKA the Traffic Light Grand Prix.......guilty

The only thing in the past that has separated many impraza drivers from Nova drivers is they have the money to buy the car but now its resale value is heading south for the foreseeable future, lets see what the Max Power boys do

laters

Fris

 

Have to agree with the consensus of opinion. The scoob has become too popular, and thus mine has to go.

In the market for a late Porsche 993 c2 and we'll have to rely on her indoors Ka to cart any crap around.

Oli.

 

My partner has noticed the rise in scoobies in our area and now takes great delight in saying, every bleedin' time she sees one, 'oh look another one of those 'common' scooby turbo's!' grrr, cheeky gal! I just remind her that her current car of obsession is a Mazda Xedeos 6!!!! (don't ask, she's a bit odd!)

I haven'y yet seen any max power guys/gals in the local area running around in scoobies, but I bet I will soon.

BTW - anyone on the bbs drive/live around tunbridge wells? It's just that my partners kids tend to wave at scooby drivers as they like the cars, especially the 'mouth' on the bonnet!, and I wanted to apologise in case they caused you to wonder why 'weird kids' were waving at you!




[This message has been edited by Markus (edited 24-01-2000).]

 

Agree - market is becoming flooded with Imprezas at the moment. My friends and family keep telling me they are seeing loads of them about and how 'common' they have become!

I've been watching the values 'heading southwards' for a few months or so now and decided last week it was time to get rid of mine (STI-V TypeR). It's gone now and i'm the proud owner of a Skyline GTR V-Spec

The Impreza is a fantastic car through and maybe i'll revisit it in a few years when i'm 25 and the insurance is a bit more realistic (STI insurance going upto group 20 doesn't help!)

DaveU

 

This is always going to be a problem from now on. It happens to most cars, BMs included. Old style 3 series are now fairly cheap and open to garish alloys, M Power stickers, stupid stereos and the back to front baseball hat brigade.

The only way to avoid this is to go for a low volume car with high residuals being a bonus. Cars like the Alpine 610, TVRs and NSXs with 911s et al at the upper end.

Larger cars also tend to avoid the boy racer treatment. An older M5 would be quite capable, if the wrong sort of image, ditto Lotus Carlton.

Unfortunately, a well driven Scoob will probably keep up with all of the above on the track.

 

One of the many reasons why I got shot of mine.

...seriously.

Cheers,
Dan

 

Gawwww, u lot

You want to drive one of the best cars around.

So do most other people

You yell how cheap they can be sourced on import etc. And even the UK model is a bargain for the money. We all know it.

But you dont want youths buying em...instead you want to embarass Porkers and M3's etc all by your selfish-selves

Get a life.....live and let live. Those who can afford to buy em do...and those who dont wont. Money talks....boy racers have money too ya know!......oh, and talking of boy racers, what makes u lot so god damn good when you rush out to buy Big Spoliers, Big Wheels, Noisy exhausts that u could run a train thru', induction cones and hard suspension?. Not to mention longing for dyno days and Santa Pod style sprints so u can brag down the pub!

You've all been there so take a chill pill and enjoy.


Southern Boy Racing Paff, erm and Monkey

[This message has been edited by sunilp (edited 25-01-2000).]

 

WRXs are the yobs' chariot of choice in Australia too, it seems. I don't think I've ever seen a stock one, except for the unregistered variety on the dealer's forecourt. Around town you can hear Imprezas being thrashed off the lights as their owners show cab drivers a thing or two . Sadly, many people now tar Impreza drivers with the same kind of brush that some of us tar rep/BMW/Porsche drivers with - road-hogging, aggressive and unable to work the light switches correctly. A shame, as something like a Subaru used to be a cerebral choice of wheels - supreme grunt and grip, but you wouldn't know it.

The US is about the only country where Impreza drivers remain an unknown - but then they don't have the luxury of a factory turbo. Instead they concentrate on squeezing the best out of what they have - handling finesse and ability in the wet (neither of which you'll find in most American cars, as it goes). Given turbo power - as they will in 2001 - maybe Subaru will become next year's BMW. Perhaps this is just another example of power corrupting absolutely?

Andy T

 

Andy....so right! I was driving to work this morning (Melbourne) and was completely imbarassed by a fellow Impreza owner in an MY96-97. He had a baseball hat on backwards (always a bad sign), incredibly loud music, ridicously loud exaust (I have a full performance system, but his was just a booming mess), huge garish chrome wheels which must surely foul the guards and the handling, and of course fog lights ablaze (sunny summer day)! In addition to all that, he proceded to zip erratically in and out of traffic, accellerating to within inches of the cars in front (in peak hour crawl traffic), and attempted to race every car including mine at every set of lights.
It was truly appalingly embarassing, and as my wrc blue MY99 with WRC high spoiler and loudish exaust doesn't exactly blend in the traffic I was imbarrased to be noticed by the fellow commuters and associated with him, even if I was quietly crawling along with the traffic.
Oh well, the Imp is still too good and I'm willing to put up with sharing ownership with such individuals. Furthermore, they often garishly decorate the car in manners rather different from my "rally look", which means they almost seem different cars. I hope


Wall

 

Sorry Andy_T

But quite a few of us in the USA Do have Turbo power. Thanks to Minnam Racing and others. My 2.5RS has been turboed for the last 10K miles and I'll "drag you" down Parramatta Road any day..

Richard
"Just another Aussie living overseas.."

 

With all these Imprezza's about to be sold whatever will you guys be getting next?
Will you part-ex or sell privately.
Obviously you will refuse to sell to anything under 25 years old and looking ... dodgy.

 

Dear All,
I can't believe how many of you treat your Scoobies like a fashion accessory - and only wanted it because no-one else had one! Just because every other bar steward has got one now, doesn't make it any less of a car... (I can't believe I'm sticking up for the Scooby! LOL). For Gawds sake get a life! Fair enough, chop it in like Simon de Sideways and DavidU did for something more "interesting", but don't get rid of it for the wrong reasons or you'll regret it.... It's just that the Scooby is "fashionable" at the moment, but like anything "in fashion" it soon goes "out of fashion" and the fashion victims will soon move on to the next "in thing".....
Mike "80's Fashion" Rainbird




[This message has been edited by Mike Rainbird (edited 25-01-2000).]

 

Doesn't help when there are articles on the front of car mags with a WRX sideways and three yobs with hoods and fake guns advertising it as the perfect bank job car!! Just what you need for image and insurance prices...

 

Well said Mr Rainbird.

 

May I bring the Golf GTi into the discussion?

A large number of GTi's have been 'Maxed' by youths who know no better, but somehow the marque retains a great deal of class.

Perhaps the Impreza will also be saved by the fact that there are very few 'lesser' models (eg. 1.6GL) around for the Kevs to tart up as pretend Turbos.

 

When's this Focus Cosworth thingy due out??

 

Ah Sunlip, looks like we agree on something

laters

Fris

 

It can be a free for all, but even when I was 17 (not that long a go). I still thought that 18" sub woofers and back window stickers were sad in any car.

Lose 'em lads, they look sad!!!

Come on, own up.

Who has got a big rear window (or any large sticker). And what does it say???

Answers below please. Lets put this baby to bed

 

Well Well Well - Mike Rainbowbirdman has finally said something both interesting and that I agree with.

In all seriousness well said Mike - you're absolutely right.

I had my first Scooby some 4 years ago now and despite the fact that I'm about to take delivery of a nice little Lotus I wouldn't be without a Scoob somewhere in the household (my wife is having mine - it goes from "mine" to "ours" of course).

I don't care who else buys them or what they do to them at the end of the day the Scoob is fast, safe, reliable and handles brilliantly. These facts will remain no matter who else drives one or whatever other people say to me about the car.

Take no notice and enjoy what you've got - a lot of the people who make the comments are just jealous anyway.

Regards,

Tiggers

 

Well this has all turned a bit sad !
Selling your beloved Subaru's it must have got to you.
Go and drive it for a few hours, that will remind you why you got it in the first place. I am afraid I still look for excuses to go for a spin. sell my Scooby !! Never ( I hope)

 

Hi All,

I'm not sure about all of you, but the reason the Impreza interested me initially were as follows:

1)Fastest saloon for the money by miles
Great handling, traction and stablility
2) Relatively unknown - people didn't know about the car at the time. They can't pidgeon hole you if they havn't got a clue what it is!
3) Relatively stealthy - related to 2) therefore a low profile with Plod and thieves.
4)Reputation for Reliablilty.
5)Motorsports heritage.
6) Rock solid residuals (yeah right - can't win 'em all!)

Most of these have been bourne out, although some haven't. Notice that what other people think of the car doesn't appear on the list anywhere. If it did, I'd probably be driving a 318i with M-technic body kit and huge alloys!.

Sunil is spot-on when he points out that some of us are being slightly hypocritical by ignoring the 'wideness' of some of the most popular mods for the Impreza. In their defence, I suppose that at least some of them are functional (i.e. performance increasing) rather purely asthetic. A Nova 1.3 with a 5" exhaust is just noisy and still slow!.

I'm not an elitist, but I'm not looking forward to the inevitable rise in premiums as Imprezas make their way into the hands of less careful third or fourth owners!.

Cheers,

Alex


[This message has been edited by AlexM (edited 25-01-2000).]

 

I live in bigtime Max Power country and haven't seen a single scoob so tarnished.( In fact I don't even see many Scoobs.)

I am conscious that we are all driving an average 3 box jap saloon with varying degrees of phallic wing on the back and holes in the bonnet. OK these were probably stuck on by Subaru / STI / Prodrive but whats the difference, compared to the kid who buys a Moss spoiler for his Gran's old Nova.

The looks we Scooby drivers all get now from Montego man should say it all - 'I bet he(she) reads that dreadful magazine...Max something.'


I can't see Scoob being a Nova/Escort/Golf replacement for the drain pipe exhaust on a 1.1l brigade, for one thing I'd say Group 17+ insurance is an issue.

Won't be selling mine.

Ed