Ya, 5 months of shifting and I still have a problem with smooth starts. In my case I think I wasn't giving enough gas, tho. Very rarely do I have a smooth launch like an automatic. I will have to experiment when I get my OBS, thanks for the tips celeste! I am sure I will ask for advice later.
I have to confess that those new RAV4s are pretty hot looking, superficially speaking. I find I am wanting to have a fling, er, test drive, and I am not an SUV person. I was surprised that they supposedly have 68.3 cu feet with rear seats folded down. I wonder if maybe some manufacturers are overstating their cargo capacity.
actually the puppy analogy is quite true especially our Subarus are dubbed Scooby Doo around the world. So there. my BRP RS, get's really dusty quick. Maybe I am just anal. However I do get lots more of compliment on the Blue Ridge Pearl colour than my Silverthorn Metalic OBS. I guess the blue looked really slick. I dunno. No one refers to my car as an RS or the Impreza but to the colour scheme which is BRP so BuRPy Scooby is now the name of the car. I too have to agree that the RAV4 is quite neat looking. It takes a while to get used to driving a manual car. I am glad I learned to drive manual on a really really old car. New car these days are alot more forgiving when starting from 1st gear. Almost a no brainer...whereas the old cars requires a fine balance b/t clutch out and gas in....
Caroline, It's kinda hard for me to say since I traded in a V8 truck with 240hp and 300lbft torque, I'm kinda used to pavement ripping power. Coming out of a vehicle like that I thought I was gonna be a little out of sorts but I was wrong. Obviously the power of the OBS is not in the same league but it is very responsive and can hum through corners at 40mph that I used to have to slow to 20 to keep from spinning out. Also, this is my first daily driven 5spd (my other car is a weekend only 1984 Mustang SVO)so I still haven't quite found the shift points to keep me in the power band (Ramon, any suggestions?) but the couple of times I got it right it felt great. I did test drive the automatic right after driving the 5 spd and there was a noticeable difference. The automatic just soaked up too much power and I didn't feel confident in passing situations. I know I love mine but I hit a lot of stop and go rush hour traffic coming home and that takes some of the pleasure out of the 5spd.
Ramon: yessss the BRP is bad to the bone, almost everyone's favorite color is blue...
Brekke: when you get your car just practice finding the point at which your clutch engages by doing really slow takeoffs (like in an empty parking lot), keep them smooth and don't go a notch faster unless it's smooth, keep working up a little faster and a little faster.
With my manual OBS, I could really launch fast and it was a thrill to feel the car surge forward even with the 2.2 engine and no mods!
I hear a lot of people complaining about the "cheap sound and feel" of the Impreza doors, or that the Impreza seemed "tinny". What do you guys think?
It is a step up for me, and I wouldn't have classified it as tinny although the only other new car I looked at (briefly) was a VW. I welcome anyone who wants to hear a "cheap sound and feel" door to slam my car door shut while the window or sunroof is open. I shut the Impreza door while the window was open and it didn't sound bad at all. Unless it was a "dealer trick" I'm wondering if people are just put off by the frameless windows or if Impreza doors are truly cheaper than the competition.
it's due to the frameless design. Even my stepdad's 330Ci doesn't close with a thud. My mom's mx6 is the same too. However I get annoyed and abit embarassed when I shut my Impreza door when the window is down and it emits that glass shaking noise! But it's ok. No biggie to me. I notice the new Outback H6s and even the new Legacies shut with a nice thud. The new age Impreza is slightly better than the GC8 models. Not a whole lot. hey celeste! check out the carpeted coin box on you centre console! does the wagon have a rear cargo light at all since the sedan imprezas now have trunk light.
IMO, the OBS doors close with a nice thud (with the windows up). My previous car was a '95 Neon. Now those were tinny doors! The 02 Impreza's doors are even better than the old one's.
Most people advise against the warranty saying you usually don't get your money's worth. Others say it's definately worth it. I think the bigger expense items are covered under the powertrain warranty anyway. It's just peace of mind I suppose. If you do decide on the warranty, make sure you read all of the fine print on everything that's covered. You have until the expiration of your 3/36 to decide. Have you seen the clear light protection posted on the new-impreza.com and the i-club? I think it's definately worth it if you do a lot of freeway driving or go down dirt/gravel roads. Dennis
Celeste: I want to remove my roof racks now that I know I won't need them for a while. Where'd you'd find a 6-pronged screw driver? I would think the car came with one, but I haven't been able to find one. Am I missing something, or did you buy one separately? If so, are they available in most hardware places (I thought the 6-prongers were harder to get for security reasons).
If this has been answered before, I apologize. Thanks! Luke
I agree that the doors sound really solid with the windows up.
aaluke: My husband found a Torx screwdriver in the spare tire compartment. There should be one with your car. Or try the glove box. If you don't have one, go to the dealer and ask for one, one should be there with your car.
rqsjr99: Subaru publishes a magazine titled, "Drive" which is sent to those who buy their new cars.
Ramon: coin box?? huh? carpeted?? did I miss something?? Let me in on this thing....
brekke: don't get the warranty, it's a ripoff designed to get you to pay for nothing. You already have a 3 yr. warranty or what is it, 60,000 miles or something? Let's face it, if you get a lemon, you'll know it very soon.. it will still be under warranty. Put that money you'd spend each month on the warranty into a savings account. Bet you won't need it for stuff that warranty's for, and besides, that warranty doesn't cover EVERYTHING. Then YOU will earn the iterest on your money, they won't. My older son just bought a 2000 Legacy GT and fell for that. We talked about it the day after he bought the car and he called the next day to cancel. That would have cost him $160.00 per month for 10 months!!! Think of the gas you can buy for your car with prices what they are!!
by the way, YES! There is a cargo light in the back!! and it is very bright!!! and there are two lights in the front for mapreading that are really, really bright!! And the wipers, when you put them on intermittent, have variable speed intermittent, which we discovered that today!!!
well i was checking out a wrx the other day, and it had a carpeted coin tray. sure wish my RS has that trunk light. I am so envious! Heck I can live with the minus in power but man O man! no trunk light?! I dunno why the 2.2l Imprezas have no map lights. Incidentally my RS has them. Hmm.... but no trunk light!!! >(
I'm getting frustrated trying to get a nice launch. I know the OBS isn't a rocket but I have a hard time getting up to speed from a stop. Can you tell how and when you shift from a stop, speed/rpm? I tend to upshift by time I'm hitting 2500 in 1st and 2nd cause I feel like I'm beating it taking it any higher.
whoa nelly! u're worse than me when i first had my OBS back in ohh...let's just say the gas rices were still cheap then. Anyhow if u want to get the car going, shift at 4000rpm. That's the peak torque of your car. I shift at that rpm normally but I do go to redline once a while. Don't worry about hurting the engine. As long as u have properly broken in the engine u shud be fine. After all that's what that rev limiter is for right?!
rjsjr99: Ramon's right, at least 4,000 and you could even go 4,500 rpm. Listen to the engine. The pitch will rise, and rise, and rise, then look at the tach. Get used to how your engine sounds at different tach speeds. I don't even think you hear your engine much at 2,000 or 2,500. It'll roar at 4,000 and up. Then, you do a quick shift and gas er' again up to 4,000 before shifing again. Now be sure you've broken in your engine. And this is only for times you want to run thru the gears really really fast, most times I shifted around 3,000 or 3,500. I wouldn't do it all the time, though, it'll be hard on your clutch. Once in a while, though, it's fun. Just make sure you're comfortable with where the clutch grabs before doing this power stuff.
Ramon: she's a little darlin'. Did you wash and wax? How many miles do you have on her now? I like that you turned the lights on in one of those photos. When you post those, do you just use the img /img things in brackets around the site like in i-club? Will wash my car tomorrow and get her shined up and get some pics for here. Well it looks like I'm getting a Ganz intake for Mother's Day. And a--get this--AMSOIL air filter. He already bought it, and I said, "Why Amsoil?" and he'd been reading a bunch of posts on the i-club, you know how that goes. Oh well... Hey, what kind of motor oil are you using?
Got to drive my son's Legacy GT on a quick trip to the store yesterday. That shifter is alot looser feeling than the one in my OBS was. I think it must be the bearing, eh? Nice leather shift knob, too.
My second tank of gas: 19.8 miles per gallon. I left it in drive the whole time. My first tankful was just a little more than 18 mpg, I shifted 1-2-3 in town.
Funny, on my 2000 OBS (manual) there is no way I could get above 18 mpg. in the city. NO WAY....
Never thought an auto tranny would put out this good!
I have been reading your messages for the last 2 weeks and was really helped in my decision to buy my new 2002 OBS (Silver - Manual Tran) My poor 1990 Toyota got crunched and I was forced to look for my 'dream car'. Have always wanted a Subie but didn't know whether to go with the Forester or OBS. Does anyone think that the undercoating or rust protection that the dealer offers is worth getting.
Welcome! Is yours on order? From what I've heard, that undercoating stuff is pretty much lame. Like the new car extended warranty. A way to jack up the price. However, you could also go to the Outback Sport club. Go to Yahoo.com, click on clubs, type in "Outback Sport" and join there, ask away. It's another source of information and quite a few members over there with OBS's, too. Another place to information, mostly about the RS model (but same engine and platform as the OBS) is i-club.com, known otherwise as the North American Impreza Owners Club. See, your OBS is an Impreza. Tons of useful stuff there, too.
No, I bought it right off the lot. Just waiting for keyless entry and an imobilizer to be put in. Hope to have it by the end of this week !!. Thanks for the other info.
hello, had a hectic weekend. went for the WRX test and drive session. Will have a write up later. To answer your previous post, yes... I had BuRPy washed, polished then let it cure for a day and then do a complete wet wipe down before waxing it. The entire process took 2 days. But I think it's worth it. However it's dirty again.... It has about 5000km on it. Not sure what the mile is. You yanks need to join the rest of the world and use the metric system!!!! Ok this is what I use to post. It's the same technique to post image as at the iclub. But instead of '[' ']' parenthesis use the Clear as mud?
I don't think I know much about OBS. Still learning from everyone. Actually I was part of the pioneers at that yahoo club. My old nickname was dassr17 or something like that. I remembered when I joined that club, the number of posts were in the 100s! That was more than 2 years ago. Great to see it grow in leaps and bounds.
Ramon: your trick worked when I linked to the thumbnails at my zing account, but when I tried to link to the larger photos, I got a message that Microsoft something or other wouldn't allow the use of words over 115 characters!!
Well the good folks @ Subaru of Canada held a 2 day Test and Wreck (oops) Drive day for the H6 Outback and the WRX. I was invited along with the Toronto Club members to attend the WRX sessions. It was very well organised. It was broken down to: - WRX presentation - track test (more like an autoX circuit) - street test The presentation was ok. I mean for us Scoobynut, it's pretty basic stuff. I was rearing to go on the track test which is basically like an autoX course. There were 5 WRXs to be tested. Actually before we can jump into them and let lose some hell we were given a 10minute 'lecture' on performance driving by one of the top performance instructor in Canada. It was really good. He was really kewl about the entire thing. Anyways 3 5spds and 2 autos. I got to take a 5spd WRX sedan out. They won;t let us do 5000rpm drops. max 1500rpm! Yikes! Hmm... well it does have good pickup. Won't yank you like the bigger 2.5l RS. Maybe I wasn't used to the car yet and the course, I came out a bit disappointed. I felt the handling to be vague compared to my GC8 Impreza. Eck. There seemed to be a lag when I crank the wheel before the car begins to turn! As a result I hit one of the cones. =( eventhough the instructor told us to keep to a certain speed on each part of the course sections, I didn't care less. I let 'er go like there's no tomorrow. Hhahaha.... In the tight course, it is quite hard to stay on boost. So it didn't feel very quick. I thought I would get another chance to go out again since I noticed a few guys actually went out twice! But that chance didn't come and I was quite pissed since I figured the 2nd time would give me a better chance to drive the car having familiarised myself with the track more. However we were all given the chance to ride with the instructors on the track and boy o boy! It was fun! The instructor really pushed the car all over the place. He was performing 4 wheel drifts on the corners on the dry tarmac ground and with 3 passengers too!!!! Was tre kewl. IMHO it is not the fastest way to go on the course, but I think it demonstrates how compose the car can be on these situations. needless to say the drifts like dat on a dry road course can only be done on lousy tires and guess what came shodded with the WRX? RE92s. They are pretty much bald. Overall feel : still disappointed! =( Then came the street test. Since it's on the streets, there won't be any chance for me to push the car at all. So I was not keen on going, but I went anyways. 9 WRXs were available for this session and I managed to jump into a 5spd silver WRX wagon. Oh so yummy. We bascaily caravan around some streets. However wonders of wonders, there were a few traffic lights which the lead cars went thur but I didn't.... or maybe I didn't want to. So naturally i should catch up right? Catch up I did. And that's when that wonderful WRX turbo kicked in. Wheee!!!!!! Totally love that midrange punch. Oh man. It was fast! I love to wind this sucker up to redline! And the WRX wagon likes it too I figured. Totally way faster than my RS. Phuey! Alas my confidence for this car has been restored. I love it. And I had passengers in the car with me too. Whee!!! Wish I can take the car to some other more open area. Overall feel : Wheee!!!!! I sincerely think that this car will not go any further than G stock for autoX. It is heavy and off boost, the car is a slug. But on tracks or any canyon carving duties, the WRX is awesome! The suspension is firm but not bone jarring. For the money, this car simply blows others away! Still think this car has lots of potential tho. Oh yes, we got free BBQ after the event. I will not bother reviewing the interior or the looks of the car as it is not important to me. Yes, I do love the seats! The MOMO wheel to me is not as good as it is hard. It doesn't have that cushiony feeling of my RS's wheel. But who cares. I don't care. I'm sure I prolly left out other stuff about the test and drive day, but that's all I can remember right now. Later!
Just shift before you get the rev limiter at red line. It tends to slow you down. Going from 4000 to 6000 comes real fast so just shift before you get the limiter. And dump the clutch at 4500, it seems scary but it gets ya going fast. I have a 2002 RS w/3300 miles, love it! I couldn't imagine the WRX, it must fly.
Hi everyone. I went out and ordered a Black 2002 OBS yesterday, in part because of the enthusiasm of the people at this message board. Unfortunately, I won't be able to enjoy the new Subaru until it arrives in late June.
I've got a question for owners of the 2002 OBS, and this might also apply to earlier models. When changing lanes in the OBS, I found that it's hard to check for cars in my blind spot when looking over my left shoulder. The way the car body is designed, there's no real window to look out of from that position. I'd like to know how people have adjusted to this, or if it's not as much of an issue as I think it might be. When I test drove it, I found this to be a little annoying, but it's hard to tell whether or not it's an easy "quirk" to get used to.
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, and I look forward to more OBS discussions!
yeah, when i first got my OBS, I was quite annoyed with the B pillar blocking the blind spot on my left when changing lanes etc... However I go used to it. But still... I'd hate it if I got into an accident because of that! I hope the new design is better. the Subaru info guy seemed to address the driving view of the new design and how it is so advanced. Maybe we're not used to driving 5dr hatches/wagons. Celeste any thoughts?
The back side window on the 2002 seems even smaller and a little annoying, but it does make you look around better. You know, that pillar is heavier duty now in the 2002 which is the reason the window is smaller, but I really think it shores up the stiffness of the body better and figured it was designed that way to make the roof stiffer. So I'll forgive that and have already gotten used to it. You will, too.
I tried posting them here and Ramon's trick did work but I only was able to get a thumbnail put up here at Edmunds. I had to figure a way around this, so without having to pull my hair out over it I posted an album at the yahoo clubs, "Impreza Outback Sport", in the photo section look for the album titled, "Any 2002 OBS". Hopefully, some of you others with 2002's can get some posted there, also. I may monkey around later with posting a link here to my photos at Outback Sport Club, but for now I don't have the patience.
Ramon: Loved hearing about your WRX adventure. Sounds to me that the RS will still be THE car for autocross, eh? You know it's just as well because I like seeing that each car has it's own niche. Anyway, bet you like not having to buy that high octane!!
I've since removed the roof rack crossbars. Was very easy to do once I found the torx screw driver (in the dash compartment, thanks guys!).
Action303: Yes, there is a slight blind spot over the left shoulder. I haven't found it to be a problem though. Once you get to used to it, it's easy to deal with.
I didn't get the security upgrade, but now I'm having second thoughts. I ordered the keyless entry because someone said it was easy to upgrade yourself. Does the Subaru alarm come with an immobilizer, or does it just make noise? Did anyone go aftermarket?
celeste, it won't let us look at the car! and that tiny thumbnail is kinda hard to admire that baby of yours! >( Try setting up an account with www.photopoint.com, that's where i posted my pix. I like the interior. Looks classier than the old OBS. =( See how soon we start to ditch our old babies. =(
Comments
I have to confess that those new RAV4s are pretty hot looking, superficially speaking. I find I am wanting to have a fling, er, test drive, and I am not an SUV person. I was surprised that they supposedly have 68.3 cu feet with rear seats folded down. I wonder if maybe some manufacturers are overstating their cargo capacity.
my BRP RS, get's really dusty quick. Maybe I am just anal. However I do get lots more of compliment on the Blue Ridge Pearl colour than my Silverthorn Metalic OBS. I guess the blue looked really slick. I dunno. No one refers to my car as an RS or the Impreza but to the colour scheme which is BRP so BuRPy Scooby is now the name of the car.
I too have to agree that the RAV4 is quite neat looking.
It takes a while to get used to driving a manual car. I am glad I learned to drive manual on a really really old car. New car these days are alot more forgiving when starting from 1st gear. Almost a no brainer...whereas the old cars requires a fine balance b/t clutch out and gas in....
I appreciate your purchase and let me know if I can help in any way.
Patti
It's kinda hard for me to say since I traded in a V8 truck with 240hp and 300lbft torque, I'm kinda used to pavement ripping power. Coming out of a vehicle like that I thought I was gonna be a little out of sorts but I was wrong. Obviously the power of the OBS is not in the same league but it is very responsive and can hum through corners at 40mph that I used to have to slow to 20 to keep from spinning out. Also, this is my first daily driven 5spd (my other car is a weekend only 1984 Mustang SVO)so I still haven't quite found the shift points to keep me in the power band (Ramon, any suggestions?) but the couple of times I got it right it felt great. I did test drive the automatic right after driving the 5 spd and there was a noticeable difference. The automatic just soaked up too much power and I didn't feel confident in passing situations. I know I love mine but I hit a lot of stop and go rush hour traffic coming home and that takes some of the pleasure out of the 5spd.
Hope that helps,
Rich
Brekke: when you get your car just practice finding the point at which your clutch engages by doing really slow takeoffs (like in an empty parking lot), keep them smooth and don't go a notch faster unless it's smooth, keep working up a little faster and a little faster.
With my manual OBS, I could really launch fast and it was a thrill to feel the car surge forward even with the 2.2 engine and no mods!
It is a step up for me, and I wouldn't have classified it as tinny although the only other new car I looked at (briefly) was a VW. I welcome anyone who wants to hear a "cheap sound and feel" door to slam my car door shut while the window or sunroof is open. I shut the Impreza door while the window was open and it didn't sound bad at all. Unless it was a "dealer trick"
Caroline
However I get annoyed and abit embarassed when I shut my Impreza door when the window is down and it emits that glass shaking noise! But it's ok. No biggie to me. I notice the new Outback H6s and even the new Legacies shut with a nice thud.
The new age Impreza is slightly better than the GC8 models. Not a whole lot.
hey celeste! check out the carpeted coin box on you centre console!
And are extra protection for the foglights/headlights necessary? So many new things to worry about...
Now those were tinny doors! The 02 Impreza's doors are even better than the old one's.
Most people advise against the warranty saying you usually don't get your money's worth. Others say it's definately worth it. I think the bigger expense items are covered under the powertrain warranty anyway. It's just peace of mind I suppose. If you do decide on the warranty, make sure you read all of the fine print on everything that's covered. You have until the expiration of your 3/36 to decide.
Have you seen the clear light protection posted on the new-impreza.com and the i-club? I think it's definately worth it if you do a lot of freeway driving or go down dirt/gravel roads.
Dennis
If this has been answered before, I apologize. Thanks!
Luke
-juice
aaluke: My husband found a Torx screwdriver in the spare tire compartment. There should be one with your car. Or try the glove box. If you don't have one, go to the dealer and ask for one, one should be there with your car.
Ramon: coin box?? huh? carpeted?? did I miss something?? Let me in on this thing....
brekke: don't get the warranty, it's a ripoff designed to get you to pay for nothing. You already have a 3 yr. warranty or what is it, 60,000 miles or something? Let's face it, if you get a lemon, you'll know it very soon.. it will still be under warranty. Put that money you'd spend each month on the warranty into a savings account. Bet you won't need it for stuff that warranty's for, and besides, that warranty doesn't cover EVERYTHING. Then YOU will earn the iterest on your money, they won't. My older son just bought a 2000 Legacy GT and fell for that. We talked about it the day after he bought the car and he called the next day to cancel. That would have cost him $160.00 per month for 10 months!!! Think of the gas you can buy for your car with prices what they are!!
sure wish my RS has that trunk light. I am so envious! Heck I can live with the minus in power but man O man! no trunk light?!
I dunno why the 2.2l Imprezas have no map lights. Incidentally my RS has them. Hmm.... but no trunk light!!! >(
I'm getting frustrated trying to get a nice launch. I know the OBS isn't a rocket but I have a hard time getting up to speed from a stop. Can you tell how and when you shift from a stop, speed/rpm? I tend to upshift by time I'm hitting 2500 in 1st and 2nd cause I feel like I'm beating it taking it any higher.
Help,
Frazzled Rich
note the Holzer front spoiler lip. Yup, she's gone exotica!!!
Ramon: she's a little darlin'. Did you wash and wax? How many miles do you have on her now? I like that you turned the lights on in one of those photos. When you post those, do you just use the img /img things in brackets around the site like in i-club? Will wash my car tomorrow and get her shined up and get some pics for here. Well it looks like I'm getting a Ganz intake for Mother's Day. And a--get this--AMSOIL air filter. He already bought it, and I said, "Why Amsoil?" and he'd been reading a bunch of posts on the i-club, you know how that goes. Oh well... Hey, what kind of motor oil are you using?
Got to drive my son's Legacy GT on a quick trip to the store yesterday. That shifter is alot looser feeling than the one in my OBS was. I think it must be the bearing, eh? Nice leather shift knob, too.
Funny, on my 2000 OBS (manual) there is no way I could get above 18 mpg. in the city. NO WAY....
Never thought an auto tranny would put out this good!
Does anyone think that the undercoating or rust protection that the dealer offers is worth getting.
Yahoo.com, click on clubs, type in "Outback Sport" and join there, ask away. It's another source of information and quite a few members over there with OBS's, too. Another place to information, mostly about the RS model (but same engine and platform as the OBS) is i-club.com, known otherwise as the North American Impreza Owners Club. See, your OBS is an Impreza. Tons of useful stuff there, too.
No, I bought it right off the lot. Just waiting for keyless entry and an imobilizer to be put in. Hope to have it by the end of this week !!. Thanks for the other info.
had a hectic weekend. went for the WRX test and drive session. Will have a write up later. To answer your previous post, yes... I had BuRPy washed, polished then let it cure for a day and then do a complete wet wipe down before waxing it. The entire process took 2 days. But I think it's worth it. However it's dirty again....
It has about 5000km on it. Not sure what the mile is. You yanks need to join the rest of the world and use the metric system!!!!
Ok this is what I use to post. It's the same technique to post image as at the iclub. But instead of '[' ']' parenthesis use the Clear as mud?
I ordered the same car you took off the lot. Enjoy! (Also my first Sube)
Caroline
Hope these photos of my car turn out, here she is!!
- WRX presentation
- track test (more like an autoX circuit)
- street test
The presentation was ok. I mean for us Scoobynut, it's pretty basic stuff. I was rearing to go on the track test which is basically like an autoX course. There were 5 WRXs to be tested. Actually before we can jump into them and let lose some hell we were given a 10minute 'lecture' on performance driving by one of the top performance instructor in Canada. It was really good. He was really kewl about the entire thing. Anyways 3 5spds and 2 autos. I got to take a 5spd WRX sedan out. They won;t let us do 5000rpm drops. max 1500rpm! Yikes! Hmm... well it does have good pickup. Won't yank you like the bigger 2.5l RS. Maybe I wasn't used to the car yet and the course, I came out a bit disappointed. I felt the handling to be vague compared to my GC8 Impreza. Eck. There seemed to be a lag when I crank the wheel before the car begins to turn! As a result I hit one of the cones. =( eventhough the instructor told us to keep to a certain speed on each part of the course sections, I didn't care less. I let 'er go like there's no tomorrow. Hhahaha.... In the tight course, it is quite hard to stay on boost. So it didn't feel very quick. I thought I would get another chance to go out again since I noticed a few guys actually went out twice! But that chance didn't come and I was quite pissed since I figured the 2nd time would give me a better chance to drive the car having familiarised myself with the track more.
However we were all given the chance to ride with the instructors on the track and boy o boy! It was fun! The instructor really pushed the car all over the place. He was performing 4 wheel drifts on the corners on the dry tarmac ground and with 3 passengers too!!!! Was tre kewl. IMHO it is not the fastest way to go on the course, but I think it demonstrates how compose the car can be on these situations. needless to say the drifts like dat on a dry road course can only be done on lousy tires and guess what came shodded with the WRX? RE92s. They are pretty much bald.
Overall feel : still disappointed! =(
Then came the street test. Since it's on the streets, there won't be any chance for me to push the car at all. So I was not keen on going, but I went anyways. 9 WRXs were available for this session and I managed to jump into a 5spd silver WRX wagon. Oh so yummy. We bascaily caravan around some streets. However wonders of wonders, there were a few traffic lights which the lead cars went thur but I didn't.... or maybe I didn't want to. So naturally i should catch up right? Catch up I did. And that's when that wonderful WRX turbo kicked in. Wheee!!!!!! Totally love that midrange punch. Oh man. It was fast! I love to wind this sucker up to redline! And the WRX wagon likes it too I figured. Totally way faster than my RS. Phuey! Alas my confidence for this car has been restored. I love it. And I had passengers in the car with me too. Whee!!! Wish I can take the car to some other more open area.
Overall feel : Wheee!!!!!
I sincerely think that this car will not go any further than G stock for autoX. It is heavy and off boost, the car is a slug. But on tracks or any canyon carving duties, the WRX is awesome! The suspension is firm but not bone jarring. For the money, this car simply blows others away! Still think this car has lots of potential tho.
Oh yes, we got free BBQ after the event.
I will not bother reviewing the interior or the looks of the car as it is not important to me. Yes, I do love the seats! The MOMO wheel to me is not as good as it is hard. It doesn't have that cushiony feeling of my RS's wheel. But who cares. I don't care.
I'm sure I prolly left out other stuff about the test and drive day, but that's all I can remember right now. Later!
Dave
I've got a question for owners of the 2002 OBS, and this might also apply to earlier models. When changing lanes in the OBS, I found that it's hard to check for cars in my blind spot when looking over my left shoulder. The way the car body is designed, there's no real window to look out of from that position. I'd like to know how people have adjusted to this, or if it's not as much of an issue as I think it might be. When I test drove it, I found this to be a little annoying, but it's hard to tell whether or not it's an easy "quirk" to get used to.
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, and I look forward to more OBS discussions!
I hope the new design is better. the Subaru info guy seemed to address the driving view of the new design and how it is so advanced.
Maybe we're not used to driving 5dr hatches/wagons. Celeste any thoughts?
Ramon: Loved hearing about your WRX adventure. Sounds to me that the RS will still be THE car for autocross, eh? You know it's just as well because I like seeing that each car has it's own niche. Anyway, bet you like not having to buy that high octane!!
http://www.radianmusic.com/obs.htm
I've since removed the roof rack crossbars. Was very easy to do once I found the torx screw driver (in the dash compartment, thanks guys!).
Action303: Yes, there is a slight blind spot over the left shoulder. I haven't found it to be a problem though. Once you get to used to it, it's easy to deal with.
luke, your car looks great too
-juice
Hope this turned out this time....
Hope this turned out this time....
Here's the link to one photo, I think....
I like the interior. Looks classier than the old OBS. =( See how soon we start to ditch our old babies. =(
-juice