Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteCrane
Yes, I remember reading that. I guess Subaru lacks production to build them in-house.
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FJI is "in house", it's the bigger corp that owns Subaru. In Japan you'd be surprised what some of their "car companies" make, tractors, planes, TVs, etc, and this is the reason. The subarus also use things like mitsubishi turbochargers and other parts depending on the model sometimes. I do like the fact that they've kept the WRX models built in japan. Not that I don't trust the american plant (drove some cars made there and they were fine), but I think it's nice to try and "stick to what works" as long as practical in that respect. The only big error they made was the 2008 model, which was simply known as the Impreza GT in Japan. It was NOT a WRX model, but they imported it and slapped the WRX name on it, despite having a de-tuned suspension and same power/torque compared to the previous year model. I think the following year they offered that car in it's true "GT" form in the US and re-did the WRX to it's current power level, then in 2011 they did the "widebody" WRX which has been very sucessful. They tend to have a habit/track record of not offering the same features on the US models as the Japan ones from time to time.
But this is where you see the more developed turbo technology. As in the above post, I wouldn't drive a turbo car hard right before shutting it off, and usually it's kind of difficult to do this, but the older the car is the more critical it is. Also I tended to not push my car very hard on the hottest days. Whenever I stopped I could see the hood scoop act in reverse and hot air would start streaming out of the hood from below. It's kind of designed to do all of these things, but it takes you back a little at first. Or after sitting around for a while on a very hot day you don't try to do a full-power takeoff before driving around for a little bit to get rid of any possible heat-soak. Again, the newer the car, the less the issue. It's just good to keep it on the back of your mind. Some people with autos (of the wrx) had terrible times with the turbo-lag due to the gear ratio. If you are buying a turbo car with older auto-trans technology it's may not be worth it. It wasn't meant to be used with an auto really and it's kind of an afterthought (4spd). I guess a lot of people would get caught with excessive lag on mountain roads when it would downshift to 2nd, but not first, and it would have a hell of a time getting back up. It made the 0-60 times MUCH greater and just didn't have the gear capability. I would accelerate pretty reliably from about 1800rpm and in 2nd from a bit lower, but I also had upgraded parts/EM (stock turbo though). Never had those problems, but the lag started to get pretty noticable when I had the AC on. Maybe make sure to try the turbo car with the AC running full blast to see how it accelerates. Once the turbo is kicking it's fine, but it makes that threshold higher than it would be. I also live at high altitude, so this was never a problem when I'd drop down into the low-elevation valley, AC or not. I also had the tiny 2.0L engine (but modern design and mods again).