Subaru Impreza WRX

WarpDrive · July 2002

buy it again? You betcha!!!!

The first batch of WRX's had some issues but this has been largely resolved. The way the ABS works is still a point of contention but I've never had any real complaints. Bear in mind that some of the people that have reported failures (such as clutch) problems are asking for it the way they *drive* them.

Come on in, the water's fine.

dop50 · July 2002

(if you guys could buy it again, would you?)

I've had my WRX sedan since about mid Sept of last year. I've got approx. 7500 miles on it.
The wife bought a Legacy GT wagon at the same time.

We are both very well pleased with our choices, I would buy another WRX in a nanosecond!

These are fantastic cars for the money spent.

We have been disappointed with the last few domestics we bought also. As soon as the warranty ends, the problems begin!!!! It's like they are on a timer.

Overall, it may be a little early for us to say too much. But on the other hand, we have owned quite a few new domestics, and I can assure you, the subies got the domestics beat from the git go! I don't know if all dealers of subies are alike or not, but we were treated great!

I have been reading this board for over a year, and have not seen any major problems. There have been a few minor complaints, but I haven't experienced any problems at all. Sometimes you have to consider who is doing the complaining.

As for a used WRX?? I wouldn't have a problem with that either, if I knew who owned it. I would have a problem buying one from a young whipper snapper though. It could be abused.
Also, I would tend to steer clear of it if it had too many performance mods on it. The people who tend to mod them, also tend to drive them a little harder than I would.

I also know that if I get ready to sell mine, I have at least two buyers ready to take it off my hands.

So far, I have to say we are very impressed with our purchase! And also the dealership where we bought them. Lou Fusz Subaru on Lindberg in St. Louis Mo. Alan Rosen manager

Ken

robmarch · July 2002

Are you referring to their first road test? I believe that test was a totally stock WRX, on the 16" rims. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, sorry if you're referring to an updated test.

sensei1 · July 2002

You bet I'd buy one again. After all the hype and all the research I've done, I sure wasn't disappointed when I finally got behind the wheels of one (check my early posts). The hardest decision for me was wagon or sedan. It's a no nonsense fun car with no fluff.

It's still a little early for me but haven't had any problems with the little rocket so far.

Go for it!! Good luck...

kevin111 · July 2002

Robmarch, it was a different test that I was refering to.

R&T is doing a long term test with the WRX with the BBS 17" wheels. The numbers they reported for handling were 0.87 g's. They also posted 0-60 time of 6.3 seconds. Seems the bigger tires cut a 1/2 second off the acceleration time. This most likely due to the added weight of the rims/tires package.

sonya4 · July 2002

I've had my Rex for almost 7,000 miles with no problems (except when it wouldn't start one day, but that was quickly resolved). Not sure why others are complaining about the brakes, mine are fine. Have to say the demo car I tested at the dealer's had kind of mushy brakes, but the Rex I bought had firm ones.

Yes, I would buy it again. It's the car I''ve had the most fun driving! I've driven some American cars too, but none of them has been as exciting (for me) or had as good reputations. And I agree with dop50 about a used WRX.

Hope this helps.

--Sonya4

robmarch · July 2002

Yes, I remember now, thanks. I wonder what the track conditions were for the second test also, that can play a big part in launch. And, different tires can make a big difference.

jwilson1 · July 2002

The "rule" that has been passed down on used performance cars is: Don't. You figure, they must be selling it for a reason. I've been looking at used WRXs though and haven't bought because I couldn't PROVE there weren't issues with the three I've looked at --

**Know the reason for the sale, and make sure it doesn't have anything to do with the condition of the car. For example, if it's a couple and they've just had triplets ... if someone lost a job ... etc. If it'sjust the guys word, as it has been witht he ones I've seen, I leave it.
**Run a CarFax report (on any used vehicle).
**Have a good Subaru mechanic go over the car, for money, not for free. Offer a hundred bucks for two hours time at a Subaru dealer that has *not* serviced the car. Compression check, body shop review, tire depth ... and anything that *they* can think of.

Then, maybe, maybe if the price is really good. But not if there's a question. There's nothing so frustrating as a great performance car that won't perform.

Goaod luck.
Joe W.

wayde · July 2002

I stopped by the local Sube dealer and the mgr said he expected one on the ground in the next 2 weeks - a yellow one which he was placing on the showfloor.
Anyone else hear anything?

Oh - my friend who works at another Sube dealership said the new SportShift in the Legacy's is awesome. But didn't know if it was coming to the auto WRX - anyone else know anything about this?

patilpan · July 2002

Guys,
Does the wrx use the same warning/indicator for 'Door Open' and 'trunk open'?
I don't get any warning for trunk left open. As far as i can remember, i have seen this warning before on my car.
Utjon, my wrx sedan is 3 months old. U can describe the above mentioned problem 'minor' but frankly i did not expect to visit the dealer expect for regular servicing atleast for the first year or so.
Besides this problem, i had squeaking of suspension (follows after a rainy day) which has been described to me as another minor problem. It seems dirt tends to stick to the hot underparts and causes the squeaking.
It's been a fun car to drive. However i sometimes wonder if a german car really buys u no headache for extra few grand.
Guys, with all due respect, squeaking of suspension and disappering of 'Trunk Open' warning has nothing to do with driving.

nowakj66 · July 2002

Besides the new Blaze Yellow color, has anyone heard of any features changes to the '03 WRX?

utjon · July 2002

Thanks for your responses. The man has a genuine good reason for selling it (I won't get into it on here). I will get it checked out from a dealer tho just to be 100% safe... even though its still under warranty. He knows how to take care of his turbo and changes his oil using mobile 1. Most of the miles are highway so thats even better.. should be great gas milage!

Lou Futz in St Louis has a page on the 03 WRX here:

http://www.loufusz.subaru.com/f_display_ads.cgi?id=2247443

Also, I saw that according to 'the buzz' section of edmunds, the EVO will be here:

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/futurecars/articles/44810/page027.html

Finally, I was reading earlier that one person suggested to disconnect the ignition and crank the turbo after an oil change and someone else didn't think that was nessecary.. any thoughts?

Have any of you done any of the aesthetically pleasing mods on scoobymods.com?

-Jon

midnightblack · July 2002

I'm fairly happy with my WRX, but one major annoyance is that the air conditioning seems much weaker than any other car I've ever driven. On a day like today where the temp is around 90 degrees, I have the a/c on the "4" setting but the air coming in is not that cold. It dosen't seem to make much difference, except for sapping the engine power when accelerating.

I'm wondering if this is normal given that my car is black and maybe a turbo engine releases alot of heat into the cabin. I'd like to hear the experiences of other WRX owners, especially those from warmer climates.

utjon · July 2002

Actually.... I read a fix for that on the i-club website a few days ago.. hope this helps:

http://forums.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?s=c7ef5ac120cbe57080dfb6ab1d06ac04&threadid=217890

mikenk · July 2002

This is summer in Texas; our highs are running 95-100 degrees. I have no problem keeping my silver wagon cool. My windows are tinted. I usually keep it on recirculate; the fan on 2; and the temp setting is not at its max setting. It is cool either for city or highway. It will get too cold if I set to the lowest temp setting.

The a/c is not as strong as in my Outback VDC, but it is plenty adequate. It seems to me that too many people are living with what seems to be defective systems. I guess it is possible that tinting will make that much difference, but it would be surprising.

anyway, that is my experience.

Mike

kevin111 · July 2002

I also have a midnight black WRX w/o tinting, but do not have a trouble with the A/C. When it is hot (around 100 C) sometimes I will put it on 4 to cool the car down, then leave it on 2 or 3.

If you are not getting any cold air it could be a few things. One thing when I was not getting any cold air with the a/c. Turns out had the air setting on the knob on the right on defroster vents instead of through the dash vents.

utjon · July 2002

For those of you who have run carfax or vehix reports before.. what are the first two or three results?

Vehix says there are 2 records on the VIN, Carfax says there are 3. I don't really want to fork over 20 bucks if all they're going to do is say "Bought at here at this date" and "Registered to so and so".

I mean, are there always gaurenteed to be at least 2 or 3 results? Can someone run their VIN that is immaculate and find out? My current car has gone through a rebuilt transmission.

-Jon

sonya4 · July 2002

I have a black WRX too, and though the a/c is slow to cool down on hot days, I usually don't have to turn the fan past "2" with the air flow setting to the dash vents (you know, the symbol with the arrow pointing at the head of the driver/passenger, on the left of the knob). My windows are only slightly tinted; laws around here don't allow for heavily tinted windows. But then, we have 7 months of cool/cold weather!

--Sonya4

strider98 · July 2002

Man that's pretty dang hot if it was 100 C!!! I know you meant Fahrenheit, I was just kidding.

Mike, how can you say that? Your car can never be too cool in Texas. Especially Houston.

mikenk · July 2002

I'm from the Dallas area. I agree that the ac needs to be colder in Houston. It dries your sweaty clothes faster.

Please no nasty comments from Houstonians about my frivolous comment.

Mike

utjon · July 2002

I've been outside of the airport once in Houston.. never want to relive that hell again.

Dallas isn't bad... Austin(where I'm at) is nice!

strider98 · July 2002

it's the humidity. Try having the same (or higher) temps with about 70% (or higher) humidity. You start sweating just walking from the parking lot to the grocery store.

Jon: Just realized you were a T-sip. Howdy and Gig-em to ya

kevin111 · July 2002

LOL, yes, I meant Farenheight

strider98 · July 2002

utjon · July 2002

First, sorry about the triple post.. I'll try not to do that again.

What is a t-sip? hehe.. I'm a yankee going to school in Austin

Anyone who's ever been to Houston knows its the humidity.. Last summer Austin had 20 consecutive days above 100.. that was bad.. but not as bad as Houston 85 and humid.

hunter001 · August 2002

When I checked the results of my old car (since sold) in carfax, it mentioned 2 records.

The 2 records referred to my 2 registrations. One in my earlier state and the other one in the state to which I relocated. I had a fender-bender earlier (repaired at a body shop), but that did not appear in the carfax report.

Later...AH

andrewmo · August 2002

I test drove a WRX yesterday and it blew me away. For anyone from the UK it reminded me a bit of my old MKII Escort RS2000 with way more traction. Having owned a taurus SHO which was a great engine in a machine with a crappy suspension, brakes and transmission its wonderful to find a car in this price range that is so well thought out. Fact of the matter is that I could afford an Audi S4 or even a BMW M3 but I I'm going to enjoy the WRX a whole lot more for way less $. After some investigations I found a white one with a spoiler, short throw shifter, titanium gear knob, carbon fiber dash, armrest extension, turbo gague at a dealer in a rural part of NC. Their best quote is $23,800 not including the delivery charge. I don't care about some of the mods and I would probably add the differential cover and air filter myself. This looks like a good deal to me but I'd be curious to know how this compares to the kinds of deals other people are getting.
Thanks for indulging me.

WarpDrive · August 2002

If you like all those options, the price is good. The knob isn't the most comfortable thing though. Maybe you might want them to remove that and save a couple of bucks.

Ray

utjon · August 2002

Thanks Hunter.. Thats what I thought it would be. Just to be safe though, if you have an unlimited account, would you run one for me? If you don't want to, I understand.

Thanks,
Jon
j.meredith@mail.utexas.edu

kevin111 · August 2002

I do not know what type of music you listen to or how important the stereo is, but the upgrade helps. The sound is cleaner, volume is better, and base is significantly better with the upgrade. With that being said, aftermarket systems do sound better.

theturbokid · August 2002

Andrewmo --

I got a quote for $23,220 for the following: 5 spd WRX, silver or blue I can't remember, air filter, autodimming mirror, armrest extension, and security. That included dest. chg, so subtract about $525 and you're at about $22,700 to make it an apples-to-apples comparison.

I actually would prefer the options on the car you were offered.

Still, I think I can do better on price with the 2003 hitting the lots now.

Everyone here will agree it's still a good price and a great car.

One question/comment... I totally agree, FOR THE MONEY, the WRX is w/o peer. But one of my buddies has a beautiful new 2002 M3, and everytime I ride in it I have to mop up the saliva from the floormats. Sure he lives in California and AWD isn't a big priority, and it's a HELLUVA lot more $$$, but if someone was offering me one car or the other (no taxes, insurance, or snow, just the car a lot of open road), that M3 would hitting its 8000 RPM redline as soon as I could get inside it!

hunter001 · August 2002

I ran this over 2 years back !!

I would definitely have run it if I had an unlimited account.

Take care,
Later...AH

WarpDrive · August 2002

Ya, that M3 is the bomb. But you could buy two WRX's for that amount so it should be good.

kevin111 · August 2002

For the price of an M3, you could also shop a Corvette, Corvette Z06, Porsche Boxter and Boxter S, Honda S2000 + an Accord, ...... You get the idea.
Different league, but nice to dream! :-)

utjon · August 2002

LOL!

Okay.. thanks for the offer tho

-Jon

stoner420 · August 2002

It's been a fun car to drive. However i sometimes wonder if a german car really buys u no headache for extra few grand.

---

A guy at work has an S4; after seeing me drive in with the WRX the other morning and having a giant grin on my face (man, 3rd gear @60mph loves me..), he told me that he had been thinking of replacing the S4 with a WRX.. I was like "why? I heard those actually slightly beat the WRX overall", but he said he has had various maintenance problems (sorry, no specifics) which are making him want to switch..

andrewmo · August 2002

I got them to eat the destination charge so I'm paying $23,275 to drive it away. I'm happy, and in NC it turns out that there is a 3% highway use tax on new cars in lieu of state sales tax which is pretty sweet. Thanks for the input.

barresa62 · August 2002

Congrats my man. That sounds like a great deal. Clink, clink...here's a toast to many enjoyable miles and, hopefully, another frequent poster within the ranks of the Subaru Crew. :-)

Stephen

robmarch · August 2002

I really thought the S4 was my ideal car. AWD, manual, power, 4 doors, wagon option, etc. Then, I found a car that had all of those features without the leather and luxury features for ~40% less.

If you're the luxury type, the S4 is an excellent car. I don't know enough to comment on the reliability. I'm still following to see what the next one will be like, since the A4 has gotten significantly heavier.

If you're the cloth seat, no sunroof, sometime muddy shoe driver, I think the WRX is a great car at a great price. Just ask yourself if there are any features that you want that it doesn't have, and let that guide you. No doubt the S4 is a nice looking, great performing car. but the WRX will be nearly perfect for me:)

himiler · August 2002

The next S4 will probably carry a V-8 underhood. That'll put it one-up on the M3.

I have yet to be impressed by any Audi's reliability history. Audi is still too close to being a VW for my comfort.

kevin111 · August 2002

In reliability. Generally, I would stay away from them.

pomlover · August 2002

Hi all,

Yesterday, while driving my WRX high speed on the highway for about an hour, I noticed that the A/C air flow coming out of my vents decreased to almost zilch. I tried switching vents and fan speeds and the there was no change. Today when I got into the car for a short journey, the normal air flow was back. Has anyone else experienced this? Does the a/c kick out if the ngine or turbo gets too hot?

Thanks.

twrx · August 2002

Anthony, I had an AC problem with my WRX. Talk about strange. I was on a highway frequented by coal trucks. My ac failed completely. Apparently a rock hit the condenser and puntured it. Insurance paid but the bizarre part was that the location of the puncture was such that the rock had to have come in through the UPPER grille area!
TWRX

cptplt · August 2002

My own personal experience with 2 Audis, though admittedly from the 80s, is quite simply, biggest POS cars I have ever owned. Never been stranded more often by any other make I have driven. In fact it was because of a 86 4000S I had which died on the road (actually I35W in a snowstorm in Jan in MN) for the 3rd time in about as many months that made me buy my first Sube. And I have not regretted it since. With 3 Subes (2 92s and one 98) used for a total of 20 1/2 yrs in my household and just got my WRX. I have never had one leave me stranded on a road or had a major system fail catastrophically. I can't say that about the Audi Coupe and 4000S I had . And maybe its just bad luck but I know too many other people who have had awful luck with Audis too.

dop50 · August 2002

I had a similar situation some years ago, it turned out that the air conditioner "froze up".

I don't know for sure if that was your problem or not, or even if the newer models will do that.
But it sure sounds identical to my experience.

Anyway, the cause at the time was a result of running the air conditioner on high and the fan speed on low, and running at highway speeds for several hours. What happened with mine was that the coils filled with frost and prevented any air movement until it was allowed to defrost.
I know that's what happened because when it defrosted, I had a puddle of water on the floor.

The cure for such an occurance is to run the fan speed a little higher, and if it gets too cold inside the vehicle, control it with the temp knob instead of the fan speed. (My wife had some trouble with this concept!) Actually, the fan speed shouldn't make any difference as long as you control the inside temperature with that control, instead of just turning the fan down slower.

Anyway, good luck, and let us know if the problem continues.

Ken

cptplt · August 2002

aren't they supposed to cycle the condenser on and off automatically to prevent such a freeze up? I had an Integra which did this and I just manually cycled it myself by turning it off every now and then for a few minutes!

utjon · August 2002

I test drove a wrx today.. fun fun fun.
RX-8 or WRX? Anyone know the base price for the rx-8 for sure yet? I like the bodystyle of hte rx-8 better but the wrx... talk about performs.. I was looking at the road and the turbo kicked in and i was going like 70 in no time.. in a 30. owell

ateixeira · August 2002

RX8 will likely compete with the 350Z, so I'd expect a base price around $27 grand.

But good look finding them stripped, I'm sure most will be in the $32-35k neighborhood.

-juice

utjon · August 2002

The only report I've read on the rx-8 is from road and track which said it had a 250 hp rotary engine but its estimated 0-60 time is 6.3. They also said they figured hte base would be 26k. I talked to a local mazda guy though and he said that he *thought* the base price would be 23... Any hypothesis as to when mazda will release this info?

jwilson1 · August 2002

I had a friend who loved Audis & drove them from '86 to '98. He swore he'd never driven more reliable cars & complained only about the power (who didn't at that time!) and covered 200,000+/- in each of three cars -- But you have to know that he also did well at the slots, unlike most people.

Audi makes lots of money on repairs, especially the dealer. I was interested in an A8 a couple of years ago. As you may or may not know, the car is entirely aluminum. If you got into an accident, the dealership delivered a loaner to you by flatbed, picked up the wreck and drove it to Stamford CT (150 miles each way) for special body services. The salesman thought that showed goaod service by the dealership. I found it scary and left. I wonder what the insurance co. would have said if I called for a quote?

Take care.
Joe W.

Subaru Impreza WRX

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