Safe Speed Forums

Well glad to say business is good and i've decided to trade in the ST24 and get a new vehicle.

Been looking at an Impreza WRX. Does anyone drive one? Can you recommend. I've drove a few in the past but never long enough to get to know one.

They're £13,999 from Motorpoint, seems good value to me. I know they're parallel imports, not bothered about that really as the UK list price is over £19,000.

I believe theres a new model due out in November, so think it might be a good buy at the moment.

What do you think?

I like the car but it's a very different car to the Mondeo, never owned one but have driven a few (imprezas that is, have owned a Mondeo but not an st24)

Great fun, lots of power delivered pretty smoothly but I find them quite tiring on a long run, even keeping the revs low there's a constant "drone" from the exhaust which I felt "exhausting" (excuse the pun).

If my journeys are mainly low distance then I'd have one in a shot, otherwise I think I would end up getting shot quite quickly.

My boss has just traded his for a Monaro which is more civilised from a passenger POV, but can still shift. Different price point tho'

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It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair

I have had a '99 for over five years and still enjoy driving it, the newer ones are heavier but this gives them a stiffer chassis. From the few others I have tried the handling can vary a bit depending on how the geometry has been set up so you may well find yourself wanting to get this checked once you get used to the car. In general a good reliable, practical car that can put a grin on your face, the 4wd lets you get out of junctions in wet weather at a pace that would see fwd/rwd spinning wheels and going nowhere. They can be driven like an everyday shopping cart without fear of them biting back, even driving in a more committed manner will usually leave plenty of handling reserve as a safety margin. The down side is that it is fairly rare to be able to be able to get close to the limits of an Impreza on the road without being well above what is safe. This means that they can feel a little uninvolving at times, if you have the opportunity to drive a different car for a few days from time to time then it helps you to realise what good road cars these can be when you get back behind the wheel.

A friend of mine bought an import earlier this year from a company called Motor Depot in Hull who also trade as Trade Value Direct and has been happy with both the car and service.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

What about your username?

If there's a new one due out in November, wouldn't Christmas be a better time to buy - when they're trying to shift all the "old shape" trade-ins?

Also, although I've no direct experience of them, a mate of mine had one for a while. It was a very flattering car to drive - he could take ridiculous liberties with it and it wouldn't bite back but he (as the previous poster said) found it uninvolving to drive. He said it just "understeered at both ends" - which was a phrase that appealed to me! He traded it in for a TVR - which he had for about a month before he planted it!

Where is it imported from? If it's from Japan then expect to pay higher insurance and to have to run it on V-Power (or else risk engine damage), you do get more power though . the key give away for a Jap import is a bolt-on foglight (or one cut into the bumper). If it's from Cyprus or somewhere like that and is full UK spec then you should be fine.

You should also look at the Spec.C Legacy. It's pretty similar (power is almost the same in the 3.0 non-turbo form, and the new 08 impreza is based on the current Legacy platform anyway) but more practical and doesn't suffer from the chav image of the Impreza.