Scoobie Newbie - Buying advice
 

Hello all,

I am brand new to this forum and would like the chance to introduce myself.

My name is Dave, I am 25 and I live in Somerset. I am a keen car enthusiast and try to go to as many car shows as I can in a year, I just cant get enough of the atmosphere. My car history is as follows:

Renault 5 1.0 > Rover metro 1.1 (embarrassingly) > Citrioen Saxo (hasn't everyone had one at one point?) > Vauxhall Astra SRI > Peugeot 106 GTI > VW Golf 1.8T > Clio 182 > Civic Type R.

I regret to admit that I do not currently own a Subaru despite joining your forum today, I would however welcome some buying advice from the experts (you guys). Normally before buying a car I do tons of research sitting in front of computer screens for hours a day obsessing over all the cars I want. The Subaru Impreza however has one of the most complicated model ranges I have ever seen, with different optional packages attached to each car. Further more what is more confusing is that car dealers sometimes don't even know what they are selling and what the car has on it.

I will quit my ranting and get to the point, I am looking for (I think) an Impreza WRX STI. Ideally I want something with around 300bhp but don't think my budget will stretch to a WRX STI with Prodrive (If im right in thinking that is 305hp?). I am looking for ideally a blob eye 04 model or if one comes up cheap enough a hawk eye, the bug eye doesn't really do anything for me. My budget is £5500 - £7000 (£7500 for a really nice one). What would you guys recommend I get for that sort of price? Ideally I am looking to buy from a dealer and not private, trading my car and fronting cash for the remainder of the balance.

If my budget will not stretch to getting something with around 300hp how hard would it be to upgrade a wrx sti non-prodrive to produce the same sort of power as a prodrive? What would I need to swap out?

Sorry for the long rant and thank you for taking the time to read this.

IIRC a WRX STI with PPP is 316bhp.

If I had £7500 in my pocket I'd try to get an extra £500 and buy this https://www.scoobynet.com/subaru-444...ti-432bhp.html

432bhp and a great example.

Oh ok! 316 sounds even better! Lol. In all honesty I'm looking for a little bit of a learning curve, I would rather get one with only a few things on it so that I could do a little myself! Plus I would imagine he is looking for cash and not a part ex :)

Have a look around the for sale section, there are a few for sale, and also a few WRX with PPP, 261bhp if that floats your boat.