Everyone I speak to about the Impreza instantly have nothing nice to say about the reliability (and personally I am from the same school of thought but my eyes are opening).. Now what I don't understand is people slate them left right and centre but there are plenty of early (EJ20) 2.0 Flat four Legacy's with nearly 200,000 miles on the clock running like a dream! Obviously bolting on a turbo doesn't do much for an engine life span but it shouldn't be reducing the perceived life span to around £50k miles.

Yes I've heard of piston failures etc and one of my co-workers owned one of the first STi Type-R's to be imported into the country and his spat a shell without any warning.

So is it just the "abused" cars that die, is it simply a fact of life or is it just a load of old cr*p and they last just as long as any other car if looked after.

 

think its just "got a wrx sti, ppp wiv a turbo innit!" that die early

ie depends on who is driving and weather they understand turbo engines and wether or not they are mechanically sympathetic. i'm more paraniod of "things that go bump in the night" with impreza's but i live in an inner city

 

True,

I can understand if someones been playing with the ECU map, running higher boost etc but they have not touched any of the engine internals, but the standard block should have a bit more mustard than people are making out.

Anyway we'll see, if the other halfs WRX goes pop for no reason I'll be crying "conspiracy" like the rest!

 

I think if they're left as standard and treated well, ie let them spin down after a run etc. then there's no problem. It stands to reason that the more people tinker with them, the less reliable they will be.

 

I've had my UK MY95 Turbo 2 years and have done nearly 30k miles since. It was standard when I got it but that lasted all of a day. The car gets driven hard but it is also looked after (serviced every 6 months). It has never let me down in all that time and I've never had to spend on anything other than service items. Very reliable IMO.

 

I have to also add a friend of mine has an early WRX, he ragged the **** off it every day he owned it, never had a problem! The water pump sheered off once and the cambelt came off, none of the valves were effected. The current owner has not a problem with it either.

 

At the risk of jinxing (sp?) my luck! Uk cars are usually VERY reliable; the stuff about chocolate engines people spout on here is nonsense. You'll notice that I said UK cars, japanese imports -especially the older ones- are a bit more of a risky proposition; the problem being that many of them were imported and run on UK petrol with an insufficient RON, which more often than not leads to Det and a shagged engine.

Of course there are the occassional bad apples, but UK cars serviced and driven properly should give no major headaches. If you modify them sensibly and intelligently there should be no problems too.

Ns04

 

Probably works on a rising scale of:

The more you toss with a perfectly good car, the more likely it will bust.

That is also an ancient Chinese proverb.

Mine is totally standard and driven like any other car and I have not had a days trouble with it.

Ted.

(back me up Mr. Lewis!)

 

I have had a classic STi for almost 5 years now. No modes, driven hard and looked after properly (98 fuel, plus octane booster for continental scare the French stuff). The only non maintenance item was a noisey hydraulic belt tensioner.

I believe ignorant mods and proper care of the Machine to have been a major cause for most failures. It's in all the earlier threads - 2.5 engines meant for the US (only allowed to drive at 65mph max there?). Of course, all will be indignant at this because they are all experts about mods. But different pistons etc for different courses?

Chinese proverb: understand what machine designed to do - don't mess with what's not broke.

Cheers

 

I'm on my second Impreza and so far I've had no problems whatsoever.Cars is driven sympathetically warmed up and cooled down serviced regularly as Subaru intended.You'll hear of many "Blokes" whose Impreza has blown up but the stories are always second or third hand. Go for it....

 

STI V3 owned for 7 years now, done about 45k miles and never missed a beat. Maintain myself and mods limited to decent exhaust and filter.
Also running a GTB twin turbo, 106k miles, owned 18 months and still sweet as a nut - bar a leak on the uppipe and one of the front calipers sticks occassionally.
Had Subaru's for probably 12 years now and never owned such a reliable car - compared to beemers and fords anyhow.

 

7 Imprezas in 11 yrs 11 months/250K miles and it's been hassle free motoring. All the owners I meet, can't stop talking about how reliable their cars have been as well.

Cheers

 

The Subaru Impreza is one of the most relaible cars around .....

UNLESS you **** about with it and take it outside it's intended design envelope ........ THEN you will get your fingers burnt!!!

Trouble is, these idiots then come on here and bleet and cry and blubber that Subaru's are ****e, why? well, because their engine let go at 185MPH after a 10 Hour non-stop German AutoBahn 9,000RPM blast .... after they paid £4000 to squeeze 998BHP out of a little 2Litre 4 Pot!!

Buy a UK car, run it without mods, treat it with respect and it will reward you with decades of trouble-free motoring .......... you can even 'burn-off' that Saxo once in a while too!

Pete

 

they are reliable,ask any aa or rac blokes,how many imprezas
they go out to.