Allow me to introduce LoudRice
 

Hello all,

I recently decided to step up my environmentalism by trying to squeeze every extra MPG out of my admittedly selfish car (hopefully a diesel/scooter/etc is in my future) but so far I'm pretty impressed considering that it is Turbo/AWD and I got 25MPG on my last tank including an autocross. Still I'm not going to stop trying until I get close to 35MPG. Any tips are appreciated, any other Subarus out there?

Dan

my friend and i were just talking about his fe in his sti today. it will be intresting to see what you can get even tho it itsnt a sti its pretty close.

with a turbo, you should be able to adjust the boost lower when you don't need it, in theory a low boost turbo engine is running more efficently then a non turbo engine, of course it's all in how you use it, and how much of the power being produced is being used, if you don't need power, why creat it?

You interested in rally? That's one of my little obsessions. Love the car, and there's definitely hope for it's mileage.

My wife has an unmodified '05 N.A. 2.5L Saabaru with a stick. She gets between 30 and 32 mpg with some minor hypermiling techniques. That's ~45% above what EPA says it's supposed to get (20/27, 22 combined). You could probably get 35 or more if you put some quality time into it.

Yeah, but a cat on.

And welcome!

Staying out of the boost as much as possible is likely your best starting point. But doing that for very long can make one wonder why they have a sports car at all.

I had both an Isuzu Impulse RS AWD Turbo (~400 HP and 2500lbs), and a more or less stock STi. If I got low 20's out of either car, it was an exceptional tank of gas. More often 15-16 mpg was the norm for both of them. Absolute power corrupts absolutely! :D

Now when I drive, it's our new mini-minivan, which just doesn't produce the same accerlation grins, so I don't even bother - but I still don't slow down for the corners much. It's quite impressive in the handling department.

Anyway, welcome and good luck.

a turbo acts like a muffler for the car. all the exhaust noise has to go around the turbine and looses a lot of the energy that it would normally have. so a "cat" might not help as much as you think.
the new srt/4 neon had no muffler, just a cat. and it is no that loud.

This isn't about noise levels...

sorry svoboy. quoted the wrong person.

No worries, happens to us all.

I see the biggest problem in getting good FE is the temptation of the boost guage itself. It would be like trying to maintain a healthy marriage with a few UCLA cheerleaders living in your guest house. It could be done, but "deliver us from temptation" would be going through my head alot.

My dad just bought one of those too! Yeah, the EPA mileage stinks, and Dad isn't too easy on the FE, he gets about 27 MPG average. With that in mind, I think you should easily get 30-35 with LoudRice by simply doing some minor improvements.

I'd be interested to see how you do. I almost went with the Subie Legacy, but decided on the RSX for the size, price and fuel economy.

You guys have it lucky. I could've imported the legacy into Canada for the same price as the Imprezza. Which gives you an idea how overpriced Subies are here.

I've heard that CC's reduce noxious gases but actually increase greenhouse gases...what we need is some real ethanol like Brazil has instead of the corn scam :( ...or to drive less, which would be ideal.

As far as noise, its pretty tame under 3k RPMs and the sound is beautiful because of the boxer engine; I wouldn't want to make it quieter. I've had a number of cops follow me with the exhaust and the one who pulled me over did it for another reason without even mentioning the exhaust. I'm still surprised; the thing is huge, I can stick my arm in it down to the elbow :D

Cats do not increase GHGs, they are directly proportional to the amount of fuel burnt. :)

Burnt Fuel != GHGs

There is certainly an effect although I am not entirely sure what it is; Carbon Monoxide is not a greenhouse gas (but a poisonous one) and cats turn it into Carbon Dioxide which is. They also turn unburned fuel into Carbon Dioxide. I have read conflicting arguments of their effect on Nitrous Oxide which is a shorter-lived (I believe) but more potent GHG.