RE: Shed of the Week: Subaru Impreza WRX PPP

RE: Shed of the Week: Subaru Impreza WRX PPP

Friday 25th May 2018

Shed of the Week: Subaru Impreza WRX PPP

Yep, a Prodrive'd Impreza wagon sinks into Shed's realm - surely it has to be worth a gamble?



Here's one for you. In the British Isles - counting Norn Iron and Eire as Ireland, just for the sake of the story, sorry for any offence - which nation produces, or has produced, the hardest/best drivers?

England obviously has a head start in any inter-nation comparison of this nature by virtue of having a much higher population than the other three, so let's forget about them. Wales has a strong history on the rallying front. Ireland has churned out a few great rallyists too, Hopkirk in the old days and Kris Meeke more recently, plus some truly awesome road-race motorcyclists, but with the notable exception of Eddie Irvine there haven't been many Irish track aces.

If we reduce it to the average driving ability of the ordinary man quite literally in the street, Shed would cast his vote north of the border to bonny Scotchland. That country has produced more than its fair share of driving legends both on and off the Tarmac - Clark, McRae, Stewart, Coulthard. It also has some of the maddest public roads in Europe, not to mention some of the strictest law enforcers on those roads.


So, a regular punter who takes on the roads and the feds in the land of the brave really is quite brave. Someone like the owner of this honourably well-used Subaru WRX wagon, say. Now that the time has come to pass his leggy but faithful old steed on to the next owner, we reckon his sales campaign deserves a small SOTW kickstart.

Judging by the pics of the Impreza's mud-splattered body, the owner doesn't believe in wasting time in the car wash when there are so many more Heeland roads to be monstered. Looks like he might have stopped in the middle of a rare dry-weather thrash to take these snaps. You can almost feel the heat coming off the tyres. Less biologically appealing is the evidence of sweat stains on the driver's seat, but surely even that's a badge of honour in a motor like this.

The drive is a blast. The '02 model got better gear ratios and the '03 got AVCS (an active valve control system which smoothed out the engine, or improved efficiency at least), but this '01 model should provide plenty of laughs for £1200. Traction and grip are brilliant, and it's a pretty strong shell too, so even if you stuff it into a hedge you're likely to come out smelling of Brut rather than 97RON petrol, its preferred tipple.


Trying to make sense of Impreza nomenclature and model designations is like untangling a garden hose that hasn't been put away right. What we can say with reasonable certainty is that this is the post-2000 bugeye gen-two GD model with the 2.0-litre turbo EJ20 flat-four 'boxer' engine. It may not look as cleanly sytyled as the McRae-era car (one of his rally weapons sold for £230,000 last summer). Subaru did de-goggle it a bit in 2004 before it became soporifically bland in the 2007 Mk3. Point being, most would agree that the 2001-on Mk2 is a better car than the Mk1 for all-round use.

This one is not only a 44S but also a PPP, which Shed thought was something to do with mis-sold insurance. Of course, as any fule knows, PPP actually means it's got a Prodrive Performance Pack. Branded 'WR Sport', these Packs were available as a fully-warranted optional extra when you were buying your Impreza new from the dealer. Pack contents varied slightly, but the basic setup included a remapped ECU, sports cat, backbox and high-flow fuel pump.

44S? Well, that's just another bit of factory talk for the GD 4-door bodystyle, as opposed to the 2-door 22B. Probably. Plus of course it's Mrs Shed's upper leg circumference in inches.


Slight sill corrosion was noted in March 2016, followed in March of this year with a rust fail on a rear suspension mount. That was sorted for the pass, but the vendor does openly admit to a wheelarch bleb. Most of the other MOT notes refer to consumable items, and there will be more bits for the new owner to replace. That's the nature of the beast.

The belts haven't been done for 45,000 miles. You should be all right for a bit yet, but you don't want to push your luck as a snapped belt won't end well in one of these. Replacement is not a simple or cheap job. The belt kits include the hydraulic tensioner as well as three idler cogs and come in at over £200 just for the bits. Other Rex stuff to watch out for: misfiring (HT leads), wonky knock sensors, head gasket failure, clutch clatter from cold, and oil leaks from the front of the motor - something the 'laid-down' engine format of the Subaru may inherently encourage.

If you want to see how an Impreza (Shed thinks it's an Impreza, but you may know different) manages on an Irish rally, we recommend this- it's Rude Father Ted on wheels. Not really suitable for the office, but hilarious if you like dat sort of ting. Careful Now!

Here's the full ad



Author
Discussion

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
What a device for the money. If i lived where the seller does I think I would be keeping this.
What's it being replaced by?

PSB1967

273 posts

155 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Scottish Highlands! Fly to Inverness for less than £30, buy car, drive NC500 in it, sleep in the back if a hotel can't be got, drive home, keep as track car.
We did NC500 at Easter and it cost me £1800 all in! and I never got to keep a car afterwards. And it's a Scooby!

Scottie - NW

1,284 posts

232 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
This is more like it shed smile

sjabrown

1,910 posts

159 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Hmmm... car is for sale in the Highlands, I live in the Highlands. It's a pity I'm flat out busy at the moment.

Ryvita

712 posts

209 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
That's an awful lot of car for the money. To the point of being suspicious maybe? Still, even if it did have some ruinous hidden fault, how long would it have to last before you thought you'd got your money's worth? Surely worth the dice roll.

There'd be a fair amount of value scrapping it even if the engine exploded. Interior, wheels, plus whichever of engine, turbo, gearbox, exhaust or drive train survived, plus a bit for the shell as scrap... got to be at least £600 of value in parts. So £600 for a PPP WRX that you can rag senseless for the summer?

11 out of 10, top shedding. smile

pengers

25 posts

133 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
There's plenty that will/might need doing such as clutch which is pricey just for parts, possible multiple pistons siezed in calipers, linkages, bushes, arbs and plenty of rust all over underside etc. and the belts is an easy diy job. BUT these are superb cars, strong drivetrain and very practical not to mention different to the usual everyday blandness, mind you, you will be at the petrol station quite often too but it's worth it, top car for the money. Inverness is lovely!

greenarrow

3,551 posts

116 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
What a great shed!! Even if it is hiding something, for that price its got to be worth the risk surely. A possible candidate for Shed of the year?

Sa Calobra

37,010 posts

210 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Fantastic car. Change those wheels and a thorough pre purchase going over on the HG etc

alorotom

11,908 posts

186 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Wow, just wow ... pretty epic shedding this week. Ok its the bd unloved love child being the bugeye but thats for people on the outside of the car to see and its not that bad a looker really.

ditch the awful black wheels (or rattle can them silver or gold - this is shedding after all) and Id happily take it.

im amazed PPPs have dropped into this territory

skidskid

283 posts

140 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Ryvita said:
That's an awful lot of car for the money. To the point of being suspicious maybe?
The highlands is a long way from anywhere so prices tend to be cheaper for harder to sell or more specialist cars just to tempt people up there. I've had a few from there and sold at a nice profit once back in the midlands.

Twoshoe

847 posts

183 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
I think you'll find it's 'any fule kno' rather than 'any fule knows'.

However, great shed, best for ages.

Frimley111R

15,537 posts

233 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Seemed amazing for the money until I got to ..185,000m!

DaveEvs

279 posts

101 months

Friday 25th May 2018
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If that was in Wales, I'd snap it up!

ballans

788 posts

104 months

Friday 25th May 2018
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Hate to use a horrible cliche but this really is amazing ‘bang for your buck’. It may very well go bang but could make a great long term rolling restoration or worst case a wealth of spare parts.
Definitely falls into the “I wish I had bought one of those when they were shed money” category. I also suspect the estate will be very rare in the future too.
Great run of interesting and properly risky sheds recently!

R4PID

1,060 posts

244 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Bought a blue '06 PPP hawk eye wagon within the last 2 weeks. Clutch is heavy and it smelled of dog but other than what a brilliant bit of kit it is. Having been well looked after. Proper back to back basics motoring, no silly mpg computers here. It feels properly quick and is so much fun on the back roads. Awesome grip. Mind you I didn't pay 1.2k for it...

Jon_S_Rally

3,385 posts

87 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
A great SOTW but god I find these articles hard to read. The attempts at humour and silly references have gotten a bit old to be honest. Would it really be any less interesting if it was written like a normal article?

culpz

4,881 posts

111 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Cracking Shed! Gotta get myself an Impreza one day, especially at these prices. Keeping on top of the maintenance, common faults, preventative stuff and especially rust is imperative though. I know that's a given for any car but these really aren't cheap and simple cars to fix if something does crop up.

Konan

1,817 posts

145 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
WRX didn't get AVCS.

Ryvita said:
That's an awful lot of car for the money. To the point of being suspicious maybe? Still, even if it did have some ruinous hidden fault, how long would it have to last before you thought you'd got your money's worth? Surely worth the dice roll.
Picked mine up for £1800 3 or 4 years ago because I didn't want to itrack an immaculate '05 WRX I had. I may have lucked out, but it's still with me. It's been on enough track days that it's paid itself back in not having to buy insurance.

No, they're not a good track car wink


TristPerrin

135 posts

177 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Brave pills required I think. eek

texaxile

3,289 posts

149 months

Friday 25th May 2018
quotequote all
Nice shed. s/h parts are plentiful enough on ebay, or via scoobynet. Stuff like drop links etc, even if they're shagged are not mega bucks, as it's a shed just get some cheapies off ebay, grab your spanners and some axle stands and it's a 20 min job to do the rears, a bit more for the front.

Mine's an 04 saloon with PPP and although it was unloved and uncared for when I got it, a grand or so later and it is a solid, reliable and fun daily driver. Economy isn't as bad as you would think, driven half way gently I can get 26-28 mpg around town and slightly more on a run.

Also managed to get a set of 5 alloys with ditchfinders for £80 just an hour down the road, I've since chucked a set of Hankook winters on them and it was pretty damn good driving in the snow and ice.