'Bug eye' WRX Impreza Prodrives?
Discussion
paulmoonraker said:
St John Smythe said:
Ah, didn't realise the wing is aftermarket. Is it only the STIs that have the wing?
There was a few special edition WRX's with the wing, but the vast majority are aftermarket and hence also need to be declared on your insurance (along with those non-standard alloys too).rossmc88 said:
don't do it!
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Abbs.scoobynet.com+impr...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Abbs.scoobynet.com+impr...
I think you could find internet posts about issues on most cars.http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Abbs.scoobynet.com+impr...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Abbs.scoobynet.com+impr...
Imprezas are generally reliable. Admittedly not a turbo but I have had my Bugeye TS for over 7 years with no issues. I've only spent out on tyres, oil, plugs, filters and a couple of cambelt changes. I had a numberplate light go at the last MOT too.
eta
After the winter I'm tempted to replace it with a WRX with PPP.
The Impreza's biggest strength is its biggest weakness. That being that it's a lot of performance for the money and every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks they can tune them for 50p and a gift voucher for halfords.
The 2.5's in the late 'Hawk-Eye' and early 'New' Impreza have known issues, that is for sure.
It is also no secret that many of the Sti's over the years run stronger internals to allow safer HP gains. However, the 2.0 when treated well and within its limits is a very strong engine for the power/weight. Not perfect but as performance engines go, not half bad at all. (A smidge thirsty when pushing on, is about the most you could complain about)
The 2.5's in the late 'Hawk-Eye' and early 'New' Impreza have known issues, that is for sure.
It is also no secret that many of the Sti's over the years run stronger internals to allow safer HP gains. However, the 2.0 when treated well and within its limits is a very strong engine for the power/weight. Not perfect but as performance engines go, not half bad at all. (A smidge thirsty when pushing on, is about the most you could complain about)
Fire99 said:
The Impreza's biggest strength is its biggest weakness. That being that it's a lot of performance for the money and every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks they can tune them for 50p and a gift voucher for halfords.
+1The 2.0ltr is a great engine. The WRX however does not have the same internals, so cant be pushed anything like as hard...
rovermorris999 said:
The blow-ups you've heard about will almost certainly be modified engines that haven't been done well. Push the envelope too far or do it badly and any engine will pack up. Subarus attract modifiers as it is so easy to get big bhp out of them.
Not my experience either, i had a 2003 Blobeye WRX Wagon with a PPP form new and a full Subaru history that went pop at 60k!Great cars btw, went well, comfortable and enough room for the all the kids stuff for a weekend away.
5paul5 said:
People who slag off the impreza usually have never owned one and are talking the usual claptrap.
I'm can't see anyone slagging off the Impreza in this thread :S For once everyone seems to agree that they are a lot of fun for the money.. Unfortunately its no secrect that big end failure can happen.Adam205 said:
5paul5 said:
People who slag off the impreza usually have never owned one and are talking the usual claptrap.
I'm can't see anyone slagging off the Impreza in this thread :S For once everyone seems to agree that they are a lot of fun for the money.. Unfortunately its no secrect that big end failure can happen.Adam205 said:
Unfortunately its no secrect that big end failure can happen.
....which is true of just about any engine - What we need is facts (incidence per 100 engines per 100,000 miles for example). I suspect all that exists is hearsay and rumour.Here's a fact, I have had 2x WRX, one with 120k on the clock of which I did the last 60k - Not a single problem. My current PPP has 86k on the clock and I had to replace a wheel-bearing which I suspect was bust as a result of a particularly severe hit on a pot-hole. No other malaise to report on that one.
50k pretty much from new on a 2.5 Hawkeye STI and no issues at all other than - wait for it - one set of disks and pads and two sets of tyres. Completely standard other than a new exhaust.
Sometimes it's just luck of the draw but you can't argue that the hatchback did suffer from some issues. Even the 330S wasn't particularly strong but the same can be said for a lot of cars. New Evo Xs went pop very quickly in places but you don't report well working engines, do you?
Personally I would love a Bugeye Impreza. I think they look really good but I think that's the same reason those posh girls like going for Pugs
Sometimes it's just luck of the draw but you can't argue that the hatchback did suffer from some issues. Even the 330S wasn't particularly strong but the same can be said for a lot of cars. New Evo Xs went pop very quickly in places but you don't report well working engines, do you?
Personally I would love a Bugeye Impreza. I think they look really good but I think that's the same reason those posh girls like going for Pugs
I can't understand the 'deniers' on this thread. There are clearly people in this thread who have owned them, and they've blown up. What other marques can you name where that happens? I can't think of one, TBH. I don't recall Mitsubishi Evo's having this rep for blowing up, so how do you explain it? Even golf GTI's that are similarly 'tuned' by people with no idea and no real money don't experience engine failures. Overall I can see that yes, many are reliable, but that no, it's not that unusual for one to go bang. It does (and has) genuinely put me off getting one.
CoolHands said:
I don't recall Mitsubishi Evo's having this rep for blowing up
Never heard of the infamous Evo IV crankwalk then? Mitsi VR4s and GTOs reputation for a variety of expensive failures? Skyline RB26 running bearings on number 6 at sustained high revs? BMW VANOS isses? Porsche 996 RMS problems? K-series HGF?Edited by GravelBen on Thursday 1st December 10:06
ScoobyDood said:
....which is true of just about any engine - What we need is facts (incidence per 100 engines per 100,000 miles for example). I suspect all that exists is hearsay and rumour.
Go do a search on Diesel Mondeo DMF and injector issues (I own one of those too). You will find loads and loads of posts about expensive repairs (to put both right would cost 2K+). People only post issues and problems...
The Impreza, relative to its potential and indeed off the shelf power is reliable. Yes, some unmodified ones do go pop, and sometimes (especially with WRX's) ones that have been modified way too far go pop. But on the whole, there are loads out there that are just fine and have been well looked after (and no, before you start, I am not saying that well looked after ones don't go pop).
It does not take a huge amount of brain power to take advice, sentiment, etc, and put it all in context, then make a decision...
-P
CoolHands said:
I can't understand the 'deniers' on this thread. There are clearly people in this thread who have owned them, and they've blown up. What other marques can you name where that happens? I can't think of one, TBH. I don't recall Mitsubishi Evo's having this rep for blowing up, so how do you explain it? Even golf GTI's that are similarly 'tuned' by people with no idea and no real money don't experience engine failures. Overall I can see that yes, many are reliable, but that no, it's not that unusual for one to go bang. It does (and has) genuinely put me off getting one.
So which marques are we comparing to? You can't compare an Impreza to many hot hatches can you? Are you really comparing to a Golf GTI? Even MKV and VI are behind an Impreza in performance. Even so, tuned Golfs are much more sympathetically done, not just the 'up the boost, innit' brigade.You can compare to Evos and other ricer rockets but in terms of numbers on the roads there are far more Imprezas so you're more likely to hear of the problems.
Imprezas are a step up from the majority of hot hatches so with this in mind, their reliability is pretty good. How many cars in the early 90's were pumping out nearly 300bhp and good for over 100k miles, start every morning first time and happy to live outside in the elements rain or shine?
CoolHands said:
I can't understand the 'deniers' on this thread. There are clearly people in this thread who have owned them, and they've blown up. What other marques can you name where that happens? I can't think of one, TBH. I don't recall Mitsubishi Evo's having this rep for blowing up, so how do you explain it? Even golf GTI's that are similarly 'tuned' by people with no idea and no real money don't experience engine failures. Overall I can see that yes, many are reliable, but that no, it's not that unusual for one to go bang. It does (and has) genuinely put me off getting one.
I don't think anyone is denying that they can blow up as clearly they can (there are some unfortunate tales on this thread to back that up) but it is not as frequent as your suggesting though. Your initial post on this topic implied that the all went pop at 70,000 miles. The numerous tales on this thread of people's Imprezas going healthily past this figure (including all 3 of my cars) would suggest that statement was something of an exaggeration.When it comes to their supposed "rep" for blowing up remember that as turbocharged performance cars go they are very common and if for example the failure rate was the same as say an Evo you'd still hear many more stories of Impreza failure simply because there are far more of them on the road and from the people I've encountered who have owned Imprezas or Evos I'd also hazard a guess that as a rule of thumb it's the Subarus that do far more miles.
Suggesting that it doesn't happen to other marques is naive in the extreme. I used to be very active on a Seat forum and saw plenty of tales of tuned (and stock) 1.8T engines going rather horribly wrong and with that engine being common across the VAG range at the time I'd imagine that the same would happen to Golfs, Octavias, A4's etc. Yes that engine is quite a reliable little unit, probably more so than the Subaru block but even so it does still experience engine failures. If you want other manufacturers how about the infamous No4 piston failures on the Corsa VXR? Or the fuel pump relay problem on the Evo X that caused some entertaining little failures? I could post some interesting anecdotes about some large and rather expensive failures on BMWs the cost of which ran to more than a Subaru engine rebuild as well if you'd like?
Turbo-charged petrol engines by their vary nature have more to go wrong with them then their N/A equivilents and when used in a "performance" application they are invariably running finer margins as well (the VAG 1.8T is actually something of an oddity in that regard as in most of the models it was fitted to it was massively detuned). If tuned beyond stock these margins are reduced, if poorly tuned, maintained or driven then you massively increase your chances of it going bang. And on top of that like any other engine sometimes you do everything right and you get unlucky.
Finally I think you are quite entitled to your opinion about these cars but so am I and like other owners on this thread I'm just giving the benefit of my experience. rossmc88 sounds like he had a bad time wih his car and understandably he doesn't have the highest opinion of them as a result, without any details of his car I wouldn't have the first clue of what happened to his. My experiences have been the reverse so I think it's only fair I balance things out a bit.
KaraK said:
it is not as frequent as your suggesting though. Your initial post on this topic implied that the all went pop at 70,000 miles. The numerous tales on this thread of people's Imprezas going healthily past this figure (including all 3 of my cars) would suggest that statement was something of an exaggeration.
yeah I agree - I had the 70,000 figure in my head, I think, cos when I was looking at getting one a while ago that was the sort of mileage most of them were at (at my budget) and that's when I found out about potential blow-ups from scoobynet etc and it just put me off. It wasn't a specific mileage thing I think it was just the thing that got left in my mind IYKWIM. Having read this thread, I would actually now potentially think of getting one!Trouble is my golf 4motion isn't worth selling as they are worth f
k-all, so I'd end up with a 'worse' car re age / mileage etc so I think I'm going to have to keep it and run it into the ground to get my money's worth 
CoolHands said:
KaraK said:
it is not as frequent as your suggesting though. Your initial post on this topic implied that the all went pop at 70,000 miles. The numerous tales on this thread of people's Imprezas going healthily past this figure (including all 3 of my cars) would suggest that statement was something of an exaggeration.
yeah I agree - I had the 70,000 figure in my head, I think, cos when I was looking at getting one a while ago that was the sort of mileage most of them were at (at my budget) and that's when I found out about potential blow-ups from scoobynet etc and it just put me off. It wasn't a specific mileage thing I think it was just the thing that got left in my mind IYKWIM. Having read this thread, I would actually now potentially think of getting one!Trouble is my golf 4motion isn't worth selling as they are worth f
k-all, so I'd end up with a 'worse' car re age / mileage etc so I think I'm going to have to keep it and run it into the ground to get my money's worth Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff