Talk to me about ~2003 WRX wagons....

[WeirdNeville]

Hi all,
I'm really interested in a 2003ish WRX wagon, most likely with the Prodrive Performance Pack. Just looking for owners opinions really. Things I'd like to know are:

Can you fit a mid sized dog in the boot?
Real world MPG... I can stomach close to 30mpg, 20mpg makes me cry.
Are they reliable if well cared for?
Potential pitfalls/costs of ownership.
Safety - do they all definately have ISOFIX as baby will be going in the middle! (or can front airbag be disabled).

I've had powerful RWD cars, I've not done the 4WD thing and fancy the real world perfomance of an Imprezle. I think the STi might be a bit hardcore, but sub 5 sec in the PPP WRX cars is a real draw. I've been in older Imprezas so I know roughly what I'm getting. It'll be a weekend car, under 6,000 miles a year.

My alternative option would be a 330i estate, but I've had a 328i estate for the last 2 years and fancy a change.

[WeirdNeville]

ScoobieWRX said:

PPP is fine if you don't mind a one size fits all solution however, if you can find a WRX at the right price your savings over what you'd pay for a PPP'd WRX wagon you can spend on a proper Open Source full custom remap and basic mods to get more power and torque than any PPP.

Ok, that's nice to know. So buy the best WRX rather than necessarily the PPP? I suppose then you also have the peace of mind that it's not been pushing 265bhp all it's life too, with associated wear and tear.
Thing is ,having owned a 200SX before I know the pervasive tuning bug - and I'm not in a position where I can justify spending a few hundred a montth on 'improving' a car. I think I need to sell the car to the wife as a sealed package too to get it past her!

If I do opt for the Scooby it will need to be bding quick to make up for the image/reduced refinement against a 3 series. Don't worry 265bhp is plenty bding quick enough for the likes of me! (Or public roads, IMO)....

[WeirdNeville]

ScoobieWRX said:

In which case i apologise for the reply but i read that kind of comment so often it gets very tired. Difficult to know on a forum when someone is joking.

I'll just...

Nah, don't worry. We know each other from elsewhere. And I've got a drum of plod repellent paint from Netto.

Any ideas on mapping costs/ cost to get a WRX up to PPP performance? I want to buy the best car I can, and taking £1k out of the budget to save for 'frivilous' mapping hurts what I can get for the cash.
Mapping seems to be about £500 - plus £300 for a couple of pipes?

[WeirdNeville]

paulmoonraker said:

The WRX needs the PPP or equivalent modifications. The PPP is neat because some insurers recognise it (Admiral) as a model, where as if you do the mods separate then you need to declare each one (which may not be a problem if your doing other mods anyway).

I doubt you will get the mods done for the same money or less than the price difference between a standard WRX and one with the PPP.

Great car.

That's interesting as I'm currently with Admiral and they quoted a shade under £600 for a theoretical WRX with a remap and big brakes. Might be handy to go down the PPPPPPPP route then, unless a bargainacious WRX comes up. I think I'll try and be blind to that and just buy the best car I can. No doubt many will have been mapped anyway, and if it's a verifyable state of tune with reciepts then that's nothing to be scared of.

All exicited now, can't wait to go car shopping!

Scooby WRX- Cheers for the email, I will very much bear you in mind should the right car come up in the "wrong" state of tune. You're not a million miles from me!

[WeirdNeville]

Well, finally plumped for an Impreza! Put a deposit down on a '54 WRX PPP wagon today. 53k miles and 3 owners, it's got leather recaros and pretty much everything that I wanted! Certainly goes well enough for now. Complete service history wih reciepts ,it's never gone more than 6k miles without fresh fully synth oil. Even my wife is excited about it (I've always wanted one of those!).

Dead happy, will pick it up later this week!

[WeirdNeville]

It's this one:
And I paid what I think it's worth.