RE: Shed of the Week: Subaru Impreza WRX PPP

[WCZ]

is there a more reliable 260bhp car for less than £1.5k? one of the best sheds !

[S100HP]

HannsG said:

I would buy one, just cant seem to get over the tax you have to pay.

Most likely mindset!

The high tax rate was on the later 2.5 post 2006. This will be a lower tax one.

I so wish mine hadn't been an utter nail

[mikeyr]

I had a 2002 WRX wagon (bugeye) and loved it. The "just over 200 miles from a tank of petrol' thing got a bit boring after a while (didn't take much of a commute to be filling the thing back up again). But other than that I loved:

• Those incredibly comfy bucket seats
• The feeling when you floored it No boost, no boost, booooost...ahhhh...I've run out of road!
• Solid build, mine was well looked after but never needed anything out of the ordinary service work doing to it
• The 'bright' button which, as any Subaru driver will tell you, is such a prominent button because it does something amazing
• The exhaust burble (although mine was more restrained as I got them to put the original exhaust back on when I bought it rather than the 3.5 inch dustbin that was fitted at sale)

The boot was okay, similar to a Focus of the same era so best to view it as a hatch rather than an estate. Interior was a sea of black plastic. Shame it didn't have the wider wheel arches of the saloon. I only have a couple of cars I'd actually like to buy back one day and this is one of them.

Grip was good but it more 'how' it steered, I loved how communicative it felt. Something about Subarus of that era meant they always felt right.

[soad]

Boringly dull colour. In estate form, they look a bit like a working man's (tradesman) wagon too.

[sr.guiri]

We're currently travelling from the UK to Uruguay in our 1959 VW bus, we're in Colombia now. But I wouldn't be too surprised if we get close to this mileage by the time we finished. It should be a 9000km journey, but I'm enjoying this so much I think I can stretch it out and top this Subaru

www.mundo-kombi.com

[soad]

sr.guiri said:

We're currently travelling from the UK to Uruguay in our 1959 VW bus, we're in Colombia now. But I wouldn't be too surprised if we get close to this mileage by the time we finished. It should be a 9000km journey, but I'm enjoying this so much I think I can stretch it out and top this Subaru

www.mundo-kombi.com

You're better off doing a separate thread for this, chap?
Sole looks lovely, btw. Well done.

[sr.guiri]

soad said:

You're better off doing a separate thread for this, chap?
Sole looks lovely, btw. Well done.

hahahahaha......she is, thanks. The van was supposed to be the "protagonista" of the journey, but she's seems to be taking on that role rather well

And you know, I will.

And if I were in the UK, I'd probably buy this Subaru

[Motorrad]

For shed money this is great.

The sort of car you'll never see again for the price of a good night out.

[rossub]

Motorrad said:

For shed money this is great.

The sort of car you'll never see again for the price of a good night out.

:cringe:

[white_goodman]

Best car I've owned! I actually looked at a WRX PPP Wagon in silver (they never did an STI version of the estate) and I quite fancied something a bit more stealthy than a bright blue one but Imprezas were really expensive to insure back in 2010 and I was having a lot of trouble getting an insurance quote on a PPP because no-one seemed to understand what it was (we don't insure "modified" cars sir etc), so I ended up with a standard mica blue WRX wagon. I sought out the wagon because I liked that it was a bit stealthier than the saloon and the practicality of the hatch (more of a big hatch than an estate). Interior felt cheap but it was actually a really sturdy and well-built car and you could drive it hard regularly with no repercussions. All mine needed was a new alternator in 3 years and 20,000 miles. They were a steal for the performance even back then. 6.5k for a 2004 60k example and I sold it for 2.9k at 80k to a colleague in 2013, which was an absolute steal for him. I believe that the stock WRX had around 227bhp and it was quicker than my mate's mk2 Focus ST in accelerative terms, which cost him three times as much! I actually found mine a surprisingly comfortable and refined long distance car. Took it down to Italy in 2011 driving through France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, including 4 laps of the Nurburgring. It was surprisingly supple on bumpy B-roads too thanks to 17" wheels and fairly sensible profile rubber and it was fairly narrow, which meant that you could keep the pace up cross-country even on fairly narrow B-roads. I could get 2 bikes in the back with the seats down and it made a great "dad" wagon when we had our first in 2012. The only fly in the ointment was the fuel consumption. I averaged low 20s day-to-day but 30mpg was possible on a run. I got 300 miles out of a tank once but usually bottled it and decided to fill up around the 250 mile mark!

I'd take a "punt" on this for 1500 notes, even on 220k.

[usualdog]

I owned a PPP (+ other mods) WRX for 3 or 4 years and loved every minute, apart from filling up. It was quick but not sub 5 secs to 60 quick. I'm not an environmentalist, far from it, but cars like this are getting hard to justify, mine did about 15 to the gallon, and the emissions were off the scale (almost literally, IIRC it was in the top bracket) Right, I'm off to hug a tree.

[swimdunc]

WCZ said:

is there a more reliable 260bhp car for less than £1.5k? one of the best sheds !

Volvo s60 t5.

[rossub]

white_goodman said:

Best car I've owned! I actually looked at a WRX PPP Wagon in silver (they never did an STI version of the estate)

Wrong

It was brief, but in 2001/02 the Wagon did indeed come in STI form - albeit only for the Japanese market.

All the goodies of the saloon - 6 Speed, Brembos, STI interior etc..

[typera]

rossub said:

Wrong

It was brief, but in 2001/02 the Wagon did indeed come in STI form - albeit only for the Japanese market.

All the goodies of the saloon - 6 Speed, Brembos, STI interior etc..

No Brembos on the STi Wagon. Just the regular 4/2 pots

[Si_man306]

Wife has a WRZ bug eye saloon, 53 plate, 70k ish miles in the classic blue. Run standard as a daily inc kid duties and it’s infallible. Cost 5k and drives better than anything modern with pin sharp throttle response and *proper 4 wheel drive, unlike the golf R and Evoque we’ve had recently. Couldn’t see any point in selling in the near future A+++

[172]

4 days mot left!!!!!

[blueSL]

I had a similar one but sold it at 157000 miles after it failed its MOT - seized callipers, warped disks and a broken centre exhaust would have cost more to fix than the car would then have been worth. Still, I got £750 for it. It owed me nothing and I doubt its Golf R replacement will last as long.

Edited by blueSL on Saturday 18th May 05:29

[anonymous-user]

172 said:

4 days mot left!!!!!

Just checked myself and yes it does

Alarm bells...

[Ahbefive]

Bargain car if you are good at doing work yourself but bills can soon add up if not and parts aren't cheap. Still a great shed if it has no big issues

[LexyLex]

These are amazing cars - I was more an Evo person myself but a co-worker had one of these. In my view not as fine a handling car but a much more exciting engine.

For this money it's a brilliant find.