Bubba Ho-Tep
01-15-2011, 12:04 AM
Today I took some time an visited Prestige Subaru/Mitsubishi/VW this afternoon as they have 3 cars I'm interested in as a daily: Evo, GTi, WRX/STi.
Here are my impressions of each:
2011 WRX 5-door 5spd m: This was the first car I took out for a test-drive. It was a 2011 5-door hatchback model with sunroof. Immediately it was a huge adjustment with the upright seating position. I've been driving around in my Vette daily for over 6 months. The reach for the shifter seemed further forward than I'm used to, even after adjusting my seat and wheel.
Clutch engagement felt relatively high and abrupt but smooth. Acceleration was decent, though my 05 STi "felt" faster- then again I had a DP, and tune. In between hard shifts the drive-train felt jerky. Maybe it was the tires initiating traction control.
The overall quality of the cabin felt a bit better than my previous 05 STi and the seats were comfortable.
2011 GTi 2dr 6spd m: I have to be honest, the interior of the GTi blew me away. Very refined and upscale. I've seen it in pictures and it didn't disappoint in person. Everything about the car screamed quality- from the soft-touch surfaces, to the high-res touch screen nav unit, and brushed aluminum trim. This is probably the best looking interior of any car short of a BMW/Mercedes or....Audi. It certainly show's it's lineage in this department.
The seats were the plaid cloth and were bolstered more than the WRX. The back bolsters felt good but the seat ones felt a bit confining on my legs. Not too terrible though. I for one really liked the look of the plaid- however I know it's a love/hate thing depending on who you ask.
The shifter was something else. It felt broken- so light it felt like it wasn't attached to a tranny. I've NEVER felt a shifter this light in my entire life. You can shift gears with a single finger.....easily. Clutch engagement was verrrry smooth and slow. Unlike the WRX which seemed to engage high and fast this started low and engaged over a longer period. It's gotta be the easiest car to drive mt. Probably should be the poster-car for teaching new manual drivers. Overall though I don't quite know if the shifter "lightness" was a good thing or not. I like the ease in "rowing" but felt almost too loose and soft. In neutral the gates felt vague.
Acceleration was underwhelming but not slow. As middle-of-the-road as you could imagine. It definitely felt smooth with no hint of a turbo power curve. It felt smooth and strong from low rpms to redline. Heck past redline- according to the tach the car lets you go almost 1k past the designated "red-line". Power felt consistent all the way "past" redline.
Overall I was very impressed with the GTi, for everything OTHER than performance. I wouldn't have guessed it had a turbo at all- it felt like a weak 6 or a strong 4 cyldr.
11 Evo X GSR: The Evo was the last car that I drove, which the salesman purposely set up that way. I'm assuming he thought I would be blown away with it's performance compared to the other two. Well I must say- it's certainly worlds faster than the GTi, though you don't need me to tell you that. The paper stats can tell you that.
Second gear felt really strong, though 3rd felt like it fell on it's face. The engine was loud and thrashy- much louder than the WRX, and overall it didn't feel appreciably faster than the WRX- which, I believe, it isn't. At least in stock form.
The interior was nothing to write home about- probably the most pedestrian of the 3 other than the cool technology adjusting the AWD system. The seats looked beautiful! Highly bolstered with headrests set up for harnesses. However sitting on them was a different story. I was careful to phrase it that way (sitting ON them as opposed to sitting in them). While the back bolsters felt nice and tight- the thigh bolsters were a bit imposing. I constantly felt the pressure the the hard edges on the outer sides of both legs. Perhaps my fat arse is a bit to wide for these seats, as I felt a similar yet not as strong discomfort in the GTi. If I sat up perfectly straight and pressed my legs together it wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't comfortable cruising like that. Even in the short time I had the car out.
The shifter felt a bit awkward as well. The shift knob was the size of a golf ball, and wrapped and stitched like a mini baseball. The gates were pretty notchy as well though the clutch engagement felt better than the WRX, though not as smooth as the GTi.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I was a bit surprised at my opinions of the cars after driving each of them. The biggest disappointment being the Evo. I don't know if it was the combination of uncomfortable seating and notchy shifter, or possibly the one I had the biggest expectations from- but I walked away most disappointed from that drive. Out of the three- the most appealing to me at this point is probably the WRX. As it had the most comfortable ride and it's power matched the Evo. If the GTi had more power it would have EASILY overtaken my preference over the WRX. Even so- the GTi is quite a close second to the WRX with nods going to the refinement and driving feel to the GTi, and nods to the WRX for power, and comfort.
Now I'm looking into leasing the WRX as they have a $299 lease special going on right now- which is pretty darn good, even though it requires 2k out of pocket and tax/tags fees. Financing to own would be over $500/month if the term was 60 months or shorter. I'm still going to give the Mazdaspeed3 a chance. I stopped by the dealer tonight as well and they would only offer me $23,000 on a left-over 2010 w/ tech-package. It would have to be 20k for me to bite on a left-over especially considering 2011 got LED tails, rain-sensing wipers, and adaptive HID headlights for the new tech package.
Here are my impressions of each:
2011 WRX 5-door 5spd m: This was the first car I took out for a test-drive. It was a 2011 5-door hatchback model with sunroof. Immediately it was a huge adjustment with the upright seating position. I've been driving around in my Vette daily for over 6 months. The reach for the shifter seemed further forward than I'm used to, even after adjusting my seat and wheel.
Clutch engagement felt relatively high and abrupt but smooth. Acceleration was decent, though my 05 STi "felt" faster- then again I had a DP, and tune. In between hard shifts the drive-train felt jerky. Maybe it was the tires initiating traction control.
The overall quality of the cabin felt a bit better than my previous 05 STi and the seats were comfortable.
2011 GTi 2dr 6spd m: I have to be honest, the interior of the GTi blew me away. Very refined and upscale. I've seen it in pictures and it didn't disappoint in person. Everything about the car screamed quality- from the soft-touch surfaces, to the high-res touch screen nav unit, and brushed aluminum trim. This is probably the best looking interior of any car short of a BMW/Mercedes or....Audi. It certainly show's it's lineage in this department.
The seats were the plaid cloth and were bolstered more than the WRX. The back bolsters felt good but the seat ones felt a bit confining on my legs. Not too terrible though. I for one really liked the look of the plaid- however I know it's a love/hate thing depending on who you ask.
The shifter was something else. It felt broken- so light it felt like it wasn't attached to a tranny. I've NEVER felt a shifter this light in my entire life. You can shift gears with a single finger.....easily. Clutch engagement was verrrry smooth and slow. Unlike the WRX which seemed to engage high and fast this started low and engaged over a longer period. It's gotta be the easiest car to drive mt. Probably should be the poster-car for teaching new manual drivers. Overall though I don't quite know if the shifter "lightness" was a good thing or not. I like the ease in "rowing" but felt almost too loose and soft. In neutral the gates felt vague.
Acceleration was underwhelming but not slow. As middle-of-the-road as you could imagine. It definitely felt smooth with no hint of a turbo power curve. It felt smooth and strong from low rpms to redline. Heck past redline- according to the tach the car lets you go almost 1k past the designated "red-line". Power felt consistent all the way "past" redline.
Overall I was very impressed with the GTi, for everything OTHER than performance. I wouldn't have guessed it had a turbo at all- it felt like a weak 6 or a strong 4 cyldr.
11 Evo X GSR: The Evo was the last car that I drove, which the salesman purposely set up that way. I'm assuming he thought I would be blown away with it's performance compared to the other two. Well I must say- it's certainly worlds faster than the GTi, though you don't need me to tell you that. The paper stats can tell you that.
Second gear felt really strong, though 3rd felt like it fell on it's face. The engine was loud and thrashy- much louder than the WRX, and overall it didn't feel appreciably faster than the WRX- which, I believe, it isn't. At least in stock form.
The interior was nothing to write home about- probably the most pedestrian of the 3 other than the cool technology adjusting the AWD system. The seats looked beautiful! Highly bolstered with headrests set up for harnesses. However sitting on them was a different story. I was careful to phrase it that way (sitting ON them as opposed to sitting in them). While the back bolsters felt nice and tight- the thigh bolsters were a bit imposing. I constantly felt the pressure the the hard edges on the outer sides of both legs. Perhaps my fat arse is a bit to wide for these seats, as I felt a similar yet not as strong discomfort in the GTi. If I sat up perfectly straight and pressed my legs together it wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't comfortable cruising like that. Even in the short time I had the car out.
The shifter felt a bit awkward as well. The shift knob was the size of a golf ball, and wrapped and stitched like a mini baseball. The gates were pretty notchy as well though the clutch engagement felt better than the WRX, though not as smooth as the GTi.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I was a bit surprised at my opinions of the cars after driving each of them. The biggest disappointment being the Evo. I don't know if it was the combination of uncomfortable seating and notchy shifter, or possibly the one I had the biggest expectations from- but I walked away most disappointed from that drive. Out of the three- the most appealing to me at this point is probably the WRX. As it had the most comfortable ride and it's power matched the Evo. If the GTi had more power it would have EASILY overtaken my preference over the WRX. Even so- the GTi is quite a close second to the WRX with nods going to the refinement and driving feel to the GTi, and nods to the WRX for power, and comfort.
Now I'm looking into leasing the WRX as they have a $299 lease special going on right now- which is pretty darn good, even though it requires 2k out of pocket and tax/tags fees. Financing to own would be over $500/month if the term was 60 months or shorter. I'm still going to give the Mazdaspeed3 a chance. I stopped by the dealer tonight as well and they would only offer me $23,000 on a left-over 2010 w/ tech-package. It would have to be 20k for me to bite on a left-over especially considering 2011 got LED tails, rain-sensing wipers, and adaptive HID headlights for the new tech package.