The Official "BBC News story about the crashed Impreza" thread.
 

Thought it might be easier to have an official thread about it. ;)

I'll start it off. :D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/s...re/3607027.stm

not far from me that !!

That's not a particularly bad bend either. Hope he's ok. We were just talking about that in the office this morning
Fool in car he couldn't handle - of course you push a car a little on a test drive to check for rattles and alike but setting a personal best/ land speed record is stupid.

Si

I just hate the way the media report these things 'The powerful Subaru ..' and 'high-performance sports car '.....

Same when someone is done for speeding - 'His Powerful Ferrari, which has a 3.5 litre engine and can do 200 mph' etc..

As far as I can see, you can

a) do 60 mph in a 30 even in a reliant robin (nothing against them - just an example of a NON sports car)
b) can equally crash on a bend in any car

I'm not trying to defend the guys driving, or be-little the accident, just don't understand why the media cannot just state the facts, rather than the dramatic descriptions---- Anyhow, an impreza isn't a sports car

Mark

And why is there a picture of a bug eye when the article says it was a Turbo 2000.


Seriously though, I ragged my Turbo2000 a bit on the test drive but nowhere near enough to even unsettle it - it's someone elses car at the time, after all. Plus you have a responsibilty of the salesman sitting next to you.

It's so often the ones that cause the accidents that get away with it :-(

Not a bad bit of road, too much power for the driver to handle ?.

People seem to forget the laws of physics still apply !!

I think the 2000 relates to the model as stated on the back, ie it's engine capacity, not it's MY.

I feel sorry for the salesmen in this position, at what point do they say "Pull up, you're driving like a Tw@t and endangering my life"? They should but have to secure a sale and not lose face (how quick would we all report that being said to us on here?). They have to put their life in the hands of anyone showing their licence which is nothing more than a certificate of competence and not a guarantee they can handle a car they are not familiar with, regardless of power.

Oof feel better for that.

Si

My salesman got me to plough around a roundabout in the wet ' trying to get the backend out' (which I did in the end via a massive lift-off :D) and provoked me into overtaking 3 cars on a fast dipping s-bend.

He seemed to know no fear.

Worked though, I bought the car there and then. Had the Honda dealer I had previously visited not more than an hour before had the decency to even keep my testdrive appointment, I might be on the Honda forum now...

Depending on how accurate the BBC were being in their reporting, it is in actual fact both a reference to the engine capacity and the model year.

The full official name of the classic shape UK market turbocharged Impreza was "Turbo 2000 AWD", while its bugeye successor was called the Impreza WRX.

Thus, if the BBC were reporting correctly, a "Turbo 2000" would indeed have been a classic shape car of MY2000 or earlier, and thus the accompanying picture was wrong.

Could just as easily be though that the car that crashed was a bugeye, and the Beeb report got the name wrong. I daresay it'll be obvious if anyone actually sees the TV coverage of the stricken vehicle.

My test drive was started by the salesman driving to some lanes He and I knew well, giving it a little bit of spirit. Then my mate, a former Subaru Mechanic, took the helm to throw it about as I knew I was not ready to do it safely and effectively on my first blat in an Impreza. Just a bit of respect shown by all. Then I took my time to find my limits and its once I'd taken ownership over the next few months.
How would we all feel if we killed a salesman in this situation?

Si

How would you feel if you killed anyone in any situation?

I previously owned powerful RWD vehicles and had driven a MY00 Turbo 2000 from Goodwood to London before, so I had a good idea of the handling and my capabilities.

My point is that some salesmen push the test drivers into situations that they shouldn't without knowing the persons skill or attitude. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Before any of the politically correct / troll brigade start, I'm not suggesting that is what happened in this instance.

Turbo 2000 was the model name. In Japan it was called a WRX in Europe it was a GT and in the UK it was a Turbo2000. Nothing to do with model year. There are MY98 and MY99 Turbo 2000's.

From the bugeye onwards the UK car became called the WRX, the same as Japan. I guess they did the same in Europe, but not too sure.

probably means our insurance will be going up come renewal time then.

There's always one pratt car-salesman who has to thrash a car to potential customers - there's one near me at a mini dealer and he tried it on in cooper S. I deliberately drove towards to dealer so I could leave him eating dust on a long straight.

Before I had my scoob I once had a saxo vts and when the citreon salesman took me for a demo drive he was doing 80mph in a 40 zone on the wrong side of the road, the mrs and myself were s***ing ourselves. He was acting as if it was normal to do this, what a clown.......

I love seeing how far you can go with a salesman on open roads ...... getting air off one of the numerous "yumps" in the Chilterns had even my g/f ****ting herself!
The 03 STi that I took out a couple of weeks ago was lovely and the salesman in the back didn't say a thing when I had the whole car in a 4 wheel drift down an M4 sliproad ....
I think the difference is that nobody minds if you are fast, smooth and in control of the car on a drive, because most salesman are complacent about speeds themselves - but they don't want you to risk their lives!

Bloody hell; I used to live in Maltby.

M4 junc 7 by any chance mark?

I doubt the chap will go back to the dealer and ask for mats and flaps to be thrown in to clinch the deal now :mad:

The dealer where I got mine from didnt even want me to test drive it until we had near enough done the deal even tho I had called 3 days earlier to book the test drive. They wanted to know what I had been driving in the past etc etc So, by the time we had thrashed out an acceptable deal, it was too late to get the car out, so I ended up going back again 2 days later to actually take it out. :confused:

In a way I suppose that sort of thing does help weed out test pilots that just want a raz in a scoob. Not a bad thing really, but seeing as I was very serious (and its not like Im some spotty teen or anything) about the car I was pretty pi55ed off with them as I had left work early so to get to them (20 mile drive) on time!! Anyway, its mine now :)

As for muppet test pilot thats injured someone else, stick to your bus pass mate. We'll all be better off :mad:

J

It wasn't chaos was it??? :confused:

Eh?