Why do we spend money on older cars like RS'?

I was going past a subaru dealership today and thought it worth a look.

Anyway, there was a P1 and a new WRX STi WR1 there. The WR1 just looked VERY nice. shame it was £27k...

Around the corner was an 03 reg PPP'd scooby.

I know these are scoobies, but they did look nice, and i'll be honest, if i got offered the P1 / WR1 / PPP'd scooby over a cossie, i'd of taken the scooby...

for the first time ever, scoobies are growing on me (i need to see a doctor ) Honestly tho, they dont look that bad!

So, why do we say spend £8k on a cossie, as opposed to say spending £8k on an EVO 5??

Discuss.

 

Just grown up wanting a cossie and while I have considered alternatives, I'd have to keep the cossie for some reason... dunno why really... kinda feel attached to it... awww...

 

Cossie's are rarer, easier (arguably) to tune.

I have more respect for the Impreza than I did but I would still take my RST over one without a second thought. And before anybody starts yes I could afford one if I wanted one. I don't.

Subaru's are like clits, every cnut has one. The image of the cars are being dragged down as they are now into chav cash territory. Mate of mine picked up a red WRX on an L plate for just £1500. It isn't even the dog I was expecting it to be

 

Scoobys are seriously growing on me too, like a fungus

Its TOTB3 that did it for me, some fucking awesome scoobies there

 

think its down to what was cool back in day. the car to have in the early 90's were cosworths, early Evo's didn't get a look in

i've grown up loving Cosworths and fast fords in general. means when i'm loaded, i'd choose an EsCos over an Evo 6 or something. its obvious the Evo is the better package, but a Cossie is the one to have IMO.

 

I dont think i'll be getting another cossie when mine sells... i am very tempted by an EVO 5 next year!!

I've always been a ford man and also wanted a cossie for a long time, but times change..

Evo is more modern, and 350bhp out of one is gonna be fast, no?

 

It's not just about performance it's about driving a motoring icon that has a huge passion and something a bit more special than the production line mass produced Jap stuff.

I'd love an Evo they are awesome and blitz the Cossie. It would still be the Cossie's keys I would want to take away

 

I have gone from a scooby to my cossie. Grew up loving cossies so new would always end up with one.

Had some good fun in the scoob but not half as much as i have had in my cossie.

I did a deal on my scoob for the cos and when we drove out the service station other bloke in my scoob and i planted it and left him i new i made the right choice.

He rang me up asking for the cossie back 5 minutes later

All excellent cars though in there different ways.

 

Cos i knew peeps who knows them inside and out so easy to work on, parts are readable available etc etc.

To be honest i dont think i would ever buy any performance car like the cossie, scooby Evo etc.

though if i was rich i would buy a Evo just purly as a track toy

 

I dont think i'll be ending up with a scooby mind, the missus wouldnt talk to me for a month - now i think about it

tbh though, I'd want a newer, more modern car if i was to spend money again, and an evo 5 fits that bill...

the "passion" behind rs' is neither here nor there for me.. a cossie is for driving hard, not for its heritage etc!

 

I think most people went on to Japs when Ford stopped the Escoss in the mid-ninties.
If Ford had of done a Mondeo Cosworth in 4WD or RWD then the enthusiasm would've lived on. As it is it's only the die-hard enthusiasts keeping the tradition up.
Whilst the Focus RS is an excellent car, it's flawed by being FWD.

All IMO of course.

 

I would put it down to the cossie being prodominantly British! patriotism! and all that! But I am biased I love my cossie!!

Nick

 

i've fallen out of love with my cossie

 

Have alway's loved my cosworth's and probably make's me a little biased, but have
driven a lot of scooby's including a P1 and RB5 but they did not do any thing for me
The P1 was fast of the mk but seemed to run out of puff when in third. Have never driven a mitsubishi evo yet so cant comment but have never heard a
bad thing about them so must be good

 

I went from a 2.0 Mondeo which was my first car to a Series 2 RS Turbo...... Always remember being taken out in mates mum's brand new one by his dad down some country lanes, and have wanted one since then.. When I was 8!!

Have still got the S2 in the garage, after a year of running the RS I got fed up with the wee niggly problems popping up due to it being used as a daily driver. So I bought a 1999 Impreza Turbo, with a few mods, it was a very quick car. Made 13.3 @ 103mph.

Then got a ridiculous offer from a guy I know, so sold it to him, and as part of the deal I got a 1999 Civic VTi. With a few mods on that, it made 175bhp, and did a 15.1 @ 95mph.

Then someone else I know offered me a straight swap for a 1998 Impreza Turbo and my Civic. So I got rid of that, and now have a 1998 Impreza. It currently has a few mods done to it, its a good car to drive and its pretty fast.

As a daily driver, I would choose a Japanese car.. They just seem to be more reliable day to day, through town, traffic jams etc.

If its a weekend car, it would be an RS that I would have. You can get 330bhp out of a Cossie without even trying, I know people on Scoobynet/SIDC that have spent near on 5/6k on their engines and are only pulling those figures, give or take 20bhp.

I have tried to sell the RST, however, both times I have had to call the interested people and say that its not for sale... Just cant let it go... I dont seem to have that problem with my Subaru and Civic!!



Grant

 

there is something about a cossy. as for scooby's and evo's you just see to many of them there like a inside out hedghog........every prick's got one. no offence thou

 

lol, no offence taken Daz... I agree that there are more of them, however, I need a reliable daily runner which isnt really what a tuned Cossie is for IMO.

Given the choice between a 19-20k Escort Cossie and a WR1 Impreza, I'd go for the Cossie no questions.

Might sound stupid, but I think that Cossies have more of a soul than the mass produced Jap Cars.



Grant

 

Love Scooobs, love Evos even more I wouldn't even THINK of owning a cossie as an everyday car...

But as a Tracktoy I love the Cos because I am from Essex and therefore had a poster of a 3door on my wall when I was little

Its also pretty fooking fast

 

This is a tough dilemma for me, also.

I'd *really* like an EsCos street car, but I'm on the wrong side of the pond and our wonderful government doesn't really like allowing them into the country (via the 'normal' channels) but we *can* get the Evo MR (best friend has one, love it) and a few other trick Japanese cars (no Skyline as yet though)

So.....

Do I try and jump through all the government hoops so I can have an EsCos which is basically 12 year old technology at this point (primitive ecu's and diffs) with lots of parts support (but from Europe) or do I go with something modern like an Evo MR with parts as close as the local Mitsu dealer ???

If I got an EsCos, it would probably be from Germany since I want a LHD version (won't consider RHD, unless its for parts) or some other LHD country for somewhere around $25k (usd) or plunk down $35k+ for the Evo and have all the new electronic gadgets ???

Tough call.....

 

If you're just an average fast car liking geezer,then i think you'd go for a Scoob or an Evo. They're a lot newer and "current" if you know what i mean. However,if you're a car enthusiast and know a few things,you'd go for the RS/Cossie,it's all about history,heritage etc. Everyone still knows what a Cossie is and they stopped making them 9 years ago!
Just my 2p.

 

350 bhp in an EVO is staggeringly fast!

Get one with that sort of power, and for a road car, it'll be so much fun, you'll wonder why you ever bothered with the cossie!

 

LOL Rich,

TBH, even a std 280bhp one would do me - you just cant go fast on roads nowadays!

 

The '9 years ago' statement is a double-edged sword.....

The up side is that the EsCos is not loaded with all sorts of electronic gadgets and sensors that cost lots of money to replace when they break.

The down side is that they are ALL used cars at this point and it is rolling the dice quite a bit to buy one where the full history is not known. Another issue is that I can't just go to the local salvage yard or the local Ford dealer and get parts...and that's not a good thing if this is going to be my daily driver.

I'm not concerned about 'heritage', the cars were mass produced, even if the numbers were somewhat smaller than (lets say) a Ford Mondeo

Almost NOBODY on this side of the pond knows what a Cossie is

 

That's exactly what I'm thinking !

It may be a bit easier and cheaper to get say 400 bhp out of a Cossie, but if it's a 4x4 then you're into diff's & boxes, but for the same money though you'd only get say 350 bhp in an Evo, you'd have no transmission issues and still have a faster car.

I can't believe I've just spoken such heresy !

 

..or a decent performance car for that matter(no offence,you obviously do),but the usual USA thing has historically being huge engine,great in a straight line,doesn't do corners.

As for the expense issue,a few peeps on here will disagree with you on that...

 

I wouldnt dream of owning a RS's for everyday use But for a pure toy its great fun gotta say. And its nice to still be cutting it with and beating the new cars even if its in a straight line

 

Yeah, I get clowns wanting to race me all the time in the rally car and I always agree on one condition.....I get to pick the road (gravel with lots of twistys)

You can teach a chimp to drag race, so straight line performance doesn't really blow my kilt up at all. The most fun cars I've driven are a Ferrari 355 and a Lotus Elise (Series 1), they both handled like go karts, but the Ferrari handled like a grossly overpowered one......

The Elise is like a scalpel on wheels....very precise, but lots of finesse required.

Muscle cars have their place (for cruising) but not in racing anywhere but in the 1/4 mile

 

Justs something about my Cossie that i love......

But saying that i have perpostly not driven an EVO as i am scared what would happen

 

Id love an EVO 7/8 not really into the pumped up looks of the 5/6 unless it was a 6 XTREME

PJ`s got an 8 and even with just 300HP I was seriously impressed from the whole car

Id love a WR1 aswell .................. Scooby engine sounds gorgeous

 

I always thought that the Scooby engines sound like UPS trucks

 

Cough Cough 2 valves per cylinder v8's straight from the factory over there i believe and this is the year 2005!!

Jokin Mate

 

Believe me, I'm the first one to make jokes about pushrods belonging in museums and not engines.

Like it or not the ECUs in Cossies are at least 2 generations old, probably more. As far as computing goes, if you're not current, you're ancient.

 

I agree the engine sounds awesome and they do make u feel like good old colin

There just not very fast though

 

whats wrong with a daily driven cossie......i do it for the last 4.5 years......cant see any problem...

 

I can see.. everything braking all the time from engine axuliaries to door switches (just had another brake after half a year - bough new from Ford :-/). Ford - Cosworth has only one fault.. it was produced by Ford :-((((( My Scoobie mates make jokes from me all the time because always when they go driving somethwre my car is of road "being done". ANd they drive them all the time, home-work, shopping, rally school, track day, gravel events... I do love my Escos and as I can't afford another nice car for everyday I try to drive it everyday but it's rally bad everyday car and not such a nice toy when I can't do one outing withpout some annoying failure. Of corse you might say that my car is not invested and cared for as are cars in UK, this is true as there aren't any expert tuners or mechanics on it over here but here must be a reason for it that they weren't sold here or imported like jap homologation specials were.

Just going out in few minutes to drive my Cossie with 1 full page of problems :-/ Getting it to garage on weekend or begining on next week... sorry for my mood.

 

Did the cossie thing!

1 week was long enough!

Jap baby! its the way to be, u all know it!

 

my pulsar is the more reliable, better for just jumping in and nailing it and you only really have to replace consuables unless you have done some real damage (which in all fairness stands to reason as it is 7 years younger than the 3dr and has only been through 2 winters in the UK )

BUT theres just something about the 3dr i think its something to do with growing up always admiring them and being an 80's kid.

Also when i got my datsun 4 years ago they were farily rare even scoobys were then but now the market is flodded with jap cars and they all look the same. I think you have go all retro now to stand out and thats where the 3dr's have the appeal for me or possibly an AE86.

BTW as car the datsun is far better than the cossie but its still fooking ugly

 

If you have the cash to lay out for a Scoob or EVO for every day car then do, they may be more driveable but on the other hand if you grew up in a Ford heritage orientated family then owning a Cosworth is simply the natural way to go. I grew up with only Fords in the family and now that I am older I own a Toyota for my daily driver, BUT that did not stop me from buying a MK2 just to tinker with and there is also my MK1 in the garage waiting for the Cosworth heart to be transplanted..

People have way different views but I still go along the lines of heritage, it's a RS thing

 

I will have had mine for six years in a month

And I can assure you it's been driven daily ever since, been on long trips to france, trekked up and down the country, you name it, I have used it just like a normal car.
Now, she's only stage 1 and that may have a lot to do with it.

Only time it was off the road for a significant amount of time is when I thought the cambelt was good for another 6K and it wasn't

Otherwise, it's been plain-sailing and in the long run has cost me a LOT less to maintain, etc... than other performance cars.

 

Makes me laugh about the reliability thing. If you screw ur car together properly, it won't break My S2 is a bit of a monster, stage 18 head, cosworth pistons, all steel etc - and it does hundreds of miles a week - id be fucked if it broke - it' s my only car!