md_dingo

Yeah these seats are killing me. But I don't exactly drive it every day. This is more of a bad-weather sort of car. My wife's Prius doesn't like snow and muck and such. Where as the subie luvs it! So I might just save the cash until it gets closer to winter, then worry about it. There's plenty of other projects clammering for my hard-earned cash!

That might work. I don't think she'd notice the difference, but she may notice a $500+ deduction from our checking account! :-\

Excellent, thanks both of you. Now, does either of you know how to convince my wife that this is a totally necessary change?

Does anyone know if seats from an '06 WRX will swap into a '99 outback with minimal modifications?

Oh I have no doubts that I will. It's a little different going from a very different sort of tuner/hobbiest car (VW TDI) to a gasser subby. But I think I'll have a blast. And it sure can't cost any more to maintain than the VW!

Thanks for the great info, newsoobdude! I appreciate the links and may go with the CAI. I like the community here! Nice group of folks. Thanks all for your input so far!

I have it properly anchored according to the seat and manual. I was wondering about adding some anchor points (like the L.A.T.C.H.) system used in modern cars to use in addition to the 3-point harness.

That is fantastic! There's one guy in so cal who's selling his 06 WRX seats, but it'd cost more to ship than he's asking! But they do look nice. But they aren't heated, and my old hiney likes heated seats. I'll have to find some around here, I imagine. chicagoland, you wouldn't think it'd be that hard. I'll just have to keep on the craigslists. Another thing is I'll have to put in some anchor points for my son's carseat. My VW's are welded, but I'm wondering if I can do a simple steel loop bolted through and down to the pan. Much simpler in theory, but actual execution I don't know. I'll figure it out sometime! Thanks again, nipper!

Cool, thanks. I hadn't thought of the exhaust system, really. I might just take my money and throw it into a better set of seats, tho! That and a new rearview mirror! The stock one shakes like I'm driving on a dirt road all the time. Annoys the hell out of me! How much are the autodimming ones with the compass?

That's a relief. From what I've read I about figured it was all of them. That's definitely piece of mind. I've had my share, but on my two at least they were little, easily fixed things. But they love to go through light bulbs like crazy! Yeah, I've never been a fan of the tuner boxes and such. Most are simple resistor circuits that fool the ECU into injecting more gas, which doesn't help without some other mods to go with it. My main focus was a car that was roomy enough to get my son and wife (who insists on sitting next to him) in the backseat. The Impreza does definitely NOT fit that bill. Those backseats are absurdly small. I just want something that I can chug along with over the winters and not have to worry about dumping a lot of money into and/or becoming a specialty mechanic (i.e., VW) to work on. I did that with my diesels and I don't have the time nor a patient enough wife to do it again. On the non-tuner mod front, are the WRX seats more comfortable than the standard outbacks? The stock ones kill me! No real bucket or lumbar support. And the backseats truly suck. I didn't know if the WRX's were any better or not, tho. Maybe even just something from a newer car perhaps? I would imagine I could get a set of stocks out of a newer car for $500 or so? From what I've seen it's a good group here, nicely informative without being elitist. I have a good group with the VW diesels as well and was hoping there was an analog among subaru lovers. Glad I've found it!

I recently purchased a 1999 2.5 outback. From what I've read here, this can be a potential nightmare of an engine. It has 96k miles on it and doesn't exhibit any of the bad headgasket symptoms that I've read about, knock on wood. Now being quite a noob to subes I'm not sure what options are open to me for power upgrades on this engine. This things dogs like crazy (auto tranny) compared to my decently modified VW TDi (my baby:grin: ) and I'd like to see what I can do to upgrade this car for a reasonable price, ~$500. I do like it a lot (except for the mpg!) and I can't wait to drive it this winter. Thanks for any advice!