Baron Sideways

I know that the Impreza has an image problem amongst those poeple who don't really understand what it is and why we drive them, but something happened recently that made me wonder what it is about the Impreza in this respect as opposed to the Evo crowd...

Where I work there's a bright blue Evo. Big noisy exhaust, vortex genetator 'teeth' on the roof, the full shabang. It even has day-glo ORANGE wing mirrors for crying out loud! But non-one ever gave it a second glance. Then I rock up in my totally standard looking STI (blue, gold wheels, modest exhaust, nothing outrageous) and am bombarded with comments along the lines of "where's your Burberry baseball cap"!

Now I accept an STI is not a particuarly subtle car, but I've come across this time and again; Evos seem to slip under the banter radar whilst us lot cop the full force of the general public's mockery!

Maybe it's 'cos the Evos tend to be pricier and therefore you see less tatty ones?

Or maybe those Dark Siders in their Evos are weaving some kind of mind trick on the masses!

Norman Dog

iTrader: (1)

Ditch the gold wheels....

Baron Sideways

NEVER!

rookymatt

iTrader: (15)

Stop listening to N-Dubs! hehe
wear a flat cap.
Smoke a pipe.
never go over 1500rpm.
The above should make you feel less chavvy!

Seriously though, i get the same at my work. However they have now left me alone as one of the guys at my firm has bought an evo7 and it is absolutely the noisiest car in the world. So now they bombard him with statements such as "someones bolted an ironing board to your car" and "there is a dustbin where your exhaust used to be!"
I say.......................
"Moooahahahahaa! Welcome to the club!"

pslewis

Gold Wheels

Dump Valve

Cocklink

Mickey Mouse Gauges

Big Exhaust

Throw them into a mixing pop, sell the whole for £2000 and what pops out the other end?

A CHAV!!!!

Sorry, that's just how it is .... the non-chavvie route is a standard UK Wagon - respect all round

StickyMicky

Mine was once called a "paki car" by some bloke who was trying his best to get a punch in the face

I was actually a bit stunned at the time, i must have had a right old confused look on my face, i can remember my mate saying "wtf are you on about?"

I ejected the chap from the premises shortly afterwards

Scoobys just dont seam to hold a good image, what ever the current image may be, i know a lass (from when we were kids) who told me she would never ever drive a scooby as they are charva cars, yet she belts around in her range rover, her old man usedx to supply us E`s when i was 17, and she is generally as charvary as they come

EddScott

I'm not a chav but their women turn me on - its that skanky council house look about them.

Oh sorry, thought I was in NSR


Couldn't give a monkeys about Impreza image. I've been thinking about buying a new car over the last month and initiall started on a sport clio (trophy) toying with the idea of a diesel BMW 330D but I've spent the last two nights convincing myself I want an RB5.

If I do buy a new car you can put money on which it will be. I've already decided that a set of those garish takata green alloys in the For Sale section.

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

What I like about it all.

I guess it takes more to be a subaru enthusiast.
All this Chav business.

If you really like the cars the noise the way they drive ect. It doesnt matter.
Many many people are worried about what others think of them - and so want that latest shiney Audi or whatever. Fair enough.

If you are comfortable in your own skin, well who cares what other, probably more shallow and less inwardly confident, people think.

The subaru impreza is a great car. A classic in blue with gold wheels is a motoring icon. Full stop. End off. (Along with many others Lancia delta, Teg R ect ect)

Yes many chavs own them, crash them , burn them, dont put oil in them, stick stupid lights on them. This is a phase, it will end.

As I have allways said they will go the way of ford cosworths.

Expensive performance car at new - slowly move to chav ownership - plunge to chav ownership - they are then all broken and burnt or whatever - A few are left that are now the preserve of the hardcore enthusiasts.

You dont see chavs driving Escort or Serria cosworths anymore. The rare beast you do see is one on track or you could eat your dinner of it.

Personaly I dont see that many on the roads. And MOST of the ones I do seem to be enthusiast owned.

E46 BMW 3 series. Civic Type R - will are slowly becoming the next chav weapons of choice.

james-darren

iTrader: (2)

i haven't be called a chav yet, well not to my face, but i have been asked if i'm a drug dealer a few times lol

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Where I live I see a load of chavved up evo 2's and 3's racing around, I'd hardly say they were the reserve of the rich. The good thing about classic imprezas are they are starting to become rarer again ( good ones anyway), there seemed to be a plague of older ones around here a while back all blinged up, but most of them have been crashed/ blown up.

scoober101

I think its the same old story that the minority spoil it for the majority. A large percentage of the population dont give a monkeys about cars. As long as it works and gets you from A to B then they are happy.

But everyone knows about Halfords and Ripspeed and youngsters and loud music and fast cars (even if they are Saxo's and Corsa's) and the movies like Fast and Furious.

If a loud Saxo came round the corner, they'd be branded a boy racer, if a loud Scooby came round the same corner, they too would be branded a boy racer. When people dont understand it, they rationalise it with the same tar and brush.

Going off on a tangent a bit, making remarks or p**s taking is also associated with envy or jealousy so I bet some people would actually like to drive around in a Scooby themselves but dont admit it.

dpb

If you suspect you are its probably too late already




HTH

Moley

iTrader: (9)

There was a 'chav' problem a while ago, but they now seemed to have moved onto Evo 5/6's now (a look on the MLR confirms this)

You'll still get 'chavs' driving Impreza's..... as you will with any car.

I personally can't understand those who sell their Impreza's due to their apparent image problem. Must be insecure.

Timwinner

iTrader: (3)

Like Garry said, I think the problem has moved on to early evo's and anything that is considered a "drift" car.
Pretty much all of the Impreza owners I know have respectable jobs, families and have no chav sings attached to them.
Besides who cares what the outside looks like when your behind the steering wheel, after all thats the place we all look forward to being when we buy Imprezas.

[-(o)-]

iTrader: (1)

Good thing about petrol going up so much in the past year. Even if you don't pay insurance, you can't get away with doing too many fill ups without paying.

Mines a wagon too which seems to mean despite the larger exhaust and the (standard) STi bits it still goes under the radar. I do often get asked in the office when I'm going to get a sensible car though.

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

I agree with this. I hardly ever see a tatty looking classic these days.

The good thing about them is that if you mis-treat one, it'll soon start knocking its bottom end. Chavs cant afford to fix this, so its broken or scrapped.

IainMilford

iTrader: (15)

alright you chav

Dan W

I dont see many Imprezas full stop these days.

Our club in Wales is fairly big but day to day I see hardly any.

I have even driven to London and back from here in South Wales and not seen one.

Nice as it means I think we drive something that really is exclusive. Most car owners haven't a clue what the Impreza marque is or the power it produces.

You;ll always get derogatory remarks no matter what you drive I reckon mostly from BMW drivers I find.

I've owned 2 of me own. Way way way to many of them about nowadays. Excellent machine boring as custard. Apart form the M division.

c_maguire

I think there is unfortunately a major chav element to the classic impreza because there are (compared to earlier Evos) a hell of a lot of them and they are very cheap - why have a Corsa when you can burn off all your mates in your £1500 Impreza on your mum's insurance?
Things do seem to have improved in the last year perhaps because, as has been said, a lot of these sheds have been blown up/smashed up and also money is a lot tighter for the chavs at this end of the market.
I have a classic (for sale) and an Evo (latest car) and the content of this forum is certainly of a higher general standard than MLR. On here the flys in the ointment are the teeenage (or thereabout) illiterates carping on about BOVs etc, over on MLR there are heavy overtones of the "my dick is bigger than yours - I burnt off so and so in his Veyron etc".
It's fair to say though, seeing what lots of people do cosmetically to their cars, there are a serious number of tasteless Subaru owners. This doesn't seem to happen with the Evos nearly so much.

Kevin

Baron Sideways

At the end of the day, as has been said by several people here, I couldn't give a monkey's about what people think (in fact if I'm honest I rather like driving a car that is offensive to the emotion police in the diesel / Prius brigade ).

I'm just baffled that the majority of Evos - old tatty ones aside - seem to get away without the chav tag. I mean look at an Evo IX MR FQ-360 for crying out loud! Amazing car, would love to be able to afford one, but you're not telling me that it looks any less in-your-face than a standard STI?

Maybe it is just all down to the gold wheels...

rookymatt

iTrader: (15)

Thats why i'm changing my wheel colour from gold............to kawasaki green!
If i'm going to be called a tasteless chav, i might aswell be one to the full extent.
Then again is looking for a crazy JDM style still chav?? hmmmmm.

c_maguire

This is the key, because you are right, there's nowt wrong with the looks of a standard STI but as I have said too many Subarus get *******ized by their owners and everytime that geezer you work with sees yours he will be reminded of the hideous one he saw that was covered in stickers with a dustbin for an exhaust and some prat at the wheel with requisite bling and baseball cap.

Kevin

Baron Sideways

My girlfriend almost had a fit when she saw the blue / gold combo in all it's glory for the first time!

I think blue with green wheels might result in:

a) her having a triple heart attack;

b) me rapidly becoming single!

rookymatt

iTrader: (15)

LMAO!
Thought i'd change them to a mad coulour, then paint strip them and go anthracite for winter.
Screw the people that judge someone cos of the brand of their car!!
I'm sure it could be classed as a form of discrimination.

Faye

As soon as a decent car can be bought cheaply enough they will get into the hands of the wrong people who cant drive them or look after them properly. The vxr's are getting cheaper now for example and chavs are starting to get their hands on them but they can usually be easily indentified just by the way they are being driven and tacky halfrauds looking mods.

I love my scooby, it stands out and i dont care what people think ive already had the chav/drug dealer comments. Its by far the best car Ive ever driven and Im quite sure my next car will also be a Subaru after owning 4 vauxhalls previously im defo converted.

Baron Sideways

So the way ahead seems to be to gang up on the chavs who drive Scoobies and force them into Evos instead.

Then everyone's a winner!

Well, except the chavs and the Evo crowd, but **** them!

rookymatt

iTrader: (15)

Here here!

pslewis

There There ...
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you poor Gold Wheel wearing Chavs

james-darren

iTrader: (2)

BIG CHAV!!!!! you ever been called a chav iain?? or don't people get the chance

Probein

Scoobies are cheap compared to EVOs. Therefore chavs (who typically aren't earning much money) are more likely to drive them.