Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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The Beating Heart of my favorite car!

I keep going back to my hour-long "timing belt, water pump and valve adjustment" video just to listen to my stout little guy's engine idle. Video link: youtu.be/OPZ8VnQlCUI
This is a good example of a low mileage, well maintained ej22. Worst thing about it is cold morning piston slap, but that's normal for these engines. I just don't drive it hard for the first minute or so. Good practice with any car.



I have so much love for this car. I think in many ways the first-gen Imprezas are "sleepers". Everything you'd expect to like about a 90's Japanese economy car as far as engineering, reliability, handling, comfort & features - plus great ground clearance and AWD.
To me the sedan body-style looks a lot like the Toyota Camry "XV10" - so much so that sometimes I need to do a double-take when casually car-spotting out on the road. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Camry_(XV10)


This thing turned me into an evangelist of the Subaru drivetrain. Where I live you can get an Impreza for about the same cost as a Corolla -which these days even get similar MPG- and it'll come with Symmetrical AWD, a smooth boxer engine with a lower center of gravity, arguably better handling. Hell, they probably even come with cruise control as standard these days (funny joke).


I'm very glad Subaru are still doing their thing.