What to look for when buying a scooby

Vintage_Geek said:
Service intervals must be regular (circa every 15000miles).
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Every 6 months irrespective of miles/certainly no more than 6K. Mines serviced by ex-prodrive mech who owns his own rallycar prep shop. Minor interval £100, Major £250 and the works inc belts £400.

Very reasonable. fuel isn't too bad compared to other cars I've had. Insurance is silly <25.

99/00 best classic to have as mentioned. 99s actually have slightly more go due to their ECUs but they don't have colour coded handles and mirrors like a 00.

IMO, best UK classic would be an RB5. Only real UK limited edition worth having.

However, its really not worth buying a high maintenance car, paying royally for insurance and then realising that as soon as something breaks you can't afford it or if you want to start upgrading it you can't afford it. Been there done that and its very soul destroying.
 
Vintage_Geek said:
Body: Tends to get bent by would-be rally drivers, so check carefully.
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Ah right, is there any obvious way of checking this? or is it just line of sight kind of thing.

Engine/Gearbox: Check that any Turbo is original spec - inexpertly 'chipped' cars can give lots of problems.
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Is it marked on it what it should be? also when people say chipped what do they actually mean?


Always check service book. Proper servicing is essential of these cars. Service intervals must be regular (circa every 15000miles). Avoid non-paperwork cars.
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Noted :)

Thank you :)
 
EddScott said:
Every 6 months irrespective of miles/certainly no more than 6K. Mines serviced by ex-prodrive mech who owns his own rallycar prep shop. Minor interval £100, Major £250 and the works inc belts £400.

Very reasonable. fuel isn't too bad compared to other cars I've had. Insurance is silly <25.

99/00 best classic to have as mentioned. 99s actually have slightly more go due to their ECUs but they don't have colour coded handles and mirrors like a 00.

IMO, best UK classic would be an RB5. Only real UK limited edition worth having.

However, its really not worth buying a high maintenance car, paying royally for insurance and then realising that as soon as something breaks you can't afford it or if you want to start upgrading it you can't afford it. Been there done that and its very soul destroying.
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Thanks for the advice :) And I will have to have a good job before I can even consider it, but thanks anyway.
 
i really wouldnt recommend buying a scooby at your age, with the insurance and the servicing and fuel its just going to be too expensive.

you can pick up a fairly good scooby for £5k, the best place to ask for what to look for is over at scoobynet

MW
 
Dont bother mate, impreza's are very good cars and a hoot to drive, but the insurance is a joke. There are plenty of cars just as good (read:fast) for a fraction of the insurance premium and the same cost to buy.

A decent Turbo 2000 will cost you around £4500-£5000, it wont have much power (only a shade over 200bhp), it wont be that fast (nothing like Will's if thats what you are basing your decision on), and it will cost an arm and a leg to insure for no reason.

If you want something fast then consider something else in the interim. My suggestions would be:

- Toyota MR2 Turbo (Useless in the wet, but great in the right conditions, cheap insurance)

- Nissan 200sx Touring with mild mods (good all rounder, wont set the world on fire as standard but even with mods they are cheap to insure)

- Mitusbishi 3000GT (f'ing fast, very easy to drive in all conditions, superb car all round, cheap to insure, silky smooth 3.0V6 Twin turbo engine, if a little epxneisve to buy at around £7000)

- BMW 540i (just as fast as the jap stuff, good handling, very refined, seems like a strange choice but its a very similar performer to most of the above, cheap to insure, questionable reliability)

- Lexus/Toyota Soarer (i havent driven one but on paper i cant fault them, nice 2.5L Twin Turbo engine, cheapish to insure, front engine RWD so should be usable in wet without too much effort)


Just to emphasise again, the Impreza Turbo 2000 is not a great car as standard, its so not worth the stupid insurance premium at a young age, you are paying for their bad image of them.
 
the celica gt4 is also really cheap to insure for some reason, I pay £650 FC all mods declared at 24.
 
Hate said:
the celica gt4 is also really cheap to insure for some reason, I pay £650 FC all mods declared at 24.
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Dont know why i forgot that, was meaning to include it. Very usable in the wet too.
 
A lad I work with bought a 2000 turbo and it sucked him into a world of debt, then he had to sell it and lose £1400. In all I think 6 months of ownership must have cost him £3,500.

Bad move at a young age.
 
merlin said:
A lad I work with bought a 2000 turbo and it sucked him into a world of debt, then he had to sell it and lose £1400. In all I think 6 months of ownership must have cost him £3,500.

Bad move at a young age.
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How did it manage to cost him that much out of interest? Friday afternoon mechanicals?
 
Jez said:
How did it manage to cost him that much out of interest? Friday afternoon mechanicals?
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One service, one MOT and -

Clutch, discs, pads, one hub assembly, a rusty cat back, a broken engine mount and a dead maf.

The dead maf was the straw that broke the donkeys back - I'm sure he said that was pushing £300 with fault finding labour.

Plus 6 months insurance on a 20 year old.

It wasn't actually a bad car - it's just he thought it would be a good idea to buy a 120,000 mile Impreza turbo. It had full leather inside btw - I've never seen a classic 2000 with full leather.
 
merlin said:
Done a lot of miles though. :)

Most of that stuff is excuseable with that sort of mileage.
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The clutch, rusty exhaust and brakes maybe, but engine mount? MAF? Hub?

If that's par for the course with Impreza ownership, then it's a good job I'll never consider buying one....
 
JRS said:
The clutch, rusty exhaust and brakes maybe, but engine mount? MAF? Hub?

If that's par for the course with Impreza ownership, then it's a good job I'll never consider buying one....
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The clutch was the original clutch. :) Hub maybe, agreed on the others though.
 
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