Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

Next July I will take my 20 year 9 month old SVX on a trek from Coachella Valley to Fromberg Montana, aprox 1100 miles. I have a brand new $250 front wiper motor enroute from 1st Subaru Parts.com, local repair shop said it's the wiper motor, OK.....:mad: Will find out after the install.

A local dealer offered me $400 to $1000 for a trade in on a 2008 Legacy sedan...:barf:

I'll drive my baby till they take my license away, which could be a while, my dad passed on September 5th at 94, I'm just as tough as he was.......:ninja:

My SVX will be my daily driver till the end....

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

I can (and do) tell stories of how tough my Dad is/was...
\
Hopefully my kids will do the same.:o

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

Wife has a beautiful Acura TL... ( Consumer Reports puts it on top of the list every year. ) I can drive that car 100 miles before I get tired. I drove my SVX 500 mile a day for 5 days cross country and only got out to pump gas and pee. That sold me . even my Legacy Sport Sedan , that I tried to do the same thing the following year, was not bad but could not hold a candle to the SVX. So suck up the little problems , U are driving the best car on the road even at 20 years old. U don't know what high maintenance is till you drive some of the European cars . one service call on a Mercedes or BMW is $600.00

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

My SVX is tired. It stumbles at idle, it's paint is fading, it has some rust showing. When I take it out for a run it still fits like a glove and the stumble fades to a roar when I punch it. I think I will keep it until it rusts away in the driveway.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

i had my SVX for five years, and it was a great reliable car. comfortable, very capable in snow, and a great touring vehicle.

the only problem was, i realized it just didn't meet my needs. i'm hardly ever on the highway where it shines - i'm usually in suburban/city traffic. the only reason i seemed to be holding on to it was that i liked looking at its lines while it sat in my driveway or garage.

i didn't pour a ton of money into it, just some minor mods and preventative maintenance mostly. there were some minor annoyances that could have been dealt with, but in the long run it just didn't work for me any more and i <ducks for cover> got bored with it.
i needed handling, braking and ACCELERATION, and the 'ol SVX was just mediocre in these categories.

if you enjoy wrenching and have the time, the SVX can be had cheap and be a great car if it meets your needs. even if you spend $10,000 or more in repairs, it still beats spending money on a new Chevy/Dodge/Kia/etc. econobox.

i've found that as i get older i enjoy driving more than working on cars, so i moved on. the excitement was gone. life is too short to be bored with your car.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

I think the SVX has some issues with respect to motorsports that make it a less than ideal choice. It is not an inherently good autocross car. It is heavy, does not have balanced weight fore and aft, and has a relaitvely high polar moment of inertia, making it slow to rotate. The steering is also too slow for rapid and dramatic changes in direction.

It is much better on a road course with higher speeds and fewer really tight turns. Unfortunately, by the time you mod it up to really bring out its potential, you find yourself classed with some pretty formidable machinerary. It's not well positioned for SCCA or NASA competition. Having said that, however, a modded SVX is a great track day car, not for competition, but just for the joy of driving at speed with a responsive machine. Not that many people do that. I know Paisan, who now posts at NASIOC, formerly tracked his 4EAT SVX and loved it.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

This is just my opinion..... I know it will anger some of the younger crowd and the older guys and gals that want it to compete with cars it was never designed to race with.... It was designed as a Luxury Sports Cruiser.... It was NOT designed to be fast off the line... It was designed for a driving and riding experience...something it delivered as it was designed for. It's still a great ride.... responsive on nice mountain roads. Subaru's timing was off on the roll out...for whatever reasons...it was a flop commercially... The time line of the automotive industry is full of these "mistakes" and I'm sure it will continue.

I have a few worries about keeping mine running... the glass is the most obvious weak point... If a windshield goes... well..with what my insurance company has valued my car at....it's totaled... any other piece of glass would be problematic too.... there's enough suspension parts...engine parts and compatible transmissions....that's a manageable problem.

I plan on keeping mine as long as possible... the reason....... I have fallen in love with a beautiful car.... that's it... I didn't fall in love with a dragster... I didn't fall in love with a rally car... I fell in love with a unique experiment by fuji heavy industries...

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

Alan,

Did you ever do the power mode mod and/or quick change install on your SVX?

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

I had a '97 (OBDII), so i had nothing but a Stebro exhaust and a Perrin lightweight pulley. I dont even know what a "quick change install" is. :lol: must have came out after i sold mine. If it didnt give 300 or more hp for less than the cost of an SVX, it wouldnt have mattered to me.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

Power mode changes the feel of the car drastically for cheap and has been around a very long time. Quick change is the shift firming module that is sold on the other forum. Both are quite '97 friendly.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

i

I did have the smallcar.com "shift kit" - quick change wasnt around when i had the car.


Either way, firmer shifts are only fun for so long with 230ish hp.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

Power mode >>>>> any shift kit. (imho)

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

It really does and I still can't come up with any reasonable explanation as to why Subaru would cripple it, the SVX that is, by default from the doors for the U.S. market.

Can't comment on the QC yet as I haven't installed mine but the power mode mod does turn it into a different beast.... my gf said something along the lines of "Holy ***" when I floored it after the basically free mod.

Fun stuff.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

Well, it sure wasn't meant to be a fuel economy king or a Corvette's worst nightmare.

Making claims as to what it was designed for, however, is often a measure of excuses. Was it designed to be slow off the line? I'm sure that it's not a finer selling point for a car that looks like a fish or a rocket or whatever one sees. The Lincoln Mark VIII of the era (similar purpose, IIRC) was a touch heavier, but it carried 50 more horsepower and did some handy work in its respective racing series.

That's not to say that removing intake resonators and strapping on fartcan exhausts and (no shame here) slamming holes through hoods is the solution. Power was something that Subaru couldn't find its way to when the SVX was born. I find it hard to believe that it was all they allotted rather than all that they had.

Regardless, it wasn't a mover stock, and it's sure not easy or cheap to turn it into one. Would I go back in time and build an Impreza? Given my intent and my demands, it's very likely. I've told a couple of guys I know that they shouldn't buy SVXi because of what they can never be, or at least what they can't substantially be.

Re: Building it up only to let it go - those who've jumped ship. *LONG*
 

the problem is, it doesn't add any power.

i'm sure it feels much better then the buttery-smooth shifts, but when you're outgunned by the average mini-van nowadays, it doesn't help much.

i'm not dogging the SVX, it was a great car, and it may have enough power, handling, etc. for most owners, but it just wasn't doing it for me. its all relative, i guess. i didn't have the skills, time, or desire to put a supercharger or turbo on it, so i let it go. if my daily commute involved a long highway drive, who knows, i might have kept it.