The End Has Come..........

[The Don]

Announced today...........

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=26839

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/subaru/impreza/61907/subaru-kills-wrx-sti-and-impreza-uk

[jebus82]

sad news but hardly surprising, running costs are an issue for a lot of people but i bet the crap build quality that subaru uk dont seem to care about doesnt help sales.

[g1983]

:-(

[scottishtaffy]

sad day indeed but an even better reason to keep hold of our imprezas now. classics will be more classic and new age will become rare. the one bit i n the article about not being competitive with todays cars is ridiculus (?) they can still make fools of today front wheel drive cars, the VXR ( ) for example have all this power but no decent way of putting it down without chronic wheels spin or torque sterring you into the ditch. the subarus are still king of the back roads in my eyes

[The Don]

the one bit i n the article about not being competitive with todays cars is ridiculus (?)

Think you will find it's more about cost than performance....................

[scottishtaffy]

ahhh bo we still have more fun tho lol

[benmic92]

that's made me really sad

[scooby222]

sniff sniff but as said unsurprising - theres no way i could justify buying a brand new one today and 2 of my 3 have been straight out of the showroom, subaru seem so have lost sight of the fact that bang for buck made the original impreza such a hit, in 2000 it cost 1800 more for a uk turbo than a 306 gti6.....

[g1983]

in 2000 it cost 1800 more for a uk turbo than a 306 gti6.....

In 2000 i was in school lol

[t5nyw]

Sad news but not surprised

IIRC they only sold 30-50 new saloons and this year was not that much better.

The high cost of imports/taxation/road tax/petrol it's surprising that they sold any at all.

Tony

[beefoss]

Sad news but does this now mean we can all insure our cars under 'classics'? Haha

[salsa-king]

£460 a year road tax adds another knife in the back. That should have been looked at before it was launched too.

[scouk]

only read the news this morning. Sad news indeed. The Impreza is a great car and always will be in a class of it's own. But todays world running costs are hurrendous for a form of transport. Surprisingly Fuel isn't necessarily the major concern. Insurance costs are inflated for impreza's and the road tax is rediculous. £460 a year would be out of my budget range. And if you do buy a new one you get the added showroom tax ontop of that for buying a big gass gussling 4x4.

I know it's a little against the trend but if subaru were to work on a 1.8l (or maybe even 1.6) WRX/STi or a diesel STi which was rumoured, they may have got more sales. But would we buy a smaller engined impreza? In recent years to get past regulations they had to slap in the heavier 2.5l engine here in the EU whereas JDM's still ran the relatively bulletproof 2.0

Certainly is an end of an era for this pokey wee island we're on..

.. guess if nothing else, it just makes the Impreza even more special now. Probably more important now more than ever, to have car clubs like this one to keep these cars from being forgotten

[The Don]

Sad news but not surprised

IIRC they only sold 30-50 new saloons and this year was not that much better.

The high cost of imports/taxation/road tax/petrol it's surprising that they sold any at all.

Tony

^^^^^^^ as above.

Still going strong in most of Europe and their major overseas markets, Australia and US.

Tony, can we claim "special edition" status.

[baldobaz]

Death by tax is what this is.

[scoobywho]

It might increase the values of the older ones now

[monsterenergy]

I'm gonna start stock piling them lol

This news does make me sad though, it might sound ridiculous but the Impreza was one of the main driving forces in my adult life.

Was working in a petrol station for £5/hr and got a shot of my bosses MY00, then the only thing that mattered was affording an impreza

.

Colin macrae was a huge part of it too for us Scottish lads and no doubt many others. I remember seeing a L555 *AT on the slug road at Stoney and being jealous as hell.

Maybe it's time to become a surf bum...

... Or more likely the thread title is a load of pish and this is NOT the end - the Impreza will NEVER die for me. I'll just need a bigger driveway/garage and connections in Japan.

P.s. they shoulda got back to WRC. The success of the hatch with SRT USA says alot and IM group seemed to fail

Edited December 15, 2012 by monsterenergy

[paul n]

Sad news indeed but bear in mind the hatch was launched in 2008 at 25k then 36k earlier this year for the same car, difficult to justify in the current financial climate, 2.5 had a known engine issue Subaru said remap would fix it, it didn't & the customer was left to pick up the tab

Don't get me wrong I love our hatch but a little peeved we have had to pay for an engine rebuild due to a known fault Subaru didn't fix under warranty

Anyway it's a really sad day & hope the Impreza makes a return in years to come

[MarkJHarris]

I'm sure it's not just me but he hatch left me cold and I have just never considered one as a replacement for my Hawkeye. I'll keep it now for a long time. I might have to get a newer car for daily use but the STi will just stay with me for the foreseeable.

Subaru frankly did it to themselves and only have themselves to blame for the sales and reputation fiasco.

[fmj]

I think it's a mix of the way things are now and Subaru loosing touch with what the car was about in the first place... It was a cheap four door saloon that went like stink. Now it's over priced, not that good looking (sorry to those who like it) and the performance is matched by loads of similar cars. There are also no WRC wins to keep the name going... It's sad but I think the Impreza should have stopped being called the Impreza after the Hawk Eye. Everyone has fond memories of the blue car with gold wheels and a bonnet scoop and it's a shame that it had to have a bit of a slow painful death.

[l137sws]

And for those of use who have had a few (7) including the current WRX STI, it is a big disappointment.

The price of the new shape was right in 2008 but not enough people liked the shape.

The the spec was right and the price wrong.

Both hurt sales.

Oh well. Audi RS3 next I guess

[johnmacdonald]

Just caught up with Don's post of 14th December and I'm completely gutted at Subaru's decision, Perhaps if they had spent proper money advertising the brand, it would not have come to this. I feel that we will keep our wonderful Hawk 2.5 PPP for the forseeable. What else would we replace it with?

[The Don]

Just caught up with Don's post of 14th December and I'm completely gutted at Subaru's decision, Perhaps if they had spent proper money advertising the brand, it would not have come to this. I feel that we will keep our wonderful Hawk 2.5 PPP for the forseeable. What else would we replace it with?

A post from another BBS I frequent sums up the problem nicely given the "size" of the UK market...............

Subaru is doing very well outside the UK. The XV was the top selling model in Switzerland one month recently, knocking the Golf off its long standing pedestal. Sales break records every month in the US, Canada and Australia. Japanese domestic sales are strong too.

There are possible plans to extend manufacturing in the US, maybe the Forester could be built there.

As I said before, the main problem in the UK is the exchange rate; other minority Japanese makes face similar problems.

[Tractor Trev]

£460 a year road tax adds another knife in the back. That should have been looked at before it was launched too.

Thats why i'll never sell my hawk as its only £260 a year :-D

[spect]

Bah!! Mine is £450.

It is all about the price in the end, wrong price for a car that looks very samey with other cars and a performance that is good but not outstanding so much these days.

You cannot sell a brand based on it being for enthusiasts only and that is generally what our marque has become. Sad but no great surprise. I guess that we will end up with a whole stack of imports from Japan and Oz now.