Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon

cptplt

never heard of this but suppose it could be true but more importantly, Subarus have offsets which are different from many other makes and I know for a fact there is no 17 1/2 in wheel with a 48-53mm offset which is what you would need for a Subaru! You are quite limited in wheels selection compared to other makes when trying to fit wheels on a Subaru due to offset and bolt pattern.

kevin111

They can supposedly take either a 17" tire or an 18" tire. Is he just blowing smoke, or does an animal really exist? Also, do these type of rims seem like a logical step, or they give up in performance what they make up in versatility?

ateixeira

5x100mm bolt pattern is fairly standard for mid-size imports, but yeah, the offsets are funky and unique.

-juice

storyteller

Hey, guys, would this be too much of a risk? There's a red WRX wagon on EBay that was in an accident that sounds like a fender-bender (2 fenders, hood, bumper, headlights replaced). Car was fixed at a shop. Passed an alignment test. Buyer will share a photo of accident damage. He wants $16,000. Guarantees of no significant damage. 9K miles.

Is this the Subie I've been looking for? Money IS an issue. Please advise! :-)

Steve

sportmac

I am still confused about wheels and tires. As best as I can determine, the standard WRX wheel (16x6.5)can support 205/55R16 (standard) or 215/45-17 tires. Does this equate to 16" and 17" tires?

kevin111

You can get 215/45-17s as an expensive option from Subaru with the 17" rims. You could put on 225/40-17s if you get a big enough rim to put them on.

lippolds

Was it totaled? Does it have a Salvage title? If so the damage would have to be great or the frame bent. I would be very wary of such a car. What about a used 2002? I have seen quite a few of them out there as many people find them too fast or too small (especially for a family car)

WarpDrive

It's rather simple

The standard 16 inch wheels come with 16 inch 205/55R16 tires.

If you choose the 17" inch wheel option, it comes with 17 inch 215/45R17 tires.

You CANNOT put the 215/45R17 on the 16x6.5 or vice versa.

WarpDrive

The bottom line is:

If the wheel is 16 inches, then the tire size must end in the same number. Hence, the Subaru 16 inch wheel takes the 205/55R16 tire.

You can order 17 inch wheels as an upgrade package (which cost a lot of money) and you'll end up getting 215/45R17 tires instead.

karl1973

If you don't know what tire can fit on what rim, maybe it is time to read up on some info. This is not like OJ slipping on a shrunken leather glove.
Try www.tirerack.com Even though it is a commercial site, there is a lot of good information on it. Read a little.

robmarch

what does the "guarantee" promise? If they let you buy the car and return it for a full refund, no questions asked, after you have it inspected by a trusted mechanic, then I would be less worried. If not, forget it. You're merely trusting him over the internet, which is not a good thing, when you're so heavily invested.

storyteller

Robmarch: thanks, I'll explore that, plus the issue of whether or not there is still a factory waranty. This seller has a terrific reputation on EBay, which inspires some confidence.

Steve

ateixeira

$16k is a steal, and the seller is being honest (all too rare).

On the other hand, some say a wrecked car is never quite the same.

Try this - do check out the photos, then maybe check out the body shop that did the work. Act like a customer and ask for a couple of long-term references.

The seller having a good reputation could be seen as bad - does he sell lots of salvaged cars?

It is definitely a bargain. Jeez. $16k? What was that number again? Just kidding. :-)

-juice

barresa62

The expensive 17"BBS wheel option from Subaru (not dealer supplied wheels) for $3k retail does not include 17"tires. You would have to shell out additional $ for the tires. :-)

Just for comparison sake, I got a set of Rays Volks Gram Lites (16.2 lbs ea, 17 x 7.5 and a set of Toyo T1-S, 225/45x17 tires for a total of $1800.

Stephen

Stephen

bluesubie

I got my rear cupholder from the UK.

How's the install for the mechanically challenged?
I didn't open the box yet. My DIY experience is changing oil, diff fluid and the air filter.

-Dennis

sportmac

Is there any word on expected resale values for the wagon?

ateixeira

Price has come down steadily, Fitzmall.com has one for $22.1k right now. I'd expect faily good resale, given all previous owners paid more to begin with.

-juice

barresa62

It's really EZ (this coming from one who is a bit mechanically challenged). The mounting plate comes w/a pattern of where to drill the holes on the square piece at the back of the console. This square piece is popped out. Once you have the piece out, place the hole-drilling pattern over it and mark where you want the holes to be. Drill the holes, mount the cupholder onto the square piece and pop back onto the rear of the console.

Let me know how it works out for you. I haven't used mine a lot but have been glad it's there for the times I have used it. :-)

Stephen

storyteller

I've learned more. The wrecked WRX wasn't totalled but carries a designation of "previously damaged." The buyer is eager to let me have the car checked out by a good Subie mechanic. I trust him but will have this done soon.

A different issue is whether or not the factory warranty has been invalidated by the fender-bender. Can any Subie garage tell me that this WRX with 9K miles is now out of warranty? If I have problems, say, with the ECU will SOA claim they aren't responsible for guaranteeing damaged goods? Seems possible.

There is a risk here, but how often do we get a chance to get a piece of Heaven at such a discount?

Steve

bluesubie

Stephen - Thanks. I check out the directions last night, and they seem easy enough. Kinda nervous about drilling in my new car though. :-D
If I totally chicken out, I'll have my dealer do it. Or maybe not. That's probably 1/2 hour for labor. It helps that the back of the console pops out.

Steve - Tough call. I'm not sure, but I don't *think* the accident would void the warranty. Maybe someone else has more info

-Dennis

ateixeira

Call 800-SUBARU3. Ask if it would still be covered, in fact get it in writing.

As long as it's repaired to a good standard, I can't see why not.

-juice

karl1973

Another thing to think about is call up your insurance company first and see if they would insure a car with such title. You may have to pay more money to insure it.

storyteller

barresa62

It might now matter to you but I can tell you from previous experience that the "wrecked" title will affect resale value (especially @ trade-in time). It will also affect private sale if you choose to sell the car yourself in the future. By law you are supposed to communicate anything like a wrecked or salvaged title if you have prior knowledge.

Stephen

storyteller

A good point. But I tend to run my cars until the wheels fall off (I'm driving a nearly 11-yr-old Quest now). And I'm such a geezer, the WRX might last longer than I do! Thanks.

Steve

corkfish

Accidents to new cars are a real peril. Even if it's not your fault and the insurance company fixes your car as good as new, no one is going to pay you blue book for it. It's kind of unfair, in addition to having the car repaired, you should get some kind of compensation for loss of value. It's one reason I'm hesitant to have a nice car.

storyteller

This is for other folks' benefit. Subaru *will* stand behind a damaged vehicle that is later sold, but only if genuine Subaru parts were used to repair it and *not* if it has been "totalled." Totalled means the insurance company figured it was cheaper to write off the car than to fix it for the original customer (not a judgment on the viability of the car but a judgment on their own costs and benefits).

CARFAX says this car was in an accident that did not fire the air bags, yet it had so much body damage that it was sold for salvage. So, SOA wouldn't warranty the brakes or transmission, for example, if they went bad, even if it seems unlikely they were affected by this car's fender-bender.

This car still might be a good buy if it passes a critical review by a good mechanic--but I'll be on my own if something goes wrong with the innards. I offer this so others might learn a bit about this issue.

Steve

prayerfor

Assuming all checks out with a trusted mechanic...

Think of it this way:
Wagon: $16000
Vishnu Stage 1: ~$3000 installed
17" wheel & tire pkg: $1500
STi wagon suspension pkg: $1500
Miscellaneous other bits: $1000
Total: $23000

An absolute beast for the same $ as a new, stock WRX wagon. I think your warranty issues would become clearer too

jaserb

Yellow is an interesting color to me. It works on a very few cars (XTerra, Ferrari, possibly NSX) and looks ridiculous on most. The sonic yellow just plain DOES NOT work on the wagon. Of course, it didn't help that the one I saw was being driven (by a punk kid, of course) at a high rate of speed right at me as I was in a crosswalk in the middle of a college campus. It seems that yellow is the hip color right now for the boy racer set.

-Jason

bricknord

Hi, have been thinking about a Subie, and particularly the WRX. Is this mileage of high teens low 20's true? This I find unbelievable. I had a 1994 Mercedes E320 Wagon, a complete tank, very heavy I think 4000 lbs at least, auto trans, the 220 some horse 6 cyl, I hammered the crap out of it ( and it would really scoot, surprisingly ). This was a way bigger heavier car than a WRX, I mean it took 3 people to shut a door ( kidding but if you've owned an old stlye Benz you know what I mean ). I think it was a 3.2L engine with 217 or 226 hp, can't remember. Anyway, the lowest mileage I got with 125k on the clock and with a lead foot was 18 mpg, and highway, driving 75-80 mph cruise I was getting 22-23 mpg. An I mean, this car was a tank, you shoudl have felt how heavy the rear hatch was, and every heavy power gizmo in the world adding fat to the car. My point being, a WRX will get WORSE mileage than my boat E320 wagon 6 cyl pulling all that load driving hard? Hmm...this concerns me. I mean, doesn't a 255 hp Maxima or Altima come in way higher? What gives with teens mileage, seems here like even highway people are licky to break 20mpg on a car ofthis size. Can anyone enlighten me. I need 25 mpg at least highway...60 mile round trip per day...

Thanks for the insight folks!

Matt in KC

nschulman3

I have a wrx sedan with a 5 speed. Granted, I do most of my driving (about 75% in the city) and rev the car a lot (you need to in order to get the power) and get about 13-15 mpg). i have had the car looked at by the dealer and they can't find anything wrong. And YES, I followed the break-in period. This car gets worse mileage than my old mustang gt. I am about to get vishnu stage o (adds about 40 hp) and this has been known to increase mpg by about 50-75 miles per tank or about 4-5 miles per gallon. Still, i probably wouldn't buy another wrx because of the awful mileage. One of the benefits of a fast car with a small motor is supposed to be decent gas mileage. Well, the wrx has no low end torque, so you are pretty much forced to rev the hell out of the car. this would be ok if the mileage was respectable. I can't believe these guys that say they are getting mid 20's. They must be doing all highway driving and never revving the car past 2500 rpm.

kevin111

I have a 5-speed and do a combination of highway/city driving. I commute about 10 miles to work each way. My mileage ranges from 21-25. I get 21 when I am mainly doing city driving, and 25 on the highway. What amazes me about my WRX is that the mileage is extremely consistant. Hey, if it means anything, I was getting between 23-27 (usually around 23-24) with a 4 cylinder Focus that I rented for a month. That car had 110 hp.

The Maxima and Altima get the same gas mileage as the WRX. I know, I had shopped both of them when looking at buying a car.

mikenk

My experience is similar to Kevin111. I get from 22-24mpg on mixed city/highway. I have never taken a trip to get highway miles, but I would expect 25-26. I am sure if I didn't exercise the Turbo much, I would do better, but then what would have been the point of buying the WRX.

For reference, I sold a black non turbo supra. I was averaging about 18-19 in that under the same driving conditions.

Mike

karl1973

My commute is about 45 miles one way, and most of it highway.
If you are leadfooted, and go over 80mph, you will get pretty bad gas mileage.
If you keep your speed at about 65 to 75mph, keeping the engine at below about 3krpm in 5th gear, you will get over 25mpg.

strider98

and I just took a trip from Houston to Denver. In heavy highway driving (meaning 75+ mph, including 85+ through Raton Pass) I got 25+ mpg and about 360 miles between fillups (not tanks, I filled up when I could). Granted this was on the trip back, but I still got about 24+ on the way up. Normally in Houston traffic I get between 17 mpg when I first got the car and 21 mpg now. I'd say that's pretty dang good for an AWD car with plenty of power.

Seth

barresa62

I get about 18mgg avg all city driving (w/o getting into the upper power too much, tee hee), almost 20mpg mixed city/suburban, and have gotten a high of 25.4 on hwy. The WRX is not a car that encourages high mpg driving for the points that Neil made. You can get higher mpg than the consumptions listed in the posts so far but you'll be driving your WRX like your grandma/pa in a Kia Rio or something like it. The reality is that it's probably not going to happen. Basically, if you're buying the WRX because you're concerned w/getting good mpg...look eleswhere.

Stephen
22,000 miles on 1KWKWGN

cinosweive

I have found AC usage makes a noticable difference. My commute is about 6 mi city and 20 mi interstate each way. On weekends and after hours it is all city driving. On the interstate I am going between 70 and 75 mph. I normally get about 22 mpg w/ AC on and 24 mpg w/ AC off. A tank normally lasts about a week.

My gripe is the oil dip stick. It is neigh impossible to get a good read on the thing. Who was the rocket scientist who thought it would be a good idea to make the thing black?

boardoholic

***rookie poster alert***

i'm a newbie to this whole posting thing, but i definitely see the value of this resource. i live in the silicon valley and am itching to get behind the wheel of a rex. for a silver '03 MT wagon w/ the security system upgrade, the dealer is offering $22,930. (invoice=$22,380 and msrp=$24,450) i have seen past posts where folks have paid only $200-$500 over invoice. how does this quote compare to what some of the more recent rex owners have paid? thanx in advance.

cptplt

I do mostly city driving with my manual WRX, I get 21 in town if I'm heavy footed, 22-23 if not, haven't really been on a real long highway trip yet.My neighbour has a E320 4matic wagon and an E320 sedan, the 4matic gets worse mileage, barely low 20s, the RWD sedan gets mid 20s easy. Its the AWD (and extra weight!)!
Subarus have never gotten great mileage, even the 4 banger FWD Legacies vs Accords etc.Its not a fair comparison now to compare a AWD Legacy/Impreza vs a 2WD anything else.Though the 4 banger Subarus do as well as the 6cyl Accords etc. When Audi first came out with the Quattro 20 years ago everyone said, hey whats with the mileage. I drove a Quattro Coupe in Europe for almost 6 months in the early 80s, mileage was awful and at the prices for gas even then over there I had to give it back to my future in laws.(Plus the thing was possessed by all sorts of gremlins!) If you want gas economy, Subarus or most any AWD car is not the way to go. The other thing is that compared to some other "AWD" cars, which are often really 2WD with occ activation of the AWD,eg many AWD car Toyota, Hondas (as opposed to SUV/trucks etc) are often essentially in FWD mode most of the time and then only go into AWD mode when fronts really lose traction. Subarus are always in AWD mode. The manuals are always 50:50 power split between back and front and even the least AWD auto Subaru is 90:10 or 80:20 and the VTD is what 45:55, then you got the changes in power split on autos even with acceleration/inclination etc etc, again this will eat into mileage.

locke2c

additionally, the boxer engine gets poor mileage relative to an equivalent inline four thanks to its short stroke.

there's a reason why Honda kept the long-stroke oversquare formula intact even when they started using high-revving VTEC engines in 1992.

-Colin

twrx

5 speed wagon with 20 k miles. I get 20 mpg city all of the time. On the highway it is 25 mpg at 70 to 75 mph and 27 at 55 to 65 mph,
tWrX

corkfish

Again, Van Bortel Subaru has a website that is listing 2003 WRX Wagons for $21,791. They list options from there.

storyteller

I envy you NE guys. We have a Subaru dealer asking $25,000 for a USED WRX wagon here.

Steve

dfgriggs

Who cares what the mpg are with a car like this!!!! I have had my black wrx wagon for about 6 months now and its great, fun to drive. There are just too many other slower people on the road in front of me now.

I'm new to this posting thing so I hope I haven't violated any "thread laws" by changing the subject --- but, I noticed some talk about no low end torque and having to rev the engine to get power. I would have to definitely agree. What can be done to remedy this. I can see by other forums that the WRX is an excellent platform for aftermarket go-fast stuff. What would be some good mods to make to address the torque/power issue. The best bang for $$.

Thanks

ateixeira

The Vishu packages are supposed to get boost to start sooner, for less lag.

Just be careful, add too much power and you should count on upgrading the clutch and tranny too. The stock units aren't meant for 300hp.

-juice

nschulman3

I,too am tired of the lack of low-end power in my wrx. I am about to get vishnu stage 0. It is, IMO, the best bang for the buck upgrade for a wrx. It gives you about 40 hp, less lag and better low-end torque for $1095. Add the wiring harness ($189) and the hoses and the package is about $1400. Add installation, which is about $450 and you have reliable power increases for about $1800.

corkfish

Don't forget about voiding the warranty too.

dfgriggs

Or what about just doing a home plumbing MBC mod with a CAI and an uppipe and does removing the silencer add any power or is that all just noise?? Can you get the stage 0 ala carte, to minimize cost and to avoid the warranty issue?

I know this is alot of ??? Which part of the stage 0 would a dealer have the most problem with as far as warranty is concerned? Help!!

ateixeira

Realistically the entire powertrain would be under extra stress with 40 more horsepower. So the clutch, tranny, driveshafts, and differentials would not be under warranty (if you're being honest).

This like the A/C, suspension, steering, etc., should not be affected and would still be covered.

You may find a mod-friendly dealer that'll even cover the other stuff.

-juice

kens

To the best of my knowledge, the biggest gain on the Stage 0 is from the catless uppipe.

Aside from removing a cat being illegal, I think a dealer would have issues with the chip upgrade. But then again, dealers vary in their tolerance of modifications.

Ken