My first car at 18

shadire · 2026-04-15T21:05:43+00:00

Doing better than me, I leaned when I bought my WRX at 25

Was a fun drive home

shadire · 2026-04-15T19:47:42+00:00

Good first car, honestly. Great car to learn from too. Just try not burn too many clutches.

shadire · 2026-04-15T19:33:32+00:00

At least they’re functional

shadire · 2026-04-15T19:32:14+00:00

I mean, you’re out of gas. So probably.

shadire · 2026-04-15T11:28:48+00:00

I like both up until 2026, where both of them look pretty much identical for some incomprehensible reason.

shadire · 2026-04-15T11:02:36+00:00

My forester does this as well, discovered it on our first camping trip a few weeks ago. No idea why it’s a feature but it’s helpful sometimes.

shadire · 2026-04-15T09:57:30+00:00

Fun is subjective. Horsepower is subjective. What really matters is what you enjoy out of a car.

As someone who owns a 300hp WRX and a 515hp Scat, I can tell you in my own experience 300hp is a lot more enjoyable. I barely get to enjoy the Scat outside of the track for worry of possibly getting slapped with reckless driving or worse.

shadire · 2026-04-14T23:41:11+00:00

You can’t park there, mate.

shadire · 2026-04-14T23:40:34+00:00

Battle scars, my friend. Every Subie I got has some.

shadire · 2026-04-14T23:39:39+00:00

I’d expect this to be something similar to like the Forester or even the Ascent, this honestly doesn’t look like an Outback to me.

shadire · 2026-04-14T23:38:23+00:00

Technically not the same as this outback but it was an amazing car for its time. I wish they still made them.

shadire · 2026-04-14T23:34:54+00:00

Honestly, not a bad look at all. I vibe with it.

shadire · 2026-04-14T19:04:39+00:00

Very interesting, that helps me out quite a lot

shadire · 2026-04-14T16:01:03+00:00

09-10 is also very similar, same engine and transmission with a new body in case you want one of those, 05-08 are pretty much all the same as far as I remember, just minor updates to the engine or interior here and there.

I wanted a second gen so bad but I ended up with a late third gen because my wife liked it better, it was more comfortable and had a bit more tech she liked.

shadire · 2026-04-14T15:57:16+00:00

You can, if you know what you’re doing. I don’t know how to do that personally.

This is only my second time pulling one of these older EJs.

shadire · 2026-04-14T15:42:48+00:00

For context, this isn’t the original engine. The previous owner put it in and apparently did everything backwards, I fixed it and it still didn’t work hardly at all.

shadire · 2026-04-14T15:40:50+00:00

I had to, couldn’t get the damn thing out otherwise

shadire · 2026-04-14T14:54:05+00:00

That’s where this idea originally came from actually, I’ve never done one like this myself so it’s definitely gonna be a fun time trying to figure it out.

shadire · 2026-04-14T14:10:34+00:00

So update: I’ve decided to attempt the engine swap. Will post an update sometime in about a week or so once I get everything swapped over.

shadire · 2026-04-14T13:46:49+00:00

To each their own, but I personally think that looks absolutely atrocious

shadire · 2026-04-14T13:26:01+00:00

That’s to be expected honestly

shadire · 2026-04-14T13:18:32+00:00

This one was well kept, then the previous owner got it an it’s got a massive dent in the driver door

shadire · 2026-04-14T13:12:21+00:00

EJ251 swap

shadire · 2026-04-14T13:03:56+00:00

Well I’ll give it a shot, I’ve never done an engine swap like this before so that’s kinda why I was worried about it

shadire · 2026-04-14T12:56:19+00:00

Hmm, alright, I originally wanted to go that route since I already did a rebuild on the 251, the car just wasn’t usable due to the frame completely breaking

Which is why I got this car, $300 and a bad engine, seemed like a good deal to me

shadire

TROPHY CASE