SHADWELLARMY

Hi, im new to all this scooby lark and wanted to get some advice from you experienced guys. I have always owned Saabs and had them chipped up to the max with no reliability problems at all, but im now trying to get an impreza 5 door turbo nutter machine, but im slightly worried about the cars themselves as a daily workhorse and all that. I have heard some nightmare stories about blown engines etc.. when you start to mess around with them. What im after is some honest feedback on whether I should buy a Scooby over a 9-3. And yes I do know Saabs are for old men! But not when you can so easily max the mothers! And I cant seem to find any real easy way to max a scooby, any good sites or suppliers? And yes, I am a newbie! So go easy on me! I might soon be tear arseing around in a scooby! I went to see 2 cars today and had to walk away from both as they were not in good shape despite the owners saying they were tip top! Any advice appreciated.

C 8HEP

scoobys are amazing in everyway. they are the best value for money car on the market. top of the range scoobys are
sti
p1
22b i
type 25
s202
type RA spec c
wr1

without going on and on. check out all specs on websites like here under search or google. they are all basically the same 280-300 bhp o.60 in 4.3-4.6 and top speed of 140-155mph. they would all eat ur saab for breakfast.not being big heaheaded. they cause no more probs then anyother car maybe even less as they are japanese.

goto a dealer and get a clean low mileage with a warranty. they make some of the same cars in japan and uk but imports tend to be faster and cheaper. any questions just ask

SHADWELLARMY

Cheers, ive gotta stick to UK cars at the moment as I was a naughty boy in a previous life so my insurance is silly at mo. Im off to see one at the weekend, advertised on here, so who knows!

pbee

ive found scoobies are expensive to modify as they are quite specialist compared to other cars.

if you want big power and reliability its big bucks.

where people go wrong is upping the power over what they should be doing budget wise,

it is easy to get 300+bhp with good reliability getting closer to 400bhp is gonna be expensive.

what are you looking at and what power do you want.

SHADWELLARMY

This is the thing! I need an estate, so ive been looking at getting a T5 but had no luck yet, so ive started looking for a scooby. I can safely get 300BHP from a Volvo T5 for £500. But looking at some of the threads on here im getting real put off by big ends going and engines blowing up etc.... After driving a scooby yesterday im satisfied that they are bloody quick without tweaking em. But thats half the fun!

dexter

Another thing with the T5 mate is that it will not get near a Scoob on handling, unless you spend big bucks on a suspension tune.

With the Scoob you get the power, the handling, and the traction all in one.

As a package they are VERY hard to better.

Good luck, and go for a Scoob. You won`t regret it.

Yex

Have a look through www.sidc.co.uk especially the FAQ section. Lots of helpful data here that most of us old farts have referred to more than once.

Yex

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

You should be safe with a UK car providing :

1. Its got a good service history

2. Any mods already done have been done by a garage / dealer etc... who know what they are doing - be wary if the seller hasnt got receipts for the work done as they may be some ham fisted bodger who bought a load of bits cheap on Ebay and slapped them on without knowing what they were doing. ( unless they have done it themselves but obviously know what they are talking about ).

3. Most Jap cars are reliable, and have good engines, BUT... any performance cars engine will give up eventually if its been constantly caned. I dont think Scoobys are any better or worse than most manufacturers for reliability - you get the feeling a lot of the engine problems people report are more down to their own abuse than a defect in the car.

4. Dont buy from a 21 year old from the local council estate - try and find a car owned by an older enthusiast who could afford to run it on decent petrol and oil, and fix anything that needed doing when it broke.

This is pretty much the advice I was given when looking to buy, and it came in handy in convincing myself to walk away from some cars that were absolute mutts - making a short term saving in the purchase price isnt a good idea as it may end up costing a lot more in the long run.

AND MOST IMPORTANT - dont be desperate to buy - there are lots of cars out there so go and see them and drive them, if you miss out on one, a better one will be along soon.

And I'd definitely suggest changing from the Saab, mainly because my dad has had them for the past 2 or 3 cars he's bought, and hes old !

SHADWELLARMY

LOL at old people in Saabs! The only reason ive stuck with them so far is they are seriously reliable even when chipped. Ive had 2 now and have had no serious problems and i do cane the crap out of them! Saying that though, I do get them serviced every 6K. I know i cant match the handling of the scooby with a T5 but I can get seriouos power really cheap. Some good advice there though, so cheers. I went to see 3 scoobys in the last week. Some real bs out there as none of them had the history the sellers said they had on the phone, so walked away from em all. Been stung before with a Renault Alpine a few years back, so learnt the hard way. If I do get a scooby I have to say Im gonna keep it totally standard so as not to tempt fate! Fast enough for me at mo. Dont wanna lose my licence again. The thing thats got me real worried is some peeps on here having big ends go at relatively low mileages.

zakk

If you get a well looked after UK spec one, you should noty have engine trouble..at all. The problems you are refering to, are mainly due to import cars that are either not mapped for uk fuel or not run on the high ron fuel they should be. Get a nice standard UK spec one......you wont regret it.....I bought one myself not too long ago.