Drew Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Hi all, Just checking in as I'm currently on the hunt for a dream car of mine - a Blobeye STi. I've only just started properly hunting for the one, but have lusted over them for quite a few years, so have a good idea of what I want. Looking for a JDM spec car, in white or blue, DCCD & widetrack preferable but not essential, under 100k miles. budget £10k. Went to view one yesterday in Burton, white with gold wheels, imported last summer. There were some good points to it, but just a few too many things putting me off I think: Knocking from the rear suspension (quite common I understand, new suspension to be included with sale, but unsure of condition. I guess it would be cured by fitting some coilovers, but not an extra expense I'd want right away). A few cosmetic niggles - finish on the rear quarter window was not great and missing a wind deflector from one side. It needed a good clean and polish, so not sure how well it would shine up. Front lights needed restored - again this seems to be quite common. Interior plastics a little tatty in places. Needed a service and the MOT is up in the summer. Owned for a few months by a 19 year old who fitted an exhaust, BOV and then sold it back to the dealer. Good points: The engine and gearbox appeared to be strong from admittedly a short test drive. No visible corrosion, the underside looked pretty clean. Nice sounding exhaust, bit of a naff sounding BOV, but original included. Still has a Japanese head unit, which I kind of like for the JDMness 😛, even though I can't understand it! Low mileage - 62k miles / 101km. So overall I didn't really love it and I think it's perhaps a bit expensive for the condition. I guess the mileage is the biggest factor pushing up the price. It's up for £10,250 but I'm sure he'd let it go for £10k. The next one on my list to view is a blue one for sale by Pole Position in Wolverhampton. I'd hoped to view at the weekend but it didn't work out. Being a Subaru specialist I expect it will be presented well for sale. It's also been serviced & under-sealed which is nice. This is good and bad of course, the shine can be deceiving and in a way I liked the "honest" presentation of the white one. However, it needed too much doing to have it in the condition I want it straight away. The blue one however is quite a bit higher mileage - 99k miles. I know one should buy on condition and not mileage, but it is still somewhat a negative in my mind. I've also contacted the guys at Torque-GT to see about importing one myself and will be keeping an eye on the Japanese auctions. Quite a lengthy post, but good to get my thoughts out on paper and will update as the hunt continues. Any thoughts and comments welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 10 is a pretty tight budget now adays for a decent jdm widetrack, prices have def gone up in recent months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 Yeah, I have kind of resigned myself to not getting a widetrack without upping the budget. However, I'm more than happy with an earlier JDM model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 There's some higher milage ones around and some bug's that might be a good buy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 For completeness I should finish off this thread! I actually purchased the second one that I went to look at. 2003 JDM STi - fresh import. Blue with Gold wheels. I picked it up last Monday and have covered just over 200 miles in it so far. I'm very pleased with it. I couldn't find much fault at all with it when I viewed and tested it. The engine and gearbox felt really strong and it had had a full cambelt service & compression test carried out by the garage - Pole Position in Wolverhampton. It is reasonably high mileage though, so it's not immaculate. The paint on the bumper and the spoiler are not 100% which is bothering me a little. I thought I'd inspected it closely, but find you can never really get to know a car completely until you clean it. I just gave it a bit of a quick wipe down and noticed some of the paint niggles. I'm hoping it just needs a good thorough detail, which I'm going to get to asap. Hopefully a clay bar, polish and wax will have it back to it's best. You really have to have your nose to it to notice, it looks pretty clean from a normal distance. It is unmodified, which must be pretty rare. Original exhaust and everything. I'm not a stickler for originality though, so on my list to do in the near future is a full exhaust system, mudflaps and a change of wheels perhaps. I will keep it standard for a few months though, get to know the car and see if any more pressing upgrades or mods are needed. Getting used to driving it has been interesting! Not owned anything 4 wheel drive before, which does have quite a unique feel to it. I was also getting some bad tramlining and a real unstable feel at times which had me worried there might be some issues with it. I took the DCCD out of auto and put it into full open, also upped the front tyre pressures - running 35f/32r which has improved the feel a lot. Tyres are Yokohama ad08r's. The speed and cornering ability is awesome! It's so eager to full you round the bends. Far faster than my ability or bravery is capable of at the moment. Another slight niggle is a high pitched whurring sound that I get a certain revs. Most noticeable between 1500 - 3000 rpm in 4th gear. It is under acceleration, so something engine related rather than suspension or drivetrain (I think). Having a Toad - Thatcham 1 alarm fitted this weekend as it is a requirement for my insurance. I didn't actually realise imports didn't have alarms as standard, so was an unexpected expense, but probably a good thing to have anyway! I'm also going to get new plates for it - a smaller front plate and an import style rear. Really enjoying the car so far! 😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 16 minutes ago, Drew said: For completeness I should finish off this thread! I actually purchased the second one that I went to look at. 2003 JDM STi - fresh import. Blue with Gold wheels. I picked it up last Monday and have covered just over 200 miles in it so far. I'm very pleased with it. I couldn't find much fault at all with it when I viewed and tested it. The engine and gearbox felt really strong and it had had a full cambelt service & compression test carried out by the garage - Pole Position in Wolverhampton. It is reasonably high mileage though, so it's not immaculate. The paint on the bumper and the spoiler are not 100% which is bothering me a little. I thought I'd inspected it closely, but find you can never really get to know a car completely until you clean it. I just gave it a bit of a quick wipe down and noticed some of the paint niggles. I'm hoping it just needs a good thorough detail, which I'm going to get to asap. Hopefully a clay bar, polish and wax will have it back to it's best. You really have to have your nose to it to notice, it looks pretty clean from a normal distance. It is unmodified, which must be pretty rare. Original exhaust and everything. I'm not a stickler for originality though, so on my list to do in the near future is a full exhaust system, mudflaps and a change of wheels perhaps. I will keep it standard for a few months though, get to know the car and see if any more pressing upgrades or mods are needed. Getting used to driving it has been interesting! Not owned anything 4 wheel drive before, which does have quite a unique feel to it. I was also getting some bad tramlining and a real unstable feel at times which had me worried there might be some issues with it. I took the DCCD out of auto and put it into full open, also upped the front tyre pressures - running 35f/32r which has improved the feel a lot. Tyres are Yokohama ad08r's. The speed and cornering ability is awesome! It's so eager to full you round the bends. Far faster than my ability or bravery is capable of at the moment. Another slight niggle is a high pitched whurring sound that I get a certain revs. Most noticeable between 1500 - 3000 rpm in 4th gear. It is under acceleration, so something engine related rather than suspension or drivetrain (I think). Having a Toad - Thatcham 1 alarm fitted this weekend as it is a requirement for my insurance. I didn't actually realise imports didn't have alarms as standard, so was an unexpected expense, but probably a good thing to have anyway! I'm also going to get new plates for it - a smaller front plate and an import style rear. Really enjoying the car so far! 😀 thread fail, no pics,,,, hahaha get some pics up lad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 Haven't had an opportunity to take any good ones yet... 😉 Here's one snap from the weekend. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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