2002 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Type UK Prodrive Style - A Rally Icon You CAN Afford

My sister's boyfriend had a tuned one of these when she was in college. When he came over for thanksgiving giving you could hear him coming from 1/4 mile away.

Has to be the best sounding 4 cylinder engine ever made. 🎶

When I was three years old my neighbour had one of these big eye Subarus and it’s the car that made me love cars

James: you know a subaru when you see one... You know a subaru when you hear one and you normally hear it before you see it. Almost like a chinook or an Aston Martin V12.

I had fond memories of my modified Subaru STi in the late 1990s, I fell in love with the distinctive burble of the scoobie engine, today I am a sucker for Boxengine and it’s distinctive engine sound. Thanks Jay for taking us back to memory lane!

I've always felt that the Bugeye headlights looked, by far, the best out of the 3 types.

Bought a stock 2002 bugeye WRX with 60k miles last year, I've lost count how many complements I've had on it. Young people and older, men and women. It's a joy to drive, isnt expensive to maintain and it's great in bad weather, big boot and seats 4 adults no problem. Its a no brainer, yeah a bit heavy on fuel but servicing and parts are reasonable. It's gone up in value too. Sure it was viewed as a chav mobile 15 years ago but now seems quite the opposite, surprised how many teenagers shout 'Rev it' or 'nice car mate' and see people pointing at it regularly... not something I expected. All I had to do to it was replace the front headlights and add a set of decent tyres. One of the best all round cars I've owned and very practical.. The sound, pick up and handling... as good as it gets. Wish I'd bought one years ago. Was a big fan of Richard Burns and it was a bugeye that won the WRC in 2001.

I've had my 2005 sti ppp for 14 years and still love it. A few small mods, mainly suspension related to help it on trackdays and that's about it. I genuinely don't know what I could replace it with unless I spent a lot of money so I think I'll just keep it and enjoy it.

This DOESN'T look like Colin McRae impreza but to Richard's Burns Impreza from 01. With that car he won the championship that year. The bugeye was used in WRC from 01 to 02.

Unmistakable sound track! Thanks for this Jay - proper trip down memory lane

I stayed away from Imprezas for ages, due to the endless warnings about unreliability and chocolate gearboxes etc. I caved in 10 years ago and bought a 2005 WRX Blob Wagon, 122k miles and standard apart from a Prodrive Performance Pack and a Litchfield Handling Pack. More useful and in many ways more fun than the E39 M5 that I had before it. Ten years later?.........we still daily it. It works hard, doing gardening work (even pulling tree and hedge roots out with a rope), does tip runs, takes my drum kits to gigs, does house moves for friends and family, country lane blasts, family roadtrips,........and on and on. It's our van now really. It's now showing 168k miles, on the original engine, original gearbox, original turbo, original exhaust.....ORIGINAL CLUTCH!! It just won't die! Had it on the rollers at TEG Sport in December, and it showed 267 bhp and around 280 torque. Still worth as much as I paid for it too. I own faster and more valuable cars, but the Subaru is still the favourite car I've ever owned, and I've had about 45 cars.

I think that as they become more and more valuable, you will find more unmodified ones, and those will be the ones that are getting the big money. One thing I've noticed about Impreza ownership, is that other owners are so friendly, you always get a wave from the middle aged man driving it, and the look of slight embarrassment from the lady in the passager seat :)

I would own one of these or an Evo in a heartbeat! These have to be some of the greatest all round and all weather fast cars to own and use on British roads. No matter what awful usual UK weather is thrown at you this will just lap it up. Very, very cool!

I had a classic 1997 sti import bought it in 2007 owned it for 10 years and never had 1 single fault ,well except a headlight bulb that went ,best car I ever owned wish I never sold it

I've had 3 STI's over the years and they are great fun and so reliable.

This reminded of the immensely enjoyable JayEmm video where he and a friend thought they could rebuild their own WRX gearbox in his garage with no experience what-so-ever. Beautiful Dunning kruger effect case study.

Bug eye for the win, but then most of us early 30’s guys would say that

I've had a soft spot for Imprezas almost my entire life, my dad had an '03 WRX when I was a kid and even though it only had 220bhp, it really put those horses to work! Always been a little dream of mine to own a WRX STI some day, but I hear horror stories of running costs and to be honest it puts me off.

When I ordered mine I was offered a PPP option by the dealer - Prodrive Performance Pack, new exhaust, intake and a stage 1 chip taking it over 300bhp

Great review and is very appropriate to my ownership of a 2006 WRX Hawkeye. I have owned it from new and has covered a genuine 45000 miles. Was my daily driver until I retired 3 years ago and just get used occasionally these days. Whilst it has been modified it is a GB270 replica with similar accessories and remap putting out about 275 bhp. Had no issues with it and performance is superb…have upgraded the front brakes as you elude to. Haven’t the heart to sell it as I am attached to it having owned it from new… sounds great as well and a very practical car which was used for the weekly shop and ferrying my young grandson around in…keep up the great reviews 👍