Hi guys i have a bit of a weird one for ya,

i went to view my first Bugeye sti (first Subaru for that matter) today with the intention to buy however, I'm in love with the shape and power but.... the interior (minus the seats because they're cool and comfortable) is very very basic and feels like I'm in a cheap french car

I have an Audi with leather seats and all the goodies at the moment and I'm wrongly comparing them to each other which puts me off buying it as it will be my daily

My question is what where your first impressions when you first got into to a scooby? I'm fully aware they're not built for luxury and comfort but how do i get over essentially downgrading with the interior? or are they just not for me which is sad because I've always wanted one.

Cheers guys any advice and help appreciated!

 

Agreed, when I first got into a Blob I did feel the same, and my 2007 Hawk STi is not a lot different, just black leather and black carpets as it's a Spec D.
However, Japanese interiors of that era are known for that, and yes, lots of people see through that and buy the car for the driving experience etc.

You'll miss the Audi interior, but it depends on what you truly want from a daily. You may also perhaps miss the comfort of the ride of the Audi.... but this is where you'll gain sharper cornering / traction etc from the Bug, something else to consider. It's all a compromise at the end of the day, and not always an easy decision to make. If really unsure at the moment, walk away for now. Nothing worse than regretting a purchase and thinking "Oh, what have I just done?"

My 54 plate Passat Highline has a nice leather interior and all the goodies of the time, and I won't get rid of that after 14 years owning it, no chance. It's the bulletproof 1.9 AWX TDi now on 130k miles. It owes me nothing now, and hasn't for many years. Often I choose which car to drive depending on my mood!
Try to keep the Audi so you have the best of both worlds?....multicar insurance policies can be pretty decently priced.

 

For me the basic interior is part of the appeal of an Impreza and adds to the whole sense of it being a true focused performance car with function over fashion... I don't even like seeing an aftermarket head unit in one!

They've spent the money on the right places on the car, not on blingy interiors and unnecessary infotainment gadgets.

 

Totally agree with your 1st impression, seats are awesome, the rest is functional but...did you drive it?

 

As said above, keep a German car for daily driving and use the Scoob for fun, I've got 2010 Passat Highline that I commute 90 miles a day in, couldn't do that every day in the Scoob, mines a classic so the interior is even more basic.

Only 130k on your PD engined Passat, sold mine on 203k and it appears to still be taxed and MOTd with over 270k on it now, should never have sold it.

 

I didn't unfortunately because he wouldn't let me but did feel good from the passenger seat i got to say.

 

glad im not the only one thank god for that lol, Exactly what i was thinking though, may have to keep the audi and just buy a wrx maybe just for fun and weekends which are cheaper than the sti's

 

I have a Volvo and the interior imo is an even nicer place to be than Audi interior.
However, although plasticky and basic, all the pros of our blobeye far outweigh the cons of the interior and I don't really give it a second thought. Just as long as you clean the dashboard with a decent interior cleaner that leaves a Matt finish and not one that leaves a horrible shiny film over it goes a long way to making it look a lot less plasticky than it actually is.

It does baffle me though why it is such a common complaint that car interiors are plasticky, when the material most commonly used in car interiors is plastic!

 

As it happens the sti i seen yesterday had a real shiny dashboard which has obviously been shined like you said which makes it look super cheap and plasticky which probably didn't help.

So rather than going for an sti as my only car i think im gonna go for a daily then buy a wrx as theyre a bit cheaper than the stis. just logical to do that. my heart says i want a scooby for a daily but know id miss the nice interior.

 

Sti seats look good and support you well , i look at a scooby as a drivers car so interior is functional , also less to go wrong as modern cars have too much on board to go wrong , i don’t think interiors are that bad , the only gadget i miss in an fsti is cruise control which is pricy to add , in reality when you drive you spend more time looking outside than inside , and listening to a rather unique scooby burble 😁

 

check out what you want in a Subaru, and if it's an STI you really want or a wrx, as there are a lot of differences between the two.

Getting rid of the shinyness of the dash will go a long way to making it a better place to be. I know in a run of the mill car the better quality the interior the more important a part of the car it is, but I would swap my Volvo estate for a blob or bug estate to run as a daily if it was practical, even with the downgrade in interior quality.

edit to add, regarding comfort, Volvo have what are widely regarded the most comfortable seats in the business. I've driven both the Volvo and the Subaru (blobeye wrx) from the south east down to Devon/Cornwall. Although the Volvo is perceivably more comfortable, the wrx seats are not far behind in comfort and actually give me less aches and pains over that distance than the Volvo.

 

If funds allow buy an STI

 

I've got a Blobeye WRX SL. The SL interior is leather, with heated seats, which does add the niceness a bit. Also, I'm too busy looking out for pizza boys, white van man and uber drivers to notice the dashboard when I'm driving.

 

Also worth thinking about many Imprezas get broken for parts. Dash centre console can but updated to facelift blob or Hawkeyes spec to make it a little more modern.
Door cards and dashboards are not expensive second hand, personally I think if the vinyl door tops and dashboard top section were retrimmed in black suede and a nice flat bottomed damd steering wheel where added, along with a decent stereo upgrade with sat nav/Apple or android and decent speakers instead of the toilet paper quality standard items would make for a nice interior.

 

That's a great way to look at it - a blank canvas for you to paint on. Second-hand Android/Apple DAB units aren't dear, not upgraded speakers...

 

Thing about the subaru interior is it’s basic but the materials don’t offend me like some other cars. Hard to explain but generally they’re pretty robust and non offensive.

But it depends what you want from a car. For me they’re for fun and enjoying the drive so it matters very little and it’s got everything I need in a sensible layout. If you want a commuter you sit in for hours a day you May want something more luxury? But then forget an impreza if it’s that type of car.

Give me my impreza interiors over modern stuff any day. I couldn’t give two ***** about a poxy finger print covered iPad that I have to be distracted to adjust the heating like most people seem to love. I get easily frustrated about overly fussy stuff and Ialso like the fact if something goes wrong it’s minutes to pull apart and repair/replace.

 

Supportive seats, electric windows and aircon - what more do you really need? I have a Spec D door cards with leather inserts and it transforms the interior.... I did nearly 40k in a year in my 2002 and I can't say the interior was ever an issue. No rattles or squeaks and everything works (not that there is much to go wrong). I did install a very decent multi amp sound system though. I don't find the basic interior offensive. I like the round air vents and the contours of the dashboard. 3 sun visors too!

Ultimately, I'd rather have a car where the money has been spent on quality engineering, than soft-touch plastics. My wife has an old Porsche Cayenne V8 for the family bus and that has full leather interior, 36 way seats, 14 speaker stereo and pretty much every convenience and gizmo you could wish for (FOUR sun visors!). It's a lovely place to sit and cruise about in. But it also weights 2.5 tonnes and cost about 3 times as much as an Impreza new. I don't miss the Porsche interior when I'm driving my Impreza, anymore than I miss the Impreza's dynamism when driving the Porsche.


**I do miss the quick clear windscreen and the heated steering wheel from the Porsche if I'm being honest....

 

heated steering wheel!
good grief, ride a motorcycle in the middle of winter and man up!

crazyspeedfreaks off of this parish has advertised in the for sale section a fully flocked facelift dash for £350.

if anything have a look at the picture of it to give you an idea how they look flocked and not polished to within an inch of its life. (I can vouch for crazy as a seller having bought wheels from him)