I do not know myself, I even owned WRX for a couple of months, I guess our relationship was tainted. I just don`t like it. May be it reminds me of turboed civics too much, may be it`s interior and suspension, I just do not dig it. As of celica on steroids - those were quite good quality steroids, when my Supra finally exploded it had about of 600hp. That was one fun car. Again, it is just a matter of taste, or absence of it, so, I do not pretend to search for any absolute truth here.

As of modding Porsches - IMHO it is a best constructor car that was originally designed to be built from little bricks up to final customer`s desire. Everything is replaceable and interchangeable and without major PITA as with Japanese cars where nothing really fits well. I also agree there are plenty of people who do not treat their cars as a non-stop Lego thing, but, well, I do.

 

***EXTREME OFF TOPIC RANT***

This has gone way off topic for sure. Yes the WRX is not a great car when you try to compare to a luxury brand. But for what it is, it beats the crap out of a anything else in its price range. I am not sure that you know about the differences in the STI version but it can handle huge amounts of power before anything (brakes, tranny, internals) needs to be even touched. Yes the Supra was a great car, I will agree to that.

I am going to have to disagree that Japanese cars are hard to work on. You can replace or add all sorts of things to them with minimal time and money spent…that sounds like the definition of “easy to work on” to me. If the German cars were oh so easy an oil change wouldn’t take hours or cost $300 from the dealership (even $150 is crazy high from an independent shop). Everyone knows German cars are pricey, take longer to work on/fix, and break more often than your run of the mill Honda, Toyota, or Subaru…so I am not sure where you are going with this.

Since I am not a Porsche aficionado I cannot say whether they were designed to be built to the customers desire, to some point every high end car was back in the day…look at a Cadillac from back then and you will see the same thing. I can tell you, however, that Subaru all but openly says that the STI is designed to be a platform for people to expand with. Hell they even made a WRX TR which stood for Tuner Ready…now that say something about a car maker!

Don’t get me wrong. I want a P-car badly. I am bored with what the Impreza line is and what a Japanese car has for standards. I just don’t understand why people that have higher end cars like BMW or Audi or Porsche think that all other cars are crap. If you look at what a car should do, get you from point A to B as many times as possible with little to no major needs, every high end car maker fails at that…big time. Show me the German car that goes for 300,000 miles like a Civic or Corolla for people all over the world and then maybe I will believe them. The point of the nicer cars is to be more connected or have more luxury…but that does not make them better cars.

***END OF EXTREME OFF TOPIC RANT***

 

I love my Honda Civic Si. I also loved my Nissan 300Zxtt back in 1990.
I probably woild like the Gtr a lot more of there had not been so many hiccups and if their warranty disclose form sat better with what i feel is a manufacturers effort to reduce the driver's interraction with his own car.

 

A bit off topic, but man I hate the huge wings on those WRXs (or the STi or ABCDEFGH alphabet soup) and they sound terrible. To me it has to be the worst sounding exhaust on a sports car ever made. I have a coworker who is from New Zealand and he said guys there would rather have that car than my C2S. Well, I'm glad I don't live in NZ then!

 

A Porsche owner not liking the sound of a boxer motor?? hmm

 

I know that I'm not the only one that thinks it sounds like a go cart. I can't imagine someone liking that exhaust note and it sounds nothing like the Boxsters I hear in my parking lot everyday at work.

 

The large wing is on the STI, not the WRX. Lots of people do swap out to the larger wing though. It is just a different sound that comes from the boxer 4 and the unequal length headers. I agree that there are lots of cars that sound better but I will put it far above almost any honda or acura. Because of the awesome AWD and how easy they are to tune and play with I can see why they would be big down there.

 

OK a go kart though? Seriously go find a civic from the city...that is a go kart. In fact I call them kazoo cars as they buzz and sound terrible. To each their own i guess.

 

Ok, I just couldn't think of anything else. I didn't know the model numbers as I would never buy one. However, I do see the appeal b/c $/hp is probably up there with anything. Maybe if I was 20-something, I would like it, but I'm not anymore!

 

They are not the best thing to look at, but realize that it is a fully functional spoiler, not like the f40 wings you see on 1995 accords...

 

A WRX:



on steroids.

 

^ LOL

they share a common boxer engine. in fact the H6 from the tribeca is...well an H6. best watch out as the Porsche is not far off.

 

BTW you could not find a person less like that than me. I do not even say WRX is crap - those are your words. I used to own very different cars and I stil want to own some day a completely modded out of its pants Z06 or ZR1. Just for the fun of it.

I just say I do not like that car at all, by all its combinations of different factors.

 

mista gloves...

I see what you were getting at. i've been around the jap cars for a long time... but to answer your question:

It is not exactly the same comparison... but pretty close... what you are saying is this... (I've been out of the subie scene so excuse my mistakes)...

let's compare the old school subie 2.0 motor to the newer 2.5 motor... overall is it less capable? yes... i've actually wondered why some people fix up the older 2.0 vs. just buying a 2.5 STi...

i guess you could say the same regarding the 3.6L vs. 3.8 liter non s vs. s... BUT i think the overall delta is less between the non-s and the S and the WRX and the STi... does this make sense? SO.. for many people, they dont have any issues with buying a non-S whereas more people will choose the STi over the WRX.

It may not be something that can be quantified, but it is what it is... part of it comes from the fact that a non-S IS a still a 911 and the 911 is where the bar is set... for the STi and WRX.. they are both tuner cars... less of something to reach for..

I've actually driven both the S and the non-S. I can tell the difference between the 2 cars. That being said, it is true that you wont get an opportunity to really exploit that difference on a daily basis. I'm a bit crazy when I drive (I've made a concious effort to tone it down) and my current car (JCW mini) is plenty for daily driving (including a canyon drive every other week or so).

Even with the above, I've been looking for a 997 for about 3 yrs now, and I've waited so long because the best deals have been on non-s cars... and me, I'm holding out for the S. I don't care, I'm not in that much of a rush. Pricing is important for me as I'm not as well to do as some here. So I want to be smart and get the car i want at the price i can afford...

 

just out of curiosity, what equipments are u looking for ? and at what price ?