Hi I am new to the forum and hope I am posting in the right place!

I am looking for a car to be used everyday and also for the occasional track & dragstrip days. I have always had a soft spot for Subaru's and am considering purchasing one. The thing that is worrying me is the reliability and cost to reapir if it all goes horribly wrong.

My budget is only around £4.5k so thought it may be worth looking at a freshly imported WRX STI.

Does anybody have any good advice for me or views on a suitable model?

 

The current issue of CAR Magazine will give you a "very rough guide". But like any thing you may get a peach or a nail. You pays your money you takes your chance. £4.5k for a fresh top import may be a bit optimistic though.

Now had two Scoob's, only drama was with the current one(New Age). Alarm played up for a while then had it replaced.

Repair costs can make your teeth itch!!!!!

As will some servicing. So shop around, loads of advice on here. Some good some bad, so watch out when changing your oil

But enjoy the ride.

 

Imports are generally less reliable than UK models, this is for several reasons:

1) It is very hard to know the history of an imported model. This means that they are more likely to be clocked etc.
2) Lots of Jap STI are tuned. You will not really know if this has been the case, although this can apply to UK models too
3) You must ensure that you get the car remapped to run on UK fuel properly. Japanese fuel is a different RON rating to UK fuel. If you use UK fuel in a Jap car, it will fun fine for a while. Then the engine will let go

We all have different views, but I am also on a tight budget so I stuck to a UK model. Its slower, but hopefully will be reliable.

 

Agreed, their reliability is also very much dependent on how they've been treated by previous owners. If you get one thats been loved, you porbably won't have any major problems, get one thats not been warmed up, cooled down and ragged to within an inch of its life and ........

Also, if you're planning to do drag stips, then you have to be preared for some big bills! Drag starts are very tough on the transmission and -at the very least- you'll need to figure on getting an uprated clutch (about £300) and a further £200 to fit it, its a 4-5 hour job. Also the gearbox might let go, at your buget you'd be looking at an 7-10 year old car and its already going to have had a fair bit of wear and tear.

An extension of the above is that you're going to have to be prepared for some bills owing to the age of the car, as they age, consumables need replacing, servicing becomes more expensive etc...

NS04

 

Being new to Subaru ownership, I was unaware we had to do this. Is it advisable on every journey? and what benefits does it have doing this?

Is it true for every model. I have a WRX Wagon.

 

to give the turbo time to warm up and get that lovely oil circulating

i have owned 2 scoobs (93 wrx ,96sti) and in 18 months of ownership the worst i have had to deal with is a broken speedo cable. as long as you run an import on optimax i dont think you need a remap imo

 

just don't thash it when the engines cold (i do <2/3000 revs) until the temp meter reaches normal + the last few minutes of my journeys i take slowly, preferably in a high gear, hence revs < 2000.

i then turn off the engine after i have unloaded everything <- my bird calls me a **** for doing this but i hear it helps, as for some reaon the electric fan goes off when you switch off the ignition, rather than staying on like "normal" cars.

be careful on motorways pulling into petrol stations too. i tend to drop down to 65/70mph when i know i'm pulling in for fuel soon and let it stand for a min or so before filling up to allow cooling

 

Tip for you - Make sure that you rag it from cold, i mean as soon as you jump into it, just welly the ******, should make sense when no3 bearing spins on the crank

js.

 

That's the coolant temp meter mate, unless you've had an oil temp meter installed as well, you won't know what temp the oil is! Engine oil takes significantly longer to get up to temp than coolant, as much as 10 miles!

Flogging a cold engine is a ticket to an early rebuild! Most engine wear occurs when the oil isn't up to temp.

Not letting a scooby cool down properly is also a big no, no. Turbos generate tremendous heat and the oil needs a chance to dissipate this heat before you switch off.

NS04

 

so what should i do differently? obviously i'm not going to stick another dial on, so->

how long do i need to wait before using the turbo, in miles or minutes

 

Yes, warming up properly applies to any performance car and is good practice for any car really. although I'd understand if you were less inclined to do it on a 1.1l Fiesta If you have a turbo car, then you should also let it cool down after a hard drive i.e. if the turbo has been active a lot in your journey. Personally, I always give mine a minute or so, longer if I've been enjoying myself or just off the motorway. May be overkill, but whats a few minutes of your time worth, especially when you think how long it takes to faff around with the radio, steering lock etc..

Benefits: saves you from early engine/turbo failure respectively. Good enough for ya?

 

Depends on a number of factors AFAIK: the ambient temp, type of driving conditions etc.... Maybe you should post in the technical section and se what the oil experts (e.g. Oilman) say.

Mine doesn't go above 3000rpm before 10 miles, it'll certainly be up to temp by then!

NS04

 

^^ good plan i'll do a post. 10 miles! thats ages!

 

I have had my 1996 uk car for over 3 years now,sitting at 89k.
Only probs i have had are-
A crankseal went, didnt leak badly but got replaced when timing belt was done.
Radiator needed replacing, was rotten along bottom, wasnt leaking though.
Power steering pump was replaced due to leak, common problem i think.
Lots of leaks!
I upgraded all the braking,suspension,exhaust so havent had any problems there.
I have used my car daily for a long time and have done 1/4 miles and a few track days. The car gets used as intended, driven pretty hard most of the time and it has never let me down, starts first time everytime. Overall i would say they are very reliable.

Col.

 

Appreciate the replies. There do seem to be mixed views about the import versus the UK spec ones. I will have to do some more reading up and see if I can increase the budget a little bit. I did toy with the idea of buying one for a couple of grand with an engine knock or similar associated fault and go for the Scoobyclinics 2.5 conversion but not sure if I can stretch to it.

 

Col,

You're not me are you?? Sounds like my scooby....

UK MY95, 224k miles with pretty much the same probems as you reported with the addition of a new water pump and clutch. I always to the warm up/cool down thing. When cooling down I generally wait until the fan switches off. I'm sure that's part of the reason why it's lasted so long