fastdude

I currently own an MY00 Imreza Turbo and need to free up some cash as I am building a house and once the MY00 is sold I was thinking of importing an Sti RA 2 or 3(95, 96 or 97)instead. I am just interested in peoples opinions on this change and the pros and cons of it. I know its an older car and that will have certain drawbacks but would it be a good replacement under my current circumstances. I have a potential buyer for my current car and as its an immaculate low mileage fairly good spec car, I am getting fairly good money for it. Thanks in advance

Ringpeas

Cons
More expensive to insure.
Subaru dealers unlikely to touch it.
Needs octane booster.

Pros
Quicker.
Better spec.

Dark Blue Mark

Well summed up. For me it was a bit dissapointing going from a MY99 to an older WRX. The plus points where that I wasn't as scared where I left it even though it was still a nice car! Was very quick, but the interior and general feel of it wasn't that nice. Felt a lot less tight than the MY99.

MB

scoobynutta555

Havent you got to get a model report on any incoming cars outside the EU for cars under 10 years old?

I'd have a serious thought about running costs etc etc etc for this change. You're going to an older car, and it'll be an import. Id assume that the insurance might be a smidge more than what youre paying now, and on the reliability side, you're changing a car I assume that you are fully confident in history wise and reliabilty wise for something of an unknown quantity.

i have no idea if you have a warranty or not, but if you have id be very cautious about binning the UK car if the whole idea you are swapping cars is to release some cash.

TBH if I was in your position I'd hunt around for something very reliable, keep what I have or just sell the scoob and drive something quite cheap until youre more surefooted financially.

The pros I suppose will be that youll be getting a faster car

matscooby

iTrader: (3)

I have a STI RA 2 V-LTD and mine is not that expensive to insure and Subaru Dealers will touch it as Tiley in Bristol have done all kind of work to mine.

But I will agree that it needs octane booster to run properly, but they are superb cars.

In fact I'm selling mine if your interested.

fastdude

Wow that was quick, Im well impressed. Well the deal with me is that I only get to drive it at the weekend and even at that its just a bit of fun so running costs would not be a factor for me. I have driven an sti ra briefly and it was a rocket. I do agree that it didnt feel near as nice sitting in the car on tick over as the dash does give you an older fell but fair is fair I suppose as it is an older car I was still well impressed with it.
In the ideal world I suppose what I am after is an immaculate RA that I can have a fun factor with at the weekend and not having alot of money tied up on it either and still have the same proud ownership factor as I have with the MY00.

Warranty is not an issue as I have not got any either on the MY00 but then again thankfully I never need it on my current car. I run this car on sul at the moment but I presume when you talk about octane booster, do you mean sul plus octane booster. Is there any octane booster on the market that will bring it from 95 ron to 100 ron and can you map the ra to run on uk fuel.

Matscooby, I like the way you got that plug in there and I have seen the car and its very nice indeed. What I need to do is have the cash in my hand from the MY00 before I can commit to anything else.

I did also consider selling the scoob and leave it at that for a year but I think I would go mad if I didnt have something to put a smile on my face at the weekend. I am just considering options and thought the RA was good value for money.

Thanks again

TopBanana

The older engines are lower compression, and feel less responsive off boost. Interior does feel aged. For pure driving though, they're great

fastdude

Cheers mate, anyone else have any simular experience or opinions...

TopBanana

BTW yes you can map them to UK fuel. A ScoobyECU (for pre 97) will map them for SUL, or you can get a custom map for 95 RON fuel if you wanted.

matscooby

iTrader: (3)

I was told by the Service manager and senior Technician at Tiley's to always run it on Shell Optiamx or BP Ultimate even after remaps. So this engine can work at top effeciency.

And for the Scoobyecu you could be waiting a long time as you cannot stick a standard Scoobyecu straight in, it needs to be custom remapped. So it all depends how busy the guy's are.

Nick_o_Teen

Same thing I had to do to free up some cash, went from this uk MY00 with only 28 thou miles on the clock http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...koteen/sco.jpg
To this 95 WRX STI RA V2. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...een/1Small.jpg
Haven't looked back since, great fun, allot quicker machine, slightly more expensive to run and insure, but that comes with running and owning a scoob anyway. Mine runs 1.24 bar (18psi) on 97/98 ron uk fuel on a Gizzmo chip with no probs. The only downside for me from one to the other is the suspension is allot stiffer, but hey it makes corners more fun.

TopBanana

You are wasting your money if your car has been remapped to 95RON fuel, which is the sort of remap I suggested.

Yes you can!

Dark Blue Mark

Bit of a waste mapping an STi to 95 I would have thought, and from memory, its quite tricky doing it. Normal Scoobyecu map is for 97/98 IIRC.

MB

fastdude

Thanks lads for all your comments and also to see someone who has made the exact same transition from a low mileage MY00 to the RA.
When I drove an RA before it was on a very good surface so I wouldn't have understood how hard they are compared to the MY00 Turbo.

Maybe this is going against the grain of the whole Sti set up but is there anything that can be done to improve the ride quality but not loose the stability.

Are they generally reliable cars or is there alot more to watch out for when buying one compared to the turbo model?

Thanks again...

TopBanana

If you really like the UK settings, and there's nothing wrong with that, fit a set of UK suspension - there's nothing stopping you. Something like AST suspension would probably be much better and still quite smooth, but you'd be looking at the best part of a grand which doesn't really fit with the money-freeing exercise!

Most important thing is to make sure they aren't detonating - other than that they're fine. You will need a knocklink fitted, and you'll need to run Optimax + booster until you get it remapped.

fastdude

Thanks mate for you reply, much appreciated...