Welcome mate, im sure you will be happy.

I have had Honda, Nissan, Mazda and now Subaru. Subaru do a good package.

Welcome. I was on the hunt for 9 months to find my GT and i was prepared to travel for it but eventually it popped up in SA!

Goodluck, get carsales to automatically email you so you can jump on them asap as the good ones seem to go within a fortnight.

Thanks for the welcome!

Yep Honda make awesome cars and i will def miss it..but who knows i may go back to them one day, but for now lets see how the boxer engine + turbo satisfies me. I have heard nothing but good things regarding Subaru's performance, build quality and reliability which is why i am considering upgrading to ONLY subby. It was a tough choice between a GT and a DC2 Type R, but in the end the big decision was that i wanted some torque!

I have owned 3 Hondas and the only reason they have needed to go to a mechanic was for a service!

I was first going to buy a 2.5i instead of the GT but reviews were saying the 2.5i just didnt put enough grunt out and driving it was frustrating! Any one agree?

Thanks

Daniel

Turbo FTW. Or the H6 model... but I would still prefer GT. The way my TT B4 moves just brings a smile to your face, its not aggressive like a WRX, its just a gradual and continuous surge of power. The car feels light, even though its quite large, and when you take bends the AWD is amazing.

I had a 1.6 Honda EK Civic CXi for my first car. It was fading. It had 175k on it (not bad for a 96). But it never missed a beat, except when the battery died It also went so hard for what it was - 88kw of hatchback. Love those high revving Honda motors. It is a shame Honda makes such boring cars now. Subaru was my next step, the AWD and Boxer motor was appealing to me. I was looking at GT's but my budget didn't quite work out with current commitments, not for the one I wanted anyway. So I ended up paying cash for a GenIII B4 and loving it to bits. When I am better off I will upgrade to an 07/08 2.5T GT. My mate just got a MY00 WRX, and yeah its great fun. But the Liberty has class. Which is something I like in a car.

The main things stressed to me was the oil choice for the Boxer motor. And to run it on the correct RON. Which is 98 RON for the turbo models. Other than that and the usual CV joint stuff you would have dealt with in a Honda, it hasn't been much different to own so far.

Ive run my civic on nothing but 98  for the entire time ive had it. There is a B4 for sale in SA but i wanna stay away from twin turbo...wanna start out with just one turbo at the moment lol. I think that is what ill miss the most..r.evving to 8200rpm but ohwell.

Thanks for your reply

No probs, good luck mate. I always say this and I'll say it again, make sure you get a full independent ispection done before you buy the car even if it's a "certified used car" sitting in a Subaru dealer. If you find things wrong with it (even wear and tear items like brake pads, bushings etc) you can negotiate with the dealer to have them fixed/changed before you buy it. If it is wear and tear items its even better cause im sure most of them say "well we can get the boys from the workshop to have another look at it for you" and fix up your concerns before you buy the car saving you a bit of money. I can tell you the GT models are absolutely beeautiful cars to drive and for the price you pay for them these days nothing else comes close for what you get...
Cheers

I picked mine up privately. But I've been shopping for a WRX with my mate for the last month or so (he has wanted one for years). After looking at a dozen POS private sale ones we stumbled on one at a dealer just up the road, which was unbelievable. It was on the money and only had 111k on it. 12 month warranty too. The condition is not 100% perfect - but its acceptable and just needs a little TLC. Needless to say he bought it.

Ah yes the HG issues, it was more common in the 90's models though wasn't it (GenII)? What I was told anyway.

I used to drive my Civic like I stole it (it was manual) - awesome little cars. But even at 5'9" I found it a bit small, that and the fact it was going pink, sold it and bought the B4

GT's can rev to 7500. only 700rpm short

B4Cruiser wrote:

In a TT, you can rev to 7000rpm.  Compared to the civic, difference is you'll actually feel the power surge...

From what I know (I am learning fast ) the B4 has 2 smaller turbo's one for around town (low rev range), then a slightly bigger one for power games. The main problem with the layout is the gap between them, they didn't quite get the changeover right. But it can be reduced with a good tune.

GT would have one bigger turbo like the WRX. As above said, they make similar top end power, but the TT setup was an attempt at reducing the early on Turbo lag and make the car less aggressive. I wish they had stuck with it to be honest, a lot of modern cars are going TT (Taurus, Cruze). I've heard the 2.5T model with the bigger capacity has a less noticeable lag.

gearbox problem?

I find that the 2.0T has less lag then 2.5T as the 04-06 GT's run twinscroll turbo's with equal length headers. (In other words spools quicker and combined with much more efficient headers. Not sure why the went back to the unequal length headers and single scroll turbo set up for the 07-09's as they dropped 5kw with 0.5 more capacity).

munro88 wrote:

Yep...thats what sucks about NA.the GT and WRX share the same motor and turbo right? EJ20T? Also do the GTs have the infamous gearbox problem that the wrxs are known for? Or is the drive train set up different in the GT?