If you are considering buying a used Subaru Impreza, these are the common problems worth knowing about first. Our garage database tracks 3 known faults for this model, 2 of them rated high severity. Every one below is a repair bill a seller has good reason not to mention.
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Check a Subaru Impreza advert (free) →The Subaru Impreza has 3 known faults in our database, 2 of them rated high severity. The most serious are engine (notorious head gasket failure leading to external oil/coolant leaks or internal) and bodywork (rot around the rear strut turrets where the strut top meets the inner arch). None of them makes the car a bad buy on its own; the risk is a seller who knows and says nothing.
That is a count of the faults we hold, not a reliability score. Popular cars get written about more, and a newer generation has had less time to show its faults.
No year is a write-off on its own. What matters is which serious faults a given year and engine can have, and whether the car in front of you has had them fixed.
Each one is set out in full below, with the symptoms, the typical mileage and a rough repair cost.
One owner each, in their own words rewritten as a line, and not counted in our risk scoring. A fault joins the list above once a second report or an editorial source backs it.
One owner each, in their own words rewritten as a line, and not counted in our risk scoring. A fault joins the list above once a second report or an editorial source backs it.
Sellers rarely admit these faults outright
We track 9 specific phrases sellers use in adverts to soft-pedal these exact issues. Paste any Subaru Impreza advert and we check it in seconds.
Check an advert now (free) →Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. These are the 13 DVSA recalls for the Impreza, newest first. They do not tell you whether this particular car has had the work: for that, put the registration into the free GOV.UK MOT history check, which shows a recall status where the manufacturer shares it, or ask a franchised dealer to check the VIN.
The electronic park brake connector may disconnect.
Put right by: Inspect the electronic park brake connector and if necessary fit a retaining clip.
Ignition coils may short circuit and fail.
Put right by: Replace all ignition coils. If a misfire DTC is stored replace the front exhaust pipe.
Vehicles are equipped with brake hose fittings with insufficient sealing.
Put right by: Replace affected brake hoses with a countermeasure part.
Possible engine stall and restart failure.
Put right by: Re-programme the engine control module and replace if required the ignition coil.
The vehicles brake lights may not operate properly.
Put right by: The brake light switch will be replaced on affected vehicles.
Engine valve springs may fracture.
Put right by: Replace all engine valve springs.
Fuel pump wiring poor connection.
Put right by: Replace fuel pump harness and inspect pump flange or damage. Replace if required.
Potential injury if Airbag deployed
Put right by: On Affected vehicles replace Airbag inflator unit
Certain circumstances can trigger the Occupant Detection System (ODS) to incorrectly detect a high rise in capacitance which deactivates the ODS and turns the passenger airbag off. This is signalled to the driver via the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL). If a heavy frontal collision occurs after the MIL illuminates the airbag will not deploy.
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected and replace the Occupant Detection Unit.
In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the passenger side frontal air bag the subject propellant wafers could cause the inflator to rupture with metal fragments striking and potentially seriously injuring the vehicle occupants.
Put right by: On affected vehicles replace passenger front air bag inflator.
It is possible that corrosion can form on unprotected hidden brake pipes. This could result in the failure of the pipes and loss of brake fluid which can affect the brake system and ultimately cause reduced braking efficiency.
Put right by: Recall all affected vehicles to inspect and if required replace the subject brake pipes.
It is possible that the main engine wiring harness may have been incorrectly routed within the engine bay. This can allow the harness to chaff on the engine inlet manifold. This can result in damage to the harness which will either cause rough running of the engine illumination of the engine management light or in the extreme cases cause the engine to cut out.
Put right by: Recall all affected vehicles to check the routing of the harness and if necessary reroute and repair the harness.
The front Transverse links (lower Control Arms) may corrode leading to possible breakage if left without treatment.
Put right by: Either additional rust proofing or replacement of the Transverse links will be performed according to the degree of corrosion.
Recall data published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency under the Open Government Licence v3.0. A recall listed here may not apply to every car of this model: the build dates and the registration check are what decide it.
An overdue cambelt is the most expensive thing a seller can fail to mention on a used Impreza. These are the figures UK specialists work to.
Subaru EJ-series boxer engines use a timing belt. The interval in the UK is strictly 60,000 miles or 5 years. It is an interference engine. The tensioner, idlers, and water pump must be replaced at the same time.
Always confirm against the vehicle handbook. Intervals vary by engine, and several manufacturers revised theirs after failures in service.
Three stand out. Engine: notorious head gasket failure leading to external oil/coolant leaks or internal overheating (typically 80000 to 120000 miles). Bodywork: rot around the rear strut turrets where the strut top meets the inner arch. Bodywork: the rear wheel arches and quarter panels rot from the inside out. The full list above is grouped by generation, with typical mileage and a rough repair cost for each.
No Subaru Impreza year is a write-off, but the GC8 / GD (1992 to 2007) carries the most serious faults: engine and bodywork. Year matters less than whether the specific car has had the known fixes, so check the history for them.
Ask the seller about the engine and bodywork faults on this page and whether they have been fixed, with invoices. On the test drive watch for oil leaking from the bottom of the cylinder heads, rust staining or flaking around the rear strut tops, seen from inside the boot and paint bubbling or blistering around the rear arch lip. Read the MOT history for repeat advisories, then paste the advert into the free check, which reads it against all 3 known faults before you travel. Check a Subaru Impreza advert →
The DVSA lists 13 safety recalls for the Subaru Impreza issued between 2012 and 2022. The most recent, from September 2022, is "The electronic park brake connector may disconnect". Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. This list is by model, so it cannot tell you whether one particular car has had the work: the free GOV.UK MOT history check shows a recall status from the registration where the manufacturer shares it, and a franchised dealer can check the VIN.
Owners report 31.5 mpg on average across the Subaru Impreza engines with data, about 88% of the official combined figure. The gap between official and real-world economy varies a lot by engine, so the Real MPG page lists every engine and generation separately, from 110 owner submissions. Subaru Impreza Real MPG by engine →
Looking at a Subaru Impreza right now? Check the advert before you go and see it.
If you used to check the Honest John “Good & Bad” section before the site closed in 2026, this page is where that information now lives. We rebuilt the Subaru Impreza owner-report history from the archived Honest John dataset, added our own research, specialist and owner-club sources and DVSA recall data, and we keep it free. Each fault above is badged with its source. The same data feeds our free advert check, which reads a listing against every known fault for the exact engine and year.
CarAdCheck is not affiliated with Honest John or Volkswagen Financial Services. What happened to Honest John, and where each feature lives now.
Knowing what a Subaru Impreza goes wrong with is half of it. The rest is reading the advert and checking the car's history before you hand any money over.