Hi there,
I drove a non-turbo Subaru Impreza, and I was impressed with its handling and acceleration. I would like to buy a few-years old Subaru. The question is, which one. In the beginning, I wanted an Impreza WRX because it had a turbo and allegedly provided loads of fun. On the second thought, I realised that I am not that young anymore, and I do not value the acceleration capability of a car as much as I value getting pleasure from handling the car. The best handling, I heard, is provided by BMW, and the model 325 was named most often. German card are expensive in here, but I heard that Subaru is the one out of the Japanese makers which manufactures the cars most resembling German cars in handling.
At the moment, I am thinking about:
Impreza WRX -- 2L or 2.5L turbo Impreza RS -- 2.5L Legacy/Liberty -- 2.5L or 3L
It occurs to me that RS should be almost as good as WRX only accelerating slower, but still with more grunt than I normally need. Compared with the plain RX version, the RS has larger wheels, and a larger engine (2.5L vs 2L). RS has its engine from Legacy, and thus it has less torque at mid-range revs, but more torque at low revs than RX. I wonder if this makes handling RS more pleasureable compared with handling the RX. And generally, I wonder if RS handles better than plain RX.
My other thought was to "grow up" and get a larger car, a Legacy. It is larger than Impreza and thus it occurs to me it might be less maneurable. Is the pleasure from driving Legacy better than from Impreza ? People say that Legacy with 2L is a slug, so they strongly recommend a 2.5-L engine. I wonder if the 3L engine is a must ?
My last thought was that perhaps the differences in driving RS or RX or Legacy were marginal, and thus I just might have a cheaper option of RX and be happy with it.
Thanks in advance. I guess I would like to have some pointers before I start taking the cars for test drive.
D.