Captain Shaptin

Hello all

I have seen a 2003 WRX with 61k going for £5.6k and have fallen for it.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...true?logcode=p

I have been reading for a while and thought i may may as well ask all my questions in one place.

Firstly how reliable ars these? My current car is a 2003 Celica with 166,000 miles on it and still going strong. Can i expect a WRX to make it this far?
Is the price a good price or is this the going rate these days?
Is there anything i should look out for?
It says prodrive in the advert but what is this?
and is it possible to remove that huge spoiler for a normal sized one.
Also i do about 20 thousand miles a year and although i know not to expect good miles to the gallon but how many miles can i get to a full tank.
Hopefully soon i'll have a "scooby" so any advise is appreciated.

peter zippy reid

iTrader: (25)

you can remove spoiler someone will buy it and if you do 20000miles it will be costly on fuel roughly 240 miles on a tank of fuel if you drive like miss daisy

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

Removing the spoiler will probably leave holes in the boot.

My 04 WRX does 265 miles to the tank (£65) but that is on a series of short journeys.

'Prodrive' probably means it has the Subaru approproved Prodrive Performance Pack (cat back exhaust and remap), i'd check though as it also says Group 20 and i'm pretty sure mine is group 19 so the advert might not be quite right.

If it is a PPP model i'd say that price is pretty good. I'd still go in at less though

Norman Dog

iTrader: (1)

220-240 before the red light.

Not a car I would go for if I was driving 20k per year.

I'd personally want an fsh with all receipts.

Yes, but more than likely the boot lid will be full of holes which will need filling, then the whole thing repainting.

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

I have an 05 WRX PPP and on my last 2 tanks got 29 mpg and 28 mpg. I kid you not, it can be done.

Its not particularly enjoyable, but I'm not doing 40 in a 60 either, just keeping up with commuting traffic and not trying to overtake them half the time. Not blasting away at roundabouts either.

brendy76

iTrader: (6)

On long mway runs (read: inverness to troon etc) I got around 330 to the tank. Depends how fast you cruise too, I sat around the 65-75 the whole way with no real amount of racing, 2 up and boot full. was a standard bugeye at the time. Things are a changin so not sure how long that will be valid

djandyg

iTrader: (2)

personally i wouldnt get one if i was gonna do 20k a year, fuel costs would be ridiculous....and also bear in mind you would be needing to service it 2-3 times a year doing that amount of miles.

brendy76

iTrader: (6)

Being out of warranty though, a little knowledge and you can service it yourself, leaving only the timing belt to the pros though.

Owning an impreza is only silly money if you don't do it all yourself and hoon it everywhere, in my opinion, obviously there are exceptions, lots of cold starts for example, it loves to drink fuel when cold.

turboaddict

iTrader: (2)

200 miles to a tank (as you will highly like the loud pedal in the first year) £65 to fill it= £325 to a 1K miles, and you will do around 20.000 miles a year... well.. that's gonna cost you around.................. the price of your new car and abit more, and just to fuel it ,not the choice of car if you are doing that kind of mileage imo.
but nether the less you should look for fsh and receipts to cover work and parts etc.

greendragonkungfu

i get 250 to a tank from my classic and iv done 13k in mine since march, i just love drivin it,

baz995

iTrader: (8)

not sure if i am correct on this but isnt that the STi spoiler? didnt the WRX originally come with the shovel type spolier? I have the same spoiler on mine and it looks a million times better imo.

Captain Shaptin

Seeing as you put it like that think i may have to think again. I've currently got a 2003 Celica with a 166,000 and well the time has come to replace it. I'm 32 now and still not had a proper fast car and liked the look of the Impreza on autotrader.Is it an easy car to work on eg. Servicing etc.
Back to the old drawing board me thinks

BexWRX

You know what (and i'm sticking my neck out here) you need to weigh up what you want out of your car.
Me personally I do 15k a year and I've just changed to a 52 plate WRX. I used to drive a Megane R26, I would get about 26mpg out of that, the WRX is mostly the same it all depends how you drive and what sort of daily driving you do? Me, I drive for 7 miles to work, most of it is a 30mph limit, the rest is a dual carriageway - not the best option for great fuel comsumption, but you know what, life is to short to constantly worry about your fuel guage.
My little weekend car does much less mpg, does that stop me from driving it or alter how I drive it? - no of course not.

if your really wanting good fuel comsumption and it is a huge factor to your bank balance every month then, yeah maybe the WRX isn't the best car for it, but they are reliable, strong, fun to drive - thats got to go someway in your decision?

BexWRX

and no offence and please dont take it this way, but if you want a proper fast car, whats the reason for wanting a WRX? There are much faster subaru's and other cars about?

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

I know they seem like normal cars to people like you and I, but to the vast majority of people, a car that does 0-60 in less than 6 seconds and near enough 150 mph is a proper fast car.

I'll never forget a boss I had at one point saying he was looking forward to getting something with a bit of pace once his daughters were off the insurance. The car he was aspiring to was a 1.8 petrol focus

bobbybb1

You could always get a slightly older model, save yourself £2-3k and spend that on keeping your current car going for during the week and keep the impreza for weekends. Just another option...

BexWRX

I guess your right. I've been lucky (or maybe unluckly with the amount i spend and the heartache I endure) by being brought up in the world of cars, my dad and grandad always had a classic something that they were restoring up and my brother and I have always had friends with powerful or modified or fast or desirable cars.

The one you've seen on autotrader does look nice, but just to help and with the last comment about getting a cheaper one, me and my brother have both just picked up WRX's, mine is a wagon on a 52plate and his is a saloon on a 02 plate. We both paid £3600, so you could save yourself a bit of money by searching and if you dont mind it, travelling a bit to find one.
Good luck with your search tho.

Rob Day

iTrader: (78)

If I was you I would get a cheap diesel runner such as a Skoda or Golf for around 2-3k, and with the spare 3k I would get a nice example Bugeye 2001-2002 to use at weekends, with weekend only insurance.

As mentioned above the running costs are will be ridiculous, plus there is the service intervals to think about, you would likely need to two services a year, and after 3 years of running your 20k per year Subaru it will be worth around £1800 - £2500 depending on the servicing etc.

Expect to pay twice the cost for a sevice compared with your Toyota.

HTH
Rob