Neil Smalley

My, how time flies. It's been 3 whole months and 2600 miles since V54*** was picked up from the dealer. This being my first Impreza I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts on the car. I was going to subtitle this 'Should I have brought an Sti?' but more on this later.

Ok what don't I like about it.
(little of this will be news, but anyway..)

1. The Interior, my wife's Micra has a better one than this and that only cost 6K

2. Every tom,dick or harry now wants to cut me up,race me or block me. Just because i'm driving at the appropriate pace or in a fast car does'nt mean to say I'm gagging for a burn up.

3. My wife's only insistance was that I brought a 5 door. Sure it fits all the luggage in(including toddler ) but I wanted the 4 door. IMHO 4 door looks better.

4. Thin Paint. I've already got a small stone chip on the front wing, which i've treated but this is silly. Tipex is more durable than this stuff.

5. Impossible to clean alloy wheels. Well takes flippin hours anyway.

6. Sassin fassen crassen rassen running in period!

7. Wondering whether the car will be intact when I get back to it.

8. Lack of Vauxhall's new safety gadget(see below)

Ok what I do like.

1. Handling. Driving down to Reading today the conditions were the worst i've driven in for some time. Good ol V54*** just lapped it up and it felt as sure footed as in the dry.
Did see the aftermath of 2 accidents mind, which put things into perspective.

2. Poke. Yes i've floored it a number of times, but I never *needed* to use all of it. It's fun to tease drivers of slower cars(who have been harassing you for keeping to 30, works on the police too BTW) by driving slowly out of a roundabout, waiting for them to tailgate you and then flooring it, stopping only at the speed limit It's quite good fun to watch the faces on the police as they gear themselves up for a stint on police camera action, only to find you stop at the limit. I don't do this too often mind, only when i'm feeling mischivous.

3. The 'cool car' factor. It's novelty to me at the moment to have people say 'hey cool car' or fellow 'scoobyites' give you the wave. Hope this does'nt die down.

4. SIDC(Cheque's in the post) and the Scooby community in general. Thanks for giving me an ever growing list of things to spend my money on

5. Free Petrol

6. The seats are Very comfortable. I did have my doubts when I first drove an Impreza(MY97) but the ones on my MY00 are Much better.

7. Grin factor. Even a trip to Tesco's is fun. After driving an Impreza for a while do you need cosmetic surgery to stop you looking like the joker from batman all the time?

8. Nothing has gone wrong with the car, big deal you may say but that's an important plus point.

Ok so the scores 8 each, on scores alone it's a draw. BUT the negatives are swamped by the positives so I guess I'm hooked.

As to the new safety device by Vauxhall. It's an electromagnetic force wall that surrounds all new 1.8 Vectras. It renders the driver and occupants immune from the laws of physics and once activated they and the car cannot be harmed in anyway .
Why do I say this?
Just after passing the second accident today
(on the M4) and witnessing the amublances
etc I was in a somber mood. Anyway The spray from the lorries and rain was so bad you could hardly see. I had slowed down to about 40 Mph(both front and rear fogs on, it was that bad) in the middle lane, with the inside lane being full of struggling HGV's. All of a sudden with a toot of a horn a Vectra shot passed me at I think in excess of 100Mph and the guy was on the phone!!!!
Had'nt he just seen what happens if you **** around in bad wheather????

Anyway I want this shield technology fitted to my car or is it only available from GM?

Onto the Sti matter now(at last). I *love* my scooby to bits but somehow I wonder if I would have had more fun with an Sti. Sure it's a pig to get serviced, only uses SUL and is an import, but on reading the posts here I wonder how much i've missed out on?

This may be my impression but there seem to be several catagories of scoobies

1. Super Scooby's 22b/P1 Enhanced Sti's etc
2. Sti's and type R
3. Modified Turbo's
4. Normal Turbo's
5. Sport and others.

This is'nt suggesting bias, cliques or anything unfriendly like that only that there seems to be a pecking order.

Anyway my next car WILL be another Impreza(the MY03 and will be the UK Sti version)

Thats all for now.


[This message has been edited by Neil Smalley (edited 29-02-2000).]

V697DMO

Mines about as old with 4000+ on it now. Pretty similar report really. The interior is a lot better (accpetable is best I can honestly say) than it used to be (used tohave a sport which looked like it had been built by fischer price). tom, dick, harry and all of their mates (in their RS turbo's, xr3i's, astras, etc - though no 205 Gti's) can just continue playing with themselves (what they probably do best) I ignore them (most of the time). Wife let me have 4 door, agree it does look better but with the first kid due in a month I am woried about getting all the junk in the boot. Paint seems okay, stone ship on the bonnet but it was the same stone that hit the bonnet then chipped the windscreen. Alloys are a pain to clean (get some alloy wheel cleaner from Halfords, great stuff 45 mins per wheel down to 5). Running in made me a saint but that 1001st mile, eh !

Paul Wilson

You can get a lot into a 4-door if you try, I drove to Wales with dry food for 30 people for a week and a fridge, along with luggage for two.
However luggage does expand to meet the available space, don't let it.

*switch on old mans voice*

In my day we took a Morris Minor down ta South of France wi' 2 Children and t' bairn. And it were fine for us

paul w

hi neil,
i too have a new turbo with 2500 on the clock,my first and probably last one,just a couple of questions,points.

i think the interior is really nice compared to the older ones i looked at buying.

my wheels are easy to clean,the supplying dealer polished wheels and car really well and the muck washes off really easiley.

the looks and finger pointing make you feel pretty good.

i also get arseoles wanting to race me a lot.

the handling is superb alot safer than rwd when the family is onboard-you should have got your 4 door as the boot holds no end of junk,2 little uns.

poke, what poke, my motor feels pretty guttless,did you drive a 1L micra before?foot firmly planted to the floor only just kept up with 2.0L 16 valve vectra yes a crappy old vectra 50mph upto about 110 and there is no way i would have got passed him if the chance had arisen,all over him round the bends and braking though.

i wonder if its running at full power as you dont get that real push back in the seat that i've had with other cars.

when yours is cold and on very light throttle does it seem to surge to and fro?

cheers paul

Jonathan

Paul

Yes I get the surge on light throttle when cold. Its not sure if it wants to accelerate or hold back. Also noticed it with the RB5, but not the Terzo. Maybe its the UK Phase II engine ECU ?. Didnt happen on my Phase II engine STI V.

I also noticed how tight the MY00 was compared to all my other Scoobies

Jonathan
MY00

RussP

Paul

Glad to hera the surging you speak of isn't unique to my own car maainly notice it on my V5 Type RA (phase 2 again) when it's cold, but it's certainly there. Anyone any ideas?

Neil Smalley

The interior, I agree it's better than earlier models but white dials and momo wheel only serve to show up the rest of the
interior. The seat fabric looks good, but seems fragile.

4 vs 5 door. That's what I tried to say, but in reality we often go camping or hiking and that tends to create a lot of extra junk. An Impreza with a trailer would'nt really look right.

I had a Rover 620ti(200BHP, 0-60 in 7 sec) before this. When I brought it, it had had 11,000 miles on the clock and actually really started to fly after 15,000. My current car is at present probably a little bit(<5%) quicker than the ti. Mind you, mid range a ti is fast.

Having noticed the difference when my old car got a little older i'm not overly concerned. Which gear were you in, with the Vectra? 5th gear acceleration is very slow.

Surging. Dunno, if I go out of my house i'm into a 30 limit then 40 so any surging is probably me trying to stick to the speed limit. I'll check and let you know.

I'm sure a dealer will be able to check the car out for you.

[This message has been edited by Neil Smalley (edited 01-03-2000).]

paul w

neil,
the vectra ,i was in 4th when i arrived behind him at 60 ish,it was dark so he didn't know what i was driving,he accelerated away, i planted my foot to the floor and he was going away so i had to dump it in 3rd to keep up, almost redlining it in every gear upto about 110 just to keep up with him,i've looked at the figures and there's no way it should have been that close.where are you neil and johnathan as i would like to ride in another 00 just to compare,i'm in northants

cheers paul

Scottie

Paul w

I'd get your car checked out performance wise.

Recently took a mate's dad (mate and his dad run a Vauxhall dealership near me out for a run in my 5k mile 99MY standard uk turbo and he commented that it was way faster than his Vectra GSI (with mods to cams, ecu and exhaust over standard GSI)

Cheers

Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottie (edited 01-03-2000).]

NeilR

Paul,

Strange that you had to drop a gear or two to keep with the Vectra.

Still, i bet it made the Vectra drivers day!

Hopefully your engine will loosen up a bit.

NeilR

DavidRB

I had a Vectra 2.0 SRi before I got my MY00 Scooby Turbo (there, I've said it, I used to drive a Vectra!) and there is no way on God's earth that the Vectra could outrun the Scooby. In any gear, the Scooby is quicker, hell, it's quicker in 4th than the Vectra was in 3rd. Admittedly, mine is now up for its 7500 service, but it had started to loosen up after the first 2000 miles. It got even more eager after around 4000.

The only time the car is tight is for the first minute or so in the morning. As soon as the temp gauge needle has started climbing, the engine is fine.

Either there's something seriously wrong with your turbocharger or you've just had a run in with the first Max Powered Vectra!

AlexM

Neil,

Your point 2) of things you like about the Scooby reminds me of a incident where I accelerated hard with a Police car behind me up to precisely 30mph - they pulled me over and tried to caution me for 'excessive acceleration' - do me a favour!

Cheers,

Alex

Neil Smalley

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by AlexM:
<B>Neil,

Your point 2) of things you like about the Scooby reminds me of a incident where I accelerated hard with a Police car behind me up to precisely 30mph - they pulled me over and tried to caution me for 'excessive acceleration' - do me a favour!

Cheers,

Alex

[/quote]

I know that's what i wonder sometimes. What did you say? Maybe they just wanted to check out the car

Nobody tell the Govt. They'll introduce an offense for it. 3 points, 60 quid and camera's on motorway sliproads that measure your acceleration. If it's faster than a standard Mondeo then you're nicked.

BarryK

paulw, to paraphrase Austin Powers "you drive like a woman"

You know taht "stick thing" in the middle, right well it makes "stuff" happen.

Ha, ha, middle age let's you talk $hite to spotty malingerers! You'll see!