I’m on the lookout for a new new car having sold my golf gtd, I want something fast, ideally 5 doors, large enough for a couple of bikes with front wheel off, and less than 3k…I’ve found an 06 impreza wrx wagon, 90-odd k miles, previously a bodywork cat C but repaired, very little service history but recent receipt for timing belt, MOT history is very good…is it likely to be a a massive money pit? Logic suggests it would be, but i’ve wanted one for about 15 years…

Just do what everyone else does and steal one?

Take a look at some Japanese imports if you fancy that sort of thing.

Typically in great condition for their age, just make sure you get them under-sealed.

Any WRX for £3k is going to be very tired

very little service history but recent receipt for timing belt, MOT history is very good

An MOT test doesn’t test how shagged a car is, just that it is road worthy.

Very fast cars that can go round corners at very high speed.  But the novelty of fast soon wears off, and the fact that they have so much grip in corners means that they are actually I bit dull in the corners too.

Just buy a 2.0d Mondeo it will be more fun to drive than your Golf anyhow.

An impreza wrx isn’t daft, but one without much history maybe is…

They’re really well made and really tough, I think the belt is the only real ‘big ticket’ job they need, unless you start going mad with the boost, but even then you can usually get away with the normal sort of remap job without it shitting gearboxes and turbos.

Of course it’s a 12 year old car generally owned by people who like to drive hard, at least some of the time so it might have been cared for by someone who loved it like their first born, or hammered up and down the back lanes by a hooligan, they do appeal to dickheads (and non-dickheads alike of course) so buyer beware.

Are the 2006 ones the ‘Hawkeye’ ones? Anyway, they’re the best looking IMHO.

Bear in mind they drink fuel, and if you get one registered after March 2006 it’ll cost you £540 a year to tax.

In short, yes, it’s daft.

It’s an Impreza WRX so the chances are it’s been ragged for a large part of those 90k miles, also MOT’s just prove it was roadworthy at a point in time. They are by no means comprehensive and I wouldn’t use that as proof that it’s any good – I bought a camper a few years back, it was a good deal without an MOT but the bloke got one done for reasons only known to himself …. I think it was MOT’d by post as it should’ve failed about 20 years before hand!

Back to your situation, little service history suggests it’s been lost (optomistic), or it’s been done either at home or on the cheap and unless the previous owner is a mechanic I’d suggest this wouldn’t be the best form of maintenance.

On the flip side if you’ve some spare cash and want to scratch an itch then go for it, worst case scenario is it turns out to be a dog and you get rid, you’d get a fair bit of that £3k back stripping it for parts.

Great cars, I’ve had two. Petrol is not awful – I used to be able to drive from Cambridge to Carlisle on a tank full. How much got used once in Scotland where there are no laws is another matter… 😇

Both were absolutely faultless, even under my hamfisted control.

Rachel

If you want one, pay £2-3k more and get a good one.

Have you ever actually driven a Scooby? You might be disappointed to find your outgoing Golf GTD was a far better car all round…

If it’s a 2.5 they can do head gaskets due to the liner walls being thinner – and you have to have both heads done really – cost £1200 to have mine done.  Tax £500+ and petrol will be circa 25mpg from recollection.

I really enjoyed mine though put 125k miles on it from new.

if you go for it I still have the original tailpipe in the garage unused (had a prodrive ppp fitted from new)

Was speaking to someone who has one recently, told me how he’d properly hammered it round the track and it had been flashing warning lights, brake calipers sticking etc since. Mentioned I’d always wanted one, oh, how about mine? It’s for sale… Telling me about the hammering at the track session first maybe wasn’t the best idea!

There’s a thread on Pistonheads, Readers Cars about someone who bought one from Scotland – it doesn’t make happy reading!

I scratched the itch with a Forester with the 2.5 turbo engine. It was superb in the right conditions at the right time on the right road but day in, day out commuting 30 miles of motorway it got boring very quickly. Actually think there were only two drives in it that I really enjoyed, one was on in wintry conditions that meant there was a chance of it doing something unpredictable, it was seriously (boringly maybe) competent. I’d have one again now with a 16 mile back road commute.

Going into it with your eyes open and doing a proper inspection there’s no reason why you can’t get a good one.

Golf gtd a better car 😂😂😂, perhaps if you want to nod of behind the wheel.

I regrettably sold my wrx 300 with full ppp 5 years ago, it was a 55 plate, on 80k miles, I got 3500 quid for it, if I was to sell it today I could probably get 4500 quid for it, they are quickly becoming sought after and good ones will be a future classic as most have been ditch finders at some point in their life.

I’m pretty in the know with them as I ran two for 8 years as our family car.

As above if Hawkeye model with the 2.5l engine be wary.

Whomever purchased mine bought it as an investment/weekend car as it’s only done 10k miles in the last 5 years.

Great fun to drive, will return 30 mpg without a heavy right foot and will give you miles of smiles on the twisty stiff if you’re brave, they quickly run out of grip if you lift….

I wouldn’t have the Impreza as it has a certain stigma attached to it and to be fair lacking in room and practicality  ..This however would make a much better bike carrier  .. just go balls deeps and empty that wallet  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2005-JDM-SUBARU-LEGACY-GT-WR-LTD-2-0L-BP5-TWINSCROLL-TURBO-ESTATE-AUTO-260-BHP/153118667204?_trkparms=aid%3D888007%26algo%3DDISC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D53343%26meid%3De48cfa28481a44df93735bf913a77e01%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D2%26sd%3D173471884545%26itm%3D153118667204&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

It was only really the high end P1 / STI 300bhp ones that were really fast, the “normal” ones aren’t worth the cost in fuel and maitenance IMO

Thanks for the all the info, some good points…I’m not worried about petrol, recently changed jobs from a 50 mile a day commute to 7, hence selling the GTD while it had some value, and before diesels become illegal and it becomes impossible to shift…not really looking to spend more than 3k as it seems pointless for so few miles…my head is saying it must be a sh*ter, but I really fancy something quite obnoxious, and this seems to tick the box, current owner is a mechanic who did the timing belt, doesn’t of course tell the story of the previous 90000 miles though!!

Hawkeye 2.0 litre by the way

How screwed would you be if it all goes wrong?

A 3k scoobie is probably more likely to go pop than a 3k diesel golf.

I would just do it, if you dont like it sell it on, if it goes pop, shit happens and you have lost some money. If its fine it will be a bit of fun and you would have sratched that itch.

I know if I got one I would immediately start modding it though, STI turbo, injectors, intercooler, fuel pump etc, and you can quickly end up plowing a lot of money in!

How rusty are Subarus? Coming from VAG stuff Japanese cars seem to rust like crazy to me!

I’d buy that if it’s the 2.0 and owned by a mechanic – surely a mechanic knows how to maintain it properly…

… or when to get rid :-)…

But the novelty of fast soon wears off, and the fact that they have so much grip in corners means that they are actually I bit dull in the corners too.

Just buy a 2.0d Mondeo it will be more fun to drive than your Golf anyhow.

Wrong on both accounts.

Get it bought. You’ll love it. Neither the standard P1 or sti were running at 300 brake just for clarification. 😉.

If that’s a standard wrx it was originally 220 ish brake.

If its that cheap things will go wrong with it. But things go wrong with a car costing twice as much. Factor in a couple of grand over a few years for fixing it and you will have a great car.

Never driven a wrx but considered buying one a few years ago. Didn’t need any bike carrying space as also have an estate, so ended up buying a Boxter instead. Fast cars are huge fun, regardless of what folk with mondeos and 1.6 ltr golfs will tell you.

On corrosion I seem to remember the front sub frame can be prone to it – but it can be dropped out in a ‘relatively’ short time, blasted and powder coated.  From recollection it is primarily a safety feature (to stop the engine ending up in the drivers lap in event of a head on), and does not add any structural integrity – I seem to remember some forum posts suggesting leaving it off completely to save the 20 or so kilos of weight and thus make the driver even more attractive to teenage girls 😂

“I’d suggest this wouldn’t be the best form of maintenance.”

I’d suggest that the man that buys a mechanics car is a fool. In much the same that you don’t buy a builders house etc.

Often The last car to get worked on is the mechanics car.

Went to have a look this evening, it looks pretty sound to be fair, new springs and brakes on the front too, I’m liking the ‘get it bought argument’…plus the mechanic is a Subaru enthusiast, has just upgraded to an STI Hatch, that was pretty trick

I had a WRX Sportwagon and to say it wasn’t very quick is rubbish.

It might have only had 220ish bhp but it was so much quicker than my wife’s Civic Type R.

Bundles of fun all round really.

Good points (for mine) : felt really quick and the turbo makes a lovely noise.

Pretty comfy on a long journey.

Lots of fun.

Mine was very reliable and I didn’t spend any money on it while I had it.

Bad points : low 20’s if you have a heavy foot.

Really not that roomy inside. My Skoda Octavia had bags more room.

Plasticky interior.

I’d buy one again in a heartbeat. Great cars.

The interior gets me..

What about a Volvo v70 5 pot turbo?

Quick enough but also very comfy and good boot space … Doesn’t have the handling capability obviously or the outright speed but it’s a better overall package, and less likely to have had the life ragged out of it by a previous owner..

Another vote for a legacy instead. I have the 3.0 spec B and I got it for just over 3.5k 3 years ago. Fast, spacious and interior is much better than wrx. No problems mechanically. Similar thirst for fuel tho.

Had 2 over the last 12 years, 04 Blob saloon for 5, then up until Feb an 07 Hawk STI. Really liked them both but in all honesty think they have had their day. You can’t put your foot down anymore and at that age things will start going wrong. I was paying £48 A MONTH for the road tax and I only work 1.8 miles away! The interior looked very dated too, the STI had a cd/tape combo, lol.

If you’ve wanted one for years then maybe you should scratch that itch but I wouldn’t get a Cat C one, that suggests poorly looked after. Spend more to spend less in the long run. Plus you’ll probably get it back when you sell, I bought mine for £13/14k and the dealer I sold it to put it back up for £12k 7 years later!

Just to add, mechanically I had no issues with either the WRX or Hawk STI (2.5l) other than wear and tear stuff. Both had done under 60k when I got rid though so were low mileage.

Mileage, if I got 240 for a tank I thought I’d done very well. I’m not a prat behind the wheel either.

As I recently found out…

I’d get one now as a toy, but not as an everyday car. I’ve had a fair few fast cars, the amount of spanners in WRX’s that would pull up at the lights next to me over revving was endless. (I had a 5 litre TVR which seemed like a magnet to Scooby drivers) I think the stigma of owning one has died and they are seen as being good fast cars.

if you can afford the inevitable repair bills then go for it….says the middle aged man loving his Citroen Berlingo van!! It’s pure freedom!

Bit off-topic but I used to work with an IT geek who had a ‘tuned’ ‘Preza that he would drive 18 miles each way to a specific brand garage with premium, as it would not run on any other brand. 🤣

Nice chap, just a bit odd. 🙂

Pondo that wasn’t a lad called Simon was it?

Are you going to pay somebody to fix it or fix it yourself?

I have had old cheap fast cars, but could fix everything myself (welding/painting/clutch/engine rebuilds etc) the same car would have been financially crippling if paying somebody else to repair.

Cat C/D cars a pain to sell, but can be good buys if you dont care.

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Another vote for a legacy instead. I have the 3.0 spec B and I got it for just over 3.5k 3 years ago. Fast, spacious and interior is much better than wrx. No problems mechanically. Similar thirst for fuel tho.

I realyl wanted one of those, then I discovered that the import GTB is cheaper to tax, pretty similar on fuel and for me at least cheaper to insure, and goes choo choo

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I ran a hawkeye wagon for 8 years without any issue.  Great cars, fast, amazing grip, spectacular in the snow!

They do run pretty small though, having said that you can easily throw a couple of bikes in the back with the wheels off.  Although not officially rated for a towbar, the chasis is the same as the standard car, I fitted a removable witter so I could throw a bike rack on the back.  Don’t put 3 DH bikes on the back, load the car with 3 guys and a weekend worth of kit though…  Arches will rub!

I maintained mine myself apart from the cam belt change, easy for a competent DIYer.  Mine ate brakes, but otherwise nothing to mention.  Oil and filters changed every year and nothing else required.

Tax is the killer, at £500 is was getting on for 10% of the car value every year.  Fuel not too bad unless hammering around on B roads.  Insurance OK for what it is.

Great cars, buy it!

Although a legacy would be similar and comfier!

We had a completely standard 03 plate for 13 years until it was written off by a young man who’d had his licence for 6 days (yes, I am still upset about that). Things that went wrong with it – absolutely nothing ! Winter season in the french alps with winter wheels – no problems.

It made me smile every time I drove it and we’d likely still be driving it but for the accursed young man…..

BUT

we replaced it with a 05 PPP version and that was loud, sounded great for 10 mins and a banging headache after 60mins. A seal on a gasket went 5 days before driving to France. It was OK but after the first one it was a disappointment and we chopped it in after 18 months and I was glad to see the back of it

Here you go. Auction 25 August

https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic/saturday-25th-august-2018/2000-subaru-impreza-p1/

https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic/saturday-25th-august-2018/2003-subaru-impreza-wrx-turbo/

Have to say I always fancied one, but probably best (for society) that I don’t get one as I used to drive like a complete nutter…

Literally just picked up my Legacy GTB yesterday. £250 tax, 260 horses, LPG conversion, doesn’t sound like it’s got a bin for an exhaust. Not sure I like the auto box yet but other’n that I’m liking it a lot (it takes a moment to get its shit together when you stomp the accelerator, but then it just sort of takes a breath and zoooooooooms.)