My little Dilemma - 08STI or 09GT-B

[Roddez]

As some of you may have read, I am having issues with my current car lease. So I may be looking for a new car in the next couple of weeks.

It will be a Liberty of course, but which model remains the difficult question. The options are:

2008 STI - Manual
2009 GT Spec B - Manual

The STI has more power, but not much more and I don't really like the ALCANTARA fake suede inserts. The Spec B now includes Sat Nav as standard and is about 10 grand cheaper. There is no way I will be paying 3K for it as an option. There are some good deals on both at the moment and I do think that the STI would hold it's value come the end of the lease.

How much harder is the ride in the STI compared with the Spec-B?

I also should say that I will not mod the car.

So which is it?

[jdm rsk]

sti of course

[GTSPECB STI]

MY08 WRX STI is considerably more comfortable to drive than the old pig model but its still not as comfortable as the Lib GT imo. I test drove the MY08 STI R Spec back in Dec 07. Very much more refined in terms of suspension and feel. If you do some research you will find that WRX STI traditionally holds its value extremely well. I leased an MY06 WRX STI in Oct 05 and traded it in on my current ride in June 07. I actually got money back on the trade-in so I had no complaints about it holding its resale value. If you have no interest in mods or track work then the Lib GT is the go I reckon.

[smythie]

I thought he was asking about a Liberty STi

[Arith]

I reckon you should save your money and get the GT-B, especially if you're not interested in tracking or modding it. The STi only just edges out the GT-B, but if you're not the modding type or don't plan to street fight it even, the GT-B is more than enough to get around in. SatNav should be very handy as well.

[senator]

tb sti.......all the way... the ride is not too harsh, as for the seats inserts.... they do help you from sliding off the seat due to lack of side support...........

btw a you wanting a sedan manual???........... when i placed my order i was told there were none left...... but car sales has a few manuals now......

[swingn]

I've seen the TB STI's in Manual (Generally wagons - Don't say anything senator ) for around the 65k mark. Which if I'm not mistaken, is around the same price as the MY09 GT-B...?

TB STI would be my personal choice. You get lots of little things like better rims, Brembo breaks, quad tip exhaust etc etc etc. So if you are 100% not going to do mods, that would be the best way to go IMO.

& just incase you did mean WRX STI... Rod, I thought you had more taste then that mate

[ultrablue]

big brakes or satnav ,i would go for the big brakes

[senator]

I've seen the TB STI's in Manual (Generally wagons - Don't say anything senator ) for around the 65k mark. Which if I'm not mistaken, is around the same price as the MY09 GT-B...?

TB STI would be my personal choice. You get lots of little things like better rims, Brembo breaks, quad tip exhaust etc etc etc. So if you are 100% not going to do mods, that would be the best way to go IMO.

& just incase you did mean WRX STI... Rod, I thought you had more taste then that mate

been a while since i bagged you about your mummy wagon......

i know there a few sedans in manual doing the rounds.....

[TorpedoCreative]

if you are not going to mod it then go the STi. Better brakes, comes with quads, nice rims, sti trim, better resale

James

[chriskan]

I went through the same decision when I bought mine. I initially said I wasn't going to mod it, but even if I was, the bits that were on it were going to be quite capable the power I was after:

Brembos (about 3-3.5k street price?) + braided lines
Enkei's - "only" 18's, but a nice lightweight wheel none-the-less
Other suspension bits - do tighten up the handling.
and reasons people have mentioned already.

I ended up getting mine for just on 62,500, and that was fairly humstrung negotiations coz I had a trade-in. Not sure what the Spec-B's are going for now, but given the current car market, and coming up to the end of the year, dealers would be keen to move 08 stock out the door before 09, so you should have some decent bargaining power.

Satnav.. whilst it's great to have it built in, for me it wasn't a deal breaker - might be for you. But you could always integrate a garmin into the cubby for around $600 incl the cost of the garmin (say $400) + some custom work by an installer.

[WhiteGTB]

If I had that choice I'd go the TB STi.

So many goodies on the car and a sound base to work on for mods.

GT B is nice with the sat nav, but I'd pick the Brembo's and handling goodies over the sat nav.

STi buddy

[subnub]

I had exactly this choice, though mine was made a little easier because there was a bit of a wait on the MY09s. But even without the wait I think I would have made the same choice

Brembos, wheels (no I'm not painting them black haha), subtle bodykit, exhaust, short-shift gearstick (I think that's STi-only?), a few interior niceties, and being the STi and one of a limited run shouldn't hurt resale either. Having that little bit of extra warranty-friendly horsepower is nice too but to be honest that wasn't the deal maker, 10kW is insanely easy to get out of most turbo cars, and having seen the 55kW gains some of you guys have made with basic mods confirms that. The ride is actually pretty soft and still gets a bit bouncy in the corners, but is comfy and more than enough for most of what is likely to throw it at.

[Roddez]

Well, it looks like my dilemma has been solved - no new Car,

Custom Fleet won't cancel my lease, despite the bad info they gave me, and they won't issue me a new fuel card. My new company was suitably unimpressed when I asked them to re-imburse me for fuel I have paid for...

Why can't things just work like they should and where has customer service gone?

[subnub]

Argh that sucks Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere and I'm covering old ground, but does your new employer have an agreement with them? If so it might be worth having your employer put some pressure on them. The only thing stopping Custom Fleet from helping you out is that they don't want to. Is the fuel card part of the lease agreement? If so I'd be asking them why they are refusing to provide an item that the contracts stipulates that they have to. If not, I don't know where to go.