http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=5992

 

"The WRX is designed for a much broader audience; you can drive it in the snow and ice. You don’t want to drive the STi in the snow... So a snow covered rally stage might be the only place you can’t drive the STi, otherwise its all-wheel-drive system is rally ready."

WTF??! If the WRX can do snow why, is there any reason why the STi with snow tires can't? This is one of the main reasons I'm buying this car is AWD capability in the snow and ice! But then again, the reviewer is from california so what does he know about snow and ice?

 

Not sure wny this comment was made. Maybe ths STI , with 17in wheels and all that power is harder to control in the snow. Nothing that smaller, winter tires won't fix.

 

Smaller tires? You mean smaller wheels like 15 or 16 inchers? How will smaller rims clear those huge breaks? I'd love to have larger sidewall tires for snow. My thought was to put winter tires on the stock rims and get another aftermarket set of rims and put the stock potenza performance tires on them.

 

Not necessarily smaller, but narrower, something like 205/50/17 snow tires. It works wonder on my previous RWD car with the same sized rims (17x7.5).

 

This review is just plain dumb. There is hardly any mention of how the car ACTUALLY drives. Most of the text is spent talking about specs.

Bob Hall should try a different career. I wish more journalists would take the time to elaborate on THEIR driving experience rather than MATERIAL FACTS we already know about. This is why I prefer reading British auto magazine like EVO, CAR and TOP GEAR. On the rare occasion, R/T and C/D also do a good job of providing detailed driving impressions.

 

damn. sorry to have brought this article up and wasted your time.

I like EVO etal also.. I just don't get these mags as frequently as Autoweek (hence the name) and dont always feel like shelling out $8 for a magazine. BTW: Have you noticed that these British magazines seem like they are consciously ignoring the fact that the US gets a 2.5 liter vs. the eur spec 2.0...all I've seen is a minor byline in a 04 WRX "Prodrive" package clip.

 

I'm not ranting at you skieman i'm ranting at the person who wrote the article.

As for the british mags, I don't thing they have had a chance to test the 2.5l US version yet. I'm sure they will get their hands on it soon. I think it was EVO magazine that got to briefly drive the US EVO. The writer semed to think that the US EVO was just as much fun to drive as the Euro counterpart. It would be great to see someone like Tiff Nedell (ex. F1 driver) of Top Gear get his hands on the US versions. I've always trusted his ability to extract the most out of a car's handling characteristics.

 

..right!

In fact, I'd be pretty cool if, based on a review from someone like Tiff, the US ends up with the "better" STi.. after all those years of being deprived! Almost makes the wait worth it

 

did he even drive the car? I found the same "review" in the STi sales booklet.

 

Actually, finding 15 or 16 wheels to mount snow tires on that will clear the monster brakes might be a real problem.

Oh wait.

I live in San Diego.

Never mind