New half forester owner

martin336 · Post by **martin336** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:37 pm

Hi everyone!

I recently returned after 5 years of teaching English over in Japan. was working at a small university in ***ui (about 3 hours north from Osaka).
Edit* swearing filter seems to *** the name if the city... um....

In the winter times i bought a Forester (my 1st subi) to get around in the snow and go skiing. Loved it. Sadly when time finally came to pack my bags and head back to Australia the cars were not able to be imported. Due to the rather substantial amount of junk (and cars) i had collected over the 5 years i picked the container option, chopped the foresters in half and brought them home for parts.

They are VERY cheap over there, i paid about $350 for the 1st one (turbo/manual), it ran out of rego so just bought another... $2100 about for the 03/04 model ("crossover"/turbo) with another 7 months reg.

Anyway! my plan is to find a high kms, blown engine one at some point and try to swap all the good bits back over. +have a whole LOT of spares, and if time and $ allow go around aus for a change since i have seen more of other countries than of our home!

Brumby Kid · Post by **Brumby Kid** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:43 pm

Welcome!
That sounds awesome.
Are they the gt STi model?
Rumor has it that the gt's came stock with STi gear over there.
Must have been hard to decide to chop them.
Can't wait to see the projects unfold.
Which engine is it? Depending on what it is you could put that engine in any Subaru.

Cheers Cam

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:58 pm

wow thats cheap

martin336 · Post by **martin336** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:06 pm

Hi Cam, thanks for the reply.

im not too sure... there were some STI badges, and its on the exhaust of the 2nd car. Engines are the 2L turbo. EJ20 i think? Ive tried the "attachment" option on the post for a photo of the 1st car. There were a LOT of different versions over there, in total i actually owned 4 different ones. The are SO good to drive in the snow compared to "normal" cars.

martin

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:35 pm

I'm curious about the swear filter, thought it was fixed so words like cockroach would work again ???

Just re-read your post...now packing my bags to go to Japan for cheap Subies, NOT

cheap or what??

martin336 · Post by **martin336** » Sat Jul 14, 2012 7:07 pm

Fu-kui city. maybe putting a dash in works...

Prices on used cars really are "crazy" cheap but the cost of getting things to australia, and all the middle men that try to cash in on the process, make it a bit mixed. Left the other 2 foresters there as they didnt fit in anymore, still in the scrapyard in Kobe last check.

on that note, if there are any small bits you simply cant get here in aus your welcome to email me ( martin336@gmail.com ) and i can try find it in japan. Still have my Yahoo auction account over there. (similar to ebay).

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:04 am

***ui City - test,

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:06 am

, alright, filter can't spel

I guess some miscreants can't either

f u k u i c i t y

sorry, I should be in the sandpit

I put double space bar and did not translate into anything more than one space....

(wonders just how 'small' an XT6 Vortex/Alcyone is

) for your parts getting offer.

Tell you what we could really do with is a coupla Japan based forum members - Subie enthusiasts preferred. We could keep them busy

Tell you what, curious as to new car prices over there - relative to here or cheap to begin with, or very fast downward price spiral ?

martin336 · Post by **martin336** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:41 am

New car prices don't seem to be all that different (depends on make/model/country), but depreciation is MUCH faster. a 5 year old car is often near worthless. almost all 2000 model and older subi's are worth less than $1000, only a few WRX still fetch a bit of money. A friend of mine just bought an immaculate B4, $1700 (rego value)... i think it was a 2001.

Yahoo auctions japan is a good place to just look at things, sometimes a few bargains too. Shipping is the big expense.

I have no idea what an XT6 vortex is.... some kind of supercharger?

Post by **TOONGA** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:05 pm

martin336 wrote:
I have no idea what an XT6 vortex is.... some kind of supercharger?

the XT vortex is the 2.7 litre flat six version of this car

we got the vortex XT4 some XT6s' were imported but they are a much sought after rarity.

TOONGA

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:10 pm

japanese cars depreciate like our commodores and falcons by the sounds of it

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:10 pm

Sorry, 1985 to 1989 models developed in a windtunnel with drag coefficient of 0.29 for the early fwd models, to 0.31 for the turbo fulltime 4WD models - sitting a little higher, 2 door, looked a bit like a Honda Prelude of the day.
Known as Vortex XT in Oz, XT in US or rather the 4 pots were XT4, then in later years 89 to 91 ? they made more room in engine bay, added two pots to EA82 and called it an ER27 for 2.7 litre flat six ....http://www.subaruxt.com has some goodies

Cars are cheap used , rego is a little pricey - think we knew that from years back - the old API engine imports story