General Q's

Hi, I've been thinking of getting an Impreza for winter driving (up here that's about November through May :D) and I had a few questions about Impreza's in general:

1. Is there an easy way to tell if one is AWD or FWD without getting under the car?
2. What was the first and last year of the two-door models?
3. Were any of the two-doors imported into the US Turbo'ed from the factory?
4. What are the differences in the cars from year to year, if any?
5. What is the difference between US and JAP spec STi's and WRx's
6. Did the US get any 2-door WRX's?
7. What years did they come in blue?
8. Is it difficult to turbocharge a N/A car, or do you have to swap the entire engine out?

Thanks! :smile:

as far as i know subaru has only been makeing AWD cars for a while now, im not sure when they started makeing only AWD cars, but for the most part if you get anything from the 90's on it should be AWD. and for the other stuff you might want to wait for someone that knows more about subarus than me ;-)

1. Go behind the car, bend over, and look for a rear differential. Very easy.
2. The Impreza line was brought to the US begining with MY93. The coupes were available from 1995 - 2001.
3. No, not by Subaru. But there are several USDM coupes that have Subaru turbo motors from foreign models swapped in.
4. Plenty. More than I can recall off the top of my head.
5. Mostly the motors, but there's other details, too.
6. No. See number 3.
7. Probably all of them, but the shade/name of the blues has changed several times.
8. There are turbo kits available for the N/A Subaru motors, but the core issue is the reliability of a turbo on a motor designed to be N/A vs. a motor designed to be turbocharged. They are designed differently, to achieve different results.

1. Up to 1996 the Impreza was available in FWD too, if the car you're looking at is an earlier model than that, do as Jay mentioned.
2. Jay's answered.
3. Same answer as 2.
4. Same answer as 2. Although major was external cosmetics (bumpers, trims, etc.)
5. Motors and trims, a lot of cosmetic stuff.
6. None that were imported by Subaru, some came in privately.
7. WR Blue was available from 1998 onwards, prior to that was a teal blue and there was also a Sedone Blue pearl available.
8. What Jay said for #8 too :)

major difference between the jdm and usdm STi is the 2.5L in the usdm and the 2.0 in the jdm, correct? There's a bunch of other little piddly stuff, but that's the big main thing. The jdm motor puts out a lot of power, too, though.