Now I'm in trouble. Impreza purchase, wife yet to be told!

[Heaveho]

Well, this is me in the st. Already got 5 cars ( there are 2 of us ), and just spunked out on a UK 49k V plate Impreza Turbo 2000 'cos it looks mint, is completely standard and has factory aircon.

None of which is going to cut any ice with my car ( and husband ) hating wife, who I've yet to inform will be required to take me on a 300 mile round trip to collect said vehicle, which, on my return, I have nowhere to store! Might have to find a buyer for this before I even collect it, which would be a shame as I'm really looking forward to owning it for a while! Still, as impulse purchases go, I've possibly come close to doing worse. Dunno why I keep doing this, it's clearly a form of sickness.

I'll post some pics when it arrives in about a week, if I live that long!

[Heaveho]

Aye, well, you can laugh, but I've crossed a line here. I'm already a marked man because of my " short term investment " purchases, namely my Mk1 MR2 and 987 Boxster S, both of which I've now had for more than 3 years! She's wise now, still haven't told her, she's going into orbit when she hears about this. Paid the deposit, just got to find a way of making a few grand that's about to disappear from the account look like it's still there!

Wish me luck.......the irony is, she'll probably end up with the car as part of the settlement!

[Heaveho]

Prohibiting said:

Congrats. I saw this Impreza on eBay. The silver turbo 2000 if we're thinking of the same vehicle.

Looks identical to my old V reg Turbo 2000.

Enjoy it!

Yes, that's the one........in my defence, if you've seen the car, you'll know why I couldn't resist, but that's not going to fly with Mrs Heaveho.

Thanks for all the good luck messages, never before have I felt so much in need!

I could sell something else, and it may well be the Boxster that's sacrificed, but it kind of goes against the grain. I'm dead fussy with the upkeep and appearance of my stuff, I've only kept the stuff I've got because they're generally in such nice condition that I'd worry about replacing them, if I wanted to, with something as good. I do try and buy with one eye on ease of resale, just in case I suddenly need to part with something, but until now it hasn't been an issue and I've had all of the others for between 3 and 16 years.

Thanks to the very kind gentleman for the offer of storage, no problems trusting someone on here, and it may well become my only option, so never say never. It's much appreciated, but I'll try not to drag you into it!

[Heaveho]

Mr Pointy said:

There's an easy answer to this problem: add up the cost of the MR2, the Boxster & the Impreza, take that amount of money out of your bank account & give it to your wife. Tell her she isn't to spend it on anything for you or the house. Handbags, shoes & clothes are ok.

When you next want to spunk £5k on a car ask yourself "do I have £10k in the bank?".

If you can't afford to do this you can't afford the cars.

Hmmm, not sure if serious..........

It was never an issue about the amount of money, more the fact that it was, by my own admission, a bit of a potty thing to do given that I live in a city centre townhouse, in which I've already had to lift the kitchen/diner floor up to accommodate a ramp in the garage below! Space and reason is the issue at hand, not the expense. Just as well....

5k? Er, I'd better check the advert again, I'm sure it wasn't that much!

I've hidden all of the sharp stuff, I'll update when sufficient courage has been summoned to begin the inevitable conflict!

[Heaveho]

Thanks lads, don't want to ruin dinner, and am currently basking in the warm glow of unexpectedly beating Spurs today, so may well postpone the unveiling of my new purchase / recent misdemeanour until a more opportune moment!

[Heaveho]

Well, it could have gone worse. Could have gone better though. With hindsight, telling her about the 2010 Cayman on my watchlist wasn't smart! However misguided the logic was, I reckoned telling her about something more expensive that I was going to buy, then saying I wasn't, would help to diffuse the potential explosion generated by the Impreza bombshell. Guess what? Not happening! If I'm being generous, we'll call it a 50% success rate. In as much as, with much muttering, she's accepted the Impreza on the usual notion that I'll only have it for a little while, but the Cayman is, beyond any semblance of doubt, out of bounds.

When I say out of bounds, it is still on my watch list and finishes today. As it stands, it looks like a bargain............

Pics of the source of the current domestic imbalance









Sorry for the crap pics

Edited by Heaveho on Monday 26th August 15:24

[Heaveho]

TotalControl said:

You brave bd.

In all honesty though, could you not consolidate? Or buy a house that can accommodate all those cars?

Ha, think you posted at the same time as me, or just before..........if so, have a look at the pics I just posted and tell me, in all honesty, you wouldn't have done the same............

[Heaveho]

67Dino said:

Ouch. Think the solution to your car-buying addiction is to buy a newer model of the same car, in the same colour, and then hope the other half doesn’t notice. eg “It does look like new, doesn’t it? Just had it valeted”.

Good call, private plates may assist in the quest for discretion!

[Heaveho]

Eyersey1234 said:

Glad to hear telling your OH went reasonably well

Thanks, IIRC, you've got form with your car buying history, nice to have some empathy from one who genuinely understands! Apologies if I've mixed you up with another sufferer!

[Heaveho]

baptistsan said:

He who dares

I like it! If the Mrs decides it really must go then give me a shout! I'd happily give it a new home

Lol, it's a bit of a hit with my mates already. The shameless harridan of misery currently masquerading as my wife may yet have to be appeased by a sacrificial offering. If things really deteriorate mood wise, or I fancy something else in a while, I'll bear you in mind though. My cars tend to be better when I sell them than when I buy, although, as things stand, this will be a difficult one to noticeably improve. It'll stay completely standard whatever else, that's the main appeal of it to me.

I had one of these on an X plate back in the early 2000s, and sold it after running it until about 2005 or 6, the last 2 years of which I also owned my current 2003 Evo 8. I'm looking forward to seeing how I feel about the comparison now. Back then, for me, the Evo was better in every way. For cars that are meant to appeal to similar people, they're two very different propositions.

[Heaveho]

rossub said:

You can’t compare a bog standard UK model Impreza with an Evo! Miles apart.

Yep, people did though.

[Heaveho]

rossub said:

I bought a 1993 WRX in 2003.

I drove to work in it today

Bravo, owned my Evo for exactly that period of time. Tells you all you need to know about how much spare time I get that it's only just passed 50k miles!

[Heaveho]

B'stard Child said:

I had a similar issue - started a thread on it Here

Except I didn't buy a different one I bought another one the same - this thread got me thinking I should share

Lol, just been reading that, it's genius. I clearly haven't thought it through, mine are all different models and colours! God, what a fool I've been..........

[Heaveho]

B'stard Child said:

Ahh Part three is now up and they aren't the same colour

Just had another look, I'm normal compared to you!

Claire twigged I still had a Cayman on my watchlist, due to end tonight at 9pm. Spitefully, she arranged for us to be out with friends so I couldn't enter into the final few seconds of melee. Not to be outdone, I set a limit and got a mate to bid on it. Sadly, or possibly, fortuitously, I was a bit of a frock and fell a few hundred short of the final bid. Can't decide whether to be glad I've dodged another domestic bullet, or irritated at missing something that was a dead cert on giving me a drink and a quick resale.

Might let my lovely 987S go to justify my recent and possibly upcoming purchase frenzy. Cobalt blue, 77k miles, high spec, and full history should help. Marital trauma aside, space is genuinely becoming a complete headache. Tomorrow has been put aside as a day of garage space experimentation involving the Evo, the Boxster, the MR2 and the scissor ramp! It'll be the first time all 3 cars have been at the same address in 3 years.

Edited by Heaveho on Wednesday 28th August 01:03

[Heaveho]

The German stuff I look at is where the real marital discord becomes a factor. When I moved south in '98 I left a job working for Lexus, and took the last one of the many Corolla GTIs I'd owned with me when I moved in with Claire. We lived on a houseboat for 3 years which wasn't the cheapest way to live, and I misguidedly sold the Corolla and replaced it with a Corrado VR6. Although I loved it for the way it drove, it was the most unreliable car I hope I ever own, and the bitter memories Claire has of the endless ownership expense has coloured her view of supposed German quality.

3 Boxsters in a row since 2015 hasn't exactly enamoured her with feelings of warmth towards me.........hence the hope that sacrificing this one may buy me some tolerance!

[Heaveho]

B'stard Child said:

I honestly don't know how to advise you on that front - BMW 125i's are nice

Err, it's a lovely offer as they say! I'm going to attempt to struggle on through life without that particular pleasure.

[Heaveho]

Well, today's the day, off to collect the Impreza in a mo, hello Subaru, goodbye marital relations! Very much hoping for a completely uneventful run back, which is why I'm taking a jack, tools, jump leads, water, oil, code reader and circuit tester! And going in a Lexus, as at least that way we're guaranteed reliable transport home in one of the cars! The thought process being that when you take all of this stuff, you won't need it! Hope I'm right. Wish me luck........

Whatever happens, pics to follow.

[Heaveho]

Well, we got back without incident, no tools required, and in record time. Unfortunately, all of this because we both came back in the same car we went in.

The Subaru started and ran perfectly. It all went fairly downhill after that. It looked great in the pics. Someone is a good photographer! Rectification of the paintwork issues would be expensive and impractical. This description also applies to the fact that the front wheels were sitting at different distances inside the arches, and at angles I'm fairly sure weren't ever intended by the manufacturer.

I'm not going to make a complete list of the potential ownership headaches , suffice to say I saw enough not to need to drive it, and was way happier losing a non-refundable deposit than I was buying the car. Sorry there are no pics, the mood twixt us and the seller deemed taking them rather inappropriate! Sorry to end the thread on a bit of a damp squib, I was expecting it to continue on in the same vein post purchase.

Disappointed in some respects, not surprised in others. I'm lucky to have what I've already got, today has made me realise how nice the cars I own are.

Now, where's that Elan M100 I've been interested in, if she thought she was upset at the idea of an Impreza, imagine how repellent she's going to find this apparition!

[Heaveho]

MattsCar said:

Well done for walking away!

I saw this advertised and the fact it had been sat around unused for 14 years and I could see bad rust repairs in the photos on the top edge of the internal boot lid surround, suggested it might not be the find that you were hoping for.

Finding a truly rust free, unrepaired, classic Impreza is nigh on impossible and while they may look rust free from the outside, the inner arches go first...as you will probably know having done a bit of research.

Don't be put off by this example though, they are truly great cars and if another comes up, you will be more versed in knowing what to look out for.


Yep, I saw those repairs in the pics, but I was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt until I saw it in the metal. I didn't get far enough into it to be completely sure I'm right, but I made the assumption that I was looking at a car that had been in a shunt, and that, and a few discrepancies in the answers to questions asked was more than enough for me.

If you say in the ad that you've fitted a new clutch and timing belt recently, then can't provide receipts for the parts, that's a red flag. As a seller, I'd have that stuff ready for scrutiny, and be at pains to put a buyer at ease. None of that was apparent in this instance.

Still, it was a nice drive out for the afternoon.

Edited by MattsCar on Saturday 31st August 20:37

[Heaveho]

Yeah, shame, but it was the right thing to do.

Don't remind me about the Cayman, 2010 2.9 manual, 59k, 2 owners, full history, sold for £14750.