Just stumbled across this news item. The UK was a big market for the hot Imprezas in Europe back when I lived there, so that's an interesting development.
Just stumbled across this news item. The UK was a big market for the hot Imprezas in Europe back when I lived there, so that's an interesting development.
I am not surprised.. it is rather rare to see anything short of a forester here anymore. I can't remember the last time I saw a new STI
Depends on where you are in NJ, I guess. I see Imprezas often (coworker owns one) as well as WRX's and STI's on a regular basis. Foresters, not so much. Other brands of CUV's are more common.
I live in the land of Subaru's. Here in Colorado every other car is a Subaru, their resale here is so damn high you're better off buying a new one.
It's Subaru country out here, too, for obvious reasons. Imprezas aren't that hard to find but you don't see that many of the hot versions.
In the UK, you'd fall over a WRX or STI at every street corner. Granted, a not so small percentage were grey imports from Japan.
That's a sad day. Impreza's (and Evo's) really started to take off in the UK about the time I left and moved here (94) I was always stunned by the number you saw back there considering the high insurance rates they attracted. I bet this will be a big boon the tuners who bring in the Jap cars for resale though. The hard core faithful will still pay big $$"s for them.
I think that the massive improvement in FWD dynamics has really help killed them. Modern FWD cars are so good, add in the fuel econ/Co2 issues from the added weight and mechanical loss of AWD (as much perceived as real) and that was the death knell.
The top line of British rallying is now FWD and the lack of blue and yellow is also probably a contributor for the motorsport mad UK.
Tim, as an aside, did you read CCC when you were in the UK, I was sad when it passed a few years ago. I used to read it monthly until I left, then I'd pick it up when I was over there or could find it over here. In some ways it's what I wish GRM could morph into.
There are a few Impreza guys out here. My friend has a pretty nice one, but you see them from time-to-time in The Lou.
I used to trip over new sti's here pre-08........but allegedly they've just gotten so much more expensive they aren't selling as well.
To a certain extent everything comes in and out of vogue, I wouldn’t expect them to keep selling as well as they did, I am surprised though that sales for the whole Impreza line has dropped to the point where they are discontinuing it for the whole country.
Adrian_Thompson wrote: Tim, as an aside, did you read CCC when you were in the UK, I was sad when it passed a few years ago. I used to read it monthly until I left, then I'd pick it up when I was over there or could find it over here. In some ways it's what I wish GRM could morph into.
I never got into CCC until it was too late - when I moved to the UK in '98 I was more interested in 100 point restos than car modifications. That changed when I got into Japanese performance cars in a big way, but by then CCC was on its last legs.
There's another mag that you're probably familiar with[1] which picked up some of the contributors like Dave Walker that covers the "modified classic/GRM type modded cars" corner of the market.
[1] I'm not going to name it as I don't want to end up under Margie's patio
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