Diz

Widowmaker... Have you got a Suzuki TL1000 hiding in the back? if not you are probably safe, even if you miss out on the V-twin growl equivalent bike. Your missus can sleep easy as your car won't spit you off as easy as that beautiful but tempermental machine. I would love one but I am too chicken ;-) FWIW my Scoobie rear shockies are knockin' a wee bit, and I expect to pay up on that in 6 months time. Or maybe not. We'll see...

Hullo! Looks like we got fraternal twins :-) Except I bashed in the !Removed! of mine at an unfamiliar petrol station last week and am too embarassed to put it in public view until after it gets fixed next week :-( Before pic... After pic even better, I hope :-)

Nice to hear from Scoobie owners even further north than me! I have dear friends who live in Forres, one of whom rally drives (used to be a V8 TR7, now it's some funny looking bright yellow go-like stink go-cart looking thing) as a hobby. If your car is AWD that will pay dividends when the weather gets rough. Would be great to see your car - you could post it as your avatar pic? You know, instead of the white body on the grey background :-) Don't be shy!

Peeps, the one thing I haven't been able to source is a light on the rear spoiler. I have hunted high and low. All I can find is tail light stickers. I might just be a bit dim in my search terms. In desperation I contacted the local Scoobie dealer where I got the 10-year service done. They have a great reputation. Say they can get the light for £150+vat. It seems extortionate but I am at the point of surrender. If anyone has any ideas it would be really appreciated, and I'll owe you a few beers or liquor of your choice If not then no hard feelings, you folks have helped me a shedload already, not to mention the larfs, and I thank you for that. Yours, desperate in West Lothian...

That's really odd you say that, it's pretty much what the guy doing the repairs said. You didn't also think I did a reverse wheel spin in a filling station by any chance? ;-)

Used like a piece of meat... you poor thing I remember the last one too, walking barefoot up the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, midsummer at around 7am, bright sunlight illuminating our debauchery while we carried our high-heeled shoes and dipped our heads so those !Removed! joggers wouldn't get too smug seeing that 'I am going to be sick' look on our faces. I am now too old and too skint keeping up all the vehicles to be doing that. In fact I now live in a tent in my mate's garden and the cats are none too impressed (joking!). As noted, I wish I'd checked back here before conducting my own search. BF and his mates have been researching and pressuring me as they all love the car. Our mate's daughter has said she is going to have words with me. (FFS, no-one could kick me harder than I've kicked myself.) Even when I was on the phone to the breaker my BF, who is a sweetheart but a total fidget, was pointing at stuff on the screen and yapping at me - I had to push him off the sofa to shut him up. I hope at the very least Gambit's links are useful to others. I really hope I don't need to use them again myself, as this is a major PITA!

Regional sections, with dealerships, other competent workshops, breakers and links to other local enthusiasts? Possibly more regional stuff I can't think of off the top of my head.

Those are great links Gambit, thanks for that. Wish I'd seen it before I went rampaging around the internet. I did a bit of searching and found a boot lid for £40 and a bumper for £100. Postage is £80 total, so not too bad. The spolier can be repaired, but I called local Subaru dealership and they are looking for a spoiler light replacement for me as all I could find were stickers. Stickers saying Subaru? WTF. Is it not already obvious what the car is?! As noted the boot needed a wee bit of rust touched up so overall that was on the cards anyway. Car repair will be not this coming week but next. In the meantime I will do the Drive of Shame, you know, like the Walk of Shame when you are walking home from a party in your glad rags on a Sunday morning, only more embarassing.

In March I got knocked off my Honda VFR800 (last of the pre-vtech) motorbike going into Edinburgh. A young lady who blabbed that she was in a hurry whilst going on holiday clipped my back wheel on the rear left-hand side, so you can guess whose fault that was. Went down the road in a heartbeat, but fortunately I bounced good for an old bird. Angry? My pic may look soft and hippy, but you wouldn't have wanted to be on the wrong end of that one. Luckily(?!) this happened 2 miles away from an established bike workshop where I know the guys well, and despite the damage (broken footpeg and gear change lever, and a few scuffs) I managed to get into 2nd gear and stayed in 2nd all the way. The guys were great, and gave me a restricted 125cc Suzuki VanVan (couldn't pull the skin off a custard, but handles really well) as a loaner to get me to work. I hope it's ok on the forum to say bless you Saltire Suzuki, especially Mike, you rock. Back to the point... The insurance company (Aviva) said ok to have the bike fixed there. Lucky me. I was told by various bike mates that damaged vehicles can be taken 'down south' for repairs and often come back 'fixed' but in a more dubious state. I use an Edinburgh insurance broker for the Scoobie and both bikes, they have a direct line to UK contacts so I don't have to deal with overseas call centres. £15 added to my yearly outgoings is worth it. If anyone reading this is also a biker please invest in shrooms or crash bars. The plastic fantastic was untouched. If that had gone the bike would probably have been written off.

Well guys, BF swapped me cars earlier today and the repairer says £700 as long as I supply the boot and the bumper. Ouch. It would appear I have slightly damaged the subframe, which the guy can pull out with a jig. I didn't think I'd hit the thing that !Removed! hard, although he suggested I'd done a wheel spin. Reversing in a petrol station? I think not. For that amount he'll do the needful and spray paint it. There is also a wee bit of rust on the frame above the passenger door that he can tackle too, don't know if that's included. Curious to get a second opinion though... Oh I really could just shoot myself. What a fud. But I only have an air rifle for taking out rats in the duck coup, so it wouldn't finish the job and the piddling injury would just add to my annoyance. Ash, your cartoons are a tonic, thanks for a much needed laugh.

Gambit's vid post... ohh, if only I was still younger and stupid enough to think it was ok to buy £500 worth of tyres every time I had a notion to do a roundabout sideways....

Happily this had been done to my car before I bought it. Got new front tyres the day I bought it and when our mate had it up on the ramp we could see it was looking good. One patch needs redone, I can suffer that. Previous owner also had the car bodywork done with Diamondbright. Looks glossy even in crappy weather and really easy to clean. I recently had a rear-end misfortune :( so I would consider getting it done again as it is expensive (£200) but in my opinion well worth it. The car almost seems self-cleaning :)

A wee update... Tonight BF and his buddy went off to visit a guy who knocks dinks out of cars and resprays them. Unfortunately he had bug-eyed off and didn't see it, but has requested we leave it with him tomorrow night and he'll repair it. The guy has a great reputation for working miracles, but under the circumstances I am keeping Gambit's info on breaking silver Scoobies in mind, thanks for that dude. And FWIW you need a diamond to win whatever the amount noted underneath is, so BF is back to watching 'How to play AC/DC...' videos on YouTube. At least he tried, bless him, and we did win a tenner. After photos by the weekend - I hope! Thanks again folks.

Aye, well, I'm saying nothing about that - except we've got the biggest balls of them all ;-)

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know anything about National Lottery £5 scratchcards with 5 games? We never buy these things but my boyfriend just brought one back from the shop to cheer me up and it looks like we won £10 and got a ruby (£1000) in game 5. Does that really mean we have won £1000? If so then life doesn't suck quite so bad and he no longer needs to learn how to play You shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC on the guitar for me to accept his proposal ;-)

Exup, I wish it was my old cavalier you'd busted as it didn't make it's MoT and wasn't worth repairing! Thanks for the kind words, I feel a bit less rubbish given the responses from you guys x

Stanton, I had thought that the woman in the garage gave it up a bit quick re how many people had reversed into the same pillar but couldn't prove she said that. Not sure how I would go about claiming liability for a post being in the way of where I was backing up to, although the post clearly had old damage. Only possible grounds I could think of was the garage advertises superunleaded, or whatever the BP name for it is, but only has it at one pump. I just can't think of a way I could prove that someone negligently left a stansion in a silly place! I only went to this filling station because I was running on fumes*, but aside from the accident it has a layout I really don't like. *That fuel level really goes down once it is past the quarter way mark!

Gambit, that's my feelings on insurance too. They get you one way or the other, and even if you drive responsibly in a car like this it seems the law is gunning for you and will thrash you to within an inch of your life when they can. I take pride in disappointing them. Besides it's far classier to slow the traffic and flash a police car out of a side street. I do this on the bikes as well. And it's more fun to sit on their tail than have them sit on mine ;-) Been looking at breakers for parts, will wait to hear from our contact whose laptop I am fixing (nice timing) before I make a move. As I said to Jay, I'll post how I get on with this. This forum is very supportive. When bikers meet each other in a car park we stop and chat. Same with Scooby drivers. I just don't think it would be the same in a Ford Fiesta owners club...

Thanks Jay. Your avatar car is a beauty. My car is 10 years old and there was a tiny bit of rust starting under the spoiler that needs attention, so the paint spray was on the cards anyway. That's life. I am so annoyed with myself. I can't blame anyone else for this, although another petrolhead neighbour came to have a word about something else just as I got home and I told him what happened - turned out he had done exactly the same thing, in the same filling station. I'll post updates on how it goes. I have been an absent friend, was on hols and been busy starting up new business - in powdercoating, ironically. Think we should look at spray painting too!

The old banger being me, not the car. Today I reversed my pride and joy WR1 into a stansion at a filling station I'd never used before, as the pump I'd pulled up at initially didn't have superunleaded. Bright sunlight blinding me from behind, and looking in the wing mirror for cars coming in, I didn't spot the pillar immediatley behind me. First I knew of it was a loud bang. On inspection, my expression could have been the basis for 'The Scream'. At least I didn't hit a petrol pump. When I fessed up the woman said countless people have done the same, and one guy even panned in his hatchback window. Bashed in boot although the frame inside is intact (it still opens but is a bit harder to shut than before), bashed bumper, bottom of spoiler and light cracked, also require new number plate. Utterly miserable, as I drove home in shame I passed my boyfriend who had stopped at the shop and I had to laugh when I saw his expression in the rear view mirror. My baby brute has been reversed into the driveway to spare further embarassment, especially as my boss lives opposite and I won't hear the end of it... We have a few mates in the motor trade who are going to try to help out with repairs at a reasonable cost. Going through the insurance is probably not a good idea. If anyone else has had similar misfortune I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on how bad you think the damage is and if you had to take out a mortgage to repair it. Before and after photos of my shame attached. FWIW I have never banged any vehicle before. Typically I bang the one that is most expensive to fix!

Ha ha! As previously discussed I suspect the Audi TT (Tom-Titter) newbies think they can take on anything, then find out they have paid a fortune for a myth when they meet an Impreza. I look forward to meeting one who is just driving out of the showroom. I had no idea of the power of my buggy, now called Angus, after our top male duck who was got by a fox (named after Angus Young). Likewise, I do not intend to blast around everywhere. Knowing I can do it when I need to (and the local black Audi traffic cop car is nowhere to be seen - aye we've got your number too) is enough for me. My mum *is* ACE, cheers dude. My biker pals are ace too, most of them appreciate a good car and I'm glad you agree.

My mum is a rather young 77 years old. BF and I went to visit yesterday in my new car (what a babe it is too) and off out she went with her digital camera, which she got and mastered age 70, taking photos of it. Mum is very excited about it too, alas we were having family dinner so I didn't manage to take her for a spin. Not sure if my mum is happy because it's a car and she's worried about me riding motorbikes (I'm female, early 40s, a self-confessed petrolhead). She loves the look of my sports bike too. Both vehicles have the same top speed and similar acceleration, but I think the car is punchier and less revvvy and temperamental than the bike. So to all you Scoobies who like racing bikes, and I know you are out there ;-) Please let me say this... Not all bikes go like stink, and not all bikers have the kind of bike and/or bottle to race you (I wouldn't challenge my car even on my sports bike!). If you do meet a biker who gives it 'game on' then have fun, but please play nice and remember that if it goes wrong 'the bike' has somebody's loved one riding it and they will be hurting a lot worse than you. And did I mention I am head over heels IN LOVE with my car?! xx

Hey Ally, I'm new too and muddling my way through the extra love an Impreza needs. Hope you are enjoying your new car as much as I am x

I've pulled the straight two (CB500, economical and fantastic handling wee bike) apart but the VFR800 (V4, final pre-vtec model) looked like a spaceship when I pulled the tank up so I bottled it, put it back together and phoned a friend. The car looks much the same under the bonnet, with everything tucked in pretty tight. Then again the mechanics at the workshop who fitted the brakes and tyres were falling over themselves to do the work and test drive it, maybe I have something there...! As noted above, a workshop manual would go quite a way in this respect, just off to have a lookie see if Gambit has made any progress with this. I am really liking this forum. It was refreshing and classy not to be met with a big pair of !Removed! staring at me when I logged in, making me wonder 'Has my browser been hijacked?'. You folks really are friendly and helpful - thank you for your courtesy to us lady petrolheads xx

Thanks guys! I've wanted an Impreza for years, haven't had a car at all for 2 years and got fed up digging snowing to get one of my motorbikes out in winter. Bikes aren't much cop for shopping or taking cats to the vet either. So when I saw this car I went for it, and don't regret it for a minute. It's no. 81 of a 500 limited edition, 320bph and no mods unless you count the tinted windows. Having not driven much in that time let's just say it was pretty exciting taking off in this baby. Getting the hang of it now, everything about it is very responsive, it's a lot of fun... I especially like the lack of arrogance from Audi and BMW drivers, who I suspect have learned it's not worth the egg on their face ;-) Gambit, I'll look out for the manuals, that would be a big help. The previous owner pointed out a few things but I was so excited I didn't take it all in. Just thinking I could contact the Subaru dealer he was using for info too. I tinker with my bikes but know hee-haw about fixing cars. However I know a quite a few friendly mechanics who'll help keep the costs down ;-) Looking forward to becoming part of the forum, I hope in time I can share anything useful I've learned with others.