O/T Buying a Subaru

[GregP]

I'm finally fed up with VW unreliability and I'm looking for something new to tow the Caterham that won't go wrong every five minutes.

 

I've seen an Impreza at my local garage. It's a 99V 2.0 sport 5dr with 60K miles for £4995. The car looks clean, has FSH and I'm sorely tempted. Does anyone have any experience of this model who could tell me any points to look out for and whether this is good value? Also, does anyone know what the service intervals should be, Parkers say 15K miles, What Car say only 7.5k

 

Thanks for your help

 

Greg

[V7 SLR]

Be warned that all non-turbo models are a little "light" on power. You really need to wind them up to get anything out of them. As a tow car, I'd say go for the 2.5 litre models, or bigger... probably not available in the Impreza range though.

 

The Legacy makes for a better "utility" car. The Estate is more practical and it can come with bigger engines, including the 3 litre flat 6 found in the Legacy Outback.

[infernored]

Just a point to note, have owned two imprezas now (both turbos) the last one i owned was a 98 bought (thankfully as it turned out) from a main dealer, just about 300 miles after its cambelt was changed it decided to throw a conrod whilst mrs infernored was driving, lunching the block to the tune of £4500, luckily subaru warranty picked up the tab and after the repairs we could get shot of the thing before it did it again. my point is that i thought this type of thing might be rare but after a little internet searching found out it isnt that uncommon. My advice would be to check out the potential purchase carefully.... oh and non-turbos are slow as hell.

Regards

Infernored

[infernored]

oh yes, and its turbos with 7.5k service intervals (since lengthened on newer models to 10k)

[V7 SLR]

Non-turbos also have a 7.5K service interval.

[Gridgway]

apart from a few (esp the modded ones), Subaru don't seem to have a prob with reliability. I would go for a turbo though as the non-turbo ones are pretty gutless. You may find that the turbo lag is not that good for towing though!

 

I think that means buy a turbo-diesel for towing!

 

Mind you my 2.3 galaxy tows fantastically and coz its a petrol and drinks a fair bit, it is almost completely worthless!

 

Graham

[Bare]

What's this 7.5 K service nonsense??

Sister has a Subaru dealership... a rather large/prosperous one actually... and she adamantly claims trhere are NO reliability issues withe things.

They are surpridingly Tough.. when not intentionally damaged by cretins.

Frankly though I won't be buying one, even with 'Family' pricing.. they are just too Damned ugly and the Interiors can only be described as Horrid.

However I'm also never going to Buy a VW product Again.. seemingly a common viewpoint given VW's current financial woes :-)

Perhaps a nice Mazda 3 with the 160 hp 2.3 Duratec Engine might be tempting?

[david nelson]

I had a 97 turbo and sold it for two main reasons.

 

1.runing costs 20-22mpg i think the non turbo will be about the same.

 

2. servicing is not cheep and as stated every 7.5k

 

I do not know where you livebut if you going to do a track day thats that a 200 mile round trip them thats 10gallens of petral.

 

I bought a skoda tdi (VW Group) and it seems realy good. The Fabia 1.9 has no problems towing the 7.

 

 

David

[GregP]

Thanks for all the responses, not as clear cut as I thought it might be and plenty of food for thought. I'd done a bit of research on the net that indicated these cars had no issues, just shows the value of Blatchat for real-world advice

 

Thanks again.

 

Greg

[Graham S]

My Dad had an Impreza Sport. I liked the character of the Sport (boxer engine, rally car feel etc.) however as posted earlier it was much too slow to justify being so damned thirsty. I was thinking of buying an Impreza Turbo recently, but common sense tells me I will get hacked off handing £20 notes over at the fore court every other day.

 

Having owned a golf tdi for a while I think turbo diesel may be the way forward. (fast and frugal!)

 

Edited by - sinky on 29 Mar 2005 09:43:07

[Top Hose]

I have a 2003 WRX and it tows the Caterham just fine. 10k servicing and 27mpg are on the low side, but then I didn't buy it for it's economy.

 

Exterior is ugly, interior is drab, radio is atrocious, and I seem to attract at least one idiot a week in his saxo/pug/fiesta/etc.

 

However it is a hoot to drive, and it doesn't fail to bring a smile to my face. When conditions are poor, it really does shine. Finally of course, you don't tend to get the posing bunch in them.

 

I would definitely have another one as it has proved completely reliable in over 40,000 miles.

[robmar]

new non turbo's are 12K turbos 10K

 

just got a new legacy, and everything about it has impressed me so far

 

especially cruising at 70 mph on the motorway when running in, as this returned 43 MPG *eek* this from the 2.5 4 door legacy

[jono]

That's very impressive! my new 2.5 estate (sorry, sports tourer!)now has 5.5k on it and the best I have ever managed with a very light foot is 33mpg on a run. Average so far hasn't exceeded 30mpg however engince still feels tight - when did yours feel run in? Anyway no complaints otherwise, the car is a lot of fun to drive and is just a bit different than the usual rep mobile, albeit lacks torque in the motorway.

[gmdh555]

At one time we owned an MY99 4 door Turbo and an MY99 5 door Sport, both in matching DBM 😳.

 

We bought the Sport when it was about a year old with about 20K on the clock. It certainly took some revving but I always felt it had many attributes in common with the Turbo - low weight, excellent handling/road holding - plus an added dose of practicality (went onto a 5 door WRX after that). Slow by Turbo standards but still 130bhp in a lightweight, chuckable package. And we used it to tow my brother-in-law's Cavalier, trailer and boat out of the Solent, up a wet slipway ❗ ❗.

 

Gareth

 

Yellow and black 1.8 VX, pics here

 

[robmar]

Jono - just had its 1000 miler last week, the 43 mpg is with the cruise on, not sure if that makes a difference

 

around town and the work run it is nearer 33mpg

 

I suspect now that it is 'run in' I won't be going near any of those figures 😬

 

rob

 

 

[jono]

That still staggers me. I can only assume it's cos mine is an estate but would not have imagined it would have made that much difference. Around town is 29.5, never more, never less.

 

Incidentally you will notice a big improvement in the engice between 1k and 5-6k. I read somewhere that these engines only start to produce the quoted power after about 10k miles. Anyway who cares, since I picked up the 1.4 s spt 😬 the Scooby is relegated to more mundane duties!