agree its nice to have a proper one though dont u think....

Exactly ^ this. When i test drove the 1st one i found from a dealer i took it for an hours drive home, showed the mrs, tried out all of the features, measured it for garage space etc then drove it for another 2hrs. Then i drove the car i bought with the remap before signing on the dotted line. If you're going to spend a largish amount of cash on a car it needs to be tested thoroughly.

Has John and Mongy, released his remaps , what are the costs ? and has he done a 400 + one yet

good choice mate,lovely cars the rs.
why you swapped is mystery to me.

<<<@!1!@>>>

Here it is, Ford approved to keep tne fan boys happy and only a few grand over your standard RS and you have yourself the equivalent of or close to a RS500 performance.

Even better. Back in the RS by Saturday morning.

By the way, no need to rub it in - I know it's been a very expensive 6 month test drive. But you're a long time dead, and I might as well jump now before the subaru loses even more cash.

So disappointed with the Sti. But thats just my opinion. Also, the logistics of owning one with all the poor faults was becoming a pain living so far away from a dealer.

Didn't want to throw anymore money at it trying to sort out the performance either, especially with the warranty going out the window. I know there is a dealer on here offering tuning packages with warranty, but it would mean taking the car all the way to that dealership to sort any ongoing problems out........and there appear to be a few.

:thumb:
is it your old one or a different one?

My old one.
My kids nearly shat themselves with excitement when I told them.

I'll get a cheque back to go back into the savings and live to fight another day.

Good choice on the RS!!:thumb: Give it a year, the RS will be worth more then the STi.;)

Been in a 400+bhp mk2 Focus RS and still to this day,I remember the pops and bangs on every gear change, and just the overall experience of it, what a brilliant car, and people can go on about it being FWD and the torque steer etc etc, but until you drive one you dont realise that the torque steer adds to the experience, everytime you put your foot down, its a full on drama, and thats what I like about FWD Ford RS's:D

<<<@!1!@>>>

Love this video of the mk2 RS:luvlove:


Sounds like the Audi Quattro rally car:notworthy

I have. Totally different cars tbh.
New one far more refined, comfortable and 'easy' to drive ( I do quite high miles annually)
Interior way better but seats a lot flatter and pick up so smooth oit arguably 'feels' slower to me...........
Gets way more positive comments if that bothers anyone and generally people assume it was way more expensive when actually it was cheaper......
Not sure if its better - thats pretty subjective but its very different so feels like a totally new car............not sure if that helps at all - ha ha

cheers

PS - Mine has already had the sticking petrol flap issue but WD40 sorted it once all the protective white grease came out - might mean it sticks in winter though?

Interesting to read about the FRS vs STi - Am lucky enough to have both and can't really compare as they are so different I think so depends which type you prefer I guess.......

Cheers

The last STI just doesn't tick the boxes anymore. The balance has turned and the cons now outweigh the pro's. Sad but Subaru have not taken the opportunity to pull back there customers, move forward and they have been well and truly left behind.

Enjoyed 9 years across four cars. Would I go back.....how can anyone go back to what they currently offer ?

5 cars over 14 years for me, I wouldn't want to go back.

Why would anyone go back after the disgraceful way many people have been treated over engine failures.

Setting off in the morning down to Essex to get the RS.

I understand your point matey, but surely that only applies to new cars?

Would it stop you buying a Spec C as a track toy?

Well I went back and I like it.

Last time in the gang was a MY04 bugeye - which went to a new owner back in 08 - and now had whatever the new one's gonna be called for a couple of days. Can't comment on what it's like pushed just yet as going relatively gently on the first few hundred miles.

But it's good to be back :)

Be interesting to hear what you think after its ran-in. I ran-in mine being careful, and was utterly disappointed when the day came to fully start to unleash the power I'd supposedly kept at bay. It simply wasn't there!

you made the best choice now put some pics up of the rs :thumb:

Each to their own, I'm sure :) But yeah, let's see the new choice of wheels!

I've just driven from from Herts to Devon and back to Herts in it along the 303 etc, and some of it I liked and some it is yet to come.

I kinda gotta be careful in making early judgements cos I'd got to quarter of a mill miles in my tdi golf and it was starting to feel a bit loose etc - apply turn-in and then wait and and... then yes, there's the turn-in - that kind thing. Deffo needed bushes towards the end. Shocks improved it a bit about a year ago, but even so...

Anyway it's nice to have precise and pointy and the feeling I enjoyed in my MY04 and the pick-up is just starting in the self-imposed rev range, but yeah I'll comment more when I've acclimatised and pressed it a bit further!

Pretty certain it'll be better than a tiring quarter mill 2.0 tdi with a whistling turbo tho! :p

Effin' hope so! :Suspiciou

Best engines are those who have seen a moderate amount of boost from day 1 not by being uber gentle.

Under 4k for starters for me, so boosting but can't remember what to, 0.7, would that be about right?

I'm intrigued by the science of that tho. Wear is the only thing that really happens in there so some more pressure at some times than others makes a better engine in what way? There doesn't seem to be a tribological explanation, I can't see any hysteresis system that would benefit from early boost and that would constrain later performance if it didn't have limits set early and if it needed to be early then how early? The things are thrashed on test cycle after build so is that not early enough? I'm struggling to see that unless we're going to get anthropomorphic and ascribe memories to the lump... Intriguing hypothesis tho! :)

I didn't say I ran mine in über gentle......I just didn't constantly thrash it.

The new Subaru just doesn't ever get going. You have to wring the life out of it which gets tiresome. Like I said, the realisation when I started to be able to fully open her up that the real-life performance wasn't there was gutting. Remember, I'd spent my hard earned cash on this car and was looking forward to 2 or 3 years of ownership. My honest intention was to run it until Ford finally pulled their finger out with the next RS. But it wasn't just the lack of punch that made my decision to cut my losses and get rid. The build quality is terrible. The leaking diff, the petrol cap problem, the rattles and vibrations, the TERRIBLE stereo, the flat seats and never being able to really find a comfortable driving position. The display console at night needing to be turned right down because it reflects back at you causing distraction. The logistics of having to take the thing back and forth to the dealer (yes I'd thought about this beforehand) for ongoing problems that they never seem to bottom out. The electrical gremlins - we woke up one morning to find the rear passenger window was half-way down - a really frightening thought if that happened while the car was parked up in a town or something.

On the plus side the car got a few nice comments and thumbs up. But when all is said and done petrol heads want real world punchy performance, something that pushes your wife back into her passenger seat and makes your kids in the back laugh! Otherwise what's the point of owning a 20 mpg car that's a fortune to tax and insure?

My RS is pulling 450nm of torque at 3500 revs as it's the mp350, which is addictive but more importantly it's there when you need it. No thinking about it. Even in 6th gear sat at 60mph it picks up quick.

However, I've also ran RS's standard and they feel, or are, much quicker point to point than the new Sti. I wanted to make that clear before anyone mentions about tuning the Subaru.

Sorry if any of the above causes offence to anyone. It's just my honest opinion.

Sounds a fair summary. All boils down to the engineering being a decade old and some cost cutting on the interior.

Great to get your honest opinion but so disappointing.
Evo magazine road tested one against the new Golf R.
The Golf won.
As has been said Subaru are re-packaging 12yr old engineering.

Back in 2002 I drove a Prodrive Bugeye STI with 305bhp and it weighed 1470Kg. On the eve of 2015 you can buy a new WRX STI which weighs 1505Kg and produces... 296bhp.

On the 2002 car you can add a set of uprated injectors, a turbo and map it for 400bhp. I'd advise a couple of other bits but you get my drift. Dare you to try that with the latest one...

I thought long and hard about owning one of these too. I didn't for a variety of reasons.

I think I can safely say that the OP didn't get on with his but that doesn't make it a bad car, or even a half decent one - it has a lot going for it.

The best but about the new car for me is that it has a pretty sharp steering rack, far better than that of the hatchbacks which have a vague and wallowy feel to them. The ride is excellent and at fast road speeds the turn in is excellent.

The main reasons that I didn't concerned the high road tax, poor fuel consumption and the comparative lack of poke. I am used to driving a 400+ bhp Impreza and now a stripped out RA and it does not have the oomph of either.

I'm sure with a few grand of tuning the engine could be made to sing - my 2.5 certainly does - but all in all the car is not the finely honed and polished product the Golf is (even though I have driven one of them and found it pretty dull).

I'm sure with some engine work and some Alcons / APs this car could be made into a monster, ultimately this is part of the formula we've all been following for years. But I'm not entirely sure the base product is at the same level as the current competition, which is concerning as in the past it's been ahead to varying degrees.

they just haven't moved on from 2005,in fact they have got worse at least to 05 car had 2.0 engines that didn't blow up.
Shame really as they got the styling right after the previous mess that the hatch was.

Obviously not. The majority of test drives i've been on have been about long enough to establish the car is basically sound and not a lot else.

Well you need to have a longer and more through test drive then instead of a 20 minute jiggle down the road

I like to have a 20 minute jiggle after the test drive ;)