Quote:
Originally Posted by dbarnblatt
I'm surprised the good ol' WRX or STi have not come up yet. I drove a 2002 WRX for 5 years and a 2006 STi for 4 years. Tremendously useful practical cars. Especially the WRX. They are tough, a blast to drive, pretty easy to fix, the list goes on.
The STi has a very high tech drivetrain with a computer controlled electronic center differential and non viscous mechanical limited slip diffs in the front and rear. The center diff has yaw, wheel speed and steering inputs. A completely different car under the skin than a WRX. It is a very competent car.
For the money you can't get close to an STi in performance. Plus it has 4 doors and can handle all types of weather. A perfect driver's car.
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I want a coupe, though. Personally, I think the 2008-current Impreza is ugly as sin, even though I agree with you that the technical bits are fantastic.
If Subaru built a slick coupe with STI drivetrain, 3.0R Limited's slightly more civilized variant of the USD bilsteins that STI also wears, and healthy, smooth, stone-reliable H6 power... I would be in line right now.
I already have a 2005 Legacy GT that I don't really use the rear seats of.
If I had to buy another Subaru now... I would probably try to find a 2009 Legacy GT Spec.B or a 3.0R Limited, and still not use the rear doors. I wish I could get both... the EZ-H6 engine, and the Spec.B's STI-derived 6MT gearbox, and SI-drive....
I badly wish the Impreza Design Concept had been closer to reality, and they had chopped the rear doors out, and put the STI drivetrain in.
If the BL Legacy ohad offered a 2-door coupe body style, or if the Impreza Design Concept had been brought to production as a coupe, and offered that level of equipment and drivetrain combination, it would have succeeded the SVX, even without the W-in-a-W. It would have had lighter doors with frameless glass, though... which Subaru has since also ditched.
Imagine if SVX had SI-drive that could sharpen throttle response, sharpen shift-points like power-mode on automatic versions, de-boost the steering just a bit more, and stiffen the dampers a bit, on a single command input from the dashboard... A Subaru SVX with modern updates for it's extensive feature list, would be fantastic. Add DCCD All-Wheel Drive to that... and a healthy upgrade to the EZ36 engine to 300+ naturally aspirated horsepower... Where is that car? I want one.
Plus, I think after owning both a Legacy turbo, and SVX H6, I think I want my next car to have a naturally aspirated 6-cylinder engine, for reliability and lower maintenance costs sake, but I still want it to have a stick.
I don't like the looks of any of the current Subarus, and the Forester is the only vehicle that looks like it should look. All of Subaru's cars look like SUVs anymore... and the Forester is the only one that actually IS the SUV...
And of course the Forester XT is down on power, and still running the same 4-speed gearbox that the SVX was saddled with 20 years ago, no manual option, and certainly not WRX, let alone STI power.
The new Legacy GT is order-only, not in stock anywhere, and ugly, and less well equipped than the previous generation.
If I could fine a low-mileage, good condition, manual-swapped SVX... I'd love it... but I can understand the original poster's comments of wanting to worry about less continual sustaining maintenance than a 20 year old car that is 13 years out of production can require.
A manual SVX is still on my list, but it would be probably relegated to hobby status, rather than daily driver reliability requirement... and part of me wants an even more fun car, like a T-top Z32 Nissan 300ZX with a manual gearbox for a hobby car that probably won't see much snow driving... (if only I could find one of those with a butter-smooth EG33 under the very-low-hood...
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