But could a 35' Bentley do 0-60 in 6.5 sec??

Volvo did that in the 122...but the intake tracks are making me smile on that engine. Nice to see the internals.

Nope, but you did it in comfort and luxury...

This is true.

Matt, just re-read your OP and was wondering if a WRX ever crossed your mind? For what you paid on the ST it would have to be a few years old to get in the same price range so maybe that knocked it out of contention. If it wasn't on the list, any thoughts about them as to reliability? The FTD factor is a given, just not sure if the HG issues are behind them. Have read that since 2010, and in the WRX/STI it's not a concern?

My guess is smile factor. I drove a wrx about ten years ago, and it was pretty boring. About what you'd expect with ~150hp at the wheels, and I don't think output has changed much.

Output definitely has, but so has weight. They're still a 13 second car if you launch it like a journalist, but for an owner the ST and the new WRX are probably pretty close. From 2nd gear up, my car SHOULD pull on a new WRX, but off the line it's another story of course. My buddy's '05 WRX wagon has a downpipe, catback, uppipe, and a Cobb stage 2 tune, and our HPs are within 1 or 2 on the same (Cobb) dyno but my torque kills his. The ST isn't light, but it feels a whole lot more refined than the WRX and comes with a ton more gadgets, it's quieter and smoother and handles amazingly, and I don't have to buy it from one of the two worst Subaru dealers in the country. Plus the WRX would turn me into a road-raging asshole in the winter...

My buddy's WRX (as well as another acquaintance's Impreza, and another buddy's Legacy) have shown me that Subaru isn't all THAT reliable. I also didn't want a Subaru, I wanted something special. My first car ever was a snarling yellow Mini, this car reminds me a little of that one.

But yeah, the two cars didn't cost much different. Mine was just under $35k before taxes, fully loaded, and a WRX starts at 33k but that's pretty basic.

Gotta be a lot more now with 265 BHP (305 for the STI).



Thanks Matt, I'm not too worried about having the ultimate car in the class, just needs to be reliable and FTD. If it was strictly for Lisa a 2.5 Impreza with 170 HP would be fine, but if it's going to be mine might as well look up the line. Subaru reliability and serviceability are still really big concerns especially the HG issue. I have read (it was on the interwebz so it has to be true ) that the WRX used a different HG and didn't have the issues like the NA cars, but that the trans and clutch weren't up to the task.

Good lord.. $35000+ tax Now I am not that old, but my first house cost that.
It does look quite "spiffy" though Matt. Sooo.....when do the Mods start ?

I know, it was a huge jump for me too, and pretty downheartening when one thinks of all the fun little toys I could have for that money, all of which would drive me absolutely nuts. The Focus isn't a cheap car, I don't quite know why - the Titanium is $30k and though it has a few more bells & whistles it's still just a regular Focus. The MSP3 and GTI are around the same $ or more, and as discussed the base WRX is right around there too.

But I could have had a 308GTB and a 911, or a brace of Minis, or...

Yeah, I don't regret anything.

Congrats on the purchase, my gf was looking at the ST when we were shopping but that was before any dealers had any to actually drive. Ended up with a Corolla XRS and she's happy.

I'd like to see how it compares with my 2011 WRX. The old ones were around 215-225hp and the new ones are 265. That's only 35 less HP than the STI. I've really got to give it to Ford in becoming such an innovative company in the past few years. They've picked up their socks and have some nice vehicles on the show room floor now. I've never been a Ford, but they've swayed me lately. Enjoy the new ride!

How about an update matt? I know you haven't had many snow free days in Calgary, but you must have a few more kms on it...

Update, hmm? Well let's see.

Got just about 4500 km on it now, all systems go. The forums and fanboys are identifying several early-production weaknesses which are causing me a little bit of angst, but I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that either the problems are identified and corrected before they become MY problems, or that my car got lucky. Problems include failed turbos, failed clutches, and the everpresent awful My Ford Touch (powered by Microsoft). The clutch is the most disturbing - it seems like the combination slave cylinder / throw-out bearing fails, dumps oil all over the place, and kills the dual-disc clutch and dual-mass flywheel simultaneously. Being that they haven't built up a store of parts for the car yet, the delay for replacements can take a while as they have to steal them from the assembly line, and being that it's a "wear item" dealers are loathe to replace them under warranty. I'm hoping that if mine ever fails and if the dealer denies me, there will be a nice light steel single-mass flywheel and burly clutch on the market.

I have made a couple of "improvements" though. The first one was the rear motor mount, which is the only thing keeping the engine from rocking back and forth. The factory one is full of voids and is VERY soft & squishy, fine for an automatic but awful behind a turbo 6 speed. Any moderate acceleration across an intersection causes a lot of banging from underneath. I replaced it with another factory part, from - get this - a Focus Electric. It's much beefier and doesn't add a single vibration. It's fine, but I'm going to try some polymers to fill up the old mount with to see if it can be better without being too stiff. There are many options on the market but nothing as cheap as this test I’m about to perform (about $25 for a pound of Smooth-On polyurethane from a local propmaker). Rumour has it that the E-focus mount is about to become the factory-supplied mount on 2013.5 releases.

Here’s the old one (top) compared to the E-Focus one (bottom):


I was very excited to have bi-xenon projector headlights on this car, and with the auxillary halogen high beams I figured these lights would be spectacular. Umm…. Not really. The first time I clicked the high beams I actually asked Roberta “did they come on?” After looking into them and at them for a while, I discovered a few things. First of all, the bulbs in this car are 25W versus the typical 35W, for the reason that 25W bulbs don’t need washers or automatic aimers and 35W do. Next, the aiming spec for these is to put the cutoff parallel to the ground, so any light “above” the cutoff (as happens when the high beams kick in) will not hit the ground. Finally the halogen high beams were pointed WELL ABOVE the hot spot of the projector high beams, which we’ve already established barely skim the ground – the halogens were pointed at the trees!

So I hacked ‘em. One little drill hole in the back of the headlight housing to let me get a small socket in there and I wound the projectors up as high as they’d point. Then I pointed the whole assembly down so that the projectors were slightly below spec, which thankfully put the halogens bang on where I want them. Finally I installed Osram Ultra bulbs into the high beams – these are H7 bases with an H9 bulb, the H9 putting out 50% more output than an H7, with only 10 more watts of consumption.

Here are the low beams at spec:


The right high beam as delivered (halogen only):


And the right high beam after adjustment:


So at least the halogen touches the ground now, and with the low beam being pointed ever-so-slightly downward I have better light on low beam and MUCH better distance light.

The next thing I have to address are the brakes. From day 1 I have hated these things, but I hoped they would get better. They’re super SUPER grabby when the weather is cold or damp – I mean, you can’t even touch them. What’s worse is that there is no effort required to hammer on them, they’re light as a feather. Furthermore there’s a lot of travel in the pedal before it starts to grab and even more before it gets firm. It’s not squishy, really, but I suspect it’s the bevel designed into the seals that draws the pistons into the bores to “pull” the pads away from the rotors. That last little bit of fuel economy, you know… The last straw is the dust… oh, the dust. These things are about as bad as those Wilwood Polymatrix A pads originally on your car, Dale. After a week the wheels are COVERED, and there is slime all over the side of the car.

The biggest problem is that these are brand new calipers for the market, and nobody has made aftermarket pads for the front yet. The rears are the same as SOOO many other cars, but the fronts have been unobtanium until very recently. In fact, I have the first set of aftermarket pads on the market, I just need to install them and try them out.



Porterfield R-4S, street performance pad. They’re a carbon-kevlar instead of the factory semi-metallic. Not suitable for racing but low dust and very low rotor wear. Kind of pricey and I still haven’t confirmed fit OR feel, but I’m hoping this weekend to have them installed and start mating them to the rotors before a good bedding. I've got some Wilwood 600 brake fluid to flush out the factory stuff with too.

I’m afraid this whole “buy it and forget it” idea is backfiring… Hands up, those of you who actually expected me to leave it alone!

It's been a while since you posted anything about the ST - So:

http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/3352/Project-Focus-ST-Working-on-the-basics-with-Eibach-Falken-Tires-Rotiform-and-KW-Suspension.aspx

I frequent Motoiq and they seem to do a decent job on their builds, although updates can be few and far between after a while.

Rabin

Yeah we heard that a lot (the 2013 restyle was a failure).

I'm surprised about the price, I had no idea that would be so. I do know it's remarkable how douchey the average buyer is though. Basically Hyundai (and their dealers) gave up on that market. How to you do 5y/100Km bumper to bumper when the cars are trashed? You do enough clutch drops off the revlimiter and you'll frag a flywheel in 3 digit km numbers. And who's fault is that?
We actively discouraged sales, selling our allotment to out of city customers or to other dealers.
And the new platform (guess it will be a 2016 coming out fall of 2015) is a 2dr of the new Sedan...so a very different target market.
The sedan has always been a completely separate, superior platform. Proper double a-arm, non strut front end, bigger diff, really nothing in common but the name.

Hope you are enjoying it. To me the lack of outward vision and build material quality means exactly zero vehicles on the market interest me. Still slowly collecting parts for the DIY project.