hi everyone at scoobynet!!

i've been browsing this forum for around a month now, and its a great forum!!

Anyway! i'm 17 and soon to (hopefully) be passing my test! my uncle has had a subaru history for quite a while now which went like this:

impreza sti green, i think
impreza terzo, great colour!!
and now STI 8 with prodrive, which i adore!!

I've been looking at so many cars recently on the internet, at prices etc. and recently liked the punto sporting, which is in my price range (both the car and insurance), but its got a very poor history of reliability!! AND! yesterday i realised that there is an impreza GL 1.6! which i can afford and get insured on. i've been in love with imprezas for many years now and only until now thought that the 2.0 sport was the lowest version that i could buy (which i can't get insured on)

Now heres the question, should i bother getting an impreza GL 1.6 for my first car? im not going to be like most people my age, as i no too many people who have crashed, i just hope to follow my uncles steps. Also what is this car like and will it last me like other imprezas? i.e not break down like puntos lol (not taking the **** there nice cars)

cheers for all replies

Luke Davies

 

I think you should take one for a test drive m8. If you like it and can afford it then why not. It might not be the scooby that you would wish to have but hey, everyone has to start somewhere. I think it would be a good starting point personally. You could learn about scoobies before you finally end up with the one that you want. If you like it, go for it. Lifes too short.

 

You're better off going for a quick small car instead of a slow subaru (first time i ever said that). Think of it as going through the ranks, your driving will be better for it by the time you reach for the keys of your first Turbo.

 

For a first car chap I'd get a rattly banger, just for the first year. You are bound to have the odd bump and knock and you'll be miffed if it's in a car you care about. TBH you can't go wrong with a Nova or Fiesta as a first car. If it survives your first years motoring you'll have that all important 1 years NCB and then may possibly be able to insure something a little more interesting. When I just started driving a lad nearby had a Renault5 GT Turbo as a first car and the insurance was absolutely silly. He wrapped it round a lampost unsuprisingly.

If you hang on to the snotter for 2 years you may even be able to get the Impreza Sport

 

Another vote for the "banger first" idea. As has been said, it's a cheap way to build up your no-claims.

Over 20 years ago, I knew a girl who had just passed her test and went out and bought a reasonably new Triumph TR7. She could only afford Third Party Fire and Theft cover. All us blokes told her that she was crazy and if she couldn't afford Comp on a car that she really wanted she'd have been better to get something lesser for the first year until she could insure it. The inevitable happened within 6 weeks. Photos appeared in most Scottish newspapers showing the **** end of a TR7 sticking out of someone's basement as she'd driven it through railings to park it there....

 

you are fast at replying lol!!! i really don't know, im really after a jap car at least as i don't want to be having to pop into my local garage like every fornight asking whats wrong with it. so if anyone have any other thoughts? i've seen honda civics going fairly cheap? oh im so indecisive!!!!!!!! thanks for the replies so far!

 

Get a Honda if you want Jap. My vote would be for a Punto.

 

Beware of punto mate they have head gasket problems and there heads sometimes crack can be expensive if you can fix yourself.

Just a tip mate.

Personally i would go down the nova/corsa/fiesta route cheap parts easy fix etc...

Plus there good cars to learn on if you want to become a budding DIY'r

 

get something you don't mind writing off - at 17 I remember that was my speciality!

 

and now your name is WR-one, should i be afraid?

Erm, i don't like the sound of the nova/corsa way. i hate corsa's already (what i learn in thats why!)

i don't like the interior on either or most old hatchbacks, i don't mind the newer stuff though, my sis has a new pug 206 and feels nice (drive-wise), but its had electrical problems already before even a year from when it was purchased brand new. just looked at the civics and the interior looks nice, does anyone know the drive quality of them? i know the V-TEC engines are reliable. i like the look of the crx del sol too....hmm probably wouldn't get insured on that one.

the problem with me is that im too fussy and also like to be individual from every other person my age.

 

Pretty much all honda's are gonna be high insurence for you.

The new corsa's have all got electronic accelerators which make the cars less responsive and there slow as hell anyway but the older ones have a much better feel to them and are much more responsive.

I would defo put a vote in for the corsa for a 1st car (I know there common as hell and you might want summot a bit special but theres a reason why there common - Reliabilty/Cheap and chearful)

 

go try a saxo (furio)

1.4 engine
alloys fogs ect
looks like the vtr

cheeper tax,insurance,running costs ect

great performance for a 1.4

the girlies love em and they are cheap

ideal first car imo

 

i would second that too.

Good cars brakes cud do with upgrading though!!!

 

I`m another one for the banger route. Build up 1 or 2 yrs no claims then get something better. If you crash it it`s not such a big loss.

Jase

 

oops! insurance is nearly £3000 for a 1.5 civic. the furio looks good though! i'll have to change some interior bits as parts of the trim is bright yellow oh yeah and im not the boy racer type thats going to slap on a huge bit of plastic at the front with a quad s/s exhaust that doesn't do anything lol. and i'd like to say that all of your cars are looking gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! shame i cant have one

 

Yep, go for something real cheap to buy and insure, and put the spare monay away for a couple of years. Build up some experience and NCB then get something nicer.

We've all been there especially when younger, you know the situation where confidence vastly outweighs knowledge and ability and it all goes a bit pear shaped, and if we're lucky (as I was) you get away with it, if not you wrap it round a tree/lamp post/wall (delete as appropriate). Tell you what though, I still went a slapped it through a wall at +60mph about 1.5 years later. Gutted, you bet, but injured, no. Again I was very very lucky. Not many people can walk away (inc passenger) from putting a car through a brick wall at 60-70mph and claim pride as the only injury. It didn't half slow me down I'll tell you, the effects of which lasted well over 10 years.

I now however have a nice subaru turbo, over 10years NCB, and I'm a qualified advanced driver (still have to pay a firtune for insurance though)

 

well just recently i know this girl that got a new rover, and thought she'd race her boyfriend, she overtook him on a blind corner on the wrong side of the road at 90mph, she unfortunatly crashed into an oncoming driver and killed him instantly, shes still in intesive care from last friday with a broken back and shes having her face sorted out at the moment. and i don't feel sorry for her at all! shes a silly b**ch for doing it!


this is why im not going to be a ****, yeah i might understand the racing line and all this stuff (too many racing simulators) but no way am i going to race anyone, let alone drive overly fast, i totally agree though, you need the experience behind the wheel.

 

Just goes to prove the point though. Sometimes you get away with it (as I did so many many years ago when I was a little over your age (I was 19 IIRC)) and sometimes you don't.

And as usual, it's not the idiot that ends up worse off it's the 3rd party who was just going about their life in a normal way. Just think how that persons family must feel when they didn't come home.

It's thoughts like this that keep me driving sensibly.

 

yep i feel so sorry for the blokes family, some of my mates were like "are you not even worried about her in the slightest" and i just said that i wasn't really because it was her fault and she ruined alot of peoples lives by killing someone!

although she didn't do it on purpose, she didn't do it by accident either! i would've definetely felt sorry for her if she just slide out and crashed into a lamp post, but she didn't!