first gen legacy vs ej18 impreza preformance

[Subsforever]

I was wondering how the the ej18 imprezza the 90-94 legacy compare to each other preformance wise. I am looking to replace my 82 gl with more reliable and quicker transportation.

[ionic]

Having driven both the 2.2 Legacy and the 1.8 Impreza extensively, as well as older EA18 cars, I can say the 2.2 does have a considerably more power, but the Impreza 1.8 gets consistently much better gas mileage. The Impreza EJ18 is definitely an upgrade in performance over the old EA18 engine. I have never gotten particularly wonderful gas mileage out of the three EA18's I've had, but the Impreza EJ18 is much more economical. I get 26 average in city driving and about 33 on the highway in the Impreza, and that's using A/C and not driving particularly slowly either. In the Legacy, I get about 21 in the city and 26-27 on the higway. In the old GL and Loyales I only managed only about 19 around town and 25 on the highway.

 

I would highly recommend a 95-96 Legacy L. They're cheap enough now, have the super reliable 2.2 engine, and they're a huge improvement in safety, performance, and comfort over the older cars. 95 is the first year of the redesigned body, and it has dual airbags standard and ABS common. The Impreza is a good little car for around town, but it feels much more like an economy car on the highway, and it doesn't have a lot of interior space.

[nipper]

I was wondering how the the ej18 imprezza the 90-94 legacy compare to each other preformance wise. I am looking to replace my 82 gl with more reliable and quicker transportation.

 

http://www.cars101.com will give you the HP and torque numbers. Just keep away from the automatics in those years, as they are gutless.

 

nipper

[offroadsubaruguy]

i have a 90 legacy wagon and it is a huge improvement over the 89 gl that i used to drive. more power and torque, better handling, better gas mileage, more comfortable, just all around better. im getting a pretty consistent 25 mpg doing mostly city driving as i am only on the highway for about 10 minutes every day..... the best part about the newer cars, the power is there when you need it!!!

[Manarius]

www.cars101.com will give you the HP and torque numbers. Just keep away from the automatics in those years, as they are gutless.

 

nipper

Easy there. The 4.11 Auto's make 200k just fine. I happen to have 151k on my 91 with an auto and it runs great.

 

If you're looking for reliable and semi-safe, I'd go with a 92 and above Legacy only because they have airbags. Honestly though, most in the Subaru world think that the EJ22 was the best block ever to come out of Japan.

[edrach]

My '91 Legacy wagon (EJ22) has been my daily driver for over 5 years now. I've recently added a '94 Impreza sedan(EJ18) as my "play" car for rallycross. I've pretty well matched the gas mileage numbers mentioned in a previous post, but that might be primarily due to a difference in overall car weights as well as the smaller engine size. The EJ18 certainly has more power than my old EA82 powered '86 wagon but that was a carb'd engine so maybe not a fair comparison. Driveability of my two cars is quite similar since the Impreza has more get-up-and-go than I expected. The only difference I note is that the low end torque of the EJ22 is better since I'm able to leave the car in 5th on long steep hills with the EJ22 when I have to shift down to 4th with the EJ18. Either car is just fine as far as I'm concerned as long as you have a manual transmission; I'm personally biased against automatics. The only suggestion I have is to stick to the '96 and earlier EJ22 engine since the '97 and newer EJ22 is an interference engine.