Subaru Owners!

[AWDE30]

A few e30 owners on r3v also own subys so maybe they can help me out. I am thinking about picking up a 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX TR. The car is black with grey/black interior. Its a TR (tuner ready) so it lacks fancy options like rear wing, fog lights, painted mirrors, auto climate control. It would be a college car for the next few years and more than likely a DD while I continue to restore my iX. I have drove the car in the winter and it reminds me so much of my iX in the snow, unlike newer awd bimmers. I never really got into Subaru's alot since I never thought I could afford one I liked, and I also planned on owning BMW's for life. What should I know about them. Do they have quirks or anything I should look for? I can get it for a few grand under "Poor" blue book value but, it needs a little work that I could do myself on the cheap. Another minus is that it has 56k, I would think it not much to worry about, but like I said I have no idea. Its a good looking car and has 5% tint all around, 17" stockers, and a spare set of aftermarket black rims. The car is a 5 speed with the 2.5L boxer engine, which was new in a WRX for 2006. Here is a general photo of what the car looks like.




If you could maybe post a photo of your Suby, what maintenance you have done, likes and dislikes, and current miles, I could start to get a general feel for the brand.

[mrsleeve]

you owe me money ;)


Get the scooby I am kinda looking in to a 99 2.5rs coupe, IX's are just hard to find parts for .

[Roque]

I have a 2005 STi with 43k mi. It's my 2nd STi as the first one was a 04' and some idiot just stole it. Concerning to maintenance the main thing is to take care of the tranny and differential fluids, which must be replace at every 25k mi or so. Of course it depends on the car use but do not hesitate on changing that stuff as you don't know the way it's been treated.

Also from experience (extensively tested my Subaru at track events) the second most important upgrade apart from exhaust mods is the addition of an oil cooler. I’ve seen a 20 degree F drop in temperature which is really good to extend engine life. For sure it depends on your location but here in Puerto Rico with a normal temp range of 85-95 degree F all year long it is essential. Subaru’s are great and reliable cars as long as you maintain it periodically. IWSTI and NASIOC are excellent sources for info and used parts. My nick there is CJR_STi.

Last but not least the most important thing is that Subies are rally and road racing vehicles, not drag kings. At least if you're not planning to spend tons of $$$ in tranny and other breakable parts, worst is the case with a TR as the 5 speed is weaker that the 6 speed on the STi.

Anything else just aks me.
Carlos

[Bill-B]

you owe me money ;)


Get the scooby I am kinda looking in to a 99 2.5rs coupe, IX's are just hard to find parts for .

DO IT! My best friend has one and is going to be making it a 2.0RS courtesy of an EJ20 in the very, very near future

[mrsleeve]

^^^^^^^^

i dont know if I will go the Ej20 route though, I looking for the mileage an AWD factor as a DD, the e30 will be getting a s5x swap plus boost someday and the truck while is a great DD is hard on the pocket book (110 bucks in the last week and I havent gone anywhere)

[AWDE30]

you owe me money ;)


Get the scooby I am kinda looking in to a 99 2.5rs coupe, IX's are just hard to find parts for .

For the amount of money that most E30's require to be perfect, one could be driving a much newer car. I hate the feeling I get when something breaks on my iX and not knowing if I will have to pay $100 or $1000 on a part that might be NLA from the dealer. Subaru's give you that same awd feel as an iX but, with cheaper Japanese parts costs. This is why I am looking at a Subaru.

[eighteight325is]

We bought a 2005 2.5 RS wagon for my wife. Obsidian black pearl, automatic (she doesn't drive stick), all stock except a K&N panel filter and a different head-unit.

It currently has around 70K miles on it and I think it only went into the dealership for one warranty item which had something to do with the fake passive alarm system not making noise anymore to let you know it was "armed"

Other than that the car has been solid. Goes like hell in the snow, reasonably fun to drive, maintenance has been easy (I just did the 30k mile interval service for the second time not to long ago and I was able to knock it out in an hour an a half.

The only issues I have with the car have been:

1. Subaru barely puts paint on their cars. Seriously, without a bra or protective film the hood looked sandblasted after a year, and any little thing will chip the paint down to the primer. Even the dealership guys recommend putting film on the car.

2. Not that it would matter for you, but I'm not crazy about their automatic tranny. It hunts a lot and from my research the only way to make it feel more solid is to rebuild with a shift kit, which I'm not going to waste my money on.

3. Potenzas...I think the RE92's were stock on damn near every Subaru and they were terrible and ridiculously expensive if you had to replace one. Only thing was, they seemed to last forever. We finally ditched them last summer for some high performance all-season Toyo's and the car handles much better in all conditions.

[kway]

I haven't found Subaru parts prices to be all that cheap. My wife has an '02 WRX wagon (bugeye). Front rotors (pair) $180.00. Timing belt, $120.00. The A/C evaporator is leaking, so I'm going to have to do that before summer $300.00. Can't do that without also replacing the receiver/dryer, another $100.00 there. This one takes the cake though, how's $178.00 for an oil drain plug sound? Yes, one hundred and seventy-eight dollars. This is just what I'm remembering off the top of my head.

I'd also kill to upgrade the factory headlights, which are about as useful as a couple mayonnaise jars full of fireflies, to the far superior (aesthetically and practically) JDM/EDM setup. That'll be $1100.00 please.

Priority right now is getting the 5 speed tranny rebuilt. It's shot with only 114k miles on the clock. I've got a quote of $3000.00 from a local Subaru specialist. I don't really have any other options, it needs it NOW. I'm going to try to get an appointment for Monday.

I'm not trying to scare you away from it, ours has actually been a pretty good car other than the transmission and the A/C. As you can see, none of the rest that I listed is nickel and dime glitchy type stuff, and the car is fun to drive. Just don't think parts are going to be practically free compared to the e30, and you won't have easy resources like RealOEM to look things up.

The '06 trans is beefed up from the earlier ones, but you still want to treat it kindly. Ours is a very early '02 so it has the weakest of the weak.

[dlmpsy]

My work car is an '07 Impreza. No problems so far, but I don't like the factory tires (Potenzas). They are "OK" for most instances, but excel at nothing. This site has a wealth of information on Subies http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/ The WRX is a true tuner car, there are so many things available for it, and from what I have read you can get a good jump in power and handling for about $2000.

[jerods87e30]

BMW FTW.





:ohsnap:

[Ray McCooney]

I do believe you will be heading towards the realm of glass transmissions (5 speeds) and the pain-in-the-ass-ed-ness of working on a horizontally opposed engine configuration (I assume you will be the main proprietor of the maintenance). Scoobies are also notorious for being thirsty when it comes to fuel consumption.

Good luck to you sir.

[AWDE30]

I do believe you will be heading towards the realm of glass transmissions (5 speeds) and the pain-in-the-ass-ed-ness of working on a horizontally opposed engine configuration (I assume you will be the main proprietor of the maintenance). Scoobies are also notorious for being thirsty when it comes to fuel consumption.

Good luck to you sir.

So what to do? They aren't really that bad in the reliablity area are they?

[AWDE30]

Any other help from you WRX owners?

[eighteight325is]

I've enjoyed working on the boxer engine. It still sits in the engine bay the proper way and for the most part there is plenty of room to work. The WRX might be a little tighter with the addition of the turbo plumbing.

Other than the 30K mile engine service intervals I've had to do very little with the Impreza.

AWD does eat up a little more fuel than some other cars but I'll bet the Impreza still gets better fuel economy than my E30 though.

[AWDE30]

Thanks for the info. ^^^