Blobeye STi, talk to me
Discussion
Got an 8k budget. Need something exhilarating, reliable, and fast, which has a lot of road presence.
Looking at Blobeye Impreza WRX STi Type UKs. I am concerned about high miles though and the age of the car. What kind of war chest do I need to keep to run it?
Most of my weekday journeys are motorways - happy with 25+ mpg here. Don't care about MPG for the weekend blasts.
Any alternatives?
Over to you lads
Looking at Blobeye Impreza WRX STi Type UKs. I am concerned about high miles though and the age of the car. What kind of war chest do I need to keep to run it?
Most of my weekday journeys are motorways - happy with 25+ mpg here. Don't care about MPG for the weekend blasts.
Any alternatives?
Over to you lads
I had one for a wee while (about 9 months) with a similar budget.
Bought an 80k mile example which had maybe had a hard life for £7,250.
The fact is, a lot of these cars have been bought by young, enthusiastic drivers, who then realise the cost of ownership - I possibly fall into this category! I was owner number 13 of an '03 plate car. It served me well, and I had a lot of fun.
Personally, if I was buying again, I would increase my budget slightly and look for either a JDM imported STI or a Widetrack. Watch out for any knocks from suspension or engine, and look for signs of a hard life. I'd also avoid especially modified examples, although standard cars are getting harder to find.
They are really great cars - lots of fun, will put a smile on your face, and the noise is simply fantastic. I loved mine, but with what I was spending, I decided I'd be better off in a new hot hatch. The Scooby was great, but I had a baby on the way (too noisy/uncomfortable to put a baby in) and it was horrendous on long journeys. Fuel consumption was particularly poor too.
My friend also bought one at the same time for similar money, and has had no end of trouble.... Personally, I think it's worth the risk and you'll love it. Might be worth checking out Hurst Cars - they often seem to have good examples, and have heard good reviews on some of the Scooby pages.
Bought an 80k mile example which had maybe had a hard life for £7,250.
The fact is, a lot of these cars have been bought by young, enthusiastic drivers, who then realise the cost of ownership - I possibly fall into this category! I was owner number 13 of an '03 plate car. It served me well, and I had a lot of fun.
Personally, if I was buying again, I would increase my budget slightly and look for either a JDM imported STI or a Widetrack. Watch out for any knocks from suspension or engine, and look for signs of a hard life. I'd also avoid especially modified examples, although standard cars are getting harder to find.
They are really great cars - lots of fun, will put a smile on your face, and the noise is simply fantastic. I loved mine, but with what I was spending, I decided I'd be better off in a new hot hatch. The Scooby was great, but I had a baby on the way (too noisy/uncomfortable to put a baby in) and it was horrendous on long journeys. Fuel consumption was particularly poor too.
My friend also bought one at the same time for similar money, and has had no end of trouble.... Personally, I think it's worth the risk and you'll love it. Might be worth checking out Hurst Cars - they often seem to have good examples, and have heard good reviews on some of the Scooby pages.
I've had my widetrack Blobeye JDM STi for 9 years. Used daily, it is pretty modified but looks stock (480BHP/540lbft).
If you are going to buy one, spend your time finding a well looked after example, mods are fine so long as they were done by someone who knows what they are doing. Mileage is also fine so long as its properly maintained, mine is on 113K miles and will see out 200k miles easily with proper maintenance. They are pretty simple cars when you get into them.
The JDM is a better car, but they are becoming hard to find in your budget.
If you are going to buy one, spend your time finding a well looked after example, mods are fine so long as they were done by someone who knows what they are doing. Mileage is also fine so long as its properly maintained, mine is on 113K miles and will see out 200k miles easily with proper maintenance. They are pretty simple cars when you get into them.
The JDM is a better car, but they are becoming hard to find in your budget.
You'll just about get 25 mpg from an STi if you cruise at under 80. Don't expect any more than that, though, and 20 mpg or less is the norm if you like the loud pedal.
The motorway is not their natural habitat - noisy, rattly things.
However they certainly can be exhilarating, you won't get better performance for your money (and quite a bit more is available for not much money by way of what still is a very active tuning scene), and on a B road they still hang with the best of modern machinery particularly when it's wet.
As another poster above mentioned they are really very simple cars meaning a well-maintained one won't empty your wallet to keep going (other than the shocking MPG). They are eminently DIYable as well if that's your thing.
The motorway is not their natural habitat - noisy, rattly things.
However they certainly can be exhilarating, you won't get better performance for your money (and quite a bit more is available for not much money by way of what still is a very active tuning scene), and on a B road they still hang with the best of modern machinery particularly when it's wet.
As another poster above mentioned they are really very simple cars meaning a well-maintained one won't empty your wallet to keep going (other than the shocking MPG). They are eminently DIYable as well if that's your thing.
Subaru's are very awkward, to read a fault code you need specialised software. The ecu might throw a fault code for example if you hit the rev limiter, a friends did just that and my laptop said over rev when i went into the ecu. Its jumping straight into the deep zone if you've never owned a high maintenance car before. Spark plugs take an age to change due to the flat 4 being crammed in there, they will not run correctly if dump valves are you're thing due them heavily relying on the MAF sensor. As you can tell I'm not a huge fan lol
HedgeyGedgey said:
Subaru's are very awkward, to read a fault code you need specialised software. The ecu might throw a fault code for example if you hit the rev limiter, a friends did just that and my laptop said over rev when i went into the ecu. Its jumping straight into the deep zone if you've never owned a high maintenance car before. Spark plugs take an age to change due to the flat 4 being crammed in there, they will not run correctly if dump valves are you're thing due them heavily relying on the MAF sensor. As you can tell I'm not a huge fan lol
I think most people with some Subaru experience would disagree they are "awkward" cars. Yes, two of the four plugs are tricky when you first do them, but it gets easier with a bit of practice. And if you can't be arsed to do it, there's lots of specialists who would gladly do it for you. Most components are easy to access and replace, spares aren't expensive or hard to find, and the cars generally feel unbreakable - that's part of their appeal.A well kept standard(ish) STi is hardly "high maintenance" compared with other cars of a comparable performance level and vintage.
plenty said:
HedgeyGedgey said:
Subaru's are very awkward, to read a fault code you need specialised software. The ecu might throw a fault code for example if you hit the rev limiter, a friends did just that and my laptop said over rev when i went into the ecu. Its jumping straight into the deep zone if you've never owned a high maintenance car before. Spark plugs take an age to change due to the flat 4 being crammed in there, they will not run correctly if dump valves are you're thing due them heavily relying on the MAF sensor. As you can tell I'm not a huge fan lol
I think most people with some Subaru experience would disagree they are "awkward" cars. Yes, two of the four plugs are tricky when you first do them, but it gets easier with a bit of practice. And if you can't be arsed to do it, there's lots of specialists who would gladly do it for you. Most components are easy to access and replace, spares aren't expensive or hard to find, and the cars generally feel unbreakable - that's part of their appeal.A well kept standard-is STi is hardly "high maintenance" compared with other cars of a comparable performance level and vintage.
Plug swaps aren't exactly a daily occurrence either.
Owned a widetrack sti ppp for 3 years... horrifically thirsty and a very "uninvolving" drive (I'm trying my best to not go as far as to actually call it boring) and it didn't really feel that fast.
Changed to a clio 182 for 25% of the price of the impreza... clio feels more responsive, definitely is more fun and more of a "connected" driving experience.
Changed to a clio 182 for 25% of the price of the impreza... clio feels more responsive, definitely is more fun and more of a "connected" driving experience.
jsf said:
plenty said:
HedgeyGedgey said:
Subaru's are very awkward, to read a fault code you need specialised software. The ecu might throw a fault code for example if you hit the rev limiter, a friends did just that and my laptop said over rev when i went into the ecu. Its jumping straight into the deep zone if you've never owned a high maintenance car before. Spark plugs take an age to change due to the flat 4 being crammed in there, they will not run correctly if dump valves are you're thing due them heavily relying on the MAF sensor. As you can tell I'm not a huge fan lol
I think most people with some Subaru experience would disagree they are "awkward" cars. Yes, two of the four plugs are tricky when you first do them, but it gets easier with a bit of practice. And if you can't be arsed to do it, there's lots of specialists who would gladly do it for you. Most components are easy to access and replace, spares aren't expensive or hard to find, and the cars generally feel unbreakable - that's part of their appeal.A well kept standard-is STi is hardly "high maintenance" compared with other cars of a comparable performance level and vintage.
Plug swaps aren't exactly a daily occurrence either.
king about that comes with 4 lads standing togethermike74 said:
Owned a widetrack sti ppp for 3 years... horrifically thirsty and a very "uninvolving" drive (I'm trying my best to not go as far as to actually call it boring) and it didn't really feel that fast.
Changed to a clio 182 for 25% of the price of the impreza... clio feels more responsive, definitely is more fun and more of a "connected" driving experience.
Was your car kept standard and with factory geometry?Changed to a clio 182 for 25% of the price of the impreza... clio feels more responsive, definitely is more fun and more of a "connected" driving experience.
In stock trim they can be dull to drive, especially the UK spec cars.
jsf said:
Was your car kept standard and with factory geometry?
In stock trim they can be dull to drive, especially the UK spec cars.
Yeah standard apart from Prodrive springs, I just felt it was too competent, required virtually no driver involvement, never took it on a track so maybe there I could have explored it's limits more and got more out of it.In stock trim they can be dull to drive, especially the UK spec cars.
The clio is an absolute hoot to drive by comparison and covers the ground on twisty b-roads just as quickly.
mike74 said:
jsf said:
Was your car kept standard and with factory geometry?
In stock trim they can be dull to drive, especially the UK spec cars.
Yeah standard apart from Prodrive springs, I just felt it was too competent, required virtually no driver involvement, never took it on a track so maybe there I could have explored it's limits more and got more out of it.In stock trim they can be dull to drive, especially the UK spec cars.
The clio is an absolute hoot to drive by comparison and covers the ground on twisty b-roads just as quickly.
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