Kevinho

I currently have a Civic Type R and am looking to buy my first Impreza WRX (MY04). I have been searching the net for information today when I hit ScoobyNet. This is a great site! I have already found a wealth of information.

Does anyone have any experience of the dealerships in the area? Do any ex-Civic Type R have opinions on moving to a Impreza?

Also, what dealer options are must have, and which ones a total waste of cash?

Thanks,
Kevinho

corradoboy

Welcome to the site.

Start your bartering hard with a price from www.tins.co.uk which is normally in the region of $18.5k (sorry about the dollars, but I'm using a crappy PC american keyboard) and don't just deal with one dealer. Visit 3 and phone another 2-3. You probably won't get any lower, but you can negotiate on extras. Cosmetic stuff is very personal and so isn't worth anything come resale time, so stick with performance upgrades. The biggie is the PPP (Prodrive Performance Pack) which is almost a must. Book a test drive with and without, you will buy it. No-one will discount the $1600 price on that. You could get any of a number of aftermarket alternatives (TEK3 is the current favorite) but if you value the 3yr warranty then it's PPP all the way. Prodrive springs are also worth it, although many say Eibachs are better/cheaper. Make sure you put some cash aside for security upgrades. Many insurers may want a Tracker, and in todays world some sort of car-jacking protection is justified. The standard stereo is pants, but that can be done cheaply and easily later without affecting warranty. If you go PPP, it's recommended, but not essential, to move up to 18" wheels. Subaru/Prodrive ones will be around $1800, OZ's and the like $1200ish.

Main thing is just to get the car, enjoy it, and when the performance gets familiar spend a little in the right places to keep it interesting. BTW, there is a dealer locator on the Subaru website.

Rasher

the one at Dobshill has changed to an Alfa dealership now I think, dont now know where the nearest one to you is, possibly Widnes???

kend

There are a couple of dealers near Birmingham, which shouldn't be too much of a run.
Showells in Stourbridge are reasonable sized, service has been very good, and the road out towards BridgeNorth and Ludlow has plenty of twisties.
Andrew Burt is near Henley, small family business, service a bit hit and miss ( in my experience)

Kevinho

Thanks for the welcome, and the welcome advice. Based on whats been said in this thread and others PPP does seem to be a must have. What impact does it have on insurance premiums?

My nearest Dealership is Threeways garage in Abergele, Shame about Dobshill.

So far I have am being offered a 6% discount on the WRX, but about £2 K less for my part ex compared to the book price (i.e. Parkers guide, What Car?, etc). Does this seem reasonable?!

MadMark

Kevin Ho - I moved from a CTR to an 03 WRX in March of last year and have never looked back!
I got a fair discount by playing 2 dealers against the other!

Put it this way - 52 plate CTR (so 7 months old) with 9K on the clock, 5 mths tax left and 4 trashed tyres and they gave me £14,600 against a new WRX.
Not bad when you consider I only paid £16K for the CTR, brand new with Aircon from a Honda Dealer ....

Anything you want as extras on the car - negotiate them all into the price as they will not discount once they have sold it to you i.e. PPP, suspension, wheels etc!

LG John

I recall a similar search some 7000 odd posts ago

Regarding CTR just don't expect the scooby to be much faster in straightline drags or nice sweeping a/b roads. If you want to eek out an advantage over a CTR you need to be on a tight twisty road (better yet if wet or dodgy) where the CTR driver would likely dip out of VTEC on some corners and have the usual FWD let downs because other than that the CTR won't be that far behind. This isn't a big performance car leap you are taking but rather a change in style (i.e. fwd to 4wd)

MadMark

SB - I disagree - my black beastie is faster in a straight line and eats CTR's for breakfast off the line, particularly in the wet! I can actually sit with an S2000 in a straight line and have run with them right up into 3 figures!

LG John

Fair enough madmark but there are countless CTR drivers on the CTR forum that have gone from 02-04 WRX UK impreza's to the CTR that would disagree with you

Be aware of 'faster' and 'feels faster' My scooby feels 2 times as fast as my pug bit the V6 works away well enough to keep up reasonably well - got to love a turbo kick though

MadMark

Ahh yes - I used to be one - bugeyes were easy meat - but a well driven 04 is hard to beat and is more stable in extremis ....
No - IS faster .... I have raced 5 or 6 CTR's and S2000 - in a straight line and round the twisties and was all over them! Mind you my devil car has confounded most people as it delivers the same power as a PPP'd one - despite only having the exhaust backbox. G-force reckon it might have had a "prototype" chip! Personally I reckon just well run in from new!!!

LG John

Ah one of those - I recall a certain saxo I owned being a 'good un' and nobody believing it.............until it went to Crail of course

Rasher

depends which one

MadMark

Rasher - true - but anything other than a Tek3 seems to deliver less power on the rollers. Andynaturbo2000 got 273bhp out of his MY03 by just having the full APS exhaust, and his is not a full de-cat (has their free flowing cat)!

Kevin - what ever you do - you'll love the turbo rush as you overtake ....