JT79

Yeah I got mine privately but I prefered to do it that way as I could gurantee the history of the car and meet the owner. I looked at another example at a dealers before i bought the one I have and it had been crashed with a really shoddy repair (on a car that was under 3 years old) so it pays to be very careful when dealing with dealers unless they are genuine Subaru network. Well the saying goes if you don't ask you don't get so I'd go in with a low offer and see if the guy takes it! If you are buying second had there are no taxes etc to worry about as thats all taken care of when the car is purchased new, hence why dealers have on the road prices so that consumers know what they are getting. Its not like america where you buy something at the listed price then have to pay an extra 10% tax on top that you weren't expecting (speaking as a tourist!). The only tax you will need to worry about is the road tax which comes up yearly , same with the MOT test as well once the car is 3 years old. Warranty wise I think its all encompassing for 3 years or 36,000 miles but I think its possible to purchase a further 2 year rust protection, but don't quote me on that.

I'm not sure I agree guys, the Evo looks better - Colour aside, and also appeared to handle and drive better generally. The track lap time is largely irrelevent its about how it drives on the roads, but again its worth noting the the new STI was only 0.8 of a second quicker round the track than a WR1 and I seriously doubt you'd feel the 0.8 difference even if you drove them back to back Personally if I was looking for a new Impreza I'd hang on to my money and see what Subaru do next (probably a max of a years wait for a new version!) as the latest car as a whole package just doesn't do it for me. That said I like the seats and the stereo head unit but thats about it. I also agree with an earlier post about too much electronics I've got a variable diff but thats it and I still haven't figured out what its supposed to do anyway!

actually you might struggle to find exactly the right Hawkeye, they didn't sell well as Subaru announced that the new model was on the way very quickly after launching the hawkeye. I had to do quite a lot of driving around to find my car and I got a mint 06 STI Type UK in black with 11,000 miles on the clock for £16K. I knocked the owner down about £2K on his original asking price. That said the market is slow at the moment due to the credit crunch so you might find that they will be very flexible as they won't be shifting many cars either. I would guess the VAT thing would be due to trade vehicles not being charged VAT on the sale price, usually this would only apply to company cars or vans etc - I think...............

Hi Sean I suspect the reson why the Type D cars over here seem to be dropping in price a fair bit is because we Brits seem to prefer the STI style cars over the more toned down cars. It might be to do with the rally heritage so everyone wants a road car that looks like a rally car etc or something like that...... Mazda launched a toned down performance model over here as well the Madza MPS and I can say for certain that I haven't seen a single one on the road, so it would appear that if people want something toned down and restrained they buy a Volvo, Audi or a Saab or something like that. Looking at your location issues I'd suggest that you should look to live in the Bath/Chippenham area (where I live funnily enough). Bath is a really nice city (its a world Heritage city and strangely both Nicolas Cage and Jonny Depp have homes in Bath/surounding area) and will give you a really good flavor of what life in England is like, plus there are some good fast A and B roads in the area with fairly few speed cameras as well. Depending on where your office is in Bristol you should be able to drive to it in about 45 minutes or if its in the centre the train will get you there in about 20 minutes or so. From Bath London is also only about an hour and a half away as well so the commute there isn't terrible (I know I have to travel there a lot!). Close by is Castle Coombe race circuit where you can do trackdays etc in your car if you wish, Japfest is also held there every year (modified Japanese car show) and about an hour south you have Thruxton motor racing circuit. Silverstone is about 2 hours away so not terrible to get to. Chippenham also has a Subaru main dealer as does Bristol. Cheers Scooby JT

I'd second all that as well, I reckon if I'm steady on the motorway I should see well over 350 miles out of mine,. Normal commuter driving its only about 230 miles from 45 litres as I can't use 6th much! Not bad for a near 300 bhp car really! I bet there are a lot of Mondeo drivers with fairly similar figures to that and none of the fun factor!

Depends on the induction kit. Some use an oil in the gauze to trap dirt and that oil is what cocks up the sensor. If you get a dry one like I have its fine. The dump valves don't really do anything other than make a noise. The Impreza is supposed to have a recirculating type of valve system so I wouldn't change it, however it doesn't really matter if one has been altered. Have a look at a few before you buy. Without wishing to push this my '99 classic is up for sale on autotrader so if you live in the Chippenham area you might want to take a look. Its the very tidy dark blue mica one 88,500 miles. Cheers Scooby JT

This is Scooby JT - my old desktop computer seems to have a different log in to the one I use at work or my laptop. I've got both a 99 classic turbo (UK spec) and a new age Hawkeye STI type UK. Basic differences are the new age is thirstier but better built (in terms of squeeks and rattles) and more refined (in terms of power delivery) its also heavier. Concerning the classic cars and the MAF thing - again really don't worry about it I had one go last year but the car was 8 years old and had done over 75,000 miles so I'd fully expect it to do another 75,000 miles before it needed changing again and the cost of a new one is only about £80. it would only take you 10 minutes to fit so really no big deal. My car also has a cone filter induction system and an afterburner exhaust system which really made a big difference helping the engine breath better so don't be scared of sensible mods. Induction wise avoild air filters that work by using oil to trap particles as the oils causes problems with the sensor, go for a dry filter or jst replace the panel filter in the air box. If I had to say which car was best I'd say they are both as good as each other just slightly different somehow. But I can tell you I'd take a late classic over any early newage any day if for no other reason than I'm not keen on the bug eye looks of the early new age cars and the weight of the newage cars does blunt the fun slightly. Cheers Scooby JT

Definitly re-map it if you have the exhaust decatted, although you would proabbly be better off saving up and gettin the exhaust, dumpvalve and the induction done all at once as you only have to get the re-map done once then. If you did the exhaust first and had a re-map and then fitted induction and dump valve at a later date you would ideally want a second re-map done as you would have changed the parameters of the system enough for it to matter. The scoob does have a learning ECU though so it will adjust to small things by itself, i.e .fuel quality and air flow etc, but anything more than minior tweaks wants a proper remap. JT

Shouldn't need undersealing if its an EU import, if you buy it and it hasn't been sealed and its country of origin is an EU member (assuming you are buying a brand new car from a subaru dealer) then you would have the right to sue Subaru for the work to be done cost free. If its new they also have to honor the manufacturers warranty etc as well. JT

Which country is the car being bought from? I've got a UK spec Ductch Import '99 plate and that was exactly as UK spec, the only difference was the cat 1 alarm and tracker. Mine is also quite happy on 95 unleaded, although I do run it on optimax as I've found that I get more power and MPG so it cancels out the extra cost. It does say inside the fuel filler cap that it should be run on high grade unleaded, but thats a european thing as they still use the equivalent of 2* or something in France etc. If you check with subaru uk they will confirm 95 is fine on a uk spec car. JT

If you do go for an import you should be able to get it remapped for UK fuel any way, so you may not need to go down the octane booster route (somebody with an import would know for sure). Personally I wouldn't be keen on using octane booster, I spent enough time filling it up with out faffing about with that as well. Robocop on the southwest scoobies forum has just got himself an STI Spec C import, with a full remap to run UK fuel he is still knocking out 350 bhp (I think he still has cats in the sxhaust as well). Powerstation did the remap for him, they are also the only rolling road people I've seen that actually duct cold air on to the intercooler which makes the engine perform as it would if you were actually moving. JT

I'd go for a standard UK Turbo 2000 for that money. I got mine last year for £8.5K on a '99 plate with 44k on the clock and FSH. I guess its worth £7,500 or so now? It hasn't missed a beat and they are relatively easy to modify as well, go for a good exhaust with a decat centre and either decat the downpipe or use a highflow sports cat, with a remap and free flow air filter you should be getting towards 290 bhp or so. Power isn't everything though, TBH, the best thing about these cars is the way they go round the bends. Hondas do have something, but I strongly suspect no FWD car will be as much fun on an every day basis no matter how good the Integra is. JT

Hi all I take it this is where the main forums are residing now Scooby Princess? Only the link you sent me when the forums closed didn't work! Anyway I've attached link to a pic of my car and my mate's 350Z after a blast round the lanes recently. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/WNWJT/IMGP0077a.jpg Roll on Japfest! Cheers JT