Subaru IMPREZA GB270 For Sale

LOGIN REGISTER NEWSLETTER Home NEWS REVIEWS PRODUCTS COMPARE CARS VIDEOS BUYING USED CARS NEW CARS MOTORSHOWS COMPETITIONS 6 ISSUES FOR £1 Search Car Reviews: You're in - Car Reviews: First Drives Subaru Impreza Subaru Impreza GB270 Special-edition Subaru Impreza marks end of an era Auto Express Car Reviews Text: Ross Pinnock / Photos: Pete GibsonAugust 2007 Rating: The end is nigh for Subaru's Impreza, and this sign-off model represents its last hurrah. It features a host of extra goodies and signals a change in dir­ection for the Japanese brand. There won’t be a WRX variant of the next Impreza – so is the GB270 a sure-fire future classic, or simply a quick fix to clear out the old production lines?Only 400 of the final-edition cars will be sold in the UK (300 saloons and 100 Sport Wagons), and each comes loaded with additional kit. For a start, there’s a stainless steel mesh grille, a huge rear wing, silver alloy wheels and an STi-style front bumper. In case you don’t spot those, unique GB270 badging and an individually numbered plaque on the console also highlight its special-edition status.Buyers also get lowered suspension, a ‘quickshift’ gearchange and Subaru’s Prodrive Performance Pack, which increases the engine’s output from 226bhp to 266bhp.According to Subaru, that’s £7,600 worth of extra kit, while the GB270 will cost £2,898 more than the regular saloon when it arrives in September. The Sport Wagon has a £1,898 premium over its standard equivalent.Fans will certainly appreciate the performance boost, with the benchmark 0-60mph time cut from 5.9 to 5.3 seconds. The flat-four-cylinder boxer pow­erplant is charismatic, too, and its unique burble sets the Subaru apart from its rivals.However, it doesn’t feel as energetic as the figures claim, and the steering is overly light and short on feedback. The Impreza still provides huge amounts of traction, and the ride remains comfortable given its firmer set-up, but the best hot hatches are more involving and nearly as fast.They also trump the Subaru inside – the cabin now feels dated. Worse still, the branded Alcantara trim in our model is an expensive £1,400 option. The Clarion sat-nav system – complete with Bluetooth phone kit and built-in iPod adaptor – also costs an extra £1,750, and looks scruffy.However, the GB270 is no ordinary swansong. When the all-new Subaru hatchback arrives here this autumn, it will come in basic guise only, and the top-of-the-range STi model won’t appear until next spring. As a result, this is the last chance to buy into the Impreza legend – and if you want its in-your-face styling additions, the GB270 is well worth a look.RIVAL: Mazda 3 MPSTHE front-wheel-drive Mazda lacks the Subaru’s 4WD composure, but the hatch is less expensive, more practical and just as well built. The 3 MPS is also much more discreet. What Next REQUEST A BROCHURE REQUEST A TEST DRIVE COMPARE CAR LOANS COMPARE CAR INSURANCE For more breaking car news and reviews, subscribe to Auto Express magazine. We'll give you 6 issues for £1 and a free gift! < Previous Next > 0 Comment Be the first to comment on this article You need to register to post comments. Existing members can log in below to comment, otherwise click here to join. Email: Password: Sponsored Results More SUBARU IMPREZA articles Car ReviewsFirst Drives: Subaru ImprezaFirst Drives: Subaru Impreza WRX STIFirst Drives: Subaru Impreza STINew Reviews: Subaru ImprezaFirst Drives: Impreza hits UKCar Group Tests: Subaru ImprezaFirst Drives: Subaru Impreza 2.0 RXFirst Drives: Subaru ImprezaFirst Drives: Subaru Impreza Turbo RB320First Drives: Subaru Impreza Type RA-RFirst Drives: Subaru Impreza 1.5RNewsAuto Express News: Subaru ImprezaAuto Express News: Subaru WRX STIAuto Express News: Impreza STi revealed!Auto Express News: Impreza STIAuto Express News: Impreza pricesAuto Express News: New STi revealedAuto Express News: Impreza STi takes shapeAuto Express News: Impreza 5dr hatches outAuto Express News: New Impreza hatches outAuto Express News: Shock ImprezaAuto Express News: Burns tribute ready to roarAuto Express News: That's what you call a badge!Auto Express News: Subaru Impreza hatchbackSpy Shots: Subaru Impreza Related Index Pages Subaru Subaru Impreza Social Bookmarks Link to this article: For more details about purchasing this feature and/or images for editorial usage, please contact the Dennis Syndication team on pictures@dennis.co.uk Email a Friend Print this Pictures - Advertisement - Sponsored Results REQUEST A BROCHURE REQUEST A TEST DRIVE FIRST OPINION The Subaru Impreza once set the benchmark for performance, but while its rivals have moved on, the WRX has been rooted to the spot. Thirsty and dated, it remains a guilty pleasure, thanks to its four-wheel-drive abilities and charismatic boxer engine. But the latest hot hatches – led by the Honda Civic Type R and VW Golf GTI – are more entertaining to drive, less expensive to run and far more practical. AT A GLANCE Price: £22,995 Engine: 2.5-litre flat-four, 266bhp Transmission: Five-speed manual, four-wheel drive 0-60mph: 5.3 seconds Torque: 420Nm Standard equipment: WRC-style spoiler, quickshift gearchange, MOMO gearknob, STi front bumper, 18-inch alloy wheels, mesh grille On sale: September Find Used Cars Find your Subaru Impreza with our new used car search. £17495 - £12495 £12495 - £8495 Less than £8495 - Advertisement - Company Website | Media Information | Contact Us | Privacy Notice | Subs Info | Voucher Codes | SitemapOur Other Websites: The First Post | Custom PC | Evo | IT Pro | IT Pro India | MacUser | Men's Fitness | Micro Mart | PC Pro | bit-tech | Know Your Mobile | Octane | Expert Reviews | Channel Pro | Know Your Cell | Know Your Mobile India | iGizmo | Digital SLR Photography | Den of Geek | The Week | Computer Shopper | Dennis Communications | Magazines | Mobile Phone Deals | Competitions | Health & Fitness | CarBuyer © 2010 Dennis Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.Licensed by Felden || Autocar - News and reviews from the original car experts Skip to content Home Car Reviews News Blogs Videos Forums Cars for sale 6 issues for £1 Subaru Impreza GB270 review More Pics Email Print Your say Comments: 1 Join the discussion Subaru Impreza 2.5 GB270 First Drive Test date 10 August 2007 Price as tested £22,995 Cabin's certainly not a reason to buy What is it? This is the very last Impreza WRX that UK buyers will see for a while; the all new, five-door-only Impreza arrives in October, and there won’t be a UK WRX version. That’s why Subaru’s doing this high-spec, budget price, last-of-the-line special edition of the outgoing car, the GB270. It’s a bit of a bargain. Both the saloon, and the sports wagon we tested, are priced at £22,995. For that you get the Prodrive engine tune-up (from 226- to 266bhp), the lower Prodrive suspension, 18in black painted alloy wheels, a quickshift gearchange, a waistline spoiler, tinted privacy glass, a limited slip diff and a black mesh grille. That represents a saving of £7000 against the catalogue price. What’s it like? The WRX remains a fast, grippy, agile and stirring car to drive. Even now, a decade after the Impreza Turbo first screamed into the collective imagination, there are few cars that offer so much any-weather performance for the money. At certain times, in certain conditions, and on certain roads where a two-wheel drive hot hatch would scrabble for purchase, a WRX just grips and flies. There are other fast four-wheel-drivers you can buy for around the same money - cars like the VW Golf R32, Mazda 6 MPS and Volvo S40 T5 - but they tend to feel much heavier and less responsive than the Scooby, and they generally cost more. In short, the WRX remains the most capable and entertaining any-weather performance car available for around £20,000. That’s why it’s such a shame we’re not getting a new one. Just opening the door on the new GB270 helps you to understand what it’s all about; it’s frameless, the handle’s just about large enough to accommodate your fingers, and the whole door weighs about half as much as the door on a Golf R32. Settle in behind the wheel; you’ll find a cabin that looks and feels old, thin and cheap in places. Cloth seats that would have looked poorly upholstered in an MG Maestro Turbo, that provide about as much thigh support as a limp pair of boxer shorts, and that make the driver adopt one of the poorest driving positions you’ll find in any new hot hatch. A cassette player as standard (need we say more?). But none of it really matters. And that’s because the WRX is still an unremitting hoot to drive. You’ve got to drive it fast, mind, on a road or on a track where you can do so responsibly and safely. But when you do, you unearth a car that’s surprisingly delicate, biddable and entertaining – as well as quick. The WRX’s primary controls are still light and communicative and the handling and ride compromise firm but good (although not quite as sweetly judged as it used to be). You can commit it to a corner with the minimum of understeer, and almost no body control or fuss. But what characterises the Impreza WRX driving experience even more vividly is how soon you can get back on the throttle mid-corner. The WRX will find grip and traction in places lesser performance cars flounder; flatten the right-hand pedal as you turn into a wet third-gear off-camber corner and you know that the car will just find the traction to channel the power roadwards and spit you out safely on the other side. That kind of knowledge, just like that kind of performance, is almost priceless when the weather closes in. Should I buy one? If you want the definitive affordable all-weather performance car, we’d say so. The Impreza’s been around for a long time; we can’t believe there are many people with an WRX-shaped itch still to scratch, but if you’ve got one, this is the way to do it. It’s cheaper and more usable than an STi, without being noticeably slower and, although modern hot hatches put it in the shade in more ways than we care to mention, the one thing that the WRX still gets right is the drive. In dubious conditions, it would leave any hot hatchback cheaper than an Audi S3 for dead. And long will it be missed. 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The new Saab/Mazda 3/BMW 1-series-shaped Subaru is on its way and the shape that hasn’t really changed much since Colin McRae was wearing blue and yellow overalls is on its way out. Of course, it would be rude of the old car to leave without one final special edition, so here we have the GB270. The GB refers to Rally GB, Subaru’s most successful WRC event over the years, while the 270 refers to the number of Pferdestärke that the flat four has (equivalent to 266 of our bhp). ‘But…’ I can hear you clamouring, ‘…a standard STI has got 276bhp!’ And so it does, but despite the utterly monster rear wing, this is not an STI. This is the STI’s little brother WRX wearing a suit of finest WRC.The lesser Impreza has always been a bit of a sleeper, its five-speed gearbox and symmetrical four-wheel-drive seeming slightly old-fashioned next to the STI, but the truth is that the WRX is damn near as quick down a B-road and a bit less frantic in the process. The GB270 turns the STI-baiting capacity of the WRX up to maximum.The first step is to add the Prodrive Performance Pack to the 2.5-litre flat four. The PPP takes power up from 227bhp to the aforementioned 266bhp at 5700rpm, but more importantly it bolsters the torque by a huge 74lb ft, swelling it to 310lb ft at 3000rpm. That’s 21lb ft more than an STI and 15lb ft more than the new V8 M3…On the road the result is an engine that seems happiest in third, fourth and fifth gears, which is where the GB270 becomes your new flexible friend. The punch is big-lunged all the way from 2500rpm to 5500rpm, although it seems slightly to run out of enthusiasm for the final push to the limiter. There’s a quickshift gearchange on the GB270 too, which tightens the ’box up nicely. The five ratios remain the same though, so, with the throttle squeezed all the way into the special-edition mats, progress is made in wonderfully long, elastic strides. The bigger exhaust included in the Prodrive pack gives you a bit more warble too, which is nice.After the PPP, the second most noticeable upgrade is the suspension, which has been lowered (30mm front, 10mm rear) and attached to 18in wheels. Dropping a car closer to the ground and then slapping big wheels on it might sound a very low-tech, Vauxhall Nova sort of way to try to improve a car, but it’s worked. The rolling gait of the standard car has been replaced with a flatter, harder cornering attitude, yet it still retains a more fluid balance than the grip-fest STI, while the less extreme Pirelli P Zeros also make slides more progressive. You have to work more to get the best out of the chassis than you would in an STI, and as a result you tend to think more about the way you’re driving. The most fun is to be had entering a corner on the brakes (firm and strong), the rear mobilising as the nose locks onto the apex. It makes you want to master using your left foot on the middle pedal – I suspect it would open up whole new worlds of enjoyment.For some people the whole point of the WRX is that they don’t want to look like they’ve emerged from a Welsh forest, and for them I would suggest one of the 100 GB270 wagons – they get the same mechanical treatment but they’re grey with some pretty cool black alloy wheels and, apart from a small rear waist spoiler, they still look more supermarket than Super Special. If, on the other hand, you’ve never had a problem with Blue Mica paint and gold wheels, then you’ll probably agree that the GB270 saloon’s front-end treatment looks great, and that if you’re going to have a big rear wing then you might as well make it as big as possible…The Alcantara interior and ICE pack fitted to our test car are £1400 and £1750 cost options respectively, but while the other extras that come as standard on the GB270 would cost over £7K to add to a WRX, the GB270 costs just £22,995 – only £3K more than the standard car and over £3.5K less than an STI.The GB270 is an intriguing, really well sorted car and its balance conjures up quite an old-school Impreza flavour, which is appropriate really. It’s a fitting final fling. The new car has a lot to live up to. 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All rights reserved.Licensed by Felden || || Home Add stuff Add lap time Add a car Submit an article Tracks Cars Compare Lists Forum About About FastestLaps.com Site rules Top members Hall of Fame Performance Max speed 230 kph (142.6 mph) 0 - 100 kph 5.2 s 0 - 100 mph 13.9 s Engine Power 199 kw (266 bhp / 270 ps) Torque 420 Nm (311 lb-ft) Displacement 2.5 liters (150 ci) Engine type Flat 4, 16 valves, DOHC, turbocharged Engine location front General data Gearbox 5 MT Drive all wheel drive Mass 1400 kilograms (3080 lbs) Weight distribution - Year of introduction 2007 Home country Japan/UK Calculations Power to Weight ratio 190 bhp/tonne Power per liter 108 bhp/liter 1/8 mile (est) 8.8 s @ 81 mph Fastestlaps.com stats FL Rank Position - 1357/1356, 0 points Page views 4374 Car submitted by unknown 2007 Subaru Impreza GB270 Add laptime Add performance figure Add photo Lap Times (0) Track Time Position Faster than Slower than Subaru Impreza GB270 racing rivals Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX, Audi S4 (B6), Alfa Romeo 156 GTA, Volvo S60 R Other cars by Subaru (41) Impreza WRX STi, Impreza GT Turbo, Impreza P1, Impreza S-GT, Impreza STI Type RA-R, Impreza STI Spec C, Impreza WRX STi (2ltr Version), Impreza WRX STI (2.5l), Impreza S204, Impreza 2.0R, Impreza WRX, Impreza 22B STI Version, Impreza WRX STI WR1, Forester 2.5 XT, Impreza WRX 2.0, Impreza WRX STI 2.0, Legacy 2.0D, Impreza STI Spec C MK.II, Legacy STi S402, Outback 2.5i, WRX STI sedan, Impreza WRX, Impreza WRX, function togglebyid(elid) { var el = document.getElementById(elid); if (el.style.display=="none") { el.style.display=""; } else { el.style.display="none"; } } ... show moreWRX STI 330S, Impreza RB320, Impreza GT 4WD, Impreza S203, Impreza Turbo Prodrive, Impreza Turbo STI PPP, SVX LSL (JDM Alcyone), Impreza RA SPEC C, Impreza WRX STi Spec C, Impreza 2.5 GT 4dr, Legacy 2.5 GT S Package, Forester 2.5 XT, Legacy GT, Impreza WRX (JDM), Cosworth Impreza CS400, Impreza WRX, Impreza WRX STI R205, Outback 3.0 H6, ... show less Community comments (5) duncan black 9 months ago just bought one of these gb 270 no 234 of 300 its a beast Anonymous 2 years ago The reason that the uk gets these cars is cuz the rally prep companies like prodrive are British LJUTICA 2 years ago You're right about that,i'm jealous too at those japs. You know,i bet that kind of cars would improve Japanese cars overall market image like Audi R8 did to Audi. So,eventually when ordinary people begin to understand what kind of great cars these are,the sales would also go up... Anonymous 2 years ago why do all the special editions only go to the uk and japan?? i am positive they woud sell like hot ass anywhere else!! Anonymous 2 years ago Subaru Impreza GB270 Your name Verification code Add a car | Add lap time | Submit an article 5224 fastest lap times for 2699 cars from 228 manufacturers. © Fastestlaps.com 2006-2010 RSS Feed