The sc is a great daily...if the op cant afford to drive the sc, he wouldnt be able to go buy a new daily. To me it sounds like the point of the thread was to help choose which car to take, which should be the sc

 

sounds like OP just wants our opinion on which car he should take for a 400 mile trip

personally i'd take the SC400, more power for the long distance. sure you'll waste a lot more gas, but its worth it knowing you'll have the power and more reliability

(make sure you tape up the front bumper)

 

I'll add this: when I drove cross-country in my SC300 I Ioaded the trunk, back seat and passenger seat to the brim with luggage, boxes, etc. which made it a one-seater sardine can. I don't know how much weight was added but it was a few hundred pounds more. Even all that weight and a 4.27 gear (manual) I STILL got around 19-20mpg on long, flat hauls and I STILL had respectable passing power at highway speed. It was only on uphill sections of road that I needed to keep the car at 3500-4000 rpm to climb. This was without a turbo. I can only imagine an SC400 would do just as well if not better considering the above scenario is extreme with cargo and added weight since the 1UZ has more grunt.

All SC's are very good road trip cars.

 

Id go with the little impreza and keep the miles off the SC, too bad the impreza isnt the AWD version. If anything were to happen i wouldnt care much about the fwd impreza.

 

I've taken my SC400 and my 97 Civic both from MN to CA and vise versa. I would say the Civic and the Impreza are comparable since both are at about 100hp. I would say the SC will handle the mountains better and at highway speeds both are about the same because at 80mph the SC is at a lower rpm then the Civic. When driving through mountains as I would climb up a mountain the civic would gradually lose speed where as the SC if you wanted to you can still accelerate up the mountain. The only down fall from the SC is the lack of space for luggage. If you can fit all your luggage in the SC trunk then I would say take the SC. Plus the trip will be more fun with a sportier car.

 

SC all day. It's nice being able to be comfortable while driving and still have the oomf to get out of your own way uphill lol. Plus the SC looks better

 

I took the SC, and got 23 MPG roughly, pretty good. 460 miles total.


I have plans for this little impreza, I have a small collection of WRX drivetrain parts thats growing until I can put it in and finally have a manual AWD impreza.

 

Now that's a plan!

I don't know about gas mileage but with AWD, a manual box, suspension work and and just a stock EJ20(T) you'll have a very different car.

 

Heck yeah! I love those subies

 

SC400's supposedly get around 16-20 MPG. I'd take the SC just because it's more comfortable and because the mileage isn't too bad, especially if you're taking the highway most of the trip.