Lets clear up some misplaced issues here.
When I bought my integrale EVO1 I used it every day for 18 months and had to change/fix.......... oh that's right nothing!
Though I saw sense and realised that it was a classic car and deserved to be treated better, so bought another car and retired it from the daily grind.
There is a lot of nonsense written about integrale's and reliability, they are no worse than any other 4WD rally bread car, they need to be maintained to a very high level, but if that's done right there is no reason for them to not be reliable. A service on these cars is not just oil change, it's diff & gearbox oils, brake fluid every two years which is not a job you do at home as everyone who does gets air trapped in clutch and can't get it out, coolant etc and diagnostic check to ensure all sensors are good this includes throttle position sensor, as these can and will need adjusted.
Its the law of averages, someone somewhere knew someone once with an integrale (there are only 400 of all models in UK) who had an issue, that story gets passed about a few folk and so its goes, as none of those people actually know anyone else who has ever run one they therefore have a 1 of 1 story of a car that means suddenly every car must be unreliable.
If we then take the Impreza as an example of a car that is similar in concept, yet there's thousands of them, so chances of knowing someone with one are much higher, yeah so one guy had one that had issues, but its out weighed by the fact you may know 2 others who have had one with little issues, so all in its deemed reliable.
There's a guy on EVOforum who has an EVO1 with 100,000miles on it and uses it to trailer his Caterham to track days all over the country, yip it has a tow hook, and before that he used a 16V integrale, never had any issues in 200K hence the purchase of an EVO to replace it.
TBH the move to a 4WD 2L turbo charged car is going to be a big jump in terms of ownership costs over ANY uno.
Cam belts needed changed every 2 years or 24K at cost of £450 cos bent valves if cam belt breaks is BIG cost, those sodium filled valves are not cheap and figure £2K to rebuild head.
Clutches are fairly cheap at less than £200, but big job changing them, so £700 at garage or a few days doing it yourself.
These cars are getting old now, so the ones that have been used more are starting to suffer rust in two places, bottom of windscreen as the gunk off the leaves and stuff we get in this country in Autum fills up the rain ducts and the rust from inside out, so full scuttle needs done, and the rear of the roof as there are three sections of metal that meet and trap moisture, again rusting from inside out, new roof skins are available for £400 + VAT.
They reckon on £2K a year to keep an integrale tip-top.
TBH as an everyday car you can get much easier/cheaper to live with as using everyday will only cost you lots in ownership costs and devalue it on resale, they were £25K new back in early 90's, so that like driving a £30k+ car now so its never going to be cheap.
Would I change mine for anything, no way, I am even thinking on adding to my car collection and buying a Celica GT4 ST205 but that's me I'd rather have a few really cool cars than prescribe to the norm and buy a BMW/Mercedes/audi unless it was a E30 m3 EVO, 190 Cosworth EVO or Ur-Quattro :devil:
. very nice cars but I wouldn't bother specially as a daily runner 
