I haven't seen any advertising for it at all, which can't be helping! (That and the fact it looks like a kids drawing of a car!)

If Subaru win the Monte, sales will soar, no matter what it looks like.

The Legacy didn't exactly win any pretty awards did it, but look how that took off once Vatanen, McRae and Alen started doin' the biz in it?

And you can call me Susan if it isn't so.

Geezer http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Well, it's got them on our company car list. If that's the market they're aiming for, they're winning.

Mr Leigh

ROTFLMFAO http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

LOL Mr Leigh, that one caught me just right http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Mr Leigh...HA HA HA HA HA http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

I wouldn't say the US will LOVE it - it was just unveiled here in the states the other day, and it was kind of disappointing. Not only is the 4 door uglier than Winston Churchill in a bikini, we don't get 4 pot brakes or 17's as standard equipment. The only think we do get is 227 hp instead of 215.. Big deal.. I'm waiting for the STI 5 door myself, but I get the feeling I'm never gonna see one..

Basil

People used to say to me 2wait until the new one comes out" but I couldn't wait - rushed in headlong and bought am MY00 in Sept - What a brilliant move !!

Mt Leigh - I think it those poodles with the funny hair cuts.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Basil:
<B> The only think we do get is 227 hp instead of 215..
Basil[/quote]

Thats strange. I thought the US emission laws would result in less horsepower. FI, a Celica has got 192 bhp in Europe against 180 in the states.

Well I've got one on order and it's been promised "for January" and my dealer has not let me down before. Maybe not perfect yet... but then again, neither was the "old" car when it first came to these shores. I'll be sorry to see my latest one go (an MY99) but all good things come to an end and the demo I drove went well enough. A lot of the "apparent" difference in performance is in my opinion down to the car been that much quieter than the old shape. Maybe not what everyone wants... but I quite liked it. Anyway, it will do me until the Sti comes.

Enjoy your cars folks... because I know that I do....

[This message has been edited by Mike Owen (edited 13 January 2001).]

The cars were not due to be delivered to customers until this month anyway, that's why you haven't seen any on the road.

Pete Croney picked up his on Thursday, and AFAIK, is the first customer one to be delivered. Expect to start seeing more of them from now on.

BTW, if you were at Donington yesterday you would have seen a MY01 keeping up quite nicely with a gaggle of old model cars very easily indeed on the circuit no problem at all, so it cannot be THAT slow! What it loses on the straights (VERY little) it MORE than makes up for on the corners; ie. it is BETTER handling than the previous model (in standard form.)

The new car is a DEFINITE improvement over the old car make NO mistake on that, and the UK STi will be even better!! The car needs a little bit of tuning on it, exhaust etc, but it is still very early into it's development.

Don't believe me? Ask Pete what he thinks of his new car... (AND he's got a Scoobysport exhaust ready for it as well!!)

Rob.

I agree with Rob. The Listers car was certainly holding his own on track yesterday, and the car looked very stable (most of the time! http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif ).
I think once they start to appear on the roads with a few styling mods (new lights, bumpers, bonnet, rear end, etc... http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif ) people will begin to accept them.
When they start to pass older cars on track on a more regular basis, even more people will. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

Stef.

I think the big issue with this car is the styling, its pretty hard to swallow after the more agresive look of the current car.

I test drove a WRX 4 door briefly last week and found the front end grip to be a huge step forward, it only had 1000 Miles on the clock so was very tight engine wise but it didnt feel mega slow, definatly a little slower than the MY00 but not a dog by any means.

I found the car to feel slower under normal driving conditions because it is a lot more refined/quieter apart from some pretty horendous tyre rumble from the 17" RE011's.

I noticed that after just 20 minutes i had started to take the outer edges off the tyres so the new tyres must be pretty soft, they certainly grip better than the old RE010's.

Biggest improvement is in the fast long corners, it really is much quicker than a MY00 in those, if not so nimble in the really tight/twisty stuff.

It sits too high though for sure, when pushing quite hard it does fall over on the shocks at the rear, i think dropping the whole car 1" will help a great deal.

So, all its needs is for pete to get a decent exhaust conversion sorted to get the grunt back, some lower, same rate springs as the damping is good for our roads, then something to get rid of the bland front end, which quite frankly looks awefull and i think its going to be OK.

As to that rear spoiler, sorry, thats crap, it looks like an afterthought.

I think its early days yet - look how Subaru released the original Imprezza - it was clueless style-wise back in the early 90s, but the car evolved into something special we all love.

Same with the new car - let them redesign the spoilers, valances, fill the arches with bigger and fatter wheels and you're in business, and a Geezer says, a couple of Rally wins will push the profile of the car back into the spotlight.

Its just a shame we should have to be patient - its frustrating Subaru haven't learned their lessons from the last car.

DV

Saw one in Kidderminster yesterday afternoon.....Dark Blue....Was so surprised it had almost gone past before I realised http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

I went into my local dealer in Nottingham to have a look for myself last w/e.

1st thoughts.....Damn! Thats an ugly car! I certainly won't be trading my MY00 in for one!

The sales guy tried to convince me the car was both faster and lighter than the proper Scoob, sorry I mean previous Scoob....yeah right!

I wonder if Subaru will take any kind of drastic action (i.e. revamp it again) if sales don't get anywhere near target? I doubt it tho after investing so much in tooling and design (!)

the rally version they were showing at the motorshow looked a whole lot better tho - high spoiler and body kit...

Neil

I think the new car is great.

We are working on styling parts as well as performance parts.

Our light kit will not look like the STi.

All I've done so far is put the new backbox on. What a difference!!! It is still VERY quiet (it was like a Lexus in standard form) but has much more punch. Still only got 260 miles on it, so cannot test how this is affecting upper revs.

As for the handling, like John has said front end grip is brilliant. The car has a completely new horseshoe beam system that picks up the front lower suspension mounts and stiffens the whole bottom end. The car goes off to Leda for 4 days on Thursday and I expect great things now that the chassis is nice and stiff. In standard form, you can do things with this car that you wouldn't dream of attempting in the old car.

I am very pleased with the car.

Pete

Let us know how they get on at Leda as i would like a suspension upgrade for mine.

Done the back box as well, the centre section is being done thursday so it should make even more of a difference.

Cheers

Ady http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

DazV,

Some of us love our old early 90's 'clueless' cars too http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

The main reason I will not be getting one is the ECU / Second gear performance problem. A magazine tester also discovered this on the MY01 car. Its just to much of a pain in the arse when it catches you off guard http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif And its slower http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif Ugly http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif but could be made to look better http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif at a price http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif I know you dont by a Subaru just for looks, but I certainly do not discount looks either.

An MY01 at my local garage had no engine in it the other day - completely removed. Garage refused to comment on why, as you'd expect. Interesting to know what happened there.

Mr Leigh, can you expand:

"The main reason I will not be getting one is the ECU / Second gear performance problem"

Greg

The new shape looks awful.

Did Lawrence Lewellen-Bowen design it with his frilly sleeves, and womanly ways?

Burn him, and burn his face off first.

I think there must have been a lot of puzzled sidelong glances when the designers at Subaru went 'Ta-Da!' with a model of this hideous thing.

Why didn't they keep with the 'Japanese Killer Robot' look which works well with these things?

It looks like a Yugo.

Have a look at Ady's DBM one in member's gallery - it had me eating my words...though I still think the lighter-coloured ones look ..poor

Hunk - I too was surprised. But that's what Subaru is saying.. I'm wondering if there isn't a horsepower conversion thing going on - perhaps it's measured differently between the US and the rest of the world. Not sure..

For those interested, the car we'll be getting in the states can be found at:

I had to come half way round the world to get a look at the MY01 scoob http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/eek.gif (working in Sydney for a month or so http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif ), I've seen a couple now, one blue and one red. The car does look much better on the road than in the photo's, the blue one was even lowered and looked very nice indeed.

For me though, I'll be waiting for the UK sti and the comparison with the Jap spec Sti intil I think about changing (and event hen I'll probably go for the RA). I can't see myself changing from an StiV to a UK spec MY01.

Cheers,

Dave

ps. Sydney is sccoby heaven, there are loads of them around !!! Also been to MRT Rally, these guys sell loads of decent stuff and with the exchange rate what it is at the moment I just can't resist (RamPod, Cibies, I dread to think what's next!)

They had to do something........the old shape was getting....well....old, they just didn't have to do this.

I had a good look at one at Lavendar Hill and I have to agree with Mutant Matt and say it's NASTY NASTY NASTY !!

I'll wait and see what the STI's like

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by PaulFisher:
<B>Did Lawrence Lewellen-Bowen design it with his frilly sleeves, and womanly ways?

Burn him, and burn his face off first.[/quote]

You feeling alright Paul?

It seems the only people who have anything nice to say about the MY01, are people who have a vested interest in it's success.
So "they would say that wouldn't they".

My 2 cents, it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

0-100 in 20 seconds ? .. right... is the fact that it corners better supposed to make up for that ?

I had the pleasure of an extended test drive in one yesterday. The handling is excellent. All it needs is lowered, noisy exhaust, old interior, proper spoiler, lowered a bit more, some more noise and then the front end smacked repeatedly into a concrete wall and redesigned by Handy Andy.

p.s. I quite liked driving the car if I wasn't comparing it to a real scooby. Say for example I had the choice between one of these and new BM 318 at the same price, I would still go for the MY01.