Only took me a year to compare...

[PhilSine]

how my car moves compared to a stock WRX.

So my wife and I went car shopping today and test drove 4 cars.

1) 07 Jeep Compass $14,990
2) 03 Forester $12,999
3) 04 Legacy Outback $12,999
4) 05 WRX $16,979

The WRX wasn't really on her list of test drives but I made her drive it anyways. She knows my next car will be a WRX and I wanted to be sure that if I got one, that she wouldn't fall in love with driving it and want to take it for herself.

I needed to test drive it because I've only ever been in one WRX and I wasn't the one driving so it was hard for me to compare my OBS to a WRX.

The verdict was as I suspected. My car is way quicker. It pulls harder off the line, it pulls harder in 3rd and 4th, and I'm certain the same could be said for 5th but since it was not my car and belonged to the dealership, I didn't go all out past 70mph. I went all out enough to know that the OE WRX is not as good as a turbo'd NA.

For all I know, it could be just that the OE tune is a bit conservative or that its so much smoother that it doesn't feel like its pulling hard. What have you guys noticed with respect to an OE WRX vs a turbo'd NA?

My car is a bit lighter, has the LW flywheel, is higher compression, spools up faster, and has more torque down low. So all that added on could play a major factor here. I guess only a ¼ mile run would tell for sure.

Guess which vehicle we bought.

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[reddevil]

forester?

[Mechie3]

A stage 2 WRX is head and shoulders over the stock setup. Maybe drive a friends stage 2 if you can?

[midnight2.5rs-t]

my guess is the forester. lets see some times so we can really compare. when i was test driving cars when was in the market i test drove a 97 stang gt. i drove that thing like i stole it then returned it. test drove my rs and bought it with out stopping. went for handling.

[Chocoholic005]

It would be really funny if you bought the wrx lol

[PhilSine]

Originally Posted by Mechie3

A stage 2 WRX is head and shoulders over the stock setup. Maybe drive a friends stage 2 if you can?

There's no doubt that in terms of potential that the WRX is better than my car but I since I used all OE WRX parts I wanted to know which engine was better served by them (the key component being the TD04 equipped on both engines). Of course I have the luxury of a more aggressive tune at my disposal for my 98 OBS.

Originally Posted by Chocoholic005

It would be really funny if you bought the wrx lol

That wouldn't have been funny to my wife.

Her list in order was

1) Compass
2) Forester
3) WRX
4) Legacy

My list in order was

1) WRX
2) Compass
3) Forester
4) Legacy

We were trading in a 96 Cherokee which we've owned for 7 years and have put 110k miles on. So we're used to a certain type of ride and interior. Of that 110k miles, she's put on at least 85k of them if not more since its her daily driver. The Cherokee had almost 188k miles on it when we traded it as we got it with 78k miles on it used in 01.

We went with the Compass. It has better interior room all around, more ground clearance, and gets just as good as if not better mpg than all of the Subaru's. An acquaintence on mine has an 07 Compass and gets 27 mpg in mixed driving doing an almost identical daily commute as my wife.

I was willing to sacrifice mpg for performance but it wasn't really my decision to make. I lobbied hard for the WRX but with it being third on her list it was a difficult sell.

The WRX certainly handles better than my OBS and I'm sure that's a combination of it being a sportier model from the start and the fact that it's seven years newer. If the WRX was an 02 or 03 wagon then it would be parked in my driveway right now and my wife would be pissed. I forgot to mention that the 05 WRX at the dealership was a wagon too. Yes, I have a thing for wagons.

The Compass felt like a solid SUV while the Forester was more SUV than wagon but more like a car than the Compass. The WRX wagon was certainly the sports car at heart that it was intended to be but with the added room of the wagon while the Legacy Outback wagon felt every bit like the wagon it is. My wife didn't even leave the lot on the test drive of the Legacy to know she didn't care for it at all.

It was a good day all in all and now I know for sure that I will be working extra hard to get my 02 or 03 WRX wagon as soon as I can manage it. Couple that with the 91 Legacy sport I have coming next week and let your imagination run. Anybody know of any 02 or 03 WRX wagons that need drivetrains and are for sale for like $500 or so?

[mxpunk]

hows the Compression of your obs-t holding up phil?? and btw, what afr's are you targeting under boost??

i know the 02 wrx's run pig rich under boost 10.1 in some cases ive heard.

[PhilSine]

By compression do you mean boost compression or the engine overall with it being high compression and boosted?

In either case things are holding up well.

I'm hitting 12:1 afr's at 8 psi at WOT on 91 octane.

[IllNastyImpreza]

Just Empty Every Pocket...

[PhilSine]

Originally Posted by IllNastyImpreza

Just Empty Every Pocket...

I'm not sure about that as far as my experiences have been concerned.

I've owned many Jeeps and all have served me well.

The 96 we traded in was the best vehicle I've ever owned in terms of reliability. It still had its original alternator, the engine ran perfect, the tranny was solid, 4wd still worked as intended, original wheel bearings, original u-joints, I never had to touch the ball joints, and it still had plenty of power. Whenever I had it in for oil changes and routine service I made a strong point to my mechanic to find something wrong so I could keep it maintained and it came back over and over again with nothing wrong.

Its failures were all normal with respect to the track bar at 110k, the starter at 145k, the water pump at 165k, the radiator at 175k, a brake caliper at 185k, and the power steering pump at 187k. I've seen many other vehicles suffer all of those failures at much lower miles.

I know not every Jeep model is like that 96 Cherokee especially the first few years of the Grand Cherokees in the early 90's that would routinely drop tranny's. Once Chrysler figured that out, the problem was solved.

I really hope this Compass lives up to the durability of that 96 Cherokee.

[IllNastyImpreza]

^ i've had the exact opposite experience.... Every jeep friends and family have ever owned has had NOTHING but problems...

[PhilSine]

I have a 77 Cherokee that is the epitome of reliability as well. Over the past 7 years of ownership it has seen less than two weeks of downtime and that was due to an engine swap to replace th eold worn engine that had 165k miles on it.

Keep in mind that in the 70's an engine was only expected to be reliable to around 100k miles and hitting 150k without overhaul was less common.

Now days 100k is just broken in and 200k is the upper standard while 300k is not terribly unusual.

[mxpunk]

Originally Posted by PhilSine

By compression do you mean boost compression or the engine overall with it being high compression and boosted?

In either case things are holding up well.

I'm hitting 12:1 afr's at 8 psi at WOT on 91 octane.

yes high compression + boost is what i meant.

sweet, good to hear. are u thinking about cranking it up at all or no?