impreza turbo as daily?

Fantastic as a daily driver. Even the least powerful UK Turbo models are still pretty quick with awesome handling. Rust will be the biggest thing to look for.

Fuel economy won't be great, but plenty of spares available new and used (got plenty myself). Easy to work on, although the layout of the engine makes some jobs awkward and maybe easier to take the engine out (can be done in 45 minutes if you know what you're doing).

Highly recommended.

I drove one daily for a year. Stock 1995 wagon in Green. Basic 15 inch wheels and the lot. Grip is amazing, handling less so but then that's a personal opinion thing...

It was so spartan inside that none of the dials for heat etc. had even area indication lights. I think they did a "special" Swiss Farmer edition that I had.

It was a great car. I really enjoyed it and other than the brakes cooking one day in the passes (entirely my fault) and trying to throw me over a cliff it was bullet proof. I traveled more than 30,000 KMs in it.

I will say, fuel economy is as bad as everyone tells you. My last 4 dailies have been: e39 M5, Impreza, SVX and 840i. They all did 20-22 mpg and the Impreza was the thirstiest.

Also...rust in the rear arches is going to be there or have been repaired, or hidden. Check the area thoroughly.

Here was mine:





I was trying to be stealthy so removed the spoiler and the skirts/spats. Didn't really work as that exhaust note always gives the game away.

Worth considering that Mk1 'SF5' Foresters are just rebodied Imprezas' with a bit of lift in the suspension.

And because they aren't dubbed with the 'hooligan/hoon' badge the Impreza unfortunately has, the insurance is generally a bit less. You can't get super-fast ones (unless you pick up a JDM grey import STI, STB or TTB model), but you can pick up a very respectable UK spec S-Turbo model for very little £££ at the moment, and you can lower them to a 'normal car' or lower height with impreza shocks and springs. (JDM ones are already low)

Plus they are really cool and boxy.

I too drove one daily for a year.

Green '97 model.

Bought it cheap, which I shouldn't have done. It had a whine in the gearbox so the owner thought it was new box time, but it was a chipped transfer gear or something so it was noisy, but it didn't actually break.

Hard as hell Buddy Club coilovers, a VF...something big turbo, front mount, stupid chrome wheels, turbo timer, big stereo, etc. As soon as I got it home I threw the chrome wheels in the bin and spent $1000 on some factory OEM MY00 wheels and some nice rubber, and having the suspension tuned. Suspension was sized and curse word so spent another $1000 on Koni replacement shocks with Enkei springs and whiteline swaybars. Had the brake discs machined and brand new pads fitted too as the brakes were a bit curse word.

It was cheap, which is why I bought it. It came on boost HARD, and when it did it flew. Took so long to spool that anything with a bit of poke (Fiesta ST, Clio Sport etc) was way ahead of me, I wouldn't catch up until the 150km/h mark. (Private road of course)

Still handled like a pile of curse word and didn't stop, but I digress.

Drove it around for a bit like that, started missing slightly. Everything seemed OK but found out it had low compression on cylinder #2. Blown headgasket. Took it to the local shop who ripped it apart, found it was an RS Liberty motor that had been fitted with WRX parts. Not worth rebuilding or fixing the headgasket on such a curse word motor, so sourced a proper MY98 WRX motor and had it fitted. Sold off all of the turbo gear and ran the car stock.

Even stock it was slow as hell, VF12 I think it had standard? Standard manifold and still handled like a dog and didn't stop. This was standard Subaru bits at this point - At the same time the motor had new belts put through it, new gaskets, i'd spent a cool $5k on a $3k car at this point, and it STILL didn't keep up with my mates stock standard Clio RS. Of course then, even with stock power, the clutch went - Standard clutch.

Replaced that with a new clutch and the box went, chipped 3rd gear or something and got all munted. Back on the road, the

Fixed that, car started to idle like curse word randomly, the aftermarket BOV had pooped itself and the car couldn't reference boost, so put that all back to stock. Stock intake, stock BOV recirculating, stock ECU.

By this point i'd ripped everything out of the car - Turbo timer, exhaust, stereo - The lot, just trying to get the bloody thing to stop breaking - Then the AFM shat itself again, car leaned out on boost and holed my replacement engine.

Sold it to some kid like that for $500.

curse word Subarus. Even when it was running it was wibblepoo.

Great cars,miss my early classic a lot.Import cars have a better spec with a rear wiper etc.

Fuel consumption is poor and badly tuned examples can be a whole lot of trouble.Clutch judder is very common almost a trait rather than a fault..
I never managed better than 30mpg driving like a granny on a motorway run.
Oil leaks from the rocker covers are common,power steering pumps can be leaky.
I liked the handling,they will tend to understeer on a trailing throttle but you can power round as the grip is immense and then they become more neutral.
The flat four warble is great,mine had a GP N rally exhaust on and sounded fabulous.

No frills inside and very plasticky,mine had leccy windows and not much else.It even had factory zip off seat covers so the farmers could take them off and wash them !

Apparently even the early ones are hard to get on a classic insurance policy despite their age now.I never managed it but things might have changed since.

Rot and abuse are the things to look for.If the rear archs show bubbling in the centre then you can guarantee the outer side of the rear suspension turrets will have gone and it's a big mot fail if the tester sees it,many miss it as it's hard to spot from underneath.
You can feel it if you put your hand under the arch and reach right up to the top.
Any you see with bubbling right up from the arch to the fuel flap area will have a hole you can get your arm through in the turret.That said check anyway even if the arches look good.I've seen one car with a good arch and still a fist sized hole in the turret.

I love them and i would have another tomorrow,shame they still have a bit of a chav/drug dealer image instead of the classic motorsport heritage image they should have.Thats got to change soon though,there are not that many good early ones left.

Ran one as a daily for ten years+. The Shed

Rust has already been covered. Other common mechanical faults on older cars (such as piston slap, weak no3 big end) should have been sorted by now.

Good maintenance should see one as reliable as any other car and there is a huge community for support. There is also a massive modding community.

In terms of performance, once rolling and your traction advantage is over, most modern hot hatches will out accelerate you as they have more power and less transmission losses.

Great cars. If I had the cash and room to spare I would have another to mess around with.

I'm on my 5th STi and love them.

I've had everything from up specced UK models (large turbo etc etc) to a completely standard 2005 STi in white daily (which I ran in the US for five years).

I swapped it (though I really miss it's white STi gorgeousness) for a 2015 launch edition STi.
Current daily and weekend toy. 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned insurance. My heavily modified one in the UK cost around £750 with no accidents ever, full no claims and no endorsements ever - put in a garage at night. And apparently was lucky to get that (Liverpool and Victoria would later only continue their insurance and not take on new modified cars).

They can drink a bit but to me it was worth it.

Mine have been ultra reliable - only things have broken when I've done stupid stuff to them - my AutoX car here in the US was putting out over 400whp (worked over engine, large turbo, water injection etc) and surprise surprise I managed to break the driveshafts pretty regularly.

I love them.

I tried an Evo 8 MR when I first came to the US but in the end Mitsubishi bought it back from me as I had so many problems with the 6 speed gearbox in it.

About two years ago, my weekend car was a Dodge Viper coupe with some Hennesy bells and whistles - I could still drive faster in my daily 2005 STi as I was sure it was going to go straight when I pressed the loud pedal, rather than the 50 / 50 of ending up in the scenery with the viper. (Even when it wasn't snowing!)

Subaru got it so right with a turbo flat 4, that even now, Porsche are realizing they had it right (check out the new Porsche Boxster).

There are some sweet LTD editions too. For me the one that got away, that blew my mind in stock form was an imported STI type RA. It was sold by the time I drove the 100+ miles to see it. Brilliantly quick for its day and still holds its own today!

now the owner of a 96 impreza wagon, cool motor