just bought an import 95 WRX - if i drive it normally, then a bit fast from time to time what kind of service / running costs can i expect - like do often things break on them?

cheers!

They cost a small fortune to insure, fill up with petrol and service.

If you look after them - run them on good high octane fuel and change the oil regularly, they're quite reliable, but things do go wrong - remember the car is 8 or so years old.

I do my own servicing in the main, so I don't know what sort of labour costs you can expect, but parts come in for me at about £500 a year. (Last year was more as I needed tyres, dampers and a clutch in short sucession :()

Petrol, I can get through £20 a week easily. I get about 250 miles for that locally, and have got 300+ on the motorways. Mine's a UK car, so expect a WRX to be a bit more thirsty (gearing is different)

Oh and budget for mods. You'll get bored with the car after a whiel and want more!

Being an import you will need to run it on SUL/Optimax at least due to the higher-octane fuel in Japan, unless you have the ECU mapped for RON 95.
There are quite a few specialist out there these days so keeping it regularly serviced shouldn't be to expensive and should keep it reliable.
Cheers.
Ian.

DNB
How do you manage to get by on £20 petrol a week.
I generaly get 21-23 mpg and use about £32 a week.
Put in £72 last week:(
By the way, i have a MY98 turbo.

Enjoy your car mickeywrx:D:D

Greg:)

cheers for help guys i dont get it for another 3 weeks so i still have my modded corsa sri at the momment!

cheers!

Greg - I don't do that many miles...

...only 60 miles (maximum) a week commuting. (and the weekends don't count!!)

Seriously though, I get about the same MPG as you, and usually manage about 150 miles a week.

Not bad for living on an island approx 20 miles across... :D

cheers guys how much would it cost to get the ecu remapped for 95 RON and could i get this done at a Subaru main dealer?

Subaru dealers don't normally touch jap imports, you are better off going to a Subaru tuning specialist such as http://www.powerengineering.co.uk/subaru/index.htm
Don't know how much though, probably a couple of hours dyno time?

It will probably cost you around 1k+ for a new ecu and a hike in your insurance :(
Your best bet is to run your car on the likes of Optimax and Octane booster (Scoobymania do 10 bottles of Millers octane + for 22.20, 1 bottle per tankful so it will last you a while ;))
Running costs though.... taking that you have an MY95 means that your next service will be expensive (when are they not expensive!) as your going to have to have all your diff/brake/gearbox oils changed (every 2 years) and your spark plugs (id also get the belt done at the same time as you probably dont know when it was done last, this will also cost you abit).
You will have no support from Subaru UK for your car, which basically means your going to have to go to a speciallist (depending where you are in the country) the nearest to me is Pro Sport in Stockport (very friendly and better IMHO than a dealer as they found things with my car the dealer should have but didnt).
Honestly though, for your next service, getting everything done, id look at around 500 quid, the 6 monthly services are cheaper (less than 100 quid) but the yearly ones can cost 2-300 quid on average.
These are not cheap cars to run, 2 services per year (6 months or 7.5k, whichever comes first) and they drink fuel, but this is what you pay for owning a scoob ;)

Tony:D

I have had my MY95 WRX just over a year and so far i have had:

Power steering pump £150 second hand

Header tank £50

Radiator £120

2 Power steering reservoirs £20 each

Coil pack £20

Steering rack gaitor £30

Rocker cover gasket (under warranty)

Other than that its been fine..!!

Dan:D

just got a 90,000 mile service.cost me £450 for eveything inc cam belt change.
then it cost me £200 for new front callipers and pads,rear disks.
not cheap but the fun you can have in these motors its well worth it.

My cambelt change cost me a total of £49.95 :D

I was suprised how easy it was, and how much better the car goes with a new belt. (The old one was well passed it, as it had stretched nearly half a tooth.