Hello all,

I am in the market for a new or nearly-new WRX (Std not Sti). Having driven a MY05 PPP Wagon (which was awesome!), I am due to drive the MY05 std WRX saloon this afternoon to compare the differences, as ths will hopefully be similar to the MY06 facelift.

I cannot currently make up my mind whether to go for a late PPP MY05 or to wait for the MY06 to be avaliable on a Euro Import (I will struggle to stretch to the £21k list price of a UK car).

Does anyone know when they MY06 will be avaliable as a euro import and what the costs will be?

Also there appears to be big price differences on the Euro MY05 i.e. £15700 from Motorpoint/Allbrandsnew, but £17000 from Litchfields. Judging by past experience, when will the the likes of Motorpoint get their hands on teh MY06?

Any opinons gratefully received! Cheers,

 

Give Alliance a ring and ask. I did this last year with my 05 WRX and had one of the first in the country (end of Sep). They were kepping them quiet to shift their 04 stock.

Saying that speaking to Iian Litchfield would also be wise.

 

With a bit of shopping around at dealers, you should be able to get a MY05+free PPP with about 10% discount at the moment, so I guess it partly depends on whether you want MY06 or 05 body and are prepared to pay the extra for PPP if you go for the 06.

Cheers.

 

All brands new MY06 WRX with metallic paint is £16,702 on the road(no alarm).
litchfirld will include the Cat 1 alarm on his price IMHO. Would prob go the litchfield route as he has loads of experiance in the Subaru brand.
hope this helps.

Mac

 

Or you could always buy a 3 month old wrx300!

The general consensus is that insurance is cheaper than a wrx with PPP, although it is effectively the same car due it being registered with the DVLA as including PPP as standard rather than an aftermarket modification.

There is (or was) a demonstrator going for £19,000 a couple of weeks ago but as far as I know it has been sold. I would definately recommend that if you could get hold of one at the right price, it is a good alternative to the two ideas you originally had in mind.

I am biased as I am selling mine but the facts above about insurance are true - so PM me if you want details.

 

What was the standard WRX like compared with the PPP option? Motorpoint are now doing new 2005 WRX for £14999. You need to add alarm £300 ish and road tax.

 

I had one for 3 weeks prior to picking up my 300. I found that the WRX standard is a tiring car to drive based on my particular journey to work. Dont get me wrong, it is a fine car, its just that if you are stuck in traffic in 4th gear at 1000-2000 revs you have to change gear to even slightly increase the speed, otherwise the car just shakes and judders until you change down or stall! People on here took the p!ss and asked if i was a taxi driver etc etc, but the reality is that over 60 miles each morning this is a pain in the ****.

With PPP this is not the case, and when I mentioned this in the past I got flamed for criticising the WRX for this characteristic - but as I said it is only really an issue when in slow moving traffic on a motorway. Other than that its a cracking car.

To be honest the wrx vs wrx+ PPP cannot really be compared like for like as the power is delivered in a completely different band to the wrx, and the acceleration all the way from 3000-6000 revs is incredible. After owning one with PPP, I would never dream of buying one without in the future. as an added bonus, the fuel consumption is slightly better on the PPP.

Definately test drive one for a day or two before committing, as if like me you do a lot of motorway miles in traffic, you will be pissed off with the WRX before you know it and you may struggle to do anything (even adding PPP) with an imported wrx which doesnt void the warranty.

 

Cheers for the replies!

I drove a MY04 WRX saloon after the MY05 WRX Wagon and there did appear to be +ve and -ve points to both -

First impression of the WRX PPP was the exhaust sound - my g0d it was loud. Some people would love it but my first impression was that it would drive me nuts on a M-way run at 95mph. However, the performance - I drove this in a rural setting and kept having to pull in to allow myself a good gap to test the car in....only trouble was, this car was so quick that no sooner had I opened it up, then I was back doing 60 behind the other cars! Quite simply, awesome....

My current car is a n/a 2.0l and the delay in pickup surprised me but when you hit 3000rpm it just came alive and gave me confidence to overtake anything. The suspension also seemed softer and didn't "crash" over bumps as much as my coupe.

Next was a "Std" WRX. the other dealer did not have one of these in stock but were very accomodating and got me a 2nd hand trade-in MY04 WRX to drive (WR Mica - STi back box & spoiler and blacked out windows - someone from here?). The drop in mid range grunt was noticeable as per your views jbwrx300, but coming from a 9 second 0-60 I am not sure if I will notice the improvement from fitting PPP.

So the long and short is I think will wait for the MY06 to surface (sorry jbwrx300!). I think I would rather have the MY06 std than the MY05 PPP (Purely from a residual perspective). I rang Litchfield's and spoke to Iain (which surprised me somewhat) and put it this way, it must be an expensive CAT1 alarm to pay for over the Allbrandsnew price below (Albeit I don't doubt the experience and expertise). There is a new Motorpoint opening in S.Wales tomorrow so I will pop over there at some point and see what deal they have planned for the MY06.

I haven't given up on a UK car yet but the savings are so big that I just need to scope out the warranty issues with all the options, as well as the willingness of the Scooby delaers to service Euro Imports.

Also one final point to note is that my local dealer said that there are no UK MY05 WRX SL's in stock.....

Sorry for the essay but I am soooo excited! Cheers, Mark.

 

Hi Mark,

www.allbrandsnew.com will sell you an EU Impreza MY06 STi 2.5 330bhp for £22995 on the road!

 

If you are still in two minds about a MY05 WRX+PPP, I don't think you'll find the sound tiresome on motorways. Admittedly, I don't cruise as fast as you, but at a steady 80 the exhaust note is barely audible, more of a low burble than the lively and louder sound you get in lower gears at speed. So I think it gives you the best of both worlds -- exciting sound track when you want it and no distraction when you don't.

Also, as I think most people (everyone?!) on here with PPP will agree, it really does make a significant difference to the buzz you get over a normal WRX. The shove in the back is something you'll never get tired of!

Decisions, decisions!

A