RE: Subaru Levorg STI Sport | Spotted

[Ilovejapcrap]

Love the actual look of these, but why wd only got rubbish engine choice in the UK I dont know

[cootuk]

I can't understand the hate for the CVT here
City drivers love autos. Put it in S# for a bit of fun.
Mate the CVT with the 2l turbo as in the Forester XT and you've got something that will tootle around but lift up it's skirt when you want to push on.
Much rather a CVT over a dsg

[Speed addicted]

cootuk said:

I can't understand the hate for the CVT here
City drivers love autos. Put it in S# for a bit of fun.
Mate the CVT with the 2l turbo as in the Forester XT and you've got something that will tootle around but lift up it's skirt when you want to push on.
Much rather a CVT over a dsg

I’ve driven a few CVTs and wouldn’t consider buying one, I don’t care how good the car it’s attached to is.

I only have autos now due to a crap left knee, my preference is for a traditional torque converter auto. I’d possibly go for a DSG in the right car as long as it was smooth.

[Mr Tidy]

cootuk said:

I can't understand the hate for the CVT here
City drivers love autos. Put it in S# for a bit of fun.
Mate the CVT with the 2l turbo as in the Forester XT and you've got something that will tootle around but lift up it's skirt when you want to push on.
Much rather a CVT over a dsg

That seems to be damning with faint praise!

Manual works best for me, especially when attached to an N/A straight 6. CVTs and Turbos are just cr*p!

[ChrisFitz]

Cracks me up all these comments on how cr*p CVT is on the Levorg Sti but none of them will have actually driven one.
Being the 1st person to have one of these in the UK and having a Hawkeye (manual of course), FQ360 and MR440 I can tell you the CVT is a very capable box. For day to day driving it's far better than the manual Sti. Not as good as the EVO SST but still very good in any mode.
My only gripe would be in S# mode it can be a tad jerky on upshift. But very quick still... Great piece of engineering.
And don't forget it's pretty much sealed for life so zero maintenance on it... (life - 120K kms I believe)

[trails]

ChrisFitz said:

Cracks me up all these comments on how cr*p CVT is on the Levorg Sti but none of them will have actually driven one.
Being the 1st person to have one of these in the UK and having a Hawkeye (manual of course), FQ360 and MR440 I can tell you the CVT is a very capable box. For day to day driving it's far better than the manual Sti. Not as good as the EVO SST but still very good in any mode.
My only gripe would be in S# mode it can be a tad jerky on upshift. But very quick still... Great piece of engineering.
And don't forget it's pretty much sealed for life so zero maintenance on it... (life - 120K kms I believe)

Readers car thread would be good if you can be arsed, I'm sure people would be interested.

[turbo310]

A belated but massive thank you for writing this article last year!!

Reading this started a process that ended up in me buying a fantastic JDM Legacy GT Touring last summer - a low mileage (should that be kilometrage?) BR9, the last generation with the EJ255 (2.5 L Turbo) engine and E-5AT gearbox. Nearly one year on and I'm happy to report that it's the best car I've ever owned!

I've always been a fan of fast Subarus and the larger Legacy, but didn't know much about importing or finding JDM models in the UK - now I do! It's a shame that the Levorg GTS replaced the Legacy GT in Japan as it's a smaller car, For me, the 5th generation Legacy GT is the ultimate Subaru to date, offering a unique point-in-time compromise giving 9/10s of the old school WRX driving experience, but in a car that's spacious, comfortable and relatively modern.

I did also test drive a couple of the slightly newer (post facelift) BRG Legacy GTs which had the same engine and gearbox combination as used later in the Levorg GTS and STi (in the article). Subaru's high torque CVT with paddle shift used in the high performance models gives a much more engaging driving experience than the CVTs in the slower models that some commenters complain about. Ultimately the choice for me (BR9 vs BRG) came down to the condition of the used JDM cars available in the UK at the time.

[trails]

turbo310 said:

A belated but massive thank you for writing this article last year!!

Reading this started a process that ended up in me buying a fantastic JDM Legacy GT Touring last summer - a low mileage (should that be kilometrage?) BR9, the last generation with the EJ255 (2.5 L Turbo) engine and E-5AT gearbox. Nearly one year on and I'm happy to report that it's the best car I've ever owned!

I've always been a fan of fast Subarus and the larger Legacy, but didn't know much about importing or finding JDM models in the UK - now I do! It's a shame that the Levorg GTS replaced the Legacy GT in Japan as it's a smaller car, For me, the 5th generation Legacy GT is the ultimate Subaru to date, offering a unique point-in-time compromise giving 9/10s of the old school WRX driving experience, but in a car that's spacious, comfortable and relatively modern.

I did also test drive a couple of the slightly newer (post facelift) BRG Legacy GTs which had the same engine and gearbox combination as used later in the Levorg GTS and STi (in the article). Subaru's high torque CVT with paddle shift used in the high performance models gives a much more engaging driving experience than the CVTs in the slower models that some commenters complain about. Ultimately the choice for me (BR9 vs BRG) came down to the condition of the used JDM cars available in the UK at the time.

Get a readers car thread up, quite a rare sight, I've not seen another one since I got mine a couple of years back

[Pebbles167]

A hard no, purely because of the CVT. They may have simulated ratio's, but they still sound awful.