Subaru Impreza WRX

dop50

I just sent an email to the salesman requesting prices. We'll see what happens.

Ken

paisan

If any of you out there feel the same way as I do about tires. Post your message! Maybe if enough of us complain, maybe S.O.A. will listen.

Thanks!

Ken


I'm actually lobbying for crappier tires. Seriously though. Why would you want to pay more $ for better tires when invariably they won't be the tires that YOU want.

For me, give me some of the crappiest tires you can legally put on my next new car, knock off any $ savings you make on those tires and let me put on what I want on my car after I take delivery.

-mike

c_hunter

For me, give me some of the crappiest tires you can legally put on my next new car, knock off any $ savings you make on those tires and let me put on what I want on my car after I take delivery.

That's the most accurate and most logical, yet most indirect, description of the RE-92 I ever heard! Maybe Bridgestone should use it for marketing purposes - "The RE-92: when ANYTHING else will do".

Craig

kevin111

For a standard tire the RE92s are the generic OEM tire for many manufacturers including Nissan and Toyota.

They are cheap and do the job. Getting better tires will add to the price of the car. If you were seriously thinking of upsizing (+1 or +2 sizes), then this becomes a wasted expense.

c_hunter

On a related note, I was disappointed with the stock wheels that came with my 03 WRX. They are reasonably light (~16.5 lbs) but have a hideous finish (Rust-o-leum?) and were totally mismatched with the look of the car and the wheelwell size/depth. The 05 wheels are not much better. I upgraded to 17" primarily for looks -- getting better tires and improved handling was secondary (but important). That was the first car where I was really disappointed with OEM equipment.

Craig

paisan

Love the WRX wheels on any car except the WRX. Rust??? Weird I run them in the NE and never had rust.

As for the RE92s. I think they are great all-around tires for average drivers. I definitely don't want something like more expensive SO3s put on there when I want ES100s or Faulken Azenis Sports. I'd then be paying for SO3s and getting tires I don't want.



-mike

kevin111

With the WRX's, and specifically the sedan's large wheel wells, the 16"s look undersized. 17s and even 18s look much better. For ride quality, the 17s are a better way to go.

BTW, Mike, I love the ES100s. Thanks for the recommendation. The 17s with the ES100 have a better ride than my 16s with Mich. Pilot Sport A&Ss, even if they are a little noisier. I am also getting better gas mileage with the 17s and the ES100s than the 16s with the Pilot Sport A&Ss.

c_hunter

as in spray paint....

paisan

Ah ha!



-mike

frog

The GT wagon/sedan is not much more than the WRX and a bit more refined and will carry more payload. It may be woth the testdrive and extra couple grand. Plus, being a new model its resale should be stellar- just thinking out loud.

ateixeira

So that means the RE92s are actually an advantage! LOL

Keep in mind there are several different flavors, treads, etc, of the RE92.

-juice

dop50

Thanks for all the input on the tires. The concept of putting "barely legal" tires on them and charging less is very good. However, I seriously doubt they would lower the price. The problem as I see it, is that once you buy the car, sometimes it is difficult to just go out and buy new tires out of the gate.
Most of us are stuck with the supplied tires for a year or two.

We got the '05 Outback Wagon LL Bean edition. We really like it. Don't think we can do the STi at this time, close but not quite. I would definately have to come up with tire money for that, since it comes with summer "slicks". Around here, we need tires that have good traction in rain and snow, for winter driving. Can't afford to get the STi and just park it for the winter.

Will get new tires for my WRX and keep it for a while longer. Still debating between B.F. Goodrich Traction T/A's V rated, and Conti Extreme Contact's. The Conti's are a bit less expensive, ratings are about equal, the only problem is I can't seem to find any warranty info for the Conti's, whereas the B.F.'s have a 60,000 mile warranty, for what that's worth.

Thanks again,

Ken

ateixeira

It would be like printer manufacturers. They ship toner and ink cartridges nearly empty and you have to buy them almost immediately. But you can choose which ink to buy.

-juice

bluesubie

A lot of the lower priced tires do not have a warranty. That could be the reason.

-Dennis

paisan

Aren't that bad for "normal" street driving. If you drive like a psycho, you should be on the track or auto-x and then you'd have dedicated tires and rims for it.

-mike

kevin111

"The concept of putting "barely legal" tires on them and charging less is very good. However, I seriously doubt they would lower the price. The problem as I see it, is that once you buy the car, sometimes it is difficult to just go out and buy new tires out of the gate."

- I generally agree, but wonder about the WRX. When the WRX hit the market in '01 as an '02 model, Subaru was trying to keep the vehicle under the $25K threshold. As a result, tire choice might have had something to do with it. Thus the manufacturer buys the cheapest all season tire that can withstand the 140 mph speed limit of the WRX, and uses the money on other things, like seats.

mws1672002

"Subaru was trying to keep the vehicle under the $25K threshold. As a result, tire choice might have had something to do with it. Thus the manufacturer buys the cheapest all season tire that can withstand the 140 mph speed limit of the WRX"

I wonder how well this strategy worked. When I bought my '04 I put 17 inch BBS wheels and Pirelli tires on the car. Subaru wanted $2000 for the upgrade which was very unreasonable. I think most people who buy the WRX would go up to $30,000 if it had bigger and better wheels and tires.

ateixeira

You can now, let's see how the Saab 9-2x sells. That's about what they cost loaded up.

-juice

bluesubie

Keep it under $25k base price. :-)

I've seen far more UK OEM 17's than U.S. dealer option 17's. The UK's are great for people that want to keep the OEM look without spending $2k.

-Dennis

cptplt

have you priced them, they aren't cheap! Not V rated ones anyway.$136 each at Tirerack!
You can get ones with "better performance" for less $ but Bridgestome must have a secret pact with Subaru, Honda, Toyota, Lexus! To be fair they are better than stuff like Goodyear Integrity etc.

paisan

I've said it before and I'll say it again.... if you are overdriving them on a regular basis, you should not be on the street, you should have a dedicated track tire and be on a track. I don't mind RE92s for SANE Street driving, which is exactly what these cars are being sold as.

-mike

kevin111

"have you priced them, they aren't cheap! Not V rated ones anyway.$136 each at Tirerack!
You can get ones with "better performance" for less $ but Bridgestome must have a secret pact with Subaru, Honda, Toyota, Lexus! To be fair they are better than stuff like Goodyear Integrity etc. "

- Exactly!!! I am sure these tires are sold at a greatly reduced price to the car manufacturers. Considering that manufacturers are buying 10s of thousands of sets of tires, it is a completely different realm than us just buying 4.

ateixeira

I bet Subaru pays half or less than that. They buy huge volumes of Bridgestone tires.

-juice

dop50

I would be very surprised if Subaru actually pays more than $200 for a set of four. I really can't imagine why they cost so much at tirerack for such a low rated tire. Guess maybe Bridgstone is making a larger profit margin there to make up the difference. Or maybe, most people don't really check them out and the idea is that most people think they get a better tire for more money. I would normally think that, had I not checked the ratings. Kinda like someone once said.... "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time."

High volume reduces cost tremendously, however you also need to consider that quality control suffers when quantities go up also. It's just the nature of the beast.

Ken

trevian2

I would guess any tire company that provides the stock tires for any higher volume car will give the car company a pretty good price.

Most consumers don't even think about what tires to replace their old ones with, I would guess a lot of people just ask for the same tires that were on the car and that is why the tire company can charge as much as they do.

When I had to replace the tires on my Accord due to a flat, I knew nothing about other tires due to the relative emergency of the situation, that i just asked for whatever was stock. The dealer told me I could get cheaper tires that were just as good and I really appreciated that.

Now with my WRX, I'm starting to do a little more research so I have a better idea of what would be a quality tire when I replace my RE92s.

cptplt

the H rated RE92s are fairly inexpensive, its the V ones which are outrageous!
I don't even want to know how much the 17 in ones on the new Legacy turbos etc cost!

ateixeira

I'm not sure if a single Subaru owner replaced them with the same set, not that I've heard of anyway!

-juice

dop50

"I'm not sure if a single Subaru owner replaced them with the same set, not that I've heard of anyway!"

Hmmm, Imagine that. Hehe!

Ken

andmoon

What are you fellas all talking about? Re92's are real cheap...a set of 4 sells for about 300 to 400 ...catch is they usually have a couple thousand miles on them and come mounted on stock alloys.
Don

ateixeira

LOL

-juice

trevian2

Juice - I doubt a single owner that visits these discussion boards has replaced them with the same set. But I would guess there are many more owners out there that might not even know what Edmunds is.

Juice - by the way, is there a discussion that you haven't commented in? I noticed you over in the Element discussion a few weeks ago.

ateixeira

I guess there's no rhyme or reason to which threads I follow.

All the Subaru threads, plus whatever I've test driven lately, or have an interest in. Sprinkle in some new models, and voila. My subscriptions.

-juice

sensei1

Hey, haven't visited the sites in a while and haven't posted in a while either so maybe I'll get it going again.

Since I've joined the Silicon Valley stats of RIF'd, had plenty of time to drive around. Made a trip to Vegas and had a chance to open it up a bit on my WRX. Maybe some of you have done it a lot but I haven't in a longer sustained manner.

Was able to sustain century markers longer than a few minutes and boy, didn't feel any different than running freeway cruise speeds, very smooth and stable with more to give.

Had a run-in too with a new (no tags) VW R32 at about 2AM coming back. Kept up with it pretty well at 3 figures for a while but backed off at the thought of critters jumping on the road at night.
They can sure do damage, and at freeway speeds? Ouch, couldn't bear the thought.

Good run though. With 3 passenngers and luggage, the car sure didn't feel like labored at all. (AC on even). 2 yrs. 5 mo. and still having fun.

paisan

Yeah street racing is cool.

Take it to the track if you wanna do some real high speed driving in a safe controlled environment

-mike

sensei1

No, not me Mike. Pacing @ 2AM on the interstate is a little difft. from popping clutches or weaving on 35 MPH city streets. Throw no stones, unless you're clean.

Fredy

paisan

I am actually. It is different but still unsafe, as you said an animal can run out, etc. On the track 2 seconds after you crash (or before you are finished crashing) the ambulance is en-route to rescue you. If you go off the road at 2am cause you are doing 100+ they might not find you til morning....

-mike

sensei1

Thanks for the concern Mike. I actually pride myself in being a responsible driver. Just thought I'd share how stable the car was at those speeds.

I'm sure you've always kept it to the posted speed limits, always. I'm sure you've never experienced a hair up .... every now and then. Thanks anyway. ;-) Give me a break.

twrx

"90 miles an hour is the speed I drive" (Jimi)

ateixeira

mike has definitely chilled out and now follows the creed, "take it to the track". Nothing wrong with that. I don't think he's trying to sound preachy, just encouraging others to do the same.

Just my 2 cents'.

-juice

saintviper

Perhaps like taking his driving to the track, he could take his preaching to the church.

paisan

If you don't like hearing it, then ignore my posts. If someone came in here saying they were out shooting off their guns in an unsafe manner would anyone be here saying "don't put him down for shooting off his guns?"

-mike

paisan

PS: It is ILLEGAL ACTIVITY and I doubt that Edmunds would want to promote ILLEGAL activity.

-mike

ozman62

Hey guys, let's get along. We all have our warts, if someone's opinion bugs you, ignore it. Mike has changed his ways, that's cool. He realizes that maybe some of his previous behaviours maybe weren't the most responsible, and now he's trying to help others realize that too. He got the cajones to stand up and say it, I for one respect him for that. Maybe the delivery will raise some hackles, but the message (IMO) is right on.
My 2 cents,
Owen

paisan

Thanks, I've also toned it down a bit too on my presentation. I don't do the gory detail thing anymore.

-mike

ateixeira

That Honda/Acura board refer to itself as the Temple of you-know-what. So maybe this is.

-juice

paisan

I guess that would make Colin the priest in thornbirds? haaaaaaaaaaa

-mike

pat

Hey folks - let's dispense with the personal comments and get back on track, er, topic here, okay?

searcher1

I'm looking for information from Canadian WRX owners regarding what they paid for their cars and what their experiences were with Cdn dealers. I'm in Vancouver BC, and would like to start pricing WRXs. I'm in the market for a wagon, but the sedan is the same price or close to it, so any info here is useful.

Edmunds does not compile dealer cost information or TMV prices for Canada. In fact, there seems to be little if any useful pricing information for north of the border available anywhere on the net. Frustrating.

I'd like to visit local dealers with some idea of invoice cost - otherwise I'm flying blind.

Also posted a message in the WRX wagon and WRX buying experiences threads.

Thanks,
S.

pat

Well, the WRX Prices Paid & Buying Experience discussion is the right place for your question, so I'm going to ask that replies to your post be made at that link instead of here.

I appreciate everyone's cooperation.

paladinvp

I have a WRX 02. I live in New England and average 20,000 miles driving per year. These stock tires suck as far as winter driving or in rain (Hydroplaneing)ect. Any ideas for a good replacement high performance all season, considering using winter tires from late november to april and high performance all season rest of the year. any recommendations.