Friday 22nd July 2011

SOTW: Subaru Impreza Wagon

We've found an unmolested one...

---

The Subaru Impreza's descent into SOTW territory has been a sad thing to witness. Most of the time a car slides into sight of Shed's £1k budget in a graceful way. Normally, age and miles slowly push the subject motor's value, sometimes a reputation for high running costs or flaky reliability pushes it into Shed's clutches.

Sometimes, however, a car's credibility just gets thoroughly ripped to shreds by the too-often misguided attentions of the 'modifying' set. It's hard to say exactly when this happened with the Impreza, but at some point the car venerated by a generation of rally fans began to attract the attentions of the 'wrong sort of people'.

Nowadays, finding a cheap Impreza turbo that hasn't been made 'faster' by a big exhaust, nasty-looking alloys, stickers or bodykits of dubious quality is a tough ask. This week, however, we reckon we've managed it, alighting upon an entirely original Impreza Turbo wagon - the late first-generation facelift model, no less - nestling among the garish imports and alloyed-to-death nightmares, and up for sale for just £650.

These days, the plethora of super-fast hot hatches has rather overshadowed the Impreza's fast-yet-practical USP, but even back in 2000, when this car was registered, the Impreza's abilities were still pretty special.

It is at this point that we must admit that this Scooby's abilities may not be quite so special anymore, however. It has clocked up a chunky 160,000 miles, which is not too bad, but, to quote the vendor, the engine 'appears to have a knock'. Which is bad. Oh, and the rear brake discs and exhaust backbox are towards the end of their life. Which ain't too good, either.

But it is £650, it does have tax and MOT, and it's an unmolested Impreza. And they don't come along all that often...

Advert is reproduced below:

SUBARU IMPREZA TURBO 2000 W REG AWD ESTATE/WAGON (2000)
160,000 miles £650

THIS ADVERT IS FOR A SUBARU IMPREZA TURBO 2000CC W REG ALL WHEEL DRIVE ESTATE/WAGON.

IT IS FINISHED IN METALLIC GREEN.

16000 MILES.

HAS 11 STAMPS IN SERVICE BOOK. LAST KEEPER 2006 TO 2011. ALSO HAVE QUITE A BIT OF OTHER PAPERWORK/RECEIPTS.

TAXED UNTIL END OF SEPTEMBER 2011.

MOT UNTIL 3 OCTOBER 2011.

THE ENGINE APPEARS TO HAVE A KNOCK. HOWEVER, THE CAR STILL DRIVES AND PULLS WELL.

NO SMOKE.

NO OVER HEATING/MIXING.

OIL AND WATER LEVELS ARE FINE.

THE CAR WILL REQUIRE REAR BRAKE DISCS AND A BACKBOX IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

THE CAR WILL DRIVE AWAY AND WAS BEING USED REGULARLY UP UNTIL LAST WEEK.

THIS CAR IS CHEAP ENOUGH TO USE OR BREAK AS IT IS ONE OF THE CHEAPEST ABOUT.
THIS IS WHAT I WILL DO IF IT DOESNT SELL BUT SEEMS A SHAME AS ITS A GENUINE ENOUGH CAR

I AM BASED 2 MINUTES AWAY FROM JUNCTION 36 OFF THE M1.

[andymc]

£650? couple of hundred on maintenance and away you go

[KaraK]

Feck me.. For £650 if I had somewhere to park it I'd buy that tomorrow!

[TobesH]

I've had 2 of these back in the day; a year old P-reg one(£19k) in 1998 which I did 80k miles in and then a 2000 V-reg demo (£21k) which I ran for 50k miles. Now only £650. A bit depressing in a way T

[dlc74]

WOW! I've had 2 of these - identical 2000MY versions. I simply cannot believe the price! Six hundred and fifty quid!!!! I bought my first one for £14,000! Granted it might need some work but jeez, i'd buy it tomorrow if i could... And PERFECT in standard trim too.

What a gem of a find, top marks PH SOTW!!!

[MarJay]

andymc said:

£650? couple of hundred on maintenance and away you go

More like a couple of thousand. The knock is bound to be the big end bearings. The Scooby engines have a reputation for doing this at high mileages, and it requires a complete engine strip to fix.

Plus clutches can only last 50,000 miles, driveshafts wear and the suspension will need looking at too. The ARB drop links etc will need replacing. the Turbo will more than likely be worn and on its way out at that mileage too.

Good shed, but its a total money pit.

[hornetrider]

Engine fked, avoid. Shed - shame on you for putting a nail up for SOTW.

[rallycross]

Lets not fool ourselves - its only this price due to the engine knocking.

The problem is finding a good second hand engine for one of these is not easy, and is maybe £1000-£1500 for an old scrap engine.

Rebuilding the engine is expensive unless you are able to do it yourself, buying a recon engine is not cheap (ag API) or even just getting the cars own engine rebuild could cost £1,500 plus.

[MarJay]

Plus when you read in an Ad (in capitals) ENGINE APPEARS TO HAVE A KNOCK you can translate that as:

"BIG END SOUNDS LIKE ITS TRYING TO MAKE A BID FOR FREEDOM THROUGH THE CRANKCASE BY USING A PNEUMATIC DRILL AND TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS".

[trickywoo]

As above this isn't a shed its a nail.

Poor show PH.

[sklar]

You can get a working UK 2000 Turbo wagon for a bag of sand these days. I'd avoid this one.

[dbdb]

It is only a few turns of its wheels away from the scrap yard, this one.

[mattman]

Disapointing shed this week - this is last desperate bid to offload impending doom.
Shame as I love the look of an original imprezza

[AV12]

trickywoo said:

As above this isn't a shed its a nail.

Poor show PH.

Yep, I'm afraid he's right.

[Martin 480 Turbo]

Epic Shed fail.

Where is Garlick when one needs him.lol.

[Itsallicanafford]

...obviously on the way to the great Rally rep. car graveyard in the sky but i like...alot...would make a great drive-it-as-far-as-it-will-go-in-continetial-europe-and-when-it-breaks-fly-home, car.

[Dagnut]

Huge Subaru fan but that may as well be 3k, considering what it will cost to put right...shed fail

[Thorburn]

Have always been warned off Impreza WRX's with over 100k on the clock, certainly wouldn't touch one with bad noises coming from the engine!

[Truckosaurus]

...but if someone was looking out for base for a project that is going to involve a new engine anyway, this would be a good starting point.

Or, you were mechanically minded to rebuild the engine yourself.

[louismchuge]

Sounds like it's scrap to me!

[seawise]

to me that sounds like it's only good for breaking - poor shed.