Ahh right you are, didn't last long!
There is a 2000 Turbo "Terzo?" Edition local. £12-13k with 60k miles but these look very basic/dated now. Not many of those produced from what I understand
A £12K Terzo would need to be on delivery miles! They were vanilla UK Turbos with special paint (74F Sonic Blue like the WRC cars, ish) released to mark Subaru 3rd WRC win.
That's a terrible example. The near side rear door is a different colour. The bodykit will have been put on to try and hide the crash damage. Any import with an aftermarket boost controller is almost certainly runinng on borrowed time. Plus its location is Birmingham and likely being sold by one of our middle eastern cousins so probably best avoided. When I bought my Evo I literally played "What not to do when buying a JDM car Bingo" Grade R, incorrect mileage, overpriced, Birmingham, seller was looking forward to eating after 8pm etc.
When you look for any import - this will also hold true for imported S2000s if there was a market for them in the UK - I know next to nothing about them. Get a CarVX check. It's like Japan's answer to HPI in the UK but much better. Enter the chassis number and it will give you all the info on the car - particuarly the auction sheet. Although not gospel, these are a good indicator of condition. For a small extra fee, you can have the auction sheet translated into English. For example, my Impreza was Grade 4 (1 being poor, 5 being showroom and R or RA crash repair) Grade R can mean anything from a proper major thump to changing a bonnet. My Evo was grade R - bonnet, bumper, radiator and radiator top and bottom mounts. It went though 18 months prior as a grade 5 and when viewed side by side with my Impreza the Evo was in noticeably better shape. If a seller says something like it was sold through a dealer so didn't go through auctions they're almost certainly lying so ask for it anyway or move on. There is absolutely no need to be cagey about the chassis number.
This is what I have. I paid £16K for mine in June 2020. I think this is possibly in better condition to what mine was at the time. Both of mine have near enough been rebuilt since purchase. It's a bit toppy for the current market. Save the RA-R these are probably the "best" of the GD chassis - there is the S203/4 but these are more refined - they kept the sound deadening and get the Recaro seats which are beautiful but made for Japanese frames not flabby westerners. You could probably get a decent blob RA for high teens, low 20s. If budget is around £15K just look for the cleanest JDM hawkeye and do the usual checks. That will give you a good base line to start from.
GC8s the "better" ones I guess are STIs. The STi RA (like the one above) and RA (RA being lightweight - the debate on what RA stands for will take up a few pages on a Subaru fanboi site) these tend to have different turbos, the roof vent in the STI RA and the WRC editions got the blue seats. The RAs got the same turbo as the STIs but didn't get some of the STi goodies like posh seats and bigger wings in the later models. I had a Type RA WRC and it was brillant - the only downside being the gearbox. It was so low ratio, long journeys were a chore.
The Spec C and RA hawks have a low ratio box as well but it's not quite as bad as the 5spds. From late 54 onwards the GD chassis had wider track rear - something to do with the DCCD I think. Spec C has the roof vent like the STI RA in the GC8s - this lets in a noticeable amount of road noise and is a bit of a gimmick. It's cool but I'm not sure I'd really miss it if I didn't have one.
Personally, I don't dislike hatches so maybe look at them but not everyones cuppa. Something also worth noting is the later WRX STI 2015 to 2017 in some instances are cheaper than the older models. Although not quite as "raw" as they say, they're still great cars. I had a MY17 which I loved but moved it on a bit too quickly as couldn't bare dailying it
way too many variables with the Subaru for someone to go in blind. So I appreciate all the advice above.shame
