darrens_here

Ok, seen the car ('04 wrx) , booked up the test drive, have monies and insurance at hand waiting........ spoken to a few of you about many things.....

BUT.........

How much of a pig are these things to live with day in day out, over and above a normal car, what things should I consider, ie petrol, services, (cleaning obviously!! lol) tyres etc...

Just looking for some general info on running the thing....

thanks
Darren

terzo204

No more difficult than any other car IMHO.

Only comment I might make relates to the pretol consumption. Which is soo forgotten when you first beat that chav in his escort from the lights!

Airwolf69

When I got my first scoobie, the first set of tyres (brand new) did not last very long at all. This was mainly due to the unbelievable handling and grip. Once I stopped seeing how fast it would go round a roundabout, etc, the next set lasted 10,000 miles.

In the 7 years I owned the first one, all it had was a set of wheel bearings, an air sensor and a bolt in the gearbox tighten.

As for petrol consumption.......

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Only day to day issues i've found is the parking dents (very soft door skins) and the stone chips as you only need look at the paint to damage it.

mpg isn't the best but not a disaster and apart from that it is great in all weathers, rapid and comfy.

5t.

darrens_here

lol, I have a 636 ninja motor bike, tyres barely last over 5000k, and its pretty remarkable how the fuel consumption varies when Im "out for a sunday ride" with the girlfriend, or blating my way around essex with my mates,,,,, can sometimes half the mpg !!! - so in a way i dont mind..... I guess its miles for smiles owning a car like this......


so whats the general rule for filling up (other than regulary!! lol) , what petrol shoudl I use?

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

I have a zx6r too. i'm lucky to get 4000 from them and the set of diablos i had managed to go through front and rear in just 3000!!!

super unleaded only for your scooby

5t.

darrens_here

during the summer I use the bike a lot for commuting, so the middle tends to get worn out... I have Metzler M3'a (?) on it now, the rear was just changed and had just over 5k on it, the fornt was fine.. problem is just realsied I can do burn outs (albeit feable ones!!) lol so no doubt will wear out quicker !! the bike is awesome, was thinking of chopping it in and buying a new one, but no point, as I will never be as good a sit,,, so opting for a new car instead tee hee..... an need something to keep me excited during the winter months.. what model do you have FT, mines a B2H, in blue - very sexy !!

super unleaded only...... maybe I should atke out another mortgage !! lol



Im going to look at the car saturday, in terms of remaps etc etc, i there any way of knowing if its had an upgrade, or remapped to take different fuel (??).

WRX Blues

I have a 120 mile a day commute and find the WRX (with PPP) very easy to live with. Whilst missing the outrageous performance of the last scoob I owned (JDM STi twin-scroll with map) the WRX is comfortable, quick enough if I do get engaged in 'light' wars and fairly cheap to keep on the road.
The only real problem I have is that my two mates own Carrera 4S's

darrens_here

lol, guess your fooked there then !!

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

TBH i had to have metzler's on for my reecent trip to the nurburgring and despite 2500 miles in a week and a lot of autobahn, not to mention Dover to Scotland on the A1 they are still quite rounded so seem to last very well!

Want Bridgestone 014's though!

5t.

darrens_here

ive only ever had Metz's, and not had a problem (touch wood) ... that said had a bit of a hairy moment coming out of the cicane at a TD at Silverstone onto the straight, but that was probably my wrist, and NOT the tyre.......... brown pants moment though !!!!!

anyways, enough about bikes.its the winter.minespacked away and Im missing it.......... back to the car..........

so super unleaded, whats all the info about Shell, or BP, what about tescos superunldeded etc... whats the feelings out there?

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Tesco, Optimax, Esso and finally BP ultimate for me. Car really doesn't seem to like BP!!

Seriously great day to day car if you have a few miles to cover quickly and safely and you'll feel really good when the weather gets bad with the AWD!!

5t.

Mark'sWRX

Just to confirm what everyone else is saying: The WRX is a easy car to live with everyday. I do a fairly lengthy daily commute and love it.

My first set of tyres lasted 20K and only changed them when I had a puncture (could have got at least another 5K from them.)

Servicing is not expensive if you find a good specialist and obviously reliability is as good as it gets for a performance car.

Petrol is the only real worry (yes, Shell V-Power or Tesco 99 preferred), but any car with 200+ bhp drinks the stuff. Even Focus STs do less than 30mpg.

As for mods, its usually hard to tell if its been mapped, but the first thing most people do is change the exhaust. The std on an '04 is a dead quiet twin pipe (I would change this straight away), so have a look underneath to see how much is original. You may prefer to buy one that's not been messed with yet.

darrens_here

Going to test drive the car on saturday, obvioulsy intend to have a good look around it, before swapping my hard earned...............

Anything in particular I should be looking for?
- Anything funny on these cars with the VIN plate,
- Any recalls that shoudl have been done?
- Anything that typially goes wrong woth them I can look for etc etc?

+ any more advice !!! lol

Darren

ps - Its a 2004, WRX

kgt

iTrader: (1)

I drove loads of cars when looking to change last time, Golf GTis, BM's, Cupra's, Focus ST's etc, but once I drove the Scoob I was hooked.
I usually change my car every 12-18 months, but Ive had my 04 WRX for over 2 yrs now and Ive got no intention of looking at anything else, in fact I'm just going to spend a bit more money on it from time to time.
I was worried about every day use, sitting in traffic, town centre 10-25mph stuff, but its a breeze. My girlfriends Golf Turbo was a mare, as the turbo seemed to kick in so early you just lurched through jams, the Scoob can be driven very sedately if you need to and its smooth. (just rare)
Services are reasonable, general consumables seem ok, tyres not much more than your average mid to higher range vehicles. I agree with the comments on paint, but I'm not sure what you can do about that. My previous beemer chipped up pretty easy IIRC.
Ive changed the centre pipe, back box and panel filter on mine and the sound / response is very nice. (Strangely I'm getting about 30miles more out of every tank of v-power ). I can get about 30mpg if I challenge myslef but its rare coz you get hooked on the feel of the car as you "give it some" so I probably average 26-28.

I think its a great all rounder and I dont think much else compares on a pounds spent for performance ratio. I think you might rather like it.

darrens_here

Thanks all, much appreciated........

one more thing (I know I know there will be others !!!0

Servicing - The garage tell me it has full service history. It has 16000 miles currently, from new, what would the services have been?

Darren

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

1000 and 10,000 ask if they can do the 20,000 early to sweeten the deal. you'll cover the miles in no time 'testing out the new car' !!

5t.

bluenosewrx

iTrader: (2)

If its a UK car every 10,000, or if its a EU(UK Spec) Import its every 7,500.

If its a EU import the first stamp will be from a foreign garage ,ie Cyprus,belgium.
Its the same car from the same factory though, you can also tell as it wont have locking wheel nuts or a subaru Alarm.this is not to scare you, they are the same cars, i had a EU import before the 350 and the Spec C, got 17k from the rear tyres,had to get the front ones changed because i wore them down due to the camber being wrong on the front.

Local dealer done the servicing, very reasonable as well,no more expensive than any other cars i have owned.

Mac