My 2nd Practical Japanese Hatchback

[Konan555]

I'm really getting the hang of this. It's even a practical grey colour!

My old Blue wagon was fast approaching 100K so has gone up for sale. Picked this up with less than 20K put on it.

Fitted with a prodrive engine pack, which makes it a far more effortless drive over the standard car, which is quick but quit flat until 3K+ where the turbo goes bananas. You can make a sedate overtake in 5th gear thanks to the extra torque low down, with a regular impreza you've got the choice of a rover metro or a space ship, depending on what you do with the gearstick.

[dave87]

Looks good chap - bet it is a bit of fun in the twisties?

[KidChameleon]

What's the insurance like on that? I was looking at an old Legacy for sale under £800 and the cheapest third party quote I found was £2,500.

[Sputnik]

Very nice

[Mblaster]

Looking good, really like the black wheels with the silver paintwork And of course I think 'practical' each time I see that bonnet scoop

[Phage]

Lovely. Especially those mags.

[Konan555]

Looks good chap - bet it is a bit of fun in the twisties?

It is rather happy covering ground on B roads. Almost too good as it'll grips beyond the point my brain has decided is sensible (probably a good thing).

I dread to think what a 'sorted' one is like.

It hasn't got the hooligan 4-wheel-drift-with-tail-waggling-about character that I so loved in my XR4x4 but it'll give you a quick scrabble of the front wheels to remind you of what's what.

What's the insurance like on that? I was looking at an old Legacy for sale under £800 and the cheapest third party quote I found was £2,500.

I'm in a top notch postcode so I've got a head start on a lot of people. I actually have a proper multi-car policy so I just pay a flat fee for whatever I drive. It went up a bit last year but is still pretty competitive. I pay 1K and have the Impreza and a 4L XJ Cherokee in regular use. It's also covering my old Impreza WRX whilst I wait to sell it.

I did run a quote on an Import Legacy GTB (older twin turbo 280bhp job) last year and was getting stuff back in the region of £800.

One more shot for Vanity



And one of the old 'bug eye' with my *sniff* now departed XR4x4. I can't begin to describe how much I want that thing back!

[GoNz0]

It hasn't got the hooligan 4-wheel-drift-with-tail-waggling-about character that I so loved in my XR4x4

never found a car to compare to the tossing a boat round a sharp bend and slamming your foot to the floor to give you the "it shouldn't do that" grin as the front end takes over from the back end trying to get infront of you.

[KidChameleon]

I'm in a top notch postcode so I've got a head start on a lot of people. I actually have a proper multi-car policy so I just pay a flat fee for whatever I drive. It went up a bit last year but is still pretty competitive. I pay 1K and have the Impreza and a 4L XJ Cherokee in regular use. It's also covering my old Impreza WRX whilst I wait to sell it.

I've had a go with AA New Zealand's insurance quote website and on Confused.com in the UK. 1991 Legacy Turbo on Confused.com gives a cheapest quote around £2,800 regardless of fully comp or TPO. I can't find a Legacy Turbo on the NZ site but a 1996 WRX Sti comes up at $850, or about £450.

So I started playing with some other cars. I had already had a quote of $850 FC on a Nissan 300ZX I nearly bought here. Confused.com gave similar results of around £2,800 TPO. I've always wanted an E39 M5, especially now they're getting quite cheap (Expensive to run, but never mind). Cheapest UK quote is £4,500. The NZ quote was $1200 FC, around £650, and that's with an agreed value of $38,000, or about £20,000.

Maybe having no mandatory insurance is a good thing! It keeps them competitive.


There are plenty of old Imprezas and Skylines out here with fart cans, but almost none of them are the fast versions. The owners don't seem to realise, though.

[Tumble]

What value are you putting on the car? say it's worth £2500 (if it actually cost less) - after all it's only an estimate. That way it looks more worth their while to underwrite it. (had that from an insurance chap)

[Konan555]

never found a car to compare to the tossing a boat round a sharp bend and slamming your foot to the floor to give you the "it shouldn't do that" grin as the front end takes over from the back end trying to get infront of you.

My older 6 pot used to give a proper 'shunt' as the middle locked up! Nice tight exit from a corner with a threat of oversteer and the 2.9V6 note as you get the power down.

Life is so dull now