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Comments
BMW, who *invented* the small sport sedan back in the early 1970s with the famous 2002 model, had an interior that made the WRX's interior look like that of a luxury car. Imagine that, a BMW with an interior worse than that of a Subaru!
Bob
A coworker of mine has an A4 1.8T. Very nice looking car. The WRX blows it out of the water in the handling and acceleration arena though. The A4 1.8T looks a little bloated and overweight. Wait a minute, that is what my coworker who owns it says! Also, the handling is a little soft.
They are all very effective and will keep you out of trouble in real world situations.
The owner of the dealership I go to doesn't even drive the Subaru with the most advanced AWD system. He has the LL Bean (actually his wife drives that. He drives an old BRAT).
-Dennis
The cloth seats in the WRX are fantastic, in fact C&D rated is higher than the S4's seats and the BMW 330xi, never mind the A4's vinyl. This is supposed to be a sports car, not a couch. Fabric grips better and breathes better.
The only other things you touch are the leather covered Momo steering wheel and the leather shift knob, so what's not to like?
-juice
Thx
p.s: I'm taking the car buying decision pretty soon and the subie is number 1 choice so far
Stephen
-mike
STi doesn't really have a package per se, although you can get a decent bump in hp with a full STi exhaust (i.e. not just the dealer STi muffler).
Further to what paisan said, there was a post on the i-club by Simon Lines of Prodrive around a year or so ago. He felt that 250-260 was as high as you should take the hp with the stock drivetrain. One of these days, maybe N. America will get a factory backed Prodrive Performance Package like the U.K.
Unless of course, you have deep pockets and aren't concerned with these issues. :-)
-Dennis
-mike
On another note,300hp is fine w/the stock tranny as long as one isn't doing daily/weekly drag stip racing. Others will disagree but those that haven't abused their WRXs and have on or near 300hp have been fine.
Stephen
-mike
Stephen
http://forums.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=46707&referrerid=767
"Hi Guys
The limit with the open deck (for 60k miles) is about 250bhp / 350nm. You can get more but the engine will not hold together for long.
The other problem in the tranny, if you go over 280bhp/350nm you will have tranny probs.
Simon"
Then, of course, some others join in the debate that disagree. :-)
Prodrive probably leans toward being more cautious, since they make a UK factory backed performance package.
-Dennis
Stephen
Brakes
Clutch
Wipers
Tires
Headlights
Alignments
etc.
That stuff is only covered for 12/12
Powertrain is 6/60? IIRC
-mike
Also, I'm assuming that wipers means wiper housings, not blades, correct?
-mike
-Dennis (who has never had a 2.0 tuned, and will sit on the sidelines for a few years and see how the reliability goes)
-Dennis
Later...AH
-mike
-mike
Silly in Seattle,
Stephen
Bob
http://forums.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=242599
Stephen
(For those that don't know -
The Torquemada is the working name for a device being created by an i-clubber. His intention is to control the torque split on an Auto WRX the way it is controlled on the STi RA.)
-Dennis
"Just for the record:
This is one of the worst transmission threads ever, up to this point. "
LOL!
-Dennis
Stephen
-mike
I would suggest that you get up 15 minutes earlier and take the long way to work (at least 10 miles).
The sedan demonstrates slightly better handling than the wagon, due to the wider track. As far as the extra weight of the wagon goes (80lbs), it's your call as to whether or not the wagon's better cargo capacity is worth it.
Dennis: Yes, "Torquemada" sounds interesting, especially, since the VTD of the Auto-WRX is the exact same piece of hardware present in the Brawny Rally ready STi Type RA, which incidentally are produced in extremely limited numbers (150 a year ??). The controller (Torquemada) that Andrew is working on, would enable the manual control of the Torque split in the Auto-WRX, just like the STi-RA, to the extent of a 0/100 or 100/0 kind of Torque-split and everything else in between, that is manually engageable, as opposed to the automatic engagement of the Auto-WRX VTD. I am still a bit of a wuss and might prefer to wait and watch until such equipments develop a track record. I am intrigued by the possibilities of this Transmission though.
Later...AH
cliff - A cool down is advised by most drivers, although it is not required by SoA nor the owner's manual. In any event, that is only after hard driving.
For short trips, you should just make sure you stick to the "severe" portion of the maintentance items (i.e. oil change every 3,750 instead of 7,500, etc.).
The weekday driving in my Outback Sport consisted of 6 mile trips to the bus stops. My gas mileage was lousy in town, but I never had any problems at all because of the short trips. It saw temps that ranged from 10 deg. F to 96F sitting at the bus stop. It had 73,000 miles on it when I gave it up.
-Dennis
-juice
Does those wheel look like the UK 17s"?
-Dave
Ed
A lot of short trips will be harder on any car but there's nothing about the WRX to make it any worse in this regard. The difference in acceleration between the sedan and wagon will be roughly the same as between a full tank of gas and an empty tank, probably less than a couple tenths from 0-60. There will always be small differences in performance between cars due to factory tolerances and how the cars get broken-in, so someone's "fast" wagon could be quicker than another's "slow" sedan. Other major factors are heat, altitude, humidity, and air temperature, which could easily account for a couple tenths in 0-60 times. Unless you're drag racing, the difference in acceleration won't be noticable. Interestingly, some of the hardcore enthusiasts actually want wagons because of their better weight distribution, and are willing to accept the additional weight. Of course, they are probably doing some heavy duty mods to the motor and suspension. In stock trim, the sedan feels a bit more buttoned down (less body roll) but it's not a huge difference. I'd suggest test driving both back-to-back and then decide for yourself if these perceived differences are really important for the way you plan to drive. Hope this helps.
Bob
http://new-impreza.com/specs.htm
THX
Stephen
Today my wife and I went to the store, and she got out to move a cart out of the way so I could park; after, she says "wow your car sounds good from the outside!"
Driving around town later with a full load today, 4 adults + 1 baby (2 of the adults are pretty fat, so that's really like 5 'normal' adults).. didn't notice any extra lag or sluggishness, gave em a couple thrills around some corners n such ("oh, that was too fast? sorry... (*NOT*)")
DjB
- Hutch
summer. :-)
-Dennis
Bring on AVCS, on all Subies!
-juice