older Impreza (2002ish) buying advice?

[hill79]

Some of the older Imprezas are now at very attractive prices and examples with low miles seem reasonably available, a modest (sub £4k) budget seems to be enough for a 'good' standard bug-eye WRX. Insurance isn't cheap, but its affordable and MPG is about the same as my current car. Trouble is, I know very little about them beyond being great to drive with enough practicality to act as a family car. I've done a bit of reading on review sites and owners forums and the signs are encouraging, but I'm wary that I'd be buying a money pit.

Any advice from those in the know on what to watch out for?

[hill79]

nobody?

[anonymous-user]

You might do better in the Subaru forum.

[rallycross]

Plenty of advice on SIDC or scoobynet.

View quite a few and try to pick one that's had a fussy owner (lots of Impreza's are treated as their owners pride and joy so there are some really clean ones that have full histories).

£4k might get you an Sti model which would give you the advantage of more power, much stronger engine than wrx, and 6 speed. If buying a WRX try to get one with pro-drive upgrade. Be wary of after market tuned WRX as the engine is less durable once the boost is turned up can suffer from bottom end failure where the Sti is more reliable if tuned.

Disks nd clutch are expensive.
Look out for knocking front suspension.
cambelt due at 45k/90k and budget £350+ for this (non main dealer).
Lumpy idle could be coil packs which again are quite expensive on these.

I would avoid ones with loud exhausts and cheap after market suspension as ruins the ride and noise is a pain and wont make it any faster!

[hill79]

rallycross said:

£4k might get you an Sti model which would give you the advantage of more power, much stronger engine than wrx, and 6 speed. If buying a WRX try to get one with pro-drive upgrade. Be wary of after market tuned WRX as the engine is less durable once the boost is turned up can suffer from bottom end failure where the Sti is more reliable if tuned.

Disks nd clutch are expensive.
Look out for knocking front suspension.
cambelt due at 45k/90k and budget £350+ for this (non main dealer).
Lumpy idle could be coil packs which again are quite expensive on these.

I would avoid ones with loud exhausts and cheap after market suspension as ruins the ride and noise is a pain and wont make it any faster!

I'd be looking at a non-STI, otherwise insurance becomes unjustifiable and I plan to try and find something as standard as possible and keep it that way, but its interesting to know the STI engine is stronger, I'd read they were all pretty strong engines.

doogz said:

I traded in a 53 plate Blobeye WRX PPP a couple of months ago.

Advertised it at £4k, eventually down to £2.5k, all I ever had on the phone were neds/chavs offering me half the asking price "cash mate" as if there was ever the option of them paying me in any other way.

Anyway, eventually traded it in for £2k. Bumper had just been resprayed to sort stone chips, clutch was less than a year old, brakes were all new, good tyres, FSH.

Almost seemed like a shame, but I just couldn't be bothered dealing with all the fannies that they seem to attract any more.

So yeah, £4k should find you something pretty decent.

That is a shame, it sounds like the sort of car I'd be looking for, getting 2k trade in must've been heart breaking! The attention they draw from 'undesirables' is something I'd wondered about and the general perception (of those not in the know) of owners isn't too good. Small price to pay for owning an iconic car I suppose.

[Baryonyx]

hill79 said:

I'd be looking at a non-STI, otherwise insurance becomes unjustifiable and I plan to try and find something as standard as possible and keep it that way, but its interesting to know the STI engine is stronger, I'd read they were all pretty strong engines.

They do have pretty strong engines (the age you're looking at). The later 2.5L engines are noted for being weaker. What the point here is, is that many people will say "don't pay the premium for an STi as a little work will bring the WRX up to that sort of power". It's true that you can modify and tune a WRX to baseline STi power, but you'd be stressing the engine moreso than standard tune, not to mention the fact that the STi would still have loads of headroom for tuning above that level.

[hill79]

Baryonyx said:

They do have pretty strong engines (the age you're looking at). The later 2.5L engines are noted for being weaker. What the point here is, is that many people will say "don't pay the premium for an STi as a little work will bring the WRX up to that sort of power". It's true that you can modify and tune a WRX to baseline STi power, but you'd be stressing the engine moreso than standard tune, not to mention the fact that the STi would still have loads of headroom for tuning above that level.

Coincidentally I've just been reading your thread in the Subaru forum from when you were looking to replace your MR2! The WRX/STI tuning issue makes sense, there's little point spending money to get a WRX to STI power when you could have just started with an STI in the first place (and taken advantage of the other extra bits and bobs that come with an STI). Either way, it sounds like in standard form they're unlikely to have many issues.

[rallycross]

doogz said:

What are the differences between the engines in the WRX and the STI?

My WRX PPP made 'baseline STI power', had near 90k on the clock, and as far as I can tell hadn't had a particularly easy life. Was maintained well, but had been used and abused.

STi bottom end is much stronger - pistons/crank/rods/oil system differences = much less likely to need rebuilt at 100k plus whereas lots of WRX engines have had trouble especially with extra boost and old age.

2.5 engine known to have problems with wear in the bores, piston slap, = high oil consumption lots needed rebuild at low mileage and its not cheap on Impreza engines eg API will charge you £3k plus.

[AndySpecD]

2.5 engine is much nicer to drive though (I've had a 2.0 WRX, a 2.0 WRX PPP and now the STI with the 2.5), although I've had mine rebuilt with forged internals. For the budget, look for a really nice bugeye (and probably a bit of change) or a blobeye with perhaps slightly higher miles.

[Darkslider]

If you're set on a WRX 4k should get you a Blob model I would've thought.