scoobydude

I use 0w40 or 5w30 depending on whether it's track or road use. I've never had any issues due to either being too thin.

The side skirts are glued on. Sometimes the glue fails and the skirts come away from the body. Having replacement unpainted skirts doesn't always mean accident damage. Have a word with the owner and see what's what.

Given that it's a classic I'd personaly be checking the output of the maf sensor as my first port of call.

I'm just waiting for the inevitable posts from some clown who fitted winters without the temperatures being low enough to justify it, telling us how he / she just plowed into a bus stop full of lawyers because their winter tyres disintegrated. No doubt followed by a plethora of posts about insurance price hikes being outrageous. Where's my popcorn

Given that you're in Scotland I'd have said going for winter tyres may well be a sensible option. Most of the UK wont get cold enough for long enough to justify the switch . I'd rather be rolling on a set of decent all rounders than a shagged out set of winters. I reckon the best winter tyres are Conti wintercontacts (TS830). I'm going to have a set of 225/45/17s ready, in case we get it as bad as last year, down here in southern England (given the councils don't seem to give a **** about gritting the roads down here anymore).

I hope you aren't planning on selling it (the hatch) anytime soon. I was offered a 2009 59 plate 330s, with 3500 miles on the clock, for 20 grand. That was from a reputable main dealer That is some depreciation I'm no fan of the hatch, but they are a cracking looking used buy. I could almost forgive its hideousness at that price

The new saloon STI is quite a car, and is at least a bit in keeping with the spirit of the impreza name, the price is an absolute joke however. The hatchback STI did exactly what Subaru intended, and increased the appeal to people who couldn't give a monkeys about the driving experience and just wanted to be able to say "my car has got 300 of those horse thingys that make it go really fast, and loads of buttons that do stuff". They were so popular in the UK that Subaru UK still haven't shifted the cars they imported 2 years ago. I'm loving the idea of the RWD coupe, especially the mooted pricing of circa 25 grand. I do agree that the impreza name should have died with the Hawkeye saloons however. I think Subaru would benfit from dropping the boxer layout for the engine as well. With the current exhausts you can't hear the burble anymore, even with the unequal headers, and the wieght distribution argument doesn't hold true anymore, as you can achieve a low centre of gravity equaly well with a straight upright inline 4 by making sure you position the manifolds so that you don't have to run the exhausts under the engine. That's what mitsubishi have done with the Evo X and it works very well. Personaly I see Subaru regressing back to being suppliers of capable but dull "farmers friends" fairly soon.

I was offered a pre reg 360 with the SST box for 29 grand yesterday. I've never been so tempted by a car in my whole life (this coming from a die hard scoob fan)

It's particularly prevalent on the cars with the Si-drive map switching system. I believe Subaru UK haven't imported any 2.5 litre Imprezas for 2 years now, so we'll have to wait and see if the problem is ongoing or not (at least in the UK).

I'm going to join the sinners club now. I can get an FQ300 Evo x for 8 grand less than the new sti. I can get an FQ330 for 3 grand less than the new STI. Both of these evos plant a foot firmly in the nuts of the STI and vomit in it's face in every single department, I'm afraid. The advantage of the sti being cheaper has now gone. I think I'll have a serious look at the FQ300 and spend the 8 grand I'll save on coke and hookers.

Subaru seem to have made a monumental cock-up with their pricing. How can they justify a 33 - 37000 dollar price tag in the US, and a 33450 pound OTR price in the UK for what is essentialy the same car? At that price they can get stuffed. There are too many better cars in that price bracket. The thing that's always attracted me to the scoobs is the fact they are a lot of fun for not much cash. 33450 OTR ( before extras) is a complete joke. Obviously they only want company car fleet managers as customers or something, because anyone who spends that on an impreza needs help . And as for 50 grand for a hatch which has been tweeked by Cosworth I'll stick to my trusty old Hawkeye until they get a grip.

What they are saying is kind of true. For example, the EJ25 engines can run on 95 RON fuel, but if you insist on doing so and putting the engine under high loads, you can pretty much bank on an engine failure sooner or later. They have to be able to run on 95 RON to get the UK type approval, that doesn't mean that it's a sensible idea to run it on 95 RON fuel. I've only ever run mine on 97 - 99 RON fuel and not had any troubles with the engine.

33,000 is the price in US Dollars, not pounds. I reckon it'll be about 25,000 pounds all in (give or take a bit for the increase in VAT etc).

This is the 2011 STI saloon, which we are getting over here, in the UK, and which will come with the rear wing if required

The graph that is produced by a rolling road / dyno is torque / RPM at the wheels. The BHP / RPM is then calculated using a simple (ish) equation and overlayed on the torque /RPM graph. The wheels are run down against the slowing rollers and the torque / RPM , BHP /RPM is calculated at the flywheel by taking into account any differences in the 2 sets of graphs. That's a bit of an oversimplification but I hope that makes a bit of sense