I guess the front looks a little better but its pretty subtle. I will have to see it in person I guess. The 6 piston front brembos are cool but I don't know what they mean by the new DCCD is all electronic instead of mechanical/electronic... The same old EJ in the STI is a little disappointing but not surprising at all.
I forgot to say no replies from the ATL are allowed . Yeah, I am at least assured of a fall back if I don't like the 2020 redesign. I am not a big fan of the new Impreza and this new refresh addresses some of the gripes I have with my 2015. A more comfortable suspension that is supposedly retains or improves upon the current one, upgraded noise insulation and interior materials is enough to entice me. The 19" rims and brakes are nice to haves..
Electronic differential is the only interesting thing on the list to me. Will be curious to see how tunable it is. Would be very nice to independently control wheel speed at each corner regardless of slip esp if it's implemented as well as Porsche has done (via wheel speed, steering angle, throttle, vehicle position/direction sensors... doubtful since the gearbox itself doesn't seem to have changed, but I'm hopeful). Might actually be able to keep pace with evos finally... probably not, but at least its half a step out of the stone age for the STi. Will be disappointed if it's a marketing misnomer referring to a marginally revised dccd system. The brake upgrades might hint at it being an e-diff that just applies the brakes to a spinning wheel instead of a more sophisticated system with an electronically controlled mechanical differential with more inputs than it currently has, though.
Not sure if I'm on the same page or not but since the new models came out that is how their active torque vectoring works, it's really just "brake" vectoring, nowhere near as robust or mechanical as Mitsubishi's AWC.
Right. I ranted. I'm thinking the upgraded brakes are in response to the brake vectoring system that's already in place. I'd like to see more inputs used and am curious as to what the mechanical and electrical changes include.
I drove a Focus ST at an autox test n tune which has an e-diff. I'm not sure if it's brake-based or power transfer based, but either way, I didn't like it. I felt very disconnected...the car would start understeering, and I'd to let off the gas, right at about the same moment that the e-diff kicked in and suck me back into the turn...it was then very hard to tell exactly where the limit of grip was. I'll take my real limited slip in my FRS any day, and my 08 STI diffs were quite magical as well, esp in the snow. Now I have driven an Evo X on the track, and it handled brilliantly. I thought the Evo X's still had mechanical diffs, with some electronic control (AWC, YAW, or whatever it is). In any case, it was implemented well. I guess we'll see how well Subaru implements the idea on the new STI.
There is no way they got rid of the mechanical front and rear LSD's. All "e-diffs" are not the same it is kind of a stupid marketing term. The one in the ST was just bull**** like what they use in non M BMW's which is just open diff and using the brake to slow down the slipping wheel. The STI does use individual brakes as part of the VDC but you can at least turn it off unlike that Focus ST because it has real LSD's to take over. The press release specifically mentions that only the center diff is now all electronic so I would bet that means something like it gets rid of the planetary gearset in the center diff that makes it rear biased by default and relies only on the electric solenoid controlled center clutch pack which is basically just what the evo has (they call it ACD). Subaru even says "The Driver’s Control Centre Differential (DCCD) allows the centre differential locking of the WRX STI to be dialed in and adjust its handling. It adjusts both an electromagnetic multi-plate transfer clutch and mechanical locking of a Limited Slip Differential (LSD) to distribute torque to the front and rear wheels. " So they probably just got rid of that second mechanical LSD and only rely on the clutch pack.
The in the R's defense, that girl has no clue what she's doing, and they're using crappy tires for the conditions. The whole busted car thing sucks though. Are they known for being unreliable? I ask only because I dig the car, and if I ever left Subaru, I'd want to check it out. That interior looks nice.
Death trap! Lol It sounds like they fixed his "Still broken" R by replacing a high pressure fuel pump. Working out tha bugz.
Again calm down people, mid life cycle refresh is not going to produce a hatch version. That's coming in 2019 for MY2020, mid-life cycle refreshes normally are cosmetic updates. They at least addressed some other pain points.
@ryjacobs - I agree with that sentiment, not sure what they're going for there. My two cents - the biggest thing I like about the '18 refresh is the noise dampening. I love my '16 wrx but at >60mph it's a little noisy in the cabin. Tough on longer trips to hold a conversation. Other than that and the mediocre stereo, I have no real compaints about the car
It's crazy to think that they'll actually quiet down the inside of the '18. People have been complaining about the noise in the cabins of Subarus as long as i can remember. My 02 was a squeaker...guessing that it went back further than that? Only 20-ish years to fix it, not bad! Lawlz
I actually like the new black plastic vents, but I am disappointed in the fact that they didn't try a new engine. This made my decision easy... I will be buying a GT-R for my next car rather than an STi. (Unless something drastic changes) Don't get me wrong, I love my Subie. It sounds like no other car on the road.
Lol cross shopping GT-R and STI. So if the new STI has a new engine and like 20 more horsepower you would choose that over a $100k 600hp 2 door car with a DCT? Does not compute.
Well, my lease was up in 2018. The plan was to either keep it until 2020 ish, sell it, and buy a GT-R. But speculation started creeping in on what the new STi would have in it. It made me think. It would be a lot cheaper, still fun to drive, and cheaper to maintain. So I am caught in a quandary.