this is what i found while surfing the net. found it very interesting. no pictures yet.

2008 Subaru Impreza Compact Sedan
Available: Fall 2007

What Edmunds.com Says:A top to bottom redesign should give the Impreza the kind of hardware it needs to remain a top performing sport sedan and wagon.

What We Know: Subaru is giving the sporty Impreza a full-out redesign some two years after the minor updates which are due to appear on the 2006 Impreza. Considerably different than the current model, the 2008 Subaru Impreza will be based on a shorter version of the Subaru Legacy platform. Additionally, Subaru has decided to start building this vehicle in the United States, as opposed to Japan, at its Lafayette, Indiana plant.

source: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...5/preview.html

 

"Additionally, Subaru has decided to start building this vehicle in the United States, as opposed to Japan"

I don't care for that last part.....

 

^ that's gonna drive the price of it up...

 

i imagine the STI will still remain being built in japan... possibly WRX too

 

+1. There goes quality......

There'll be a bunch of pissed off and drunk redneck union workers slapping our cars together.....

 

At that rate, them sons of Bi&#$ES might Take an inline four and put in into a backhoe or a crop duster!!.. lol

 

What scares me even more than this is the fact that Toyota now owns GM's stake in FHI. I can see Toyota screwing with Subaru and taking the luster out of the STi. GM did the "smart thing" (lucky for Subaru) and kept their nose out of Subaru's business. Hopefully Toyota can do the same.

 

I dont' think toyota will do anything. Toyota's modo has always been "leave it if it makes money". Subaru is making money so they'll leave it be. Until impreza's and other models stop making money. I think STI's loosing it's lustre because of other sedans with similar power are getting much better fuel economy.
With EPA new fuel economy rating system. STI's window sticker will drop to 17/21.

 

The STi's price will never drop a significant amount. When someone buy's an STi they're buying a statement, or a flagship, just like a Corvette. The STi is Subaru's "image car." Also keep in mind that a ton of R&D time and money go into the STi, which is another determining factor that is going to keep the price up on the STi. No arguing that there are cheaper cars out there that can make just as much power or are making nearly as much power, but are they the "complete" performer that the STi is......

 

American auto workers are not inferior to anyone. Let's put that one to rest. Many of us are familiar with the suberb 1st and 2nd generation Mitsu Eclipse, Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser. Those were so called 60/40 American/Japanese cars. They were assembled in Illinois and they rocked. My GS Turbo had some of the best coachwork and finish I've ever seen on a car. Workers will excel anywhere if they are motivated to excel.

 

Mitsubishi Eclipses, Eagle Talons, and Plymouth Lasers were NEVER famous for their good build quality or reliability.

No, American auto workers aren't inferior to anyone. They just don't care enough to take pride in their work like the Japanese do.

 

Word

 

Honestly.

I have a 1994 Camaro with 170,000 miles on it. While I've had pretty much EVERYTHING replaced on it (3 transmission rebuilds- shoddy work, so not the car's fault) including brakes and rotors, alternators, tires, fluid changes, ABS sensors, interior trim (about 5 power window switches), a window regulator, etc. the engine has NEVER failed me. No ticks, no tocks, no oil upon start-up, nothing. That LT1 engine is great. I don't know about Ford or Chrysler's engines (never owned one) but GM's motors are fantastic.

My family are die-hard GM customers and nobody in my family has ever had a problem with a GM motor, aside from my Dad's 1989 L98 (350ci) Trans Am. The L98 spun a bearing and it damaged the block. That happened at about 110,000 miles, and it was probably just a fluke. It happens. However, I know a lot of people within the F-Body community that own L98s with over 180,000 miles on them and they run perfectly fine.

I don't believe that American cars are worse than foreign cars. I truly believe that it's a matter of the Japanese taking much more time to critique their own work and do the job correctly, aside from rushing. I just believe that the Japanese take more pride and enthusiasm in their products and go the extra step to insure a quality assembly process.

However, I don't believe that all cars are good cars just because they are Japanese; Mitsubishi in particular. I owned a 1984 Plymouth Colt (imported for Plymouth from Mitsu) which was a Mitsubishi. What a pile of crap. The engine was blowing oil like you wouldn't believe by the time there were 80,000 miles on it. Sure, 1984 was a long time ago and times change, but even though, Mitsubishi has NEVER been known for their quality or reliability. The Evolution? It's one of the greatest performance machines on the planet, yet the interiors are cheap and fall apart, their engines blow oil if you don't break them in properly (never seen anyone else's motors leak oil without proper break-in), brake calipers with peeling paint within 2 months, poor clutches, etc.

Not to mention, a lot of Evos have a lot of problems. Hop on over to EvoM and the problems are posted in abundance. Hit the Subaru forums and while there are some problems, not nearly as many are posted about as on the Evo forums.

WRX transmission problems? There's no problem with WRX transmissions. The MAJORITY of the problems lay in the blame of the driver, pulling stunts such as launching at 5500 rpm or "power shifting." Subarus (including the WRX and STi) get EXCELLENT write-ups in numerous consumer sources. If these WRX transmission problems were in abundance, these sources wouldn't be recommending WRXs or STis. And no, I'm not saying that Subarus don't have faults as well, because they do.

For the record, aside from styling, I don't think American cars are any worse than any other car on the road. I just think that patience for doing a job correctly and taking pride in your work go a long way in the completion of a finished product.

 

In fact, the DSM cars did very well on reliabilty compared to other inexpensive sports cars. I drove mine for very close to 245K miles and loved doing it. Even compared to that over-rated darling of the Japanese import sports car world: the Miata (which debuted the same year) the DSM cars compared very well while running circles around them. Each had about the same number of introductory problems.

http://auto.consumerguide.com/Auto/U...reviewshowall/

So, in your opinion do any American workers take pride in their work or is it just American auto workers that don't have pride?

 

Just wanted to add my two cents (not that anybody really cares).

Japanese automakers did what American car makers could not do. Make quality cars cheaply.

In the competition for market share (back in the late '60s early '70s?), there were two different options that could have been taken. One (taken by domestic manufacturers) was to cut the cost of the car by sacrificing part quality. This could be any part in the car ranging from material choices, or going to the lowest quoted supplier. This resulted in a cheaper car in every definition of the word.

The other option was to cut costs by looking for non-value added operations within the current process. This is where Japanese manufacturers exceled. They developed processes that would allow them to build quality cars at a lower cost. This resulted in low-priced quality cars (as opposed to cheap cars).

This resulted in the perception that foreign cars were cheaper and better then domestic cars (which they were), and market shares reflected that. In response to this, American Manufacturers began adopting Japanese manufacturing principles. The result has been dramatic improvements in the cost and quality of Domestic cars reducing the gap between domestic and foreign cars.

However, there is still the perception that all foreign cars are superior to all domestic cars. This will gradually decrease as time goes on, but everybody has their personal biases based on their background and how they were raised. (My parents were domestic car buyers - chevy in particular).

Obviously there are several other factors that influence global economics, but like I stated...this is just my two cents.

-CZ