I picked up a 1997 Impreza OBS Wagon on ebay last week. I flew into Chicago, picked it up, and drove it home on Friday. It drove fine. It needs a little cleaning, and stuff, but a good platform.

 

I started tearing into things yesterday. There was a stereo system installed in it. It was installed so poorly....I pulled it out, and just kept going. The interior is gutted right now. I'm going to clean everything up and put it back together.

 

Here are some pics

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru/images/97obw/

 

Josh

What inspired that purchase, Josh?

I have a 95 nissan pickup as a daily driver. I wanted to replace the truck with something else. I had been keeping the outback sports in mind because I don't mind the styling, they're relatively new, it has four seats, and I still have some luggage capacity with the wagon.

Josh, How does it compare to your Legacy? And congrats! Once you have one Subaru.... -SQ93

congrats on the newest member..looks real nice

 

i love that color too..

Yeah it's not a bad car. It should be pretty good when I get it cleaned up. I do like the color too.

 

It's definitely not my legacy. You can tell that the impreza is more of a base model then the legacy. Some of the features like a low gas lamp, map lights, cruise, lumbar adjustment, etc are not included on the impreza. Plus I don't particularly care for the ergonomics of the impreza. They don't flow as nicely, and aren't as intuitive. Plus the finish/feel is a lot cheaper.

 

However I'm not really saying anything other people haven't said. Subaru has improved things across the line in recent years, however I still think they need some work to compare to the big boys.

 

just my 2 cents.

Yeah it's not a bad car. It should be pretty good when I get it cleaned up. I do like the color too.

 

It's definitely not my legacy. You can tell that the impreza is more of a base model then the legacy. Some of the features like a low gas lamp, map lights, cruise, lumbar adjustment, etc are not included on the impreza. Plus I don't particularly care for the ergonomics of the impreza. They don't flow as nicely, and aren't as intuitive. Plus the finish/feel is a lot cheaper.

 

However I'm not really saying anything other people haven't said. Subaru has improved things across the line in recent years, however I still think they need some work to compare to the big boys.

 

just my 2 cents.

 

you said it the way i would have said it, i check out a 98 wagon, and i feel the quality off the car is cheaper, like the car was WAY louder then my legacy L wagon, and felt slower for 170hp, and the car had WAY less milege. But overall i think newer legacies and impreza's are MUCH better but i still love the 90-94 models.

Imprezas have their place in the lineup for sure and you grow to not miss some of those options you listed. Heck, drive an old hatchback (80-89) for a while and then get back in your legacy.

Imprezas have their place in the lineup for sure and you grow to not miss some of those options you listed. Heck, drive an old hatchback (80-89) for a while and then get back in your legacy.

(i wish there were old hatches around here)

 

that's kinda how it was with me going from my 94 leg to the 94 justy.and then back a week or two later..though it seemed to take off faster then the legacy :-\

 

(getting the justy back this tax time)

Imprezas have their place in the lineup for sure and you grow to not miss some of those options you listed. Heck, drive an old hatchback (80-89) for a while and then get back in your legacy.

 

I can vouch for that statement. Everytime I drive my wagon or hatch and then get back into the legacy, its like a brand new car

I traded up my base model Impreza for a base model Legacy wagon a few model years newer...much nicer interior:)

 

Congrats on the new car!

 

Kevin

It might be more fair to compare the models from similar generations, and we know that 2d gen. Legacy didn't have some things that 1st gen. did, down to the lighted mirror switch.

Josh, the car looks very nice!

Nice. You should try out sound deadening while you have it apart.

I drove a new OBS recently and it was streets ahead of my 99 Forester. The OBS is one of my all time favorites but the Forester has the size I need. Yesterday I had a step ladder and a folding big ladder in the Forester with drop cloths and a bunch of painting stuff. No OBS for me while I use it for this stuff.

Envy envy, add lots of sound deadening while apart.

One thing I can attest for is the newer EJ22's get better mileage then the older ones, despite having having a lower final drive ratio. The newer ones also idle better....or at least that's from what I've seen between the subies I've owned.

 

Side note: The impreza get's leaps & bounds better gas mileage then my turbo motor does, however I need some tuning.

 

I've updated the pictures, and as soon as the carpet dries I'll start putting things back together. I'm not going to bother with sound deading. The impreza's areodynamics (or lack there of) doesn't lend itself to being a very quiet car.

 

But...I am happy with the car, and once I get everything to my liking, it will serve my purposes just fine

Got everything back together, and updated pics.

 

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru/images/97obw/03

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru/images/97obw/04

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru/images/97obw/05

Shiny!

 

I love the pic of all the change you found!

It was like $8!!!

Sweet - it's blue.

It's nice to see something other than the generic green on those things.