Brownbread

Hi all, looking to maybe go from my current car, a Civic TypeR (a standard 53 plate bar a SS centre section in the exhaust.) to an Impreza. Was thinking of a STI in the £5000 to £7000 price range.

What sort of year, mileage would I be looking at and any advice for a newbie to Impreza's would be greatly appreciated. Like what STI variants are good and not so good, also are running costs as high as I have heard for a day to day driver with the odd "fun" day thrown in.

Oh and I have heard that the engines can be prone to go pop at the 60,000'ish mark, is this rubbish or is that something else I need to take into consideration?

Thanks in advance for your answers

a_fisher

It's like any other car, if its been treated badly it will go pop. Unfortunately Imprezas do tend to get abused a lot.

There are plenty of people on here with cars still running strong at over 100K+

If you buy from a forum member you tend to be buying from an enthusiast (i.e. well looked after)

Deano_P1

If you are worried about the engine going pop then it may be worth looking for one which has had the engine rebuilt.

For £5000 - £7000 you are looking at a classic shape impreza probably around 1998-2000 with lowish mileage.

I paid 7000 for my MY00 classic with 50,000 miles on the clock but it was immaculate and had the engine rebuild along with new clutch etc

Good luck

Fantom

I'd stick with the type r if I was you!!

Or are you having both?

Neilg7777

iTrader: (9)

I WOULD STICK WITH THE TYPE R LOOKS LIKE IMPREZA'S ARE HAS BEEN CARS

pslewis_junior

You won`t want to be associated with the impreza brand once the new one hits the streets, the new one will be known as no more than a pensioners shopping trolley and we will all get branded with the same tag.

Sonic'

But your dads *is* his shopping trolley

Do they have car parks at Lidl, most people who shop there cant afford cars

uksouljahz

Im assuming 'thinking' means you haven't driven one?
Because when you have there will be no thinking involved you will want one!
As far as fuel consumption goes it depends on your driving..
As an example out of mine I get about 300miles per tank motorway and between 170ish to 210 B road blasting with a heavy right foot and lots of gear changes. There's a risk in buying any used car but you can tell a lot about a car from its owner and how much history, invoices and receipts come with it. There's a lot of people who will advertise cars saying fsh, no faults, cambelt done etc etc and then when you get there its "oh its almost full service history" "i've lost some receipts moving house" "the documents are at my dads house, i'll post them on in a couple of weeks when he gets back from holiday" etc etc etc. One of the things I look at as a starting point (which some people will probably disagree with and is mainly applicable to private sales as dealers chuck on budgets to shift cars) is what tyres are on the car. If it has premium tyres on it the owner is more likely to be wary of the handling being affected so psychologically it says other things are kept in mind where as budget tyres (in my experience) usually mean neglected oil changes, worn brakes and pretty much everything else maintenence wise. Also although sometimes difficult to document as some people do it themselves is history of oil and filter changes. Some people dont realise how much damage keeping old thick lumpy black oil in can cause damage.
I agree with A Fisher, i've bought three Impreza's from Scoobynet members and would advise you to do the same. Hope that's of some use.

bushiwarrior

make the move mate i did. I had a 2007 premier nhb type r for a year the change to a 2007 wrx the best move ever and no more worring about wet corners in the type r.

The Zohan

Hi and welcome to SN

Habing had several hondas 1.6 & 1.8 VTI civics what i would say is that the scobb engines are just not a stong or likely to last as long, even if well treated, having said that ther are cars with 140k without much if any work done to them except for servicing.

The build quality is not far off of Honda but not as good.

However, i do not feel you should buy a scoob based on how well the interior is screwed together, this is not what they are about.

Drive a couple of scoobs to see if it is what you want, it is different to driving a performance fwd bit once used to it great fun.

[Davey]

Only because most of the imports have been clocked so 60k actually equals more like 120k..

For 5000-7000k You'll be most likely getting a classic shape STi.. Arguably the best performers but seriously lacking in the mod-cons department unlike its younger siblings

[Davey]

Thats flawed logic.. You get alot of people who never ever 'rag' their Impreza so they will fit cheapo tyres as they have no requirement for performance tyres, they also have the car serviced regularly so in restrospect budget tyres could be the sign of a good car.. Personally if the car has got super sticky el-expensivo tyres I'd be more inclined to think its been given death down a few too many B roads

EddScott

Think uksouljahz wasn't too happy with the budget tyres on my car when he bought it lol (Heard you've been enjoying yourself James!)

However, they were on mine for 12 months and I managed to stay out of the scenery. More telling on the tyres is if the outside edge looks "scrubbed" - shows either a fast road geometry setup and/or high cornering speeds.

OP - 5K to 7K is either going to get you a nice UK MY99/00 or a nice STI4.

You'll find STI Type Rs at this price but they'll be older ones and perhaps not good ones.

Impreza engines will last if you look after them. STIs can tend to blow up but thats usually down to abuse/poor fueling. Most of the failures on all JDM imports are fuel related. If I were looking for a classic STI, I'd want one mapped and I'd want to know how long the car was in the UK before it was mapped.

Lost of history is a must and a good service record - particularly by those that know Subarus.

Some have said keep the civic but personally I can't bear having to rag the crap out of an engine to get the most out of it - irrespective of whether it can take it. Give me a scoob anyday

amazingjames

fao uksouljahz looking at the tyres is an absoloute cracking idea and i will remember that now for the rest of my days.. good bloody idea andd your so right. if you see a set of budget tyres then the owner has clearly not lavished the car and spent out if he cann get away with not spending.. once again bloody good idea that mate..

EddScott

You sir, can have one of these

If the car is fitted with 4 different makes of tyre, then I would agree that its likely the car hasn't been well looked after.

I had budgets on mine because my car was (or had) due a major service including the belt. I'd been trying to get 18" Inovit ST IVs in white for months after they sold out in the UK.

I didn't want to miss out on a set after waiting so long and wasn't prepared to bung the wheels on a card. I went for the budgets with the idea of changing them for Toyos later on. As it was, they did the job. Even with the Wilwoods fitted, the ABS only came on once in 12 months - and that was more to see if it worked.

Budgets wouldn't be a deal breaker as long as the rest of the car stood up.