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Subaru Impreza WRX
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Comments
-mike
He and I convoyed down from Bucks County, PA to the SIA Pine Barrens Trail Run in NJ yesterday morning. We had the only two Foresters there (no WRXes or Legacies/Outbacks, hmm...) and hopefully represented the model well. He was planning on taking his wife and daughter to Sesame Place amusement park today and head back to MD this evening.
Ed
I've always said that I don't care about the looks, but enough is enough....for $30K USD, I would at least want the rally style design headlights instead of the bugeyes for starters. There's only so much abuse one can take from the Impreza styling-haters Seriously, they really should offer different style headlights as a running change for future models. And they should also fix those cheap visors while they are at it.
BTW: I've put down a deposit on a wagon WRX. The order should come in just before the snow flies and my go-kart (Miata) gets put away for hibernation. YEEEHAA!
DjB
http://www.autonewseurope.com/2001frankfurt/mazda910.htm
and
http://www.autonews.com/html/main/stories0827/fpasia827.htm
(Sorry, qualityguy, I had to remove your posts - you cannot quote copyrighted material here, but links to interesting articles are always welcome.)
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
-mike
The Pine Barrens run on Sat was a hoot. I'll have photos uploaded later today.
It was fun to do those water crossings, especially the 2nd time at a quicker pace.
No WRXs, but an RS drove in the soft sand like a champ, and never got stuck. He kept up a pretty brisk pace, too, considering how narrow the trails were.
Did get to ride in a turbocharged 2.5RS (on pavement only), and that thing was a monster. He was running 6 psi and with 4 large passengers it would pull in 4th gear as if you were in 2nd gear. His coilovers were dialed in a bit low and he was bottoming out, though.
-juice
old messages. My wife is going ballistic over brake dust getting on
clothes. How can you get it out of clothes? And does it eventually
stop getting over everything?
Thanx,
Jeffrey
Also, if I were Subura of America, given the performance legend status of the WRX STi, I'd bump up the base MSRP even higher. People will still buy plenty, given the paucity of competitors in the same range of performance and price, and would be a performance bargain even at close to $40,000. Don't think so? Compare stat for stat to the current crop of performance cars, cheap interior not withstanding. I'm not suggesting that Subaru will, or even should, sell them at near $40k, but mid thirties wouldn't surprise me one bit. I couldn't afford one even in the low 30's, so its all academic to me. One thing that does matter to me, though, and does excite me about the prospect of the STi is that if it is introduced, it just might take some pressure off of the prices on the base WRX. The guys who can pay top dollar would then go chase after the WRX STi, not the plain old, yesterday's news, WRX. Suits me just fine.
Wax your wheels if they are painted. Brake dust won't stick to them, and you'll have less of a mess to begin with.
The VDC was not the success the WRX has been, mostly because of the high price. That plus actual prices paid are more like $27-30k for the LL Bean and VDC.
I think pricing an STi above $30k would be a mistake. Just think about what you could do with a regular WRX and $6 grand worth of mods.
-juice
But my dilemma come in with the price vs. performance and reliability. The WRX costs almost $7K more than the RS. I can add alot of performance upgrades to the RS for that $7K - provided they don't void the warranty. I can also pick up a 6-month old RS and save another $3-4K.
Are the standard performance upgrades in the WRX worth the extra money? Or am I better off with an RS and spending $5K on suspension, brakes, and engine mods? Especially in light of Subaru's new line of performance parts, I can't seem to justify dropping $24K on the WRX.
BTW, I have less than $14K in my 911. Contrary to popular belief, they aren't terribly expensive and they happen to be extremely reliable - I have over 176K miles on it!
In wagons you could get an Outback Sport or even a TS wagon and then you'd have about $7k of mod funds. No RS, though, but if you're going to swap the wheels and suspension why pay more for things you will remove?
I got to ride in a custom 6 psi turbo 2.5l on Saturday, and that thing was just scary-fast. It was still pulling in 4th gear and at ridiculous speeds.
You could set up a TS wagon like that, and it could be nice and stealthy, too.
-juice
Stephen
Happy WRX wagon owner w/6079 miles
The worst part, on both, is the fit and finish of the installation. Not that they weren't effective, just that you had loose gauges, wires hanging, and basically things not bolted down like a stock setup would be. They look customized, it's easy to tell. One also gets constant check engine lights, to the owners just covered the warning light on the dash (it runs fine).
Each had about $5k invested, so I imagine a perfectly finished job would run $7k or more.
-juice
P.S. And, again, I recommend Autonews.com to anybody - this is the industry news magazine - this is what I read - and your humble servant was the guy in charge of on-time delivery of all galvanized steel for VW plants in Mexico and Brazil, which is quite a bit. This is the most reliable source of info, it is not a highly opionated car magazine (can not stand Car & Driver, in particular, for being biased and not smart), but CNN of automotive world.
qualityguy - I understand, and hope that i was helpful with the links I posted. You just can't make such extensive quotes from a copyrighted source, you need to post a link to the source instead. If you have any questions, drop me an email.
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
Also as far as aftermarket parts. You do realize that even Subaru aftermarket parts are *NOT* covered under the warranty!
-mike
Sti comes with a 6 speed transmission, which is probably the biggest difference between a regular wrx and the sti. That plus the extra power is will worth the extra 5 grand or so. Not to mention better suspension, seats, differential...
If you tweak your WRX you will also void your warrnty, so warranty isn't really an issue.
For about the price of a stock WRX, you can have a car that will outperform it: 2001 RS coupe ($16K or less) + Turbo ($7K) + suspension ($1-2K)
-mike
But, for $7k, you could get a Coilover suspension, front rear strut bars, front rear sway bars with bushings all around, 17" rims with performance tires, 4-pot brakes w/ larger discs, a nice intake and exhaust, and stick a unichip in there and have a sweet handling torquey car...
Stephen
-mike
The 2.0l is a DOHC design and likes to rev.
-juice
- hutch
You can get universal flaps from an auto supplier like Pep Boys. I've seen some rather huge ones on an RS that runs RallyCross regularly.
-juice
Ed
With enough money, you can make anything go fast. It will be painful to constantly maintain the turboed RS just because it is not meant to be a turboed engine. Not to mention extra wear and tear. Without warranty, anything that blows up will be coming out of your pocket. So I think it might be "cheaper" initially, but you will end up paying more money at the end.
-juice
-juice
Now having said all that, I live in the country and don't do much "city" driving .. but 24 is a darn good number for a vehicle with the kind of performance of the WRX.
- Hutch
I had to say something to make myself feel better! ;-)
-juice
Hutch
- Size: WRX is smaller and tighter all around
- Handling: WRX feels stiffer and less body roll
- Power: Passat feels stronger at low RPM's, WRX feels a bit anemic under 3000 rpm. At 6000 rpm, Passat starts running out of steam, WRX is pulling strong. I always find that the WRX never feels as fast as the numbers would suggest, but if you compare yourself to other cars around you, you find yourself moving pretty fast with only moderate effort.
- Steering: WRX is heavier feeling, Passat is very light
- Shifter: WRX is a bit more precise
- Brakes: no as grabby as the Passat, a bit smoother
- Tires: WRX's are better but no by much
- Amenities: inside looks cheaper than a Passat, the Passat has higher level of luxury. No sunroof on the WRX.
So in moving from a Passat, you are giving up some of the comfy luxury, but you get a car that comes alive in a big way if you drive it hard.
Imagine a chipped Passat with stiffer springs and shocks, bigger no-sway bars, and a wheel and tire package, minues some space, and you get the idea.
AWD also "feels" very different than FWD.
-juice
-juice