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Subaru Impreza WRX

16768707273224

Comments

  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Sounds like a fun trip. It's nice to take a peek at what our counterparts across the ocean are driving.

    -juice
  • WarpDriveWarpDrive Member Posts: 506
    In Toronto, many dealers will sell you a WRX for $40K, out the door price. That works out to about a $1500 discount. So discounting *is* possible but you'll have to go to a bigger city to buy one. In Ottawa, the three regional dealers are not discounting at all.
  • cupholder1cupholder1 Member Posts: 231
    One dealer in Los Angeles carries screamer ads week after week offering $1100 off MSRP for the WRX. They have over 40 wagons and sedans, and they're just sitting there. Could probably walk away with one for straight invoice if you can haggle.
  • sarnysarny Member Posts: 17
    Are you talking about the Subaru dealer in Van Nuys?
  • cupholder1cupholder1 Member Posts: 231
    yup... Big Valley Subaru/Dodge... they strike me as a sleazeball operation (along with all the other dealers on Van Nuys Blvd.), so enter at your own risk. Irvine Subaru also has a bunch of WRXes collecting dust on the lot, but they seem to have a very good reputation among WRX owners.
  • jk111jk111 Member Posts: 125
    man that is still a rip off, I got mine for 1200 under msrp 4 months ago. Right before the disaster, I think you can get one for 500 over invoice right now. I see WRXs sitting on all of the subaru dealership lots.
  • cupholder1cupholder1 Member Posts: 231
    You're missing the point.... they are ADVERTISING $1100 off in big screamer ads, on all 40 units that they have. Thus, they have knocked $1100 off before you even begin your haggling. That means they will ultimately go close to invoice.
  • hunter001hunter001 Member Posts: 851
    "You're missing the point.... they are ADVERTISING $1100 off in big screamer ads, on all 40 units that they have. Thus, they have knocked $1100 off before you even begin your haggling. That means they will ultimately go close to invoice. "

    Have they put in useless junk like "paint protectant packages" "rust-proofing" etc on the stock cars thus artificially raising the price by $1000 and THEN ADVERTISING for the $1100 off ??

    Later...AH
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    Always bargain up from invoice, never down from MSRP.

    Dennis
  • hunter001hunter001 Member Posts: 851
    Another feature I noticed is about the load carrying capacity of these cars/sportwagons.

    WRX Sedan - 850 lbs
    WRX Wagon - 900 lbs
    Legacy Outback Wagon (much larger) - 900 lbs
    Impreza Outback Sport - 900 lbs

    For comparison, the MUCH LARGER Nissan Pathfinder SUV with a LOT MORE storage space inside, has a total load carrying capacity of 795 lbs. SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY FIVE POUNDS ONLY !!! LESS THAN THE WRX SEDAN, AND MUCH LESS THAN THE WRX SPORTWAGON !!! In other words, if 4 average sized humans sit inside the BIG Nissan pathfinder, you cannot place even an overnight's worth of luggage in the space behind the rear seats. The car would already have become UNSAFE. Seating 5 people in the LARGE Nissan Pathfinder ? FORGET IT !! Because, then you are over-loading the SUV well over what its suspension/brakes/tires etc are designed to hold. Some eyeopener that !

    Later...AH
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Payload is comparatively good. Keep in mind it varies slightly by model.

    -juice
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    I'd feel a lot safer in a PF with 4 adults + luggage than an outback or WRX. I have a trooper and I'm not sure what it's rated at but, I safely carry a lot more real world stuff than any WRX or OB could even dream of. Don't let #s go to your head.

    -mike
  • nectalover1nectalover1 Member Posts: 15
    Being in the SUV you would be safer as you crash into smaller cars the bulk of the SUV transfers in to destroying other cars around it. Unfortuanatly this happened last winter as a person rented a ford explorer and went up into the high country from denver. They just felt more safe with the big truck and its 4wd. They needless to say lost control and slammed into a smaller car killing the two parents who just left their child at the baby sitters. #'s are made to give safe guideline. Please don't overload your SUV's. I wasn't trying to be a downer I just hate that SUV's keep getting bigger and bigger.
  • nectalover1nectalover1 Member Posts: 15
    Sorry to get way off subject fellas. And Mike Huge game by the Yanks lastnight!Later
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Speaking of #s, I recall a video where a Volvo XC could not pull a trailer up a slippery slope, and an Outback could. It's rated to tow 3500 lbs, while the Outback is just over half that much, but what good is that higher rating if it can't get moving? ;-)

    -juice
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    paisan - you wouldn't feel safer in the Pathfinder I saw last winter on I-287. There was only about 3 inches of snow that had fallen and I was cruising along in the partially plowed left lane. I saw skid marks for several hundred yards. On the other side of the highway was the culprit. He (she?) started losing control in the Northbound lane, crossed the huge grass median and ended up in the southbound lane. The front, rear and sides were all crushed. Looked like they had gone end over end and side over side. It's unfortunate that someone lost control of their Suddenly Upside-down Vehicle.
    (I know you'll play devil's advocate and defend the Pathfinder. :-p) I'll take a lower center of gravity any day!

    AH - You LOVE those caps don't you? :-D

    Dennis
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Some PFs are rear-wheel drive.

    And my Miata is hopeless in the snow, and it doesn't have a high center of gravity.

    -juice
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    That same driver could and would have been in the same situation with their AWD Subie. My buddy spun his subbie in the rain and reverse side swiped a dumptruck. My point is that with a load, an SUV will handle the load far better than a subie any day of the week due to: Larger tires, generally speaking a more beefy uni-body or full ladder frame. I don't know how snow driving came into this but I was talking in general an excessive load will be better suited for an SUV than a subie.

    -mike
  • wrx_alwrx_al Member Posts: 17
    A couple of factors in SUV type vehicle safety verses a WRX. An SUV is its own worst enemy when on the road since injuries and deaths in a SUV can often occur in a self induced rollover. SUV's have roofs that are notoriously weak in proportion to their weight so that the occupants upper bodies are crushed in a rollover. I would venture to guess that a "framed" vehicle does rely on a strong roof as much as a unibodied vehicle does for its chassis strength. The high center of gravity makes an SUV MORE prone to rollover when at maximum occupant load. A recent investigative TV show dispelled the myth that a SUV has a lower tendency to roll over when "weighted down". In fact the SUV is more dangerous when fully loaded. The spring rates in a SUV coupled with their high center of gravity make the rollover a real possibility when making quick emergency maneuvers (turning the wheel sharply one way then correcting the opposite way). I have done this type of maneuver in my WRX wagon and the benign handling characteristics make it uneventful! Additionally, the loaded roof racks one so commonly sees on Land Rovers etc. makes me cringe. I do understand the advantages of the heavier vehicle in a two car crash however.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Did I accidentally get into the why I hate SUVs topic? ;-)

    -juice
  • hunter001hunter001 Member Posts: 851
    "I was talking in general an excessive load will be better suited for an SUV than a subie."

    Nope ! SUVs generally have a high Center of Gravity (CG)to begin with (with absolutely no load whatsoever), which by its very nature make them a lot less stable than cars. And that is in an un-loaded one. With a full load, the SUV would be positively dangerous, especially if you try to avoid an obstacle on the road.

    Also, automakers have designed each vehicle (be they cars or trucks/SUVs) with a finite loading capacity, and if you exceed it, you are endangering your passengers and yourself, needlessly. SUVs LOOK like they are able to take on a lot of cargo, but looks in these particular cases, are deceptive. Excessively loading an SUV (beyond its design parameters), is putting a lot of excess weight at a much higher height, which would make the already unstable vehicle, a lot more unstable, in addition to overburdening the structure, tires and brakes well above what they are designed to carry.

    But you can carry a lot more voluminous (but light) cargo in the Nissan Pathfinder, when compared to the Subaru WRX wagon. Just that the weight of the cargo (you can safely carry in the Pathfinder) cannot approach the weight you can safely carry in the Subaru WRX wagon.

    NOTE: The Acura MDX is rated to carry 1390 lbs. The Mercedes M-class is also designed to carry about 1350 lbs. But those vehicles are designed by their makers for such big loads. The Nissan Pathfinder is not.

    bluesubie: Love CAPS ? Not really. Unfortunately, there is no other way of putting emphasis on something ;-) I would have loved it if I could "block" letters. Is there a way of doing it ?

    Later...AH
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    You can bold text. Put a (b)to bold this(/b) except replace the ( and ) with < and >.

    -juice
  • hunter001hunter001 Member Posts: 851
    Thanks juice

    Hope it works.
  • 1subydown1togo1subydown1togo Member Posts: 348
    Please see this thread...ABS Module gone Bad?


    http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=108976

  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    But I own both a subie and an SUV. And properly loaded an SUV WILL CARRY more weight w/o a problem. I'm not talking safety here, I'm talking out right capacity wise. If I need to move a ton of stuff I'm taking my trooper, not my XT6 is the bottom line. You can make arguements of how it's unsafe etc. etc. But one of the reasons I didn't get a GT wagon was because I put in there 5 guys, camping gear up to the roof, and a 2000lb boat on a GT and it isn't gonna go anywhere, and the rear end would be dragging on the ground. Not so on my trooper.

    So say what you want, but an SUV WILL IN FACT carry more cargo and weight with ease than a WRX or GT Wagon will. Unless of course you feel that when the rear end of your vehicle is dragging literally on the floor it's a safe way to drive.

    -mike
  • hypovhypov Member Posts: 3,068
    -Dave...hey, thanks juice
  • hunter001hunter001 Member Posts: 851
    Read the following article within Edmunds, which quite succintly tries to explain the phenomenon:


    http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/driving/articles/46586/article.html


    Later...AH

  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Bold is beautiful. Nicer than all caps for sure.

    It's a basic law of human behavior. If you have the space, you're gonna use it. So owners tend to stuff more stuff in bigger vehicles.

    But yes, a Trooper will much better handle the same load. But stuff them both to the gills with cases of beer and...and hey! Bring them over to my house! :-)

    -juice
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    I've been driving SUVs my whole driving career 11 years, and just under 1/2 a million miles. Never once came close to rolling any of my SUVs, nor has anyone I know who owns one. Like I said, driver error. A bad driver is a bad driver no matter what they drive.

    -mike
  • cupholder1cupholder1 Member Posts: 231
    What logic on your part. I drunk drive all the time. In fact, I usually have about 6 shots of whiskey every Friday before making that hour long drive home. No accidents yet. Guess that means that drunk driving is safe?
  • paisanpaisan Member Posts: 21,181
    so anti-suv? Can't you accept the fact that different cars are built for different things?

    get over it.

    -mike
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    I'm very pro-SUV when they're used as they're intended. Towing, utility, etc.

    I just can't stand the bozo's that drive like a bat out of hell and they don't know how to. You're different since you know how to. :-)

    Yes, it's mainly in the driving. Just before that rollover, I was accelerating to get into the left lane ahead of an 18-wheeler. My tail kicked out a little bit, so I just hit the gas. If that SUV driver had been in a car, I doubt he would have rolled like he did. The road was very flat in that area and there were no potholes, etc.

    BTW, the Pathfinder does have a unibody. One of a handful of SUV's that has it.

    Dennis
  • vocusvocus Member Posts: 7,777
    One thing that scares me about driving an SUV (I rented a Grand Vitara like 3 weeks ago) is the "detached" feeling it had. I have a Mazda Protege, and it's stuck to the road like glue. The GV felt somewhat detached, but that's understandable. I didn't feel comfortable driving it fast though, because I knew if I would have had to make an emergency move, I would have been toast. That's the only thing that worries me. I was just cut off on the highway the other day in my Protege, and I was going about 70 mph. I veered very quickly, then recovered. I couldn't help thinking that if I had been in an SUV, I might well have rolled over. SUVs are nice for their power and hauling ability, and I am not debating anyone's choice to drive them (some people don't need them, but that's their business, not mine), but they are not for me.
  • saintvipersaintviper Member Posts: 177
    I've experienced brake phenomena similar to what is described in my MR2. I think it is actually a common and normal -though unintended- problem with how abs brakes work.

    Once in a while, I'll be coming to a fairly hard stop, and hit a pothole or uneven joint in the pavement as I'm slowing. This seems much more likely to happen if I am turning as well. As the wheel hits the joint or bump, it looses or gains a significant amount of traction for a fraction of a second. The abs sensor picks this up and applies abs.

    There are several different kinds of abs. The best systems modulate how the brakes are applied based on available traction to simulate threshold braking. The worst systems just apply and release the brake very quickly regardless of what's happening with the wheels. The latter system was found on GM cars equiped with early abs sytems. In many cases these systems were worse than no abs at all. In either case, the abs system, while superior to a flat out slide, is no better and usually worse in most cases than proper threshold braking.

    So anyway, combine an abs sensor that is overly sensitive, with abs function that even in the best of circumstances won't stop you as fast as normal braking when the wheels should not be slipping in the first place, and this is the problem you get. The solution is to adjust the sensor that activates the abs to work properly and not activate it when it is not needed. It sounds like Subaru needs to do this. But even if this is done properly, abs will still occasionally activate in situations when it's not needed. It's just something that you have to be prepared for and deal with it as best you can when it happens.
  • jimsxnjimsxn Member Posts: 108
    It's better to get a beating there rather than here.
  • rex_ruthorrex_ruthor Member Posts: 140
    unsafe at any speed. The American obsession with things of disproportionate size and cost has enabled the fad. And it makes sense....Americans are the fattest people in the world, so it stands to reason our vehicles tend to be obese as well.

    SUV's are overweight, underbraked, handle emergency maneuvers very poorly, and dont protect occupants any better than cars in single vehicle accidents. They also contribute to a disproportionate share of accidents and deaths, particulary in mult-car crashes where the occupants of the normal vehicles are maimed or killed due the weight and ride height of the SUV.
  • taos2taos2 Member Posts: 31
    Any problem with disconnecting fuse #8 which
    according to the manual is dedicated to the
    ABS solenoid? Was considering this option
    when driving in snow?
  • saintvipersaintviper Member Posts: 177
    That's the Corvair that was unsafe at any speed. I agree with the rest though.
  • bluesubiebluesubie Member Posts: 3,497
    Saint - That was excellent. Even though I don't have a WRX and uncertain of the exact problem, IMO it's just an unfamiliarity with ABS.

    taos - I'm not certain of the exact fuse but when I go off-roading, I pull one of the ABS fuses. You get an ABS light, but I don't think it would be much of a problem (unless the ABS warning light blows). After almost plowing into the side of a BRAT last winter, I'll be disconnecting my fuse in deep snow. Practicing threshold braking in a big empty parking lot is useful as well.

    Dennis
  • thecatthecat Member Posts: 535
    Dennis - It is not unfamiliarity with ABS. I've experienced the problem once and have been unable to reproduce it even at the exact same location under similar conditions. I've got SOA looking into it .. but it's real.
    -Hutch
  • cupholder1cupholder1 Member Posts: 231
    I hate 'em. All I really need for my needs is a little GTI ... but given that SUV drivers love to tailgate smaller cars right to the bumper, I think I'll pass. Also feel pretty vulnerable in the tinny WRX because of all the idiot SUV drivers out there.
  • nematodenematode Member Posts: 448
    BUT you gotta see this:


    http://www.airpowersystems.com.au/wrx/my01/rt_spec_motor/rt_spec8.html


    Look near the bottom of the page.


    0-60 in the low (yes low) 4sec range.

    1/4 mile in 12.82 @ 108mph


    You can have yours converted for $4800+install at www.cobbtuning.com. Supposed to be 320hp.

  • wrxguywrxguy Member Posts: 51
    In reading your posts you remind me exactly one of the few parts about why I dont miss L.A. and that was the traffic.

    But you eventually will buckle down and get a new vehilce. The GTI must be the same size as some of those duall tires on the trailers that go up and down the 605 anyways.

    If I am not mistaken the WRX crash test has comparativly good ratings. Unless you end up in a larger heavy VOLVO,,,,,,,,,,,,,ewwwwwwww no fun
  • kostamojen2kostamojen2 Member Posts: 284
    Anyone notice that white Explorers always have maniac drivers?

    Anyway, when I see a SUV full of cargo and towing something, I aplaud.
    When I see some 40 year old women driving a Suburban to the grocery store, I spit out my window at them :P
    And when I see an SUV driving like a sports car on the freeway, I block them from swerving into my lane >:| (If they try, ill clip their rear end and just watch them swerve and then roll)

    Oh, and I doubt you can find a stiffer chasis in a car than the WRX. (Every accident ive seen with the WRX rolling, crashing, etc. the car is amazingly still intact for what happened) And by comparison, most SUV's are like silly puddy with their chasis... Lotta weight, but it all comes apart with ease.
  • hunter001hunter001 Member Posts: 851
    "most SUV's are like silly puddy with their chasis... Lotta weight, but it all comes apart with ease."

    This is the conclusion the IIHS came to, after testing a host of SUVs....except maybe the Mercedes ML series and also the Acura MDX (which is based on the Honda Odyssey which earned 5-stars all around). The Mercedes and the Acura were purposefully designed with passengers in mind, rather than putting a body over a pickup truck, like some others have done and have bumpers that are car-friendly.

    Later...AH
  • hypovhypov Member Posts: 3,068
    I don't hate, and I don't love them either. Just not my cup of tea. Anyway, I do agree with mike (Paisan)... driver error. You could do alot of damage misusing them. Hey, I'd even rolled over a M113 (well, at least put it on it's side) and that block of steel on tracks shouldn't. But drive it like an idiot, like I did, it will.

    -Dave
  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    and SUVs is that there is a much smaller "window of recovery" with most SUVs, which is why they so often result in accidents.

    Bob
  • strider98strider98 Member Posts: 89
    works also. I was heading to the doc's office yesterday and there was this Schweinhund in his late, late model 325ci convertible doing like 55 in a 35 mph zone in heavy traffic, thinking he was Jeff Gordon or somebody. The Scheisskopf nearly clipped me when he jumped into my lane. I showed him he was number one in my book-with the middle finger (you know, Hook 'em Unicorns)- and he just waved and laughed and sped off. Despite all his swerving and racing, I actually passed him later on down the street a couple of blocks. Since he was in the lane beside me and a little further back, I hocked up a big one and spit well in front of his car. He had just accelerated by me while it was still in the air, and SPLAT! it went right on his windshield. I couldn't believe that I hit him, man, that was hilarious...
  • nschulman3nschulman3 Member Posts: 125
    I've been reading and following this post for about 6 months. Why have we been spending the past week comparing the wrx and suvs? Isn't there room on other posts for this discussion? As an owner of a wrx, I' rather read stories and opinions about this car and REAL competitors.
  • sajohnsonsajohnson Member Posts: 48
    Overall score? EXCELLENT! See pages 54-56. Happy reading!
This discussion has been closed.