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Subaru Impreza Outback Sport & TS

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  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    for the offer; I was a cheapskate who went from Photopoint to Zing, trying that out but it's time consuming and still getting photos into the album. Looks like it works, though, so will get more on as I can...
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    image
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
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  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    image
    Notice the windshield tint!
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
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  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    image
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    image

    image

    image

    image

    OK, show's over!
  • rgsjr99rgsjr99 Member Posts: 17
    I appreciate all the help. BTW, now that I'm almost halfway through the break in the clutch isn't as grabby and the engagement point has crept up a hair making things much smoother. I checked with the service desk and they said this was normal as the parts 'cut in'.

    Ramon & Celeste, the cars look great!.

    Celeste, I've added 19.9 Gallons in and have managed to rack up 408 miles in just over a week :) (Man I love this car) Anyway that's working out 20.5 mpg in nothing but city commuting and the occaisonal (very occaisonal) trip through the suburban back roads.

    SoobyDoobyDoooo!
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    OK today when I was driving I paid particular attention to how I got around that left shoulder blind thing. What I do is lean over to look in the rear view mirror, and that lets you see out the backmost left window. Along with your outside rearview mirror, works just fine!
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    Wow! that's great gas mileage, did you calculate that on an entire tankful? With my 2000 OBS, manual, I couldn't get more than 18 mpg in the city...
  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    Looking good! Enjoy the new ride. :) Is it a 5-speed or automatic?

    Bob
  • rgsjr99rgsjr99 Member Posts: 17
    Actually the dealer topped off the tank to the first click (when the pump shuts off) before I took delivery. So I just reset my A trip odometer and have been logging gas filling up the tank to the first shut off. I guess one could argue that there's some wiggle room if the nozzles are slightly different but certainly not enought o be material. Maybe my granny shifting during break in is paying off :)
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    nice.... she sure looks darn clean to me! It looks bigger too. wow. Hmm.... I never drove the new OBS yet. Maybe I should give it a whirl sometime.
    I have to say the black looks wicked. Better than that pukey green I saw at the autoshow. And the side tutone is quite kewl too. Stylish I must say.

    hey photopoint is charging?! Yikes! They haven't send me any bills yet tho. Besides, I didn't even give them my CC info.
  • action303action303 Member Posts: 17
    Thanks for checking out the blind spot thing, and also thanks for posting those rad pix of your new ride! Those pictures look evebn better than Subaru's promo pictures in the Impreza brochure. I'm glad I chose black too :)
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    rsholland: It's an automatic, the reason I got rid of my 2000 is that the clutch was really beginning to kill my left foot. Now it feels great! Too much city driving...

    Ramon: Yea, I really hated that green. You should get in one and drive. The 165 hp ain't bad. My Ganzflow intake will probably be in this week.

    action 303: You know, when I got the car I would have gotten another in silver if one had been on the lot. The black one was there, however, and I'd never have pictured myself getting a black car, especially in this heat, but with the windshield tinted, it is of no consequence at all! I get a little paranoid when driving by cops because they look, but turns out every time they're just looking at my car!!!!
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    for those interested, the last photo I posted is of the car before the windows were tinted. I believe all the other photos is after the tint was put on.
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    u're getting a ganzflow too! Now your OBS is as fast as my RS. =( I don't feel good anymore. hehehehe.... awesome! make sure you reset your ecu!
    Tip : when u slice that tube, make sure u're slicing at the opposite side of the tube which it is curved upon. So let's say it's curving inside, cut the outside part of the curve. That way u will have a much better time of making it fit. Silly me cut the inside of the curved tube. That was the hardest part. The rest was ultra easy!
    vroom vroom!!!
    next step is to get some eibach lowering springs and boy o boy.... u'll be one hot subymamma!!!
  • action303action303 Member Posts: 17
    Celeste: I strongly considered the silver and the red. The silver looked nice, but I thought it diminished the impact of the trim. I thought the red was pretty nice looking, but the black definitely brings out the "sport" part of the OBS. After driving a 93 Sentra for 6 years, I was in the mood for something a little more eye-catching. I literally decided between red and black by flipping a coin at the dealership. I'm glad it was heads!
  • brekkebrekke Member Posts: 304
    Celeste, it looks great and I'm going to get mine tinted too. Looking forward to hearing about the intake.

    Did anybody go aftermarket with the alarm, or do you have the Subaru security system? I'd rather go aftermarket because I'd only get a decent insurance discount if I have a passive disabling device, which I don't think the Subaru alarm has.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Lookin' good, Celeste.

    What is that house in the first picture?

    -juice
  • aalukeaaluke Member Posts: 11
    Celeste, that tinted windows look great! It also looks like your car was much cleaner and the lighting much better when you took your pics. Awesome!

    Brekke: No alarm here.
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    for the nice comments.

    Action 303: I agree about the trim not showing as well on the silver, but I didn't figure that out until I had the car a few days and got to thinking about it, but no kidding, if they had had a silver one on the lot, I would have automatically taken that one without even thinking about the trim... It's quite hypnotic when bright sun hits that paint and you see the deep blue sparkles in there, eh?

    ramon: the springs lower the center of gravity, right? that means you have to get other stuff to stiffen things up in order to not have the tires hitting the top of the tire wells, right? If I ever get up to Canada, I'll be lookin' for you on the road, buddy...

    brekke: didn't get the alarm system, not alot of crime with my type cars around here...

    ateixeira: yes, my humble abode (just kiddin, or why wouldn't I be driving a Lambourgini? This is the campus of Rollins College here in Winter Park, about 3 miles from me. The whole campus is full of beautiful mediterranean style buildings, all of them this lovely, (the first photo shows the administration building), and not far away is a museum with I believe to be the largest collection of Tiffany works around. Even a chapel Tiffany exhibited in a world's fair that was in assorted miscellaneous pieces which they salvaged, now in one piece again. Further down the photos, as you can see, is a fine arts building on campus.
  • brekkebrekke Member Posts: 304
    I don't know why this car isn't more popular. It's cute, yet not girlie.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    It IS getting more popular. Impreza sales were up 222%.

    And there are limited numbers of WRXs, so the others are selling well, too.

    -juice
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    How many WRX ads have you seen? Now, how many Outback Sport ads have you seen? Dig?
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    well to get the best out of a full suspension setup, it's normally advisable to get the shocks too. But u can get relatively soft lowering springs to mate with your stock shocks. Now mind u, i am not familiar with the new age Impreza's shocks and spring specifications.
    That was why when I wanted to get some lowering springs, i waited so that I can save for the shocks too. So now I have a nice set for my RS. But haven't installed yet.
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    does that kind of setup do? Handling, cornering, etc.???
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    a lower spring would give you a lower ride hide thus providing a lower centre of gravity = more stable cornering.
    and good aftermarket springs have a higher spring rate means it will not compress easily when cornering hard thus keeping the balance of the car in check. Shocks provide stronger rebound, so coupled with the right spring rate of springs, the car will not oscilitate when going on rough or uneven roads and also when cornering. All these will give u a better handling car. Of course, there's other things like anti roll bar, front and rear tower braces, anti lift kits, sway bar links etc which adds to it. You have to know what you want. A larger anti roll bar for the rear (I think yours is 13mm) will eliminate understeer (push) during hard cornering. I am using a simple 18mm to give me neutral cornering. But once I've installed my shocks and springs, I might look into a 20mm bar.
  • drew_drew_ Member Posts: 3,382
    ...at 6-7pm Pacific/9-10 pm Eastern. Hope to see you there!
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  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    What's the first and simplest thing to do? Strut towers? Oh, probably anti-sway bar, eh?
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    anti sway bar. Best bang for the buck handling mod. Then tires should be next.... then shocks and springs, then exhaust, rear tower bar, anti lift kit, solid end links, rip out the rear seats, rip out a/c, rip out that engine crossmember thingy that weighs a ton but does nothing, install a TEC II turbocharger, top it off with an 80 shot NOS kit.... get some nice OZ P1 rims, paint the car jet black, front tower bar, new racing cams, polish those pistons, extrude honed your TBs, install racing pulleys and sprockets, ah hell, strap on 2 JATO rockets for maximum acceleration at the lights..... that should be a few tricks to start. How's that? ;-)
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    was goin' out to meet a friend yesterday. Came across a new tiburon. Eck! I was behind this young guy. Guess he was a bit intimidated or something. Cus he tried to accelerate away whenever he can. I think I was in a crappy mood so I decided to play with him. Just want to follow him around since he's going my way anyways. All these times we were behind other cars which is fine I didn't want to race or anything. However the road turned to a 2 way lane and in front of us was a set of trafic lights, I didn't bother to go to the next empty lane. I was happy to stay behind. But at the last minute before we stop, he switched to the next empty lane. I had no choice at the last minute maneuver he did so I took the other empty lane. Eck!I guess this young tiburon guy want some Suby whoop [non-permissible content removed]...or so I think. hahaha... anyhow he was giving me dirty looks which he did throughout the entire time when i was behind him. Since my car is tinted up he can't see inside in the evening light. So there, on the right weighing a lithe 2500lb a 2001 silver Hyundai Tiburon raring to go.... on the left a Blue Ridge Pearl Subaru Impreza 2.5RS weighing in at a hefty 2820lbs. On the right, the tiburon driver revving his 2.0 inline 4 engine...on the left, a geeky Scooby nut listening to his favourite WOW collection CD music. Light turns yellow.... a momentary pause as time stood still, road ahead is clear....still yellow..... still yellow and and.... RED! Apparently the opposite street gets the advance left turn. No indication of when the light will turn green now! no walking man, or flashing hand or amber light preparing both road gladiators for the fight! Then all of a sudden the light turns green, Suby nut unleashed all of it's AWD boxer 4 power on the ground with ease while the poor tiburon was left sitting at the lights prolly spinning it's 15" wheels. The race was over as the stealthy dark blue Impreza blast thru the lights as its Borla exhaust bellows angrily ...a quick shnick on the GGR short shifter gets the gear cogs to 2nd. Still no sign of the silver tiburon. The scooby driver didn't bother to shift at redline. There wasn't any need to. Another shift at 5000rpm gets the RS into 3rd. Still no sign of the car. Calmly the driver of the Impreza begins to slow down. Within a second, a silver Tiburon came rushing towards the Impreza on the right side. By then the road turned nasty! From a smooth tarmac, it turned into a rock strewn pothole filled broken gravel road. In it's element, the Rally Proven Impreza surged forward easily never to be caught by the young tiburon driver.... Ego shattered, the tiburon driver took the first right exit from the road knowing full well that his 'Shark' was bitten bad by a scrappy Scooby Doo.

    "If you ain't got AWD....u can't touch this."
  • brekkebrekke Member Posts: 304
    I was planning on switching to an 18mm rear sway bar and adding a rear strut brace on my OBS. Is the tower brace a waste if I don't do shocks and springs? The brace seemed like such an easy thing to do, why not. I don't want to lower my car.
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    rear tower brace will help alot coupled with the larger sway bar! only the front tower brace is a waste. Well at least until u have upgraded all your other suspension. reason being that the car's shock towers are so darn close to the firewall therefore the front is pretty stiff. And I know the older Imprezas have this reinforcement bar within the firewall too! I'm sure the new one has it too. It's anotehr Rally Proven design.
  • rgsjr99rgsjr99 Member Posts: 17
    I was out washing the OBS today when I noticed these small brown spots all over the hood, roof, driver's side, and hatch. I figured no big deal that's what soap is for . . .wrong!!! Whatever this crap was it would not come off even with the edge of my finger nail. There I was looking at a 2 week old Alpine White OBS covered in these damn spots. Then I remembered being behind this huge dump truck on the PA turnpike and having these wierd oily drops appear here and there on my windsheild so my best guess is that it was hydraulic fluid or some other such thing.

    Anyway, instead of using my Mother's carnuba I got out the WaxxShop's Liquid Super Glaze and viola! marks gone. The moral of this story, I dunno...make sure you have a decent assortment of products for all these little things that torment those those of us that truly love our little machines.

    OK, I feel better now :)
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    Ramon: Thank you for making me laugh on such an awful day. This afternoon we attended the funeral of a 16-year-old friend of my son, diabetes took his life (just went to his room after school one day not feeling well, and faded out!) but you really brightened my day with that story. AWD= All We'll Drive!! (did you see that on the i-club, pretty clever)

    RQSjr99: Where do you get that stuff? Is it supposed to be a cleaner that you use after washing and before waxing? Hearty congratulations on your success getting that crap off!!
  • rgsjr99rgsjr99 Member Posts: 17
    Ramon, You should be able to get the Super Glaze at any Auto Supply. I got mine at Pep Boys. It's made by The Wax Shop and comes in a tan bottle. It does have petroleum distillates in it and I think that's what helps get the stains out. It's kinda thin so I don't know how much Carnuba is in it. They also have a product called Safe Cut which is a platic and paint polish to remove light scratches and oxidation. I usually follow up with Meguiar's liquid Carnuba.

    I'm gonna try my had at this image thing now, hope they turn out:

    image

    image
  • rgsjr99rgsjr99 Member Posts: 17
    Ramon, sorry. To answer your question, yes it is a glaze and will remove light swirls, road grime and oilly residue. Even though it leaves a slick carnuba finish, they do say that it leaves no build up. So I like to follow up with a carnuba wax since they are classifying it as a glaze.
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    Hey! Nice pics. By the way that was me asking about the wax, not Ramon. He doesn't wash his car. He likes the mud (Ramon, don't get me!). Give us a picture of the rear quarter panel and rear, I haven't seen a white one yet other than yours!
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    oh boy. I spent a weekend up at a hickville. Aicaramba! =O Well it was my friend's parents who invited me to go visit them. So finally I took the courage to do so. They live in this small town of 100,000 ppl. And boy the first 10 minutes into the town, I cannot find any import cars at all!!! Nervous was certainly the key word. Anyhow it turned out pretty pleasant as I drove by some neighbourhoods...well u should've seen the facial expressions of those lil kids! They were like pointing at us with their jaws dropped!!! I thought it was funny. But I was still nervous.
    Fortunately, my friend's parent's place is located in a very nice neighbourhood and I began to spot a Passat here, a Lexus there.... a Celica here and a Honda there. Whew! Unfortunately, their house is packed with cars. So I had to park outside. NERVOUS came back to visit me again. =(
    While I was inside chit chatting away, my friend's brother's buddy dropped by and he was just drooling over BuRPY! Anyhow we received that kinda reception throughout the day while driving around town. We visited her parent's church service and tho I parked somewhere at the back hoping to stay away from any high profile area, that didn't stop the a small crowd to form by the car and then some came and ask me what the heck it was! A guy was so enthralled with it, he had me talking to him for 30 minutes!!! His dad owns a Camaro. But he was totally in love with my Scooby. He thinks that colour of my car was custom painted! Anyways I think we came out unscathed in the weekend. I had alot of fun. Free food thanks to my friend's parents. yay! And BuRPy was not vandalised. Kinda funny experience. I mean, I've seen ppl looking curiously at our Scoobies before but man the reception at this small hick town was remarkable! Not to mention a few young girls did ask me if I am single!!! =D

    Man, those new OBS rims are much nicer than the WRX!!! Err... celeste wanna swap?

    ps: No offence to hicks. =( Just that this town is real small and well... u know what I mean.
  • rgsjr99rgsjr99 Member Posts: 17
    Hi Celeste, sorry about that :) Judging by your pics I'd say that you're doing everything right as far as washing and waxing. I can tell you you're 100% right about the wagons getting hot on sunny days! We took an hour drive out to visit friends, the car's first highway trip, and had to turn the air on for a couple of minutes to cool off even though it was all of 70 degrees outside. I think I'll be looking for a window shop real soon. Being from FL any tips on what to look for in tint shops? I think the Alpine White with tint will look sharp.
  • action303action303 Member Posts: 17
    Does anyone know why there is only a driver side vanity mirror on the 2002 OBS? Is that a blatant "this car is for women" feature? Should I cancel my OBS order and opt for the RS Sedan?
    Oh, the nagging doubt...
    -Action
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    shouldn't that feature on the passenger side instead?! Maybe it's just a flaw. an you not swap the sun visors over?
  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    both sides?

    Bob
  • celeste2celeste2 Member Posts: 362
    Just filled up: 20.3 mpg in TOWN. Last tank of gas was over 20 mpg, too. Funny, with my manual, I only once got over 18 mpg in town. Every tank was 18-point-something miles per gallon!

    Ramon: Wow, I thought a small town was like 10,000 or less. I know what you mean though about hick towns as we used to live in a hick redneck town. Orlando was only 12 miles from there and some of those people never even went to Orlando for ANY thing!! Whew! Cool how much attention your car got. We saw a funny car the other day, an Escort: he'd put a weird spoiler on, windshield banner, lettering all over the car and I'm sure he thought we were looking because we thought he was HOT. NOT!!!! Oatmeal... You didn't say anything about my comment on giving your car mudbaths.....

    rqsjr99: Actually, we haven't even waxed the car yet, but use Meguiar's Gold Class car wash. See, we had waxed the 2000 OBS I just traded only about a month ago, so not eager to get right out there again. Probably next month.

    The best tints are Sunguard (I'm pretty sure that's the correct name, it's what I have on my car), and 3M. The tinter I just used does cars for the BMW dealership and mostly uses Sunguard. There was also a tinter on the i-club that mentioned Sunguard. Call around, maybe call a few ritzy dealerships and ask who they use for tinting if you can't get a personal referral. Just don't be a weenie and go for the very lightest stuff or you might as well not tint at all, for what you're paying. Mine's pretty dark but you don't have to go that dark unless you have a real sun issue. But don't get the very lightest unless it's the only thing legal in your area and they really crack down on tinting violators. They never enforce tinting laws here, unless maybe you were pulled over and they noticed it. In my other car I was pulled over for speeding, had too dark tint, but the officer didn't even look at it!

    action303: If you need a wagon I wouldn't let that mirror feature sway you. After all, alot of guys like to preen in the mirror, too. You could always stick a mirror on to the passenger side if you had to.
  • action303action303 Member Posts: 17
    Nope, the 2002 OBS only has a vanity mirror on the driver side. The Impreza sedan has mirrors on both sides. I didn't inspect it enough to determine whether or not it's easy to transfer the mirror or visor to the passenger side in the OBS.
    It sounds like this is a change from past model years, and it just seems a little weird to me that they'd do that.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    My wife saw an Impreza wagon the other day (first time), and said it had eye brows and a frown. She also said that overall it looked "evil".

    Isn't that a funny impression? It's a bit small for her, though. She'd want a Blitzen.

    -juice
  • ramonramon Member Posts: 825
    Oh man that would be MY FAMILY WAGON!!!! Or an Audi RS4 will do. But the Blitzen is so darn kewl. Totally love the name.

    celeste : now that winter is over, my car is on a bugs killing spree. Instead of caking with mud, it's bathed with splatters of bugs. It's almost hilarious when I'm on the road and I see this bug flying towards me and splatter itself on my winshield. Am I morbid or what?!
    Yeah those folks at that small town was asking me how much I spent on the hood, wing, and the side skirts. U should've seen their faces when i told them that it all came with the car. Hahahaah... well my friend's brother lucked out. I took him out on a ride. We went ripping around some empty farm roads. Needless to say, he is now a Subaru convert. During my time there, I only saw one Subaru Forester in the midst of domestics and other popular imports.
  • brekkebrekke Member Posts: 304
    I've been hanging out at the protege5 forum, and I have to admit that car is nice looking (plus its got rear discs). But I really wanted AWD so my decision to go OBS was a no-brainer. I wonder why Mazda didn't go ahead with their AWD AllSport to compete with the OBS.

    Hey rgsjr thanks for the car wash/glaze info. I'll be picking up some of that stuff you mentioned.

    -Caroline
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    I think the Protoge-based competitor will come out this fall.

    Not enough power, though.

    -juice
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