Non Turbo Imprezas - Talk to Me!
Discussion
Here's the prices for a well-respected indie garage. Dealers would be a bit more.
http://www.subaru4you.co.uk/service/servicesched2....
http://www.subaru4you.co.uk/service/servicesched2....
I've owned a 2005 blobeye Subaru Impreza GX since February this year. I bought it off my dad who had had it for about three years before that. I bought it specifically because I wanted something cheaper to run than my MR2 Turbo was, and it's came in very handy with me moving house this year as it has practically cut my petrol bill in half.
Servicing should be pretty cheap as mechanically it is a very simple car. You can do pretty much all servicing yourself with little effort, just read up on this first. Me and my dad have looked over the car pretty much exclusively since he bought it. Discs and pads, drop links and other suspension bobbins, engine servicing etc etc. The only thing that isn't standard on the car are the WRX wheels and the Alpine stereo (though I still have the Subaru head unit onthe garage, it's not amazing), and a custom made exhaust from some fabricators in Ashington, Northumberland. It's not obnoxiously loud, but it does give that lovely flat four burble; the classic Scooby sound just without the whooshing turbo noises of the WRX and STi. All that's gone wrong with it in the time we've owned it is two flat tyres. Mechanically they are tough. It had about 30,000 miles when my dad bought it and it had about 61,000 when I got it this year. It just ticked over 65,000 miles earlier this month.
They are a nice drive, aided by the Symmetrical AWD. Impressive cornering skills, lovely steering feel, not quite as understeer-prone as some other Imprezas though they tend to vary from car to car. The performance isn't anything to write home about, but the car feels light and well balanced so it is good fun extracting every last little bit f performance from it down B roads and it's impressive road holding allows for some good cornering speeds. The pedals, steering and gearshift are all well weighted, though the steering feel may be a little light for some. The gearbox can be a little stiff when it's cold but it warms up quickly. The seats are fantastic too, being the 'tombstone' style bucket seats you'd expect in an Impreza. The driving position is pretty upright and there isn't masses of space behind the driver but the boot is very well sized. The throttle is very responsive, so it's a joy blipping down the box on a run.
I'll probably sell mine once I've finished decorating/moving into my new house, to replace with an Audi A8 or S4 - ill be able to afford something a little thirstiest again! But overall, definitely not a car I will regret owning. It's saved me some
cash when I needed it badly, and has been pretty fun to drive with it's old-skool feel.
Servicing should be pretty cheap as mechanically it is a very simple car. You can do pretty much all servicing yourself with little effort, just read up on this first. Me and my dad have looked over the car pretty much exclusively since he bought it. Discs and pads, drop links and other suspension bobbins, engine servicing etc etc. The only thing that isn't standard on the car are the WRX wheels and the Alpine stereo (though I still have the Subaru head unit onthe garage, it's not amazing), and a custom made exhaust from some fabricators in Ashington, Northumberland. It's not obnoxiously loud, but it does give that lovely flat four burble; the classic Scooby sound just without the whooshing turbo noises of the WRX and STi. All that's gone wrong with it in the time we've owned it is two flat tyres. Mechanically they are tough. It had about 30,000 miles when my dad bought it and it had about 61,000 when I got it this year. It just ticked over 65,000 miles earlier this month.
They are a nice drive, aided by the Symmetrical AWD. Impressive cornering skills, lovely steering feel, not quite as understeer-prone as some other Imprezas though they tend to vary from car to car. The performance isn't anything to write home about, but the car feels light and well balanced so it is good fun extracting every last little bit f performance from it down B roads and it's impressive road holding allows for some good cornering speeds. The pedals, steering and gearshift are all well weighted, though the steering feel may be a little light for some. The gearbox can be a little stiff when it's cold but it warms up quickly. The seats are fantastic too, being the 'tombstone' style bucket seats you'd expect in an Impreza. The driving position is pretty upright and there isn't masses of space behind the driver but the boot is very well sized. The throttle is very responsive, so it's a joy blipping down the box on a run.
I'll probably sell mine once I've finished decorating/moving into my new house, to replace with an Audi A8 or S4 - ill be able to afford something a little thirstiest again! But overall, definitely not a car I will regret owning. It's saved me some
cash when I needed it badly, and has been pretty fun to drive with it's old-skool feel.
Ran a blob eye gx for a year and the lack of performance and poor mpg meant it had to go, wrx alloys a vast improvement over the standard 16 inch bottle tops. The hawkeyes are re named r sports with a vvt motor 160 bhp, a vast improvement over the gx range without the wrx/sti costs .
Baryonyx said:
I've owned a 2005 blobeye Subaru Impreza GX since February this year. I bought it off my dad who had had it for about three years before that. I bought it specifically because I wanted something cheaper to run than my MR2 Turbo was, and it's came in very handy with me moving house this year as it has practically cut my petrol bill in half.
Are MR2 turbos really that bad on fuel?EDLT said:
Are MR2 turbos really that bad on fuel?
It was pretty thirsty. Averaged about 22mpg from it in a good day. Fearsome performance in that little car, but it loved the 98RON. I'd frequently see less than 20mpg from it on a commute. Doing the same commute in my Impreza on 95RON is vastly cheaper, and the Impreza can be given full throttle in all weather conditions. I'm no slower getting home from work either. The MR2 was a fantastic dual carriageway missile, but the Impreza makes up for that by being quicker over rougher surfaces and twisty roads. So it has fulfilled it's task of being a cheap, reliable and fun commuter, though once I'm moved into the new house I will replace it with something faster or more luxurious. As I say, an Audi S4 beckons...Weve had five non turbo Subarus over the years (two imprezza's, two forrys and a leggy) and I can say the current forester will be the last, the fuel consumption of the non turbo ones are freaking awful it was a lot worse on fuel than my old tuner cooper S. they dont often go wrong but when they do its usually going to mean a huge bill, for instance the rear wheel bearings area £600 job if you have to get the garage to do it as a lot of the parts seize in place, the fuel lines are known to fail and corrode as they get older and its a 10-15 hour job to fix them as they run through the interior and up behind the dash. The AWD on them isnt anything to sway me again either, I used the cooper S just as often in the snow and that was on R compounds and track coilover.
lordf said:
Weve had five non turbo Subarus over the years (two imprezza's, two forrys and a leggy) and I can say the current forester will be the last, the fuel consumption of the non turbo ones are freaking awful it was a lot worse on fuel than my old tuner cooper S. they dont often go wrong but when they do its usually going to mean a huge bill, for instance the rear wheel bearings area £600 job if you have to get the garage to do it as a lot of the parts seize in place, the fuel lines are known to fail and corrode as they get older and its a 10-15 hour job to fix them as they run through the interior and up behind the dash. The AWD on them isnt anything to sway me again either, I used the cooper S just as often in the snow and that was on R compounds and track coilover.
Yes, such bad cars that you owned five of them!Another thing to consider when looking at these is what kind of life it has had before you get it. The ones with the fake STi body kits are easily avoided, but there are a fair few round my way owned by farmers and game keepers (I live in the countryside). These can often be spotted towing things, splashed with mud and driving down the back lanes. It tends to be the wagons that live this life (often with a lamping dog in the back).
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