RE: SOTW: Subaru Impreza Turbo

[M@H]

Super car

I have had two of these (both turbos) and they were both excellent and both did a steady 28mpg.

[TEKNOPUG]

bicycleshorts said:

My MX5 only used to get 25mpg for 130bhp!

Both cars need a long 6th gear for motorways, but then again, neither was built for motorway cruising

Sub 20mpg on the motorway? Seriously? Are you driving in 3rd?

I know that some of the Mitsi Evos (RS) had silly short gearing, but a WRX Wagon returning figures of a V12 Jag? Why would anyone buy them? Was the OP's broken?

[GravelBen]

TEKNOPUG said:

That’s comically dreadful for only 260bhp

And also not really representative, most will do 30mpg on a run easily enough. Though remember this is a nearly 20 year old design we're talking about now, with an engine that dates back to the late 80s.

Edited by GravelBen on Friday 10th February 12:28

[danwhite]

I cant be bothered to figure out the MPG but my99 turbo does 340+miles to a tank if you are on a long run doing the speed limits, but they were not built to win the MPG race .

Edited by danwhite on Friday 10th February 12:30

[bicycleshorts]

TEKNOPUG said:

Sub 20mpg on the motorway? Seriously? Are you driving in 3rd?

As I said, it depends what speed you cruise at.

It'll probably happily do 28mpg if you are at 60mph gps, which is close enough to 70mph indicated on most speedos. Most people, at least from my experience, drive at around this on motorways.

I was doing more than that by GPS. On boost, pulling about 4000 rpm. Hence more fuel was used

Why would anyone buy one?
- They cost a grand
- There's no depreciation (a good example might even gain money)
- Road tax is cheap as they're pre 2001
- If the work's been done, they're mechanically very good
- They have over 200bhp/tonne

It's very hard to go quicker for less, fuel consumption is a small part of owning a car. Especially a car which will probably be used more for hooning than a daily driver.

As an example, I have a friend with a 330D, he goes on and on about 40mpg. How much did it cost him for a set of tyres? Near enough £1000. Yes, very economical!

[kayzee]

rtz62 said:

And servicing isnt costly at specialists either!

I could only afford to run an Impreza for a year, but the service @ Extreme Scoobies cost me £495! Painful.

[TobesH]

Motorrad said:

TobesH said:

Terrible seats and plastic steering wheel. They all came over with no air-con or leather. The air-con was fitted by the dealer and the leather re trim done by a UK trimming company!!! The chalk marks were still visible in places around the stitching!

I liked the crappy steering wheel, reminded me of the cars poverty spec roots. Didn't know that about the leather and a/c on the pre 98 cars though- wonder why they used such nasty leather if they re-trimmed it themselves!

Regarding MPG my car with the larger TD05, scoobyecu (anyone remember them- homebrew chip for 50 quid from some bloke on SIDC) would do high twenties on a motorway run if I sat at 70.

The leather and air-con where dealer fit options, £1500 for air-con and £ 2000 for leather if I remember. P808 ERX was £19,000 and the fitted the air-con for £1,000, the leather was already done.

[TobesH]

RichTBiscuit said:

TobesH said:

Had a bright red saloon in 1997! Did 80k miles in it over 2 years and it was fantastic. Terrible seats and plastic steering wheel. They all came over with no air-con or leather. The air-con was fitted by the dealer and the leather re trim done by a UK trimming company!!! The chalk marks were still visible in places around the stitching!

A little trick was to rev to 4000rpm, clutch down in first, then side slide you foot of the clutch for severe 0-30 times! I killed the clutch by 50k miles!

P808 ERX - where are you now?

Still alive - aparently taxed until april according to DVLA

Bless

[TobesH]

TobesH said:

RichTBiscuit said:

TobesH said:

Had a bright red saloon in 1997! Did 80k miles in it over 2 years and it was fantastic. Terrible seats and plastic steering wheel. They all came over with no air-con or leather. The air-con was fitted by the dealer and the leather re trim done by a UK trimming company!!! The chalk marks were still visible in places around the stitching!

A little trick was to rev to 4000rpm, clutch down in first, then side slide you foot of the clutch for severe 0-30 times! I killed the clutch by 50k miles!

P808 ERX - where are you now?

Still alive - aparently taxed until april according to DVLA

Bless

Probably got less miles on it now than when I had it

[JM]

That's a nice looking shed.

Pretty much un-molested, much like mine.

[Motorrad]

I think we can put the fuel consumption comments on here into two categories-

People who owned these cars (ie a UK spec Turbo 2000) when they were working properly and got high twenties on a run and mid to low twenties in mixed driving.


People who ragged the crap out of japanese imports which potentially have vastly different gearing, mapping and levels of tune.

A Turbo 2000 working properly will return reasonable MPG given 'normal' driving. Saying they are ultra thirsty for the level of performance on offer is IMHO total bks.

[bicycleshorts]

Can we add an extra category for people who didn't bother reading any of the posts properly?

Motorrad said:

People who ragged the crap out of japanese imports which potentially have vastly different gearing, mapping and levels of tune.

This can apply to UK cars as well. Perhaps even more so since they cost less to insure.

ETA: I also wouldn't call 4000rpm 'ragging the crap out of' a car.

Edited by bicycleshorts on Friday 10th February 13:22

[dfh81]

Here's my real life MPG for my import WRX Type RA Classic:

Fuel Cost 141 pence/Litre
Total Spend 30 pounds
Distance 125 miles


Your real-world MPG average is 26.71, covering 125 miles using 4.68 gallons of fuel.

[Husaberk]

bicycleshorts said:

As I said, it depends what speed you cruise at.

It'll probably happily do 28mpg if you are at 60mph gps, which is close enough to 70mph indicated on most speedos. Most people, at least from my experience, drive at around this on motorways.

I was doing more than that by GPS. On boost, pulling about 4000 rpm. Hence more fuel was used

Why would anyone buy one?
- They cost a grand
- There's no depreciation (a good example might even gain money)
- Road tax is cheap as they're pre 2001
- If the work's been done, they're mechanically very good
- They have over 200bhp/tonne

It's very hard to go quicker for less, fuel consumption is a small part of owning a car. Especially a car which will probably be used more for hooning than a daily driver.

As an example, I have a friend with a 330D, he goes on and on about 40mpg. How much did it cost him for a set of tyres? Near enough £1000. Yes, very economical!

To add to this:
- Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest driver's car ever.(Note. ONE OF not THE before anybody gets too excited)
- It makes one of the most evocative noises there is, some are way too loud but if you deep down just don't like it at any volume I'd have question what you're doing on this website.
- Interior, quite a few princesses moaning on here suggesting it's nasty. It's merely functional, you getting a lot of other good stuff for your cash, which is only £1000. Again are you sure you're on the right site if soft touch plastics are more important to you than how a car drives?
Servicing - More expensive than Ford/Vauxhall cheaper than BMW/Audi/Merc, do your research on specialists/parts suppliers and it gets even cheaper.

[itiejim]

I bought one of these to cope with the winter snow we were all expecting in October... I have to say it's been a brilliant car, quick, safe, agile and utterly reliable. I've serviced it and put a tyre on due to a puncture, other than that I've just turned the key. On mixed use I 've got about 28 mpg and over one tank achieved 34, though I was wearing my halo that week

It'll be up for sale at the end of the month of anyone wants a good one in McRae blue.

[bicycleshorts]

dfh81 said:

Your real-world MPG average is 26.71, covering 125 miles using 4.68 gallons of fuel.

Not bad, what speed were you at?

Best I've got was 25mpg, but that was on the single carriagway A1 between Alnwick and Edinburgh which meant quite a few lower gear overtakes. I love the way the car can get past a with a 5 car queue stuck behind a lorry

Nice to see you're using V-power as well! (Either that or a very expensive petrol station )

ETA: To clarify my earlier 17mpg between 70-80mph:
3 people in the car. 120 mile run, including about 20 miles of town driving. Motorway driving at a steady 77mph GPS (not speedo indicated!) returned around 17mpg. Can't remember the exact RPM but it was on boost, probably around 4000rpm. This was fairly extreme, you'll get a lot more miles per gallon by dropping down to 60-65mph (70 indicated on most cars).

Edited by bicycleshorts on Friday 10th February 13:34

[dfh81]

I use it daily on A roads and mostly B roads to work, so average speed would be around 60 with a bit of overtaking thrown in!

I pretty much get around the 125 miles marker for a £30 fill constantly. I always reset the trip to keep an eye on it's return.

[wal 45]

Never had a car that actually drove so much better on super unleaded along with better mpg. Quick reset of the ECU and top up, felt a different car to when on the normal stuff.

Used to get no more than 300 miles from a tank back in the day on mixed roads.

[Mavican]

I'd sell my diesel Focus for that. Cracking shed. Although don't think the missus would be happy.

[Mogsmex]

best car I have ever owned, just sold mine last year on here mine was a bug wagon WRX with PPP same running gear and yes it did do almost 30mpg, generally around the 27 mark mixed and over 30 on runs

best all rounder I have ever had, one weekend it went from a trip to the ring to a trailor on the back family camping holiday

great shed for the cash