looking to buy my first scooby
 

i am 21 in august and can afford the insurance for a uk one anyway and have not tried yet for a import.

i am going to have at the most 5k to spend can i get anything for this and what sort should i go for.

is there much difference bewteen a uk and japan performance wise or can i get a uk one runner the same as a jap easily.

any help would be good thanks a lot x

anyone

well the jap has 280 bhp compared to uk's 215 bhp.

slight correction Ali ........some of them have 280bhp......

UK cars before 1999 had 208bhp, after they had 215bhp (except the limited editions like the P1 and 22B which had 276bhp). JDM (Japanese domestic market) cars between 92-94 (saloons) have 240ps (approx 237bhp on 100 ron fuel), 95&96 MY cars (jdm) have 260ps, 97 onwards had 280ps (276bhp). Jap wagons had 220ps upto 97.

Look here for more info>>> www.sidc.co.uk and look under faq's.

Tony:D

Hi there,

Some things to think about before buying a Scooby:

1) Assuming you can aford to insure the car, can you aford to run it? It needs a £90 service a minimum of every six months, major services are around the £400-500 pound mark, you'll need to run it on SUL, preferably optimax (if it's an import you'll need optimax and Octane booster, £15 a bottle IIRC). It'll do between 15-25 MPG depending how you drive it. Look at £380 if you shop around for good tyres. Clutch costs upwards of £400 to replace.

2) Personally I don't think 5K is nearly enough for a good un. At that money, you're looking at a very heavily used UK model or an older import import (N reg perhaps). There are cherished older Scoobies out there alright, but if you're on a budget buying a performance car of that age can be unwise owing to the fact that some consumables are likely to need replacing sooner rather than later.

3) Insurance. The quote very much depends on model you want to insure. A UK might be possible (although companoies are increasingly putting no under 25 agre restrictions in place) However, Imports cost more to insure and many companies will simply say, come back when your're thirty. Are you sure you have a quote for a Turbo? Some companies asume the young un's want a sport and quote acordingly, big difference. If you have a quot for less than 1k at your age, I'd be VERY impressed.

These are relatively cheap performance cars, but they are not cheap to run. Fail to look after them properly, and you'll need another 4.5k for an engine rebuild!

Regards,

PS. to get a UK spec car up to similar power levels as a jap spec car, you'd be looking at a minimum of a full Decat, ECUTek 3 remap. That's annother £1250 please and an extra £30 for an MOT as you'd need to relplace a cat to get it past emissions.

i currently drive a e36 325 and that also is not one of the cheapest cars to run so i think i will be ok. i will only used it at night as i work all day. the insurance is going under my dads name.


so is it then best to drive and buy a import if i can get insure

insurance for me before my crash was £1350 i'm 22 with 3 years no claims, that was for a series mcrae special edition, an import sti on n/p was an additional £400 (thast with elephant)

an extra £1250 at least new_scoob, was toying with the idea myself and a full de-cat and pannel filter plus remap will take you up to 300bhp if map is done right, might take a couple of maps to get it running right though.

but bang on for rest of what your saying i think i allowed extra £100 running cost on top of my old car a month and that was not using it to get to and from work and i still came up about £50 more than i planned, so make sure you plan for alot of cash spending.

Another BMW convert :-)

Unfortunately, many insurance companies won't even allow an under 30 on a named driver policy these days for an import. I'm sure some will, but they might not be the most competitive quotes.

You do realise that going on your dad's insurance will mean you don't accumulatre any further no-claims and that after two years you'll loose your no-claims entitlement altogether (unless you get insured as the first driver on another car). I'm 28 and it cost me £1800 to insure a UK turbo precisely because I'd always been a named driver previously. Ouch!

Imports can be very good buys indeed, but are potentially more risky as they must have been run on Optimax and octane booster in this country as they were designed for 100RON (unless they have been mapped for UK fuel). Failure to do this means detonation and a 4.5k bill for a rebuild. Problem is, the older the imported car, the harder it often becomes to establish if it has been looked after correctly.

There is one main rule when buying a Scooby: FULL SERVICE HISTORY!!!!

Regards,

i agree to what you say above...but:

Unfortunately you can STILL have some exceptions. i bought nice UK turbo with full subaru service history and it still blew up. nevermind. will be back in 7 days time! lol (Y)

....yes, very important to get a full detailed service history.

Just to add that your biggest shock if you should buy a Scooby... and it will be a shock no matter how well prepared for it you are, will come at how many times you have to pull into a Shell garage to fill up and how much money you spend on petrol.
I never get over 21mpg...often less, because you always have a heavy right foot.

Hi, I'm 20 years old, (21 in July) and have just recentely purchased a 1997 Sti Version 3, so young people can aquire impreza's, but as people have said, running costs are extremely high, i can see it coming for me, fuel,tyres,brakes etc...( i'll get some pictures as soon as possible on here)

I'm 26 and fully comp insurance is weighing in at £723 pa. My wagon is costing me £3k. Which I thought was excessive but clearly it's not! I know my scoob is going to cost a lot to run, but I can justify it as I don't do very many miles, and it's my toy. If fuel consumption is a concern then you buy a diesel... If you CAN afford one, then why not, life is short.
I was either going to turbo my MX5 or get the scooby wagon. A tough call but I think the scooby is better value; one day I will get another MX5 but it will be one that has already had the conversion (£2-3k)...

I'm 22 with a 54 WRX. Insurance costs me £1600 with 2 years no claims (Own policy). However, just found out I can save £400 by putting my Mum on my policy as a named driver. Maybe worth you trying that if you want to build no claims. (I'm with Admiral)

I do about 400 miles a month, thats 1.5 tanks of Optimax, 20 mpg.

You will find you are always filling them up, but as long as you budget, you will be alright.

Ouch, sorry to hear that! I'm sure it was something a previous owner had done (see below), or you just got VERY unlucky!

There are always the exceptions that prove the rule, but as you've said- the odds on having problems with one that has been cared for are significantly better than buying one that has not been serviced properly.

That said, service history does not mean that the car hasn't been driven by a tw*t previously, with all the care come service time in the world, if you don't allow them to warm up and cool down, put cheap petrol in them etc... then they're going to blow up! It pays to buy one with as few owners as possible and send some time speaking to them...if you don't like them, chances are you won't like the car.

Regards.

so any one recommend the best insurance company for me to try. i have always been on my dads policy so i dont have any no claims to lose.

what are the 0-60 stats on both english and jap car. thanks a lot for all the help.

ps do they really rattle that bad

I thought you had 2 years no-claims? Being accident free on your dad's policy doesn't count I'm afraid. For someone your age to get insured on an Impreza, with no, noclaims, you'd be looking at about 3.5k. I very much doubt they'd let your dad put you on the policy mate.

Admiral and elephant will usually insure anyone, at a price, so they're your best bet at the moment. I think you'd be better served getting insured as the main driver on your Bm and come back in a couple of years with age a bit more on your side and a couple of uears no-claims up your sleeve.

Regards.

I bought an Import STi V1 for 4800, which I thought was cheap but since then i've probably paid another 2k getting it to the sort of standard it should be, and I've still got some body work minor problems to sort!
U need deep pockets in this game!

I think i was unlucky myself!...

Anyway, im 23yrs with MY99. insurance is £1100 pa fully comp with business catagory 1 insurance 25,000miles pa.

i put the mrs on insurance and it shot down from £1,550. only god knows why lol...

(6 days to go till i get it back...lol)

Married Men are considered less of a liability than single men mate :-) I guess the assumption is that they won't be racing around in the car trying to impress the ladies. Also, women attract less steep premiums than men, so by having her drive the car some of the time, you'll be benefitting from that.

Regards,

got the insurance on a uk turbo to 1k

I was 19 when I 1st had my scoob and was on my dads name I paid £1,200 on a MY00 uk scoob running 300+bhp with Elephant.co.uk, The only advice I can give you to another young scooby driver is make sure you get it serviced regular, and dont drive round like a loon everywhere cause of you smash it up your dad wont be happy losing his no claims. :)

Insurance
 

Hey,

I'm 22 and drive a MY01 WRX. I recently bought insurance for the 1st time in my own name although i have been driving for over 5 years now as the second named driver on my Mums policy. The best quote i got was from Elephant.co.uk for £1700 for the year. Norwich Union and some of the other big names refused to insure me as i was under 25.

I tried some of the insurance companies that specialise in young drivers such as Adrian Flux, Hyper Performance and Bad Boy Insurance (All from Max Power Website) they were amongst the worst. I was quoted £7800 for one years insurance from more than one of these companies.

I would advise you to get someone older on the policy as a named driver with you as the 1st named driver and the policy holder. That got my premium down a fair whack. I only found out about this by talking to one of the customer service guys at Elephant. The guy i spoke to was called Simeon and he really did save me a fortune.

Another point is be prepared for the rising running costs of a Scooby. I get about 200 miles to a tank and fill up with about £35 of petrol at a time. I spent £70 last week alone in fuel and i wasn't booting it all the time.

Good luck chief!

Paul

STI Advice ?
 

Anyone, Im looking to move from a BMW TI Sport to a STI version 2. What are the kind of running costs am Im going to be looking at compared to the BMW, i.e part replacement and servicing costs.

Insurence costs Im looking at £1300 insurence fully comp, is this ok for a 26 year old with 3 years no claims and a TS20 conviction form 4 years ago?

Thanks