Carlh

May I be so rude as to ask when your driving license expires Mr.Lewis? Thanks

Abx

iTrader: (15)

1.6 TDCI Fiesta spec'd up to STI level is (or there abouts) £18220!!!!

Have you priced up something the size and power of an STI, (and I mean peformance power rather than Nm's, something with a simlilar 0-60, you have to compare like for like here, I know your's is probably good at overtaking but then so are a lot of cars), similar VW's are not cheap.

Lewis, please before I comment on your Honda can you post up a pic of it inside and out, its easy for others to say its a pile of tat but lets see what you think is so good. I'm sure you will be ok about this as your always happy to comment on other peoples cars, lets turn it around for a minute, I'll be honest about your chosen transport I promise, unless its brown that is!

pslewis

Not sure what this has to do with the argument, but, it expired when I was 70 - it's renewed every 3 years after that.

pslewis

What seems to stand out here is that the 0-60 time is, without doubt, the number 1 requirement of members on SN ..... this makes them blind to the environment in which Subaru are making them travel.

Like I said .... it's a one trick pony - and a damned expensive one at that.

nick172sport

iTrader: (6)

subarus have no tourque compared to a diesal ie golf gti tdi 170 will beat a scoob 0.60 enough said

mantazini

iTrader: (25)

What seems to stand out is an overall package, u buy an sti impreza for the power, handling, etc. U aint getting it for the comfort, gadgets etc. Guys !!!! wake da fok up, how much more of that bullish we going to listen ??? Its a Japanese ****box wich can give a run for the money to a modern supercar, is fun and forgivable on the track cause of 4WD. Its not an AMG merc , an M-tech beemer , or RS4 Audi which all have the compromise of luxury and speed. STI has been made to be quick , not comfortable. Im wondering was your classic very comfortable and well built back in 2000 Lewis??NOT!!!! you could have chosen , 535i or 540i or E500 back then for seed and comfort.
So OFF , Ok .....



And i'm only joking

pslewis

You forget something ..... in the year of our lord 2000, the Subaru Impreza was an Icon - an object of desire - a fantastic performance bargain ..... it did things other cars couldn't hope to match.

Fast forward 11 years and the world has changed, the Impreza is not the Icon it once was - it is not engaged in any Motorsport (unlike, for example, a Honda Civic which is leading the way in the BTTC) - it's not as good as many other cheaper cars - it's not that fast anymore - it is built like a Kia, and actually looks worse!! - it's horrendously expensive to run, for very little benefit.

Nah - end of the line, unless they either improve the build or drop the price to sub £20k.

mantazini

iTrader: (25)

It did things better like what??? Your Uk spec scoob was pants even then , comparing to M3s , Evos , and other same class cars.JDM was another case. The year 2000 M3 evos had 321bhp . So ssshhhh Pete...... . Sti is a different breed, not for your needs so no point of dissing it. 2011 STI was faster then new M3 on the ring and its 20k cheeper but without luxury... Take your car to a track day ..... well TBH dont, as your 1st corner will be in a ditch....and you will run out of puff above 4k rpm when u most need it. So the statmentt u made of overtaking unexpected drivers at the traffic lights are sad, unfortunately. I see my cars in a different way. Diesel = family, Hi spec petrol perfomance car = fun.

andythejock01wrx

Peter!

Carlh

Thanks pete, was just wondering. Respect to you for being on the net at your age, no respect however for your constant flaming of the subaru range on a subaru forum. Doesnt make sense to me.

Why dont you just join some other forum, what do you get out of this forum?

pslewis

I'm not sure where you were in the year 2000 .... maybe you were too young to experience what the Motoring world was saying about this new kid in town - the Subaru Impreza.

The EVO was highly rated too ...... but I cannot think that an M3 was something every schoolboy aspired to - not now, not then.

In 2000 I was paying around £22,000 - full list price - for a motoring icon in the making ... there was a waiting list for the UK cars ... people were selling 12 month old Impreza's for new prices!!

And this is were the JDM Import came to the rescue ... people didn't buy them for any other reason other than they could actually get one!! They bought them because they couldn't buy a proper UK Impreza - not for any other reason than that.

You needed to have lived through the late 90's and early 2000's to have experienced something great, something marvellous, something truly special ...... a car manufacturer coming from nowhere to take the driving public by storm. I hadn't experienced such a car, I hadn't felt the need to pay list price before, I didn't think I would be driving a Motoring legend ....... but, I was!

That was then, now is now, I cannot tell you how sad I am that the Impreza is now thought of in such a way as it is. The crown has gone, the car is a shadow of it's Classic brother ..... and this thread is simply my way of expressing what Subaru UK needs to know - it hasn't got a car which people aspire to, it hasn't got a car which is an icon, it hasn't got a car which ooooozes quality (the classic didn't either but that was easy to overlook, then), it certainly hasn't got a car which is worth £33,450 ............ and a Sat.Nav and extra 20 BHP will not change that fact!!

pslewis

Not sure if you have noticed, but I have been here for 11 years ........ you wouldn't believe the ride I have had getting here!

Mark'sWRX

You must have a different car to all the other Civic owners, then.

The recent AutoExpress satisfaction survey has the Civic in the bottom half overall and 74th for build quality and LAST for ride quality.

I did warn you about this when you bought one: The ride is worse than my WRX and for me makes the car not worth considering. I once took one down one of my favourite back roads and had to head back to the main road for the sake of my spine!

Oh, and don't get me started on the rear visibility....

I am impressed by the clever upward folding rear seat, though. Oh, sorry, the Type-S doesn't have that feature.

pslewis

Mine does!!

Magic Seats they call them.

And, who cares about rear visibility? All you see is cars getting smaller - especially ones with a pink STi badge on them!

Anyway - this isn't about the Honda, it's about the stupid price of an ex-icon - the Impreza STi at a mind numbing £33,450

Plastikman

pslewis

Linky no worky

Plastikman

Nah not engaged in motorsport, no idea whos name that is in the rear window. Ok so maybe theyre not in motorsport now that were onto the saloon but thats because the WRC is now running with 1.6L INLINE egnines and no Turbos. Which probably keeps its nice and ecconomical and ****ing boring, not like the Group-B days where it wasnt about the least amount of balsa wood they can use or least amount of ferret farts to keep the costs down, it was all about winning and being the most inovative and pioneering. Regulations, cost cutting just makes for boring viewing.
You also mentioned torque, whats great value about a hatch is 300bhp and just under 300lb-ft torque on a UK car aswell as import and with just a filter and exhaust and remap its up at 350bhp and 360lb-ft torque.
Price wise you chat so much ****e, all the classic UK scoobs performance wise were way down the list except for the P1 which was £31495, the other UK cars std were 200-215bhp slouches with the odd moderate model like the RB5 at 235bhp but even the Jap Import WRX's since 93 were 240bhp. So your UK classic and price chat is ****e. Unless your talking about a UK sport?
I loved the classics (had three) and would have one again but defo a P1 or WRX STI RA, over a vanilla sport etc and dam straight id pay more for it too, happily!

Plastikman

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...94-prices.html

Pipey Smokey

pslewis

I'm talking about the NEW STi mate ...... at £33,450!!

Now, that's way too rich for you ... so, you are not in a position to state whether it's value or not - as it's rather academic in your case. With all due respect.

SirFozzalot

The problem is Pete, most things have gone up in the last 11 years.

Take the M3 for example, back in 2000 they started at around £42500, now they start at £54500.

Don't get me wrong, I also think the new STi seems over priced, when I bought my STi new back in 2003 I managed to get a good deal and paid £23400, I don't think the new one is worth £10k more but I guess Subaru do.

pslewis

So, using your figures ..... the M3 has gone up 28% in 11 years.

And, again using your figures, the STi has gone up 43% in 8 years.

I am going to put my neck on the line here - but, would I be correct in thinking that the M3 is still the quality item it always was?

Whereas the STi is a plastic plantpot in comparison?

So, why would the STi have increased so much more?

SirFozzalot

My figure for my STi wasn't list. List price was £25k. they have climbed steadily since then. I think the Hawkeye STi's were about £28k

Basic Honda civic hatchback in 2000 could be had for £10k, now they start at £14k.

I guess Subaru would argue that there are all sort of improvements made and costs of materials and exchange rates etc.

Like I've said, I also think it's too much, I certainly wouldn't consider buying one for that price.

pslewis

Subaru can argue that there are improvements all they like ... the car world has left them lingering in the history of 1995 - 2001 ....

SirFozzalot

Edited for accuracy.

2003 was the last time SWRT won a WRC title. All down hill from there.

pslewis

I said 2001 ..... because that's when Subaru launched the most hideous car ever to grace tarmac with the Bug eye!!

2001 was the end of the Classic - Subaru never quite regained their position.

Plastikman

For one, I own a new impreza which is why I can comment and why I take a dislike to your comments.... no, actually to you. I put that Guardian link up about the WRX to show that the price hasnt changed since 1994 for the more coin concious. I also pointed out that the P1 which in performance terms at least is on par with todays STI, the P1 cost £31K the new sti is £33. The p1 had 276bhp new sti 296bhp, Torque was around the same and relative to the BHP, P1 got ABS, new Sti got DCCD, P1 5 speed, Sti 6 speed, both have plastic interiors, although the new sti does have quite a few more airbags, both had big brakes and wheels, new Sti has a wider track and improved rear suspension, id say those are improvements. And prety much justify the £2K extra. The only feeble excuse you will now cling onto is the p1's exclusivity and fair enough it was limited and the new sti isnt but find me someone who bought one purely because it was limited.
The quality BMW engineering you mentioned again, see my previous video link to address that.

Plastikman

You were right about Honda having Touring car success and despite having nothing to do with your original point, digress away. I would like to point out that in 53 years of British Touring car History, Honda has won one title in 2010. Well done!

Plastikman

Heres some of the sports the Impreza is not engaged in:

SCCA Events

In 2005 and 2006, Icy Racing's 2004MY STi's took 1st and 2nd place in Club Racing's T2 division. ESX Motorsports announced the introduction of the WRX STI in World Challenge's GT class in 2005.

Super GT

The Cusco team have been campaigning a heavily modified STi with a rear drive conversion as required by regulations since the late nineties and having no two-door model available at present, the Super GT committee gave a special permit for them to race with a four-door model instead of a two-door one. The rear drive conversion rule was lifted in 2006, and since then they returned to all-wheel drive with a transaxle gearbox.

In 2008, Cusco's Impreza won the first GT300 race in Sepang. It marked the first AWD car victory in Super GT/JGTC history. Even though they were having very impressive results(with 1 win and 2 podiums) that season, Cusco announced that they would not participate in the 2009 season as they want \ The performance of Cusco was outstanding even though they were using a 4-door car, it later lead the Super GT committee to officially allow all 4-door model cars to participate the series

FIA PWRC

The STi serves as the basis from which Group N "production" rally cars are constructed. Group N5-classed (marketed by FIA as Production Car World Rally Championship or PWRC) cars are the major support category for the World Rally Championship and are the premier category in many national rally championships. For two years (2004 and 2005), the WRX STi has taken the top 3 podiums in Group N. This new effort can be attributed to STi's increased support in Group N motorsports..

FIA Events

In 2005, Chris Deable took a STI-supported WRX STI to 2nd place in the A6 class and 14th overall in the 24-hour Nürburgring race. The car was set up to have around -5 degrees of camber at the front wheels. The wheels are Enkei pieces. The car also uses the roof vane seen on the 2006MY WRX STI. The car used Tein SRC coilovers. The car was driven by Kazuo Shimizu (Super Taikyu driver and winner), Toshihiro Yoshida (Super Taikyu driver and winner), Stéphane Sarrazin (2005 Subaru World Rally Team driver) and Kumi Sato.[2]

In 2006, Deeble-Bellchambers Racing UK campaigned a Subaru factory supported WRX STI Spec C in the 24 Hour Nürburgring's SP 6 class. It had Motec Engine Management, 3-way adjustable AST coilovers, aftermarket Brembo brakes, an aftermarket turbocharger unit, STI Group N parts, aero pieces and many other modifications, pushing 400 hp (300 kW). To combat understeer, it ran without a front swaybar. It qualified 37th out of 225 competitors for the starting position. The Autosportif Racing UK/Subaru WRX STI Spec C managed to end with a position of 115 out of the 225, suffering 2 turbocharger unit failures during the course of the race. The car was driven by Alan van de Merwe (the 2003 British F3 champion), Briton Phil Bennett (driven in the BTCC, Le Mans and Nürburgring), Jonathan Price (6-time Nürburg 24 Hours competitor) and Chris Atkinson (2006, 2007 Subaru World Rally Team driver).[

Littleted

My Audi a4 slinee cost. Me 23000 in 2006 same model and spec is 29000

My type r Honda cost me 16k in 2003 Its now 20 to 22 k

Prob I had at swallowing the 6k extra I paid was the fact a year before it's was 27k all the restbhave slowly crept up but as you all know the yen was bad

Look at the dealer demos 28 k onwards now thats much better

But I still think mine was worth it cos it's mine

But plastiks on tha nail with his comments

pslewis

Plastikman - you know what? I wouldn't go to half the lengths that you have to try to convince myself that I hadn't wasted all my money ..... are you thinking you made a mistake?

Each year the Taxman will come to you for £460 (this year), £520 in 2012, £575 in 2013, £625 in 2014 ... and so on. I cannot see anywhere which shows me how old your STi is, let's assume it is a 2010 model. When your car is 5 years old there is every chance that the annual car tax will be £675, fuel at £2 a litre, Insurance difficult to get. Your £33,450 car will be worth ..... well, worthless, really. And that's not good value for money in my book.

That's all we are discussing - is the STi Impreza worth £33,450? I have heard absolutely nothing to convince me that it is .... IMO it would struggle to be worth £19,999 in todays world.