JusNoGood

With buying a Subaru its all about spending your time looking and a bit of travelling to get the right one. If the silver one is in good nick then it'll drive like a rocket....but it is high mileage for the money...and it's not blue [emoji4] I had looked at a fair few and travelled hours to look at them...I got to the point of thinking I'd have to do weekends away in Wales etc to get the right one... before I settled on mine... and I compromised on the colour. Should I have waited for a blue one?...perhaps

No sorry mate I was giving you recent examples of engine failures. The hawk was at my specialist Subaru garage in pieces....when I had a chat to the mechanic (he's worked on Subarus for years and worked for Subaru at one point)...he said the 2.5 are rubbish. If you bought the 2.5 and it has FSH and hasn't been abused (red lining it before warm etc)...then you might not need to do anything [emoji3]

What the rebuild?

Yea I agree...no point risking it with insurance

The one at my dealers was a WRX hawk and the hatch is a STI. If you have your heart set on one go for it mate...you'll probably be fine, not all of them fail [emoji3]

As a guide I bought my blob for £4.3k with 58k miles on the clock and FSH. So I'd look around for a lower mileage with FSH.....FSH is a must in my book

£500 is for cars from March 23rd 2006. So before that Hawks are £285. So has to be a 06 plate. Usually in the ad they will say it's lower tax band..if not you'll have to ask. Do they fail often...they don't fail every week or anything crazy like that [emoji15] but lots do fail...my specialist Subaru mechanic was rebuilding one when I took mine for a service and said he has done loads and they are weak...ive heard of two major fails in the past month that needed full engine builds

A friends WRX STI hatch had its engine fail...and heard of others so I'm not that convinced they resolved all the issues tbh. I'm sure lots of them are perfectly fine...but there'd always be that doubt in my mind to the point of keep £2.5k aside just in case. Obviously just my view and I'm sure loads of owners would argue with me on this [emoji3]

What about a classic or blob?

Duncan remapped mine. I got 272bhp with Prodrive back box, Pipecross panel filter and fuel pump. The power improvement did make a difference but I think the biggest improvement was the smoothness. Just a lot nicer to drive now [emoji3]

X2

Was just looking on Autotrader at a P1. I think you have to be willing to travel if you're looking for 1 of only a thousand cars made over 15 years ago [emoji6]

I think it has better in the midrange....but you can buy a 2.0ltr, change back box, air filter and get a remap to around 270bhp.

Personal choice mate. I went for a 2.0 just because the 2.5 engines do suffer from failures....and I didn't want to pay the £500 tax a year...just couldn't convince myself to give the tax man more money.

[emoji3] Slicks to the road, can't stop yourself grinning like a loony when it hits 3.5k RPM, noisy (road/wind noise) and quite a hard ride compared to Your usual family car [emoji16] Most fun car I've driven

Very nice...not driven a Legacy. How do they drive compared to an Impreza?

Nah...they made new tax bands active from that date...and a way to incentivise the industry/public...they weren't evil enough to sting people with dirty cars already [emoji2]

If it's registered before 23rd March 2006 it'll be £285after and its err £450 or something like that

INot from my experience of a 2.0 bug GX and now have a blobI'm not saying they are the same but just not that much in it...2.0 impreza is an expensive car to run.

The only area where you'll save with the n/a is insurance (and only then if you are in your teens/early 20's)....other than that there really isn;t that much in it from my experience. I've had a 2.0ltr n/a and there isn't much in it for MPG or servicing. Service intervals are the same and cost very similar as is MPG. An Impreza na is a very expensive and quite slow 2.0ltr car. I think I was getting 35 mpg from the na and I get about 28-34 now from my 2.0 WRX depending on how I drive. My road tax for a 2.0 turbo is £285...and my insurance is £220 (although I'm an old man :D ) Are you saying it'll take you a year to save £4k but you could get £5.5k on credit now? So you'll pay interest on that too? Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a deal from your bank or get a 0% credit card for 12-18months ;) I'm only saying this as the 2.0 wrx has a 0-60 of 5.5secs and the na is what? 8.5 or 9 seconds? Huge huge difference...the na can get beaten off the lights by just about everything on the road (loads more weight for the AWD). £5.5k for a 0-60 in 9 seconds car... I'd regret it if I bought it I really would....dont want to bring you down and everyone has different priorities etc so do whats right :) but don't think a na will be hugely cheaper I made that mistake ;)

In Dashcmd you go main menu and start logging...not sure what you can use that for other than DashCmd

Yes good idea. If it's a decision between a n/a golf or focus and a n/a impreza then I'd go (and did prev go for) the impreza. Slow but very planted. Just the diff between turbo and non turbo is big[emoji4]

Very nice really like that.

I agree with you Tom...2ltr engines all the way. I know too many people who've had 2.5 engine rebuilds. You'll get a great WRX 2.0 for £4k and you'll have a smile on your chops everytime you start it up [emoji16]

Thanks [emoji4] any pics of the result would be awesome [emoji16]