Hey all Im looking at the WRX line as a daily driver (includes STi).

Ive heard that the WRX transmission is a little on the weakside, is this true?

How reliable are the boxer motors and how expensive is the maintenance on these cars?

Im not worried about creature comforts, i just need A/C, a decent sound system and reliability.

hows gas consumption?

Overall hows your ownership of the vehicle been.

Anything i should look for if I buy used?

 

<-- '05 Sti owner

Ive heard that the WRX transmission is a little on the weakside, is this true?
Heard this as well. But I think it's when you start pushing serious hp. Then again Billy modded his with a stock trans and no problems. Sti trans is supposedly much stronger.

How reliable are the boxer motors and how expensive is the maintenance on these cars?
Can't answer too much as I have 15k miles on mine. But brake pads and tires are $$$$.

hows gas consumption?
Bad. For me 15 city / 19 highway. It's the reason I got a daily driver.

Overall hows your ownership of the vehicle been.
Good. Squeaks and rattle seem to haunt the car. Interior plastic is VERY cheap and scratches if you just look at it wrong. Hard to get good workmanship at the dealer though that seems to be the norm in my experience with any car manufacturer.

Anything i should look for if I buy used?
Have the care seriously checked out b4 you buy. Especially the engine. Look for evidences of modding (injectors, ecu possibly tapped into, etc.) Most of the time (the Stis anyway) are driven very hard. Not that I would do that to MY car.

 

The WRX 5-speed is, in fact, much weaker than the STi 6-speed. I've heard of plenty of people destroying their 5sp, but noen destroying the 6sp.

I have almost 40k miles on my STi and have had no issues.

Just got back from a trip to Oklahoma, almost 4k miles I drove total. The best miles per tank I got was 350, and that was still toying around a little bit. I'm sure if I milk it around 65 or so I can get damn near 400 miles per tank.

Ownership? My father has an '05 WRX and I have an '04 STi. Been great.

Nothing out of the ordinary, just look for all the normal defects. And just because a car has mods alreayd, doesn't necessarily mean stay away. I bought my STi with a full exhaust, springs, and a few smaller mods. Not a problem out of her so far......

On a side note, if you can afford it get an STi. Completely different from the WRX. I should know, there is one of each in my family. STi has more power and torque, handles better, shifts better, etc etc. Not to rag on WRX owners or anything........

 

The 5MT is not "weak". It's an OEM part.

If you are abusive to it, it will break, just like any OEM tranny. The teeth on the gears are not beefy enough to tolerate the level of abuse some Subaru owners throw at them.

This does not in anyway make it weak.

If you like sidestepping the clutch at 6000RPMs, with max performance tires, on heavy crappy rims... I suggest you get an STI with its 6MT that can handle that kind of all-wheel abuse.

That said, there are hundreds and hundreds of cars making 300ft/lbs of torque for years now on the stock 5MT, and a lot of them do drag race.

Yes, the 6MT is a far stronger transmission.

If you have the money, transmission concerns aside, the STI is incredible bang-for-buck. If I'd known it was coming, I would have never bought my WRX in 2001 and started modding it.

 

Gas consumption: 18-21mpg

Problems:

- The AC sucks in my 2002. It is a very notable problem with the location of the AC system's temperature sensor. I don't mean "it just isn't ice cold 24/7". I mean it completely stops pumping out cold air at all for long periods of time, and then goes back to being cold. Tons of people have complained about this. I have no idea if the sensor was relocated in later years.

Hm... that's my only legitimate non-nit-picky gripe.

 

i had an 05 for 6k miles. it was a stg 2. then my tranny went. so i got rid of it. dont get me wrong.. i drove it hard. but i thought it would last longer then that. if you dont beat on it it should last a long time. great car imho

 

I've had 0 problems with my 04 WRX, and I'm just of 24k miles.

WRX tranny failures are mostly due to user error (i.e. kids thinking you can redline it and then dump the clutch, and not expect anything to break.)

As for the gas milage, I get about 22mpg in the city and like 26mpg on the highway.

And for buying a used WRX/STi.....that's one of those car's that I'd never take a chance on buying used....unless I could meet the previous owner in person. Because if you buy one from a dealer, you never know, the last owner could have been a 17 yr old punk kid who beat the living daylights out of the car.

 

thanks all!

Yea, I was expecting the premature tranny failure to be mainly driver related. However it seems a mildly worked tranny is alittle failure prone. I may end up buying new in that case, so I can monitor the break in period and use for myself.

One thing that concerns me the most is being able to do simple routine maintenance on my own, and even bolt ons (suspension, brakes, etc). Is this a tuner friendly vehicle, along the lines of Hondas in terms of simplicity? I dont want a car that kicks my ass with some weird computer design that makes absolutely no sense and is very user unfriendly.

Sorry if my questions are alittle broad but Im having a hard time getting good reviews that are long term off the net. Most are from people who have never driven the vehicle or are very short.

 

Some mods are difficult to install, some are not. Most engine related stuff is not easy. Stuff like brakes, suspension is as difficult as any other car.