The Subaru Impreza Turbo. What a car. What a story. What a shame it remains that time – and redevelopment costs – finally caught up with the Scooby, and at a moment in history when European manufacturers were only just getting into their stride building replicas of the car that pretty much started it all.
For UK buyers it finally died in 2013, some 19 years after it had been introduced here in 1994 (the WRX STi soldiered on for a few more years but weirdly without Impreza badging). That same year Mercedes introduced the first A45 AMG, and the seminal VW Golf R Mk7 would soon become a familiar sight. Audi had unleashed its first RS3 a couple of years beforehand as well, and so, despite what Subaru claimed at the time, there clearly was still an appetite for such cars.
In reality Subaru had simply run out of puff in the UK, plus by then the Impreza’s boxer engine, though still potent, had fallen well off the pace on emissions. To keep the Scooby alive would have required financial input the size of which Subaru simply could not justify, so the legend was gracefully laid to rest while the Europeans went to town on its carcass. Which was still a sizable feast.
