2.5RS Coupe Vs Sedan

[inski]

The sedan seems a lot more rigid.  Sedans seem more rigid than the Impreza wagon, too, for some reason.  which to me feels like more responsive steering due to the better rigidness. I hated the big ass doors on the coupe.

the 99 has an open rear diff which results in better donuts in the snow but less take off, less rubber pushing the car when you really need to go

 

[sooch]

My friend Mike has a 97 with an sti swap, and a 95 coupe. There's a reason why the sti swap went into the sedan instead.

All cars have a turbocharged ej20 in them in japan. Unless of course you are referring to something else. My sedan is considerably more rigid than my coupe was, but that also might have to do with the rust I had on my coupe.

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

Improved body stiffness in sedan is due to addition of B pillar between the door openings. In the coupe, it's a looong span between door posts = creaky creaky. Rollover protection is also substantially better in sedan vs coupe. I have even seen roll cage failure in coupe-based rally cars that took big hits to top of windshield area.

 

[Vecken]

All cars have a turbocharged ej20 in them in japan. Unless of course you are referring to something else. My sedan is considerably more rigid than my coupe was, but that also might have to do with the rust I had on my coupe.

his 97 is a US model, and imported the entire drive train and front sub frame from a jdm sti. I drove his 95 around for a week (with the 2.2 out of the 97) and i could definitely notice the creaking you speak of (of course the 200k miles has nothing to do with that...)

 

[flat4awd]

I had the coupe version, and I did my best to tighten everything on it with urethane bushings and other forms of bracing. Thing was unreal predictable, with handling, weight transfer etc. I always wanted a sedan, because of how impossible it was to tote around tires, or anything in the back. Zero storage, and the doors were stupid heavy. Very difficult to do rear struts, or clean the inside of the rear cabin. Mine was an 01' RS, so it had the LSD, it was a fun car driving-wise, but a pain to work on compared to older more 'stock' Impreza's. I also can't stand the EJ25, but that's a different subject altogether.

 

[Vecken]

no i agree with the 2.5 part. i took my time polishing the heads and block by hand, setting and cleaning everything perfectly, and of course, she still ticks like a grandfather clock...

 

[roadtrip1098]

Okay, so here's the end result. The 2 door was in better shape overall, seemed to drive stronger and appeared to be better taken care of. The major detractor from the 2 door was that the steering wheel had been swapped out and the airbag light was on as a result. This made me question how severe that accident was all those miles ago. I ended up getting the 4 door, which is presently parked in my garage awaiting parts and rust repair before I even attempt to register and inspect it. There are a couple reasons I purchased the 4 door. The owner dropped the price pretty significantly, and the CEL codes will all be easy fixes.

I'm tackling the brakes tonight, rust this weekend and will hopefully have new headers, cats, O2 sensors, muffler, side skirts, and fender flares in within the next month. Off road tires and skid plates sometime prior to Winter. I'm pretty sure I need to pick up a fuel filter and a coil before making it a daily driver as well. The struts need to be replaced, so those will probably be swapped out to a coil over system by the end of summer. Next year I'll start looking at swapping it.