Originally Posted by alex03wrx
it just depends what are your plan for this car. If you purchase a wrx it takes good money to make it fast, also parts are not cheap. So if you want a fast cheap car get a honda, but if you want a fun daily driver buy a wrx and be ready to spend so cash
Honda 4-door = not many options, and very few that will be better than an '02 G20.
If you keep it relatively stock (maybe intake/exhaust with OEM turbo, suspension, internals, etc) then you will have no problems. Common maintenence things are head gaskets and oil pan seals, but I only did them on my Legacy around 100k (at 150k and running like a champ even with RWD conversion and welded rear diff).
I'm sure people could fill this thread to the brim with endurance stories, so I will keep these short:
-Tried to blow up an EA18 by unbolting the halves ot the block from each other and running it on a bench for an hour at WOT - didn't blow up.
-After being in a flood up to the dashboard, my Legacy Turbo still drove for 3 months, and even went 0-60 in 10 seconds on 2 cylinders.