Hi all,
I'm considering buying a standard plain & simple UK Turbo (first time); don't want to pay more than £9-10K for '94-'95MY. Is this realistic? Many hi-mileage examples about, how high is a problem? What is likely to need careful checking? (I'm guessing clutch, cambelt, brake disks...). Anything to particularly beware of?
Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Rich

I've seen a green 5 door N reg for 9.5k in a second hand car place on Dick Lane, Bradford.

For wear and tear etc. read the FAQ section on

richm

Take a look here for all the info needed on importing Imprezas

I'm afraid you've missed the boat when it comes to importing a MY00 scoob from the continent (Holland cetainly). Because the new models is due out "soon" subaru japan are no longer shipping RHD imprezas to the continent. I missed out by about 4 days.....
Trying Cyprus at the moment as another source of RHD cars.

Rich,

I know you said 10K max. but have you thought about saving the extra and importing a new one from Holland for 14K?

They are the same as UK models (except cat 1 alarm). Compared to a 94/95 spec you get 4 pot brakes, 16" wheels, better interior, passenger airbag, high spoiler, engine with more power and torque, revised suspension etc. And you are the owner of a new car!

Just an idea http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Rich.

Mmmm, interesting idea Rich. Do you have experience of doing this? What are the ensuing problems, warranty, insurance etc?
Rich.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Rich_R:
<B>Rich,

I know you said 10K max. but have you thought about saving the extra and importing a new one from Holland for 14K?

Just an idea http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Rich.[/quote]

Rich,

I went found out about importing from Holland when it was too late - I went the UK route.

Try a search for importing, holland etc. There are loads of posts detailing the whole importing process from start to finish. Also plenty of info on warranty, insurance, servicing etc.

The other point I didn't mention is that there may be a waiting list (sometimes 6 months).

Rich.

Thanks, Rich, I'll check the archives out of interest...
mind you, once I decide on a Scoob, won't want to wait!!
Rich.

Thanks for that Barry, I've got the faq, just haven't had time to read it all yet!!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by BarryK:
<B>I've seen a green 5 door N reg for 9.5k in a second hand car place on Dick Lane, Bradford.

For wear and tear etc. read the FAQ section on

OK, thanks for your import suggestions guys; I don't think that route would have been my first choice -
So back to the original question:
Can I expect to get a reasonable example for £9-10K?
Anyone with any experiences (good or bad!) or advice on buying earlier, maybe highish mileage (up to 80k say)cars?

Rich

richm - check out this thread in the "Private" section:

WOW, wish I could just find that hammer for my piggybank..... I'm not ready yet, doing some research first.
Rich

Rich,

If you want to play safe, then the usual stuff applies - i.e. get one with full Subaru service history. You'll probably looking to get a car that's past it's 60K service, but if you can get one before 60K then be prepared to shell out a lot of money for the 60K sevice (I think it's over £400 incl. cambelt change). Full service history will indicate that the owner is not shy of spending a bob or two on their car - therefore any problems will have been rectified and consumable items replaced in good time, since Subarus are not particularly cheap cars to run. Be wary spending £8-9K without FULLY understanding the cost of consumable/renewable the items on a Scoob (cam belt, discs, pads, tyres) because this can sometimes push up the real cost by another £1K within the first 6 months of ownership.

IMHO you might be better of saving up a couple more quid and getting a high milage MY97 car - better handling and nicer interior.

Cheers,

Andy

I have a black 93 WRX for sale for £8500 40k miles and brand new clutch, tyres and cambelt, 259 Bhp. check the private forum

Hello,

I own a car which would be in the area you require (not for sale though).

It is a MY96 N Plate 86,000 Miles, FSSH, and cost £12,0000 from a Subaru dealer It came with Prodrive alloys/interior and sunroof (expensive extras). The dealer had serviced it from new and showed me a stack of bills from the previous loving owner. A year an 12,000 miles later I think it is worth about 10-11k??.

It suffered a bent valve spring 2 weeks into ownership requiring an engine re-build!!!. The dealer did this under warrenty without any questions or hassle, and provided me with as car for use when required. If I had gone private I would have had to foot the bill. The car was perfect, it was just one of those things, I could never have discovered before buying!

The paintwork is not looking too good, stone chips everywhere and small scrates. I think subaru paint is not that good. Halfords coloured polish did an evelent tart-up job though. The interior is fine and coping well!

Performance is superb, I have done the prodrive geomerty tweek on the FAQ and it transformed the car.

Buy one, get a warrenty, Have fun, Cars from GOOD Subaru dealers are worth the extra in my opinion.

Bye,

richm,
I think your in the right price bracket for a 95 u.k car you might be lucky and get one thats had a prodrive interior or cobra , i wouldn`t buy one with the naff seats though, the tweed armchair jobs, because you will fall off them when you go around corners,leather trimmed pre 97 spec seats are crap as well. IMHO i would buy private and buy your own warranty and pay £8000 tops for a 95 car with fssh, get it inspected approx £100, buy a metallic if you can the paint is harder and stone chips don`t show up as easy as on the solid colours, downside is paint repairs not as easy, and as andyp says avoid one due for a service especially the major ones.

Many thanks for all this feedback guys, this is just the sort of info' I'm looking for.
I'm quite conscious of the "hidden" costs and the things that could potentially go wrong.
Anyone got any experience of the 3rd party warranties that you can take out as an individual? Are they any good?
I'm quite capable of doing mechanical work myself, how hard are these cars to work with (eg. cambelt change)? Clutch sounds like a popular problem, I've done a few, how difficult is the Scoob?

I agree with your coments about the armchairs! That is the one thing that lets the early cars down.

Thanks again for the input

Rich.

Warrenty companies are just like other insurance companies and try to get out of paying anything. Both myself and a friend had cars that needed expensive warrenty repair and it was only becuase the dealers we bought from put pressure on these companies to pay up that it was resolved.

I`ve had no personal experience of third party warranties but i`d guess there were good and bad, don`t the AA do warranties, they might be a safe bet.
Anyway private is still the best way to buy or sell at the moment as the market for used cars is very price sensitive at the moment.

If your took hp out on an impreza, what would the monthly repayments be?

Mulder, is this one of your X-File mysteries?

How much it costs depends how much you spend!

Oh and richm, the place with the green 5 door have a white one too! Its M reg I think £8,500.

Heh!

I was thinking about a standard uk turbo as well, not sure on prices ya see. Has anyone got any examples?

From what I've seen, they start at about £8500 for an early (L/M), most that I've come across have done some miles, 80K+. I'm not sure if that's neccesarily a bad thing? The consensus of opinion seems to be that we need to spend about £9.5k - £10k to get a decent one. Any comments anyone - experience either way?

Rich

Rich M

I bought an N reg late '95 silver metallic turbo from a (non-Subaru) dealer in January of this year. Price involved p/ex and worked out slightly on the right side of 12k - including 3rd party 2 year warranty (more on this later). It had done 70k miles at the time and had just been serviced by them (7.5k service with front Mintex pads). The price was probably on the high side, but I wanted one immediately to enjoy before I emigrate in September. Reckon I could pick up the same for £10.5k now.

I have covered over 8,000 miles since then, mostly on European trips. The car is still rattle-free and the grin factor has been there almost every (s)mile. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

The car has let me down once - failing to start at home owing to a temperature sensor failure. Recovered by greenflag on a low loader and transported to local Scooby dealer. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif

Costs have been on the high side, partially as I chose a Scooby dealer to continue the good service history record (need to sell it in September):

Precautionary 15k service prior to European trip: £340 including above starting problem and 4wd geometry check.

New rear disks and pads, fitment of brake support bracket and a full set of duplicate keys: £ 410. Ouch!

Bridgestone SO2s on 15" wheels @ £400. Grip massively improved.

Hmm. over 700 notes spent in aftercare and £400 on new rubber - not to mention around £1500 on petrol. This is just about the threshold of my (student budget) tolerance. If anything else goes wrong, I will start to throw my toys out of the pram!

My advice : if you are going for a "well-used" model, be sure to have her fully checked over, including expected brake disk life. My experience is that 3rd party warranties contain too many get-out clauses (wear-and-tear not covered) and in reality actually buy very little peace of mind. Even if the AA/RAC want £200 for giving it a full inspection, pay the money! Wish I had paid a few hundred more and bought from a scooby dealer in the first place or even bought privately for a few hundred less if I didn't need p/ex . . . .

Hope you have better luck than I have had. Happy hunting!

Suresh

Hmm, brake discs are pretty much consumables, right? What price a pair, front/rear? I'm hoping to get lucky (read "arrange carefully") and get a recent clutch & cambelt and get a good look at the brakes. What is the going rate for cambelt replacement? I'm guessing that if this thing breaks it results in a big mess (bill!) - anyone any experience?

Cheers

Rich

Rear disks came in @ £200 the pair incl. VAT. Total labour was abt £125, so would guess £80 for fitting disks. Getting such work done by the dealer won't hurt the residual value come September and avoids having to deal with cowboys should the parts not be up to the job!

Suresh

Mulder

£6000 deposit works out at about £220 per month for 36 months with a final payment of about £11000.
Standard UK turbo + speedlines + air con

Bargain. Ish.

I just bought a 96 (P) Turbo from a dealer that had gone bankrupt, paid just over £12k for it. It's a 5 door, 40K miles and was fully checked by the dealer before they folded, only bad point, no warranty. So far I can not find anything wrong with it. It even has good front seats in it, the dealer said they were Pro-drive (don't know if thats true) but they are not the sh*te tweed ones.

I am looking at getting a third party warranty just now, and I think that I will get it fully checked over by whoever buys over the scooby franchise.

[This message has been edited by sasim (edited 15-05-2000).]