Mordzy

Hello all.

This s my first post so please excuse any omissions of etiquette.

I have always enjoyed the flat four sound as a bystander. Never considered purchasing as I love my 2 seater sports cars of which are used as a daily driver.

My second car currently is a defender pickup two seater which is now an MOT failure due to a rotten chassis. Recently becoming a dad is making me consider my second car options. I live in a semi remote location and as such when it snows in winter you tend to be cut off unless you have a good 4x4. So my question really is how good a 4x4 is the impreza compared to say a defender or similar. Specificly in snow with snow tyres?

Am I barking up the wrong tree ? Should I just fix the defender?

I'm looking for an unmodified, stock, older model for between 2-3.5k which is about the cost of fixing my defender.

Much appreciate the advice.

Alex

N111KLN

iTrader: (1)

I can only speak for my diesel impreza, but I bought a set of Avon Ice Touring ST tyres a couple of winters ago. During the summer I run the Yokohama Advans which came with the car, but when it first starts to get cold around November I switch over to the Avons.

When the snow came down a couple of weeks ago it was pretty much unstoppable. I actually found myself specifically going on roads I knew would not be gritted just to test it. Around here we had a good 8 inches, and there was genuinely nothing which really troubled it. That's on single track country lanes as well.

So ye, Impreza with snow tyres I'd say will easily match a defender (unless we have several feet of the stuff obviously).

N111KLN

iTrader: (1)

Just re-read your post Alex, my house is about a mile away from the nearest gritted road, down a country lane and with one huge hill to get over. So I'm in pretty much the same position as you, no 4 wheel drive car when the snow is down and I'm not going anywhere, honestly a Subaru on winter tyres is the way to go

cuprajake

iTrader: (11)

The only snow issue you will have with an impreza is snow ground clearance.

I've been lucky enough to have had the sport, the classic the new age wrx and now a sti hawkeye.

All have performed amazing in the now. The new age wrx I fitted winter tyres too and we went everywhere, to be fair the newest has semi slick tyres on and I still got home in that big down fall of snow end of jan.

For reference i live up two big hills, the second is unadopted and never gets gritted.

If you want practical then you can look at the legacy or forester too

charvi

Have a look on YouTube mate as there is loads vids with subarus in snow

My own experience is that they are great in the snow and like many other
Impreza owners actually look forward to the white stuff..... (Snow) lol

Mordzy

Thanks for the tips guys. Pretty much what i though or was hoping to here.

Obviously ground Clearence is my only concirn though if it was that deep I'd prob not go out anyway. Foresters don't look good :-( and blower versions don't have low range--- if it's even needed. Was looking at wrx tbh.

I have looked on Facetube and there are as many Good in snow as there are bad in snow vids so wasn't sure. Infact there was one pulling a stuck artic lorry and one guy ploughing through 1ft snow coverings.

Any tips on what to look for or expect to pay when looking at a potential purchase?

Have been looking round this price/spec - quite like the wagon too (top gear feature made me consider)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/53-Subaru-...-/370717502843

bigballs

iTrader: (8)

My WRX was great in the snow over the last 6 weeks. I have toyo summer tyres.

I also drove a friends 320d with snow tyres and this was almost as good, I will be getting some winter tyres and I think it will be pretty much unstoppable.

hill79

I found mine pretty good in the snow, I managed to get up the slope out of our estate without any issues - neighbors in other cars were taking multiple runs at it before giving up! Corners and braking were about the same as any other car in the snow, over do it and you're going to slide (on summer tyres at least) but its just a case of driving to the conditions. Imprezas aren't immune to the effects of ice and snow, but they do cope with it better than lots of other cars.