Hi all, currently got a 2003 330ci sport, had it for about 5 months, while it is a very good car, and i wanted one for about 2 years before i got one, it just doesnt have that spark if you know what i mean.. It is fast, and does handle nice, and sounds very nice too, and im sure if you lot have driven one you will agree, ive recently been thinking about swapping or p/x for a impreza. Proberly a WRX PPP or an sti, or maybe just a stock wrx, and do a few mods.

Has anyone come from a simular car to an impreza? and why?

How would you compare the servicing costs and general matience, and MPG, i currently get 23 in my 330, and thats mainly just to work and back with the odd blast, have seen as high as 35+ on a run though.

I know the insurance will be more, and im prepared for that,

What would you do, shall i come over to the dark side?

thanks

 

My dad has a 2004 330ci msport. No comparison to my blob Sti mate... He loves my scooby.. Drive is so
Much more confident in bends and the BMW is ****e in the winter

 

Yea i know how bad BMW are during the winter, i had a 323i for 2 years before the 330, had some fun trying to get out of my road during the heavy snow.. haha, Im more worrried about the running costs and things like that..

 

Well my Sti running 325bhp is averaging 21mpg around town if I take it easy (very rare)...but if you have Money for a Sti buy one.. Modding wrx can be expensive depending on what power you want

 

My Subaru doesn't use that much fuel, 30mpg average, servicing isn't cheap but I do it myself, so with trade cards its good value , So I wouldn't say running costs will be No more than any other performance car. Would say that in last 12months subaru prices are falling due to insurance and fuel costs increasing. Would buy the best you can, would defo go sti route as a base

 

My car is worth id say just under 5k, so i got that to spend, power wise i dont really mind, would like say around 260-270, hence looking at prodrive'd WRX's although from reading this can be achieving from decatting, and rempapping a standard wrx, that sort of MPG sounds ok i guess, about the same as im on now, and i use 99ron already, i know it will drop alot, when driven fast, but that would only be once a week etc,

Would it do the engine much harm just pottling around during the week on 1/2 mile trips, and not going into the boost?

 

hard to comment, I have a Bugeye WRX (getting new hawk STI this sat!! woot)
My mate who has a 330ci 53 plate has just spent 4k on a supercharger and got 388bhp.
with all cats still in, he will get the cats removed soon to get more.

So in fairness they can do well, but it depends on what you want i guess? I like the 4WD and 4 doors of my scooby than a coupe

 

i had 2 bug eyes then had a 325ci on a 01 plate then went straight back to a subaru although the bmw is an awesome car theres nothing like driving a subaru , as for running costs i now have a 56 plate wrx ppp and running it only on v power i get the same as i was getting in the bmw, insurance i think went up £200 as for parts id go as far as saying there more expensive for the bmw because of all the members clubs and e bay and scoobynet there is always someone selling something you may need hope this helps

 

A hawk wrx with remap. hard to beat imo and can be had for about 5 grand

 

Suggest try a 335i.

 

are they only available on autos?

 

335i is manual or auto. 335d is auto only.

The 335i hardly needs a gearbox though, incredibly flexible engine, still has good noise and throttle response. Tunes easily to 400 BHP, but like a Scooby would benefit from other upgrades to go with it. Look out for cracking 19" wheels (they drive nice on 18s though) and some earlier models had issues with fuel pumps. Also the CO2 on various years straddles the 225g/km which gives a hike in road tax, but possibly a cheaper buy.

If you don't need or want AWD, it has so many advantages over a Subaru.

135i too, if you can stomach the looks.

 

If i had the money, i would buy one without thinking about it, im only 23, so maybe in the future.

Dont know about this hawk eye/ bug eye, i presume the hawk eye is 2004+ though? which is what im looking at.

Thanks " bug eyed boy " its nice to hear there about the same on petrol when taking it easy, as before though, is there any problems with just doing short journeys in the week, I only live 1 mile from work, and 2 miles from town center, so dont really do that much mileage unless i go for a blast in the evenings,

thanks for all the posts so far.

Quite like the look of this as a standard wrx, cam belt will need doing soon though if it hasnt already been done?

http://www.hucklesbrook.co.uk/used-c...01233481799080

 

I think your 330 is a better car overall, if you avoid changing cars too often you can save up for something you really want?

 

Havnt really changed cars too often, previous cars ive had for 2+ years apart from this 330ci, maybe one day i will have a 335i though, give it 5 years, i do get bored quite easily though, dont fancy spending any more money, as i am saving, hence why i would prefer to swap, cant think of many other cars that offer impreza performance and isnt 10+ years old for around £5000.

 

The WRX you showed the advert for won't really be any faster for acceleration in the dry once rolling.

Hope I'm not stating the obvious, but if you change a similar age 330ci for a WRX using a dealer due to boredom you will be eroding your savings. Dealers like to make a few grand out of a deal like this.

Having said that I could not abide my E46 M3 (useless brakes and suspension with 19" wheels that didn't suit a British B road, not really a car I wanted to modify) and got rid of it after 6 months (between age 12 and 18 months), but took a bath of £5k between dealer purchase and private sale. I got an Evo 9 (6 months old) after and kept it for 3 years and only lost £3k a year, private purchase, private sale.

 

The only comparable car to your current 330ci is an STI and I'm gonna stick my neck out to say, that your BMW will kill the Scooby from midrange speed onwards due to the 3.0 litre engine.

I came from a 530i Sport to my STI and I would never go back to a German car again. The reliability of these cars is absolutely amazing compared to when I drove BMW's. With the Scoob, you get everything of a high end performance car except for the luxeries. For me, I realised that performance and handling were more important than luxeries.

 

Yea i know it wont be any faster due to it being standard, but a couple of mods and its a different story, that was just an example anyway, would prefer an STI, or at least a PPP'd WRX.

And yea i know about the whole dealer situation, and i wouldnt let them rip me off, i would try to go with a private swap, im just testing the water at the moment, nothing is set in stone.

Zayd:

Thanks for your comment, i completly understand where your coming from, i thought i wanted the looks, and the luxery, but when i take the 330 out for a good blast, something is missing, and i realise its the handling and perfomance i miss, while the 330ci is fast, its so smove, you dont realise, i want something thats going to kick me up the ***.

 

Matt, don't bother with wrx, go straight into an Sti, it has a strong engine to start with for future mods! I've had 4 impreza's in the past then went into a 330ci, was great to begin with but it's just not a scooby. So I sold it n went into a blobeye Sti. Great car!

 

Thanks for your input.

If there is an STI in my budget then i would be strongly tempted, I dont want to mod the car too much though, id be happy with 260/270bhp 0-60 5secs, which im sure is achieveable from a lightly modded WRX, as those are the figures from a prodrived WRX, im sure that will be fast enough for me for now, but im sure i would get the modding bug in the future.

 

Lol at all the sheep, sti sti sti baah baah.

For 5k you can get a very nice wrx or a dog of an sti.

I'm sick of saying it but here goes AGAIN

A PPP or lightly modded wrx is a faster better day to day car than an sti.

And if, like you say you DON"T want to mod beyond 270bhp then the wrx is the car for you, there are also plenty with much more power out there.

If you fancy modding then yes the STI has a stronger engine and box.

I do wish people would read what the op is saying before just trotting out sti sti sti, jesus not everyone wants to have their back fillings replaced and p1ss blood on a weekly basis, when all the lad wants is some smiles from the odd weekend blast, which is something a ppp or modded wrx is more than capable of providing, and the other 99% of the time it's a nice enough place to be.

 

That's quite funny - but also very true and good advice. I had a classic STI for a while and now have a hawkeye wrx wagon. I originally wanted to get an STI, and i could have probably got a blobeye STI for about the same money as my hawk wrx but the main problem i had was i needed space for the dog, so i went for the wrx wagon.

Do i regret not getting the STI? in a word, NO. The WRX is just right for me - yes, I'm looking do modify it a bit more to get more power, and i would have loved a 6 speed box etc. but overall, i think that for me anyway, the WRX is the better car. The old STI i had was a bit harsh on the roads around here, and although it was fun, the power was much higher up the rev band than the 2.5 in the WRX, so it was less relaxing to drive, if you get my drift. Mine is standard apart from a back box, panel filter and remap, and is currently running about 255bhp with 355lbft torque, which is great for cruising as you rarely need to change gear unless you're really giving it some.

Just my £0.02, hope that helps

 

You could have gone JDM Legacy Wagon Spec B GT (BH/BL 2004 onwards), 280 bhp out of the box, twin scroll and very discrete.

 

edited for accuracy

 

Yes, absolutely - I was looking for one but they were (are?) rare as rocking horse poo when I needed to change the car, so I opted for the WRX instead. If there was one available I would have snapped it up, great cars. I also considered the 3.0 Legacy as well, had a 2001 Outback version and it was a great car, but lacked the punch... something simiular to the OP's situation really I did wonder if i should have gone for the 3.0 Spec B legacy and then went down the tuning route via turbo / supercharger conversion perhaps, but the complexity of such a build put me off a bit tbh. Maybe as a project car...

 

oi, shut it, you and anyone who can add numbers up can work it out for themselves, it's a fact that is not popular amongst sti owners, TD04 spools a lot quicker than a tdo5 the wrx is lighter mainly because of the gear box and the ratios are longer, suspension more compliant on uk roads, so the FACT is a PPP WRX IS faster in the real world, than a standard STI not by much but it is.

 

Having to use a turbo as small as the TD04 to keep the power band acceptable is a symptom of a badly designed exhaust manifold and a single scroll turbo. On a 2.0 engine with legal emissions in a tune you can hold at Vmax on an autobahn or track hard on normal fuel on a hot day it probably is behind an E9x BMW 3.0 in terms of output.

 

 

FACT is a very strong word to use in statements like that. What actual tests (with repeatable results of course ), have you carried out to back the use of that word up? Not having a pop, just playing Devil’s advocate to your statements.

Really there is only one answer to the OP; if you can afford either the wrx or the sti go drive both cars and make your mind up

 

A standard WRX beats his 330i in all the stats except top speed.
Not by much however...

http://www.torquestats.com/index.php?pid=comparison