Subaru Buyer's Guide

Subaru at auction means the Impreza, and our four tracked sales map its entire market in miniature: £2,452 and £3,000-ish cars at the bottom, a £5,142 median, and £43,472 at the top, the territory of the limited editions. Eight more are live on the site as we write.

The story, briefly

The Impreza Turbo arrived in Britain in 1994 trailing world rally titles, and the formula (flat-four turbo, permanent four-wheel drive, farm-tool platform) made it the fastest real-world car of its era. The limited editions (RB5, P1, 22B and the STI catalogue) turned a used-car nameplate into a collector market: 22Bs now trade in six figures nationally, and our £43,472 result shows the special-edition tide reaching the saleroom.

Which Impreza, for what money

£2,500 to £5,500 buys usable classic-era Turbos around our median, almost always with history that needs reading carefully. £10,000 to £20,000 buys the cleanest standard cars and lesser editions elsewhere in the market. Above that, provenance is everything: verified editions with original panels and unmolested engines set the records.

What goes wrong

Rust in rear arches and sills on classic-era cars, and crash history hidden under lowered suspension and aftermarket bumpers. Engines are strong when standard and serviced; two decades of tuning culture means many are neither, and a mapped car without dyno documentation should be priced as needing a rebuild. Original parts and panels are the scarcity; mechanical consumables are cheap. Insist on the numbers matching before believing any badge.

Our view

The unmodified car is the whole game: a standard, documented Impreza Turbo at £5,000 to £8,000 is a certain future classic, while the modified majority remain used cars. Buy on originality and panel gaps, budget for putting right previous owners' enthusiasm, and if a genuine limited edition surfaces at accessible money, move quickly; our top result suggests the saleroom has noticed.