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Subaru Owners?

L

Lafayette

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Aug 19, 2010
692
1
37
NY, U.S
Not sure if this is the right place for this - i hope it is.

Thinking about buying a WRX hatch / wagon. Was wondering if any one else on here has a suby wagon. Ive been getting some flak from my buddies about it but I think it might be the car for me.

Any insight will be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Subarus are great cars. What exactly are your buddies being critical of? My buddy had 2005 STI and it was a beast. After basic bolt ons and a tune it was 350rwhp. I convinced my mom to replace her toyota with a legacy and when my girlfriends car craps out it will be replaced with an impreza. Solid cars.
 
FYI...My folks live in an area that sees snowfall in the tripple digits each year and have shitty roads...all their vehicles must be 4x4 or AWD. For a car, the Suby gets the job done - I will give them that.
I like the cars, I'm not a fan of the wagon though (based on looks).
 
I also owned an Imprezza for 1 year....good car in the snow and good gas milege. Worst decision I ever made though. Hated that I could't haul anything or go anywhere off improved roads.
I am now a proud Toyota Tacoma owner....I'm on my second one in fact.
 
I have a Subi wagon, though not as cool as a WRX wagon.

Mine is a '95 Legacy L. Has 275k miles on it, and it's a great car though a bit underpowered. Everything works on the car: Cruise, power locks, mirrors, A/C etc etc. All that's been done to it is brakes, tires, clutch, front passenger side CV boot (sits right above the catalyst), alternator, battery, fuel filter, plugs and wires. It has the 2.2L, and gets ~27-29mpg on the highway with the cruise set at 75mph. Around town it gets about 20mpg.

I understand why Subaru has the highest brand loyalty of all automakers.

When I got my car, I did *not* like wagons. However, once I owned it for a while, I love wagons. I don't give a damn if other people think my wagon is uncool, because it is so damn practical. It fits all kind of stuff, while keeping the CG, handling characteristics, and fuel mileage of a car. That said, the Legacy and Outback wagons are a lot more practical than the WRX wagon - because the WRX is really just a 5 door hatch.

No, it is not an "off road" vehicle, and it will never go places that a 4x4 with good tires can, but driven properly and carefully, you'd be really surprised where you can get the Subi to go. I know I've shocked a few people in this regard.

A couple things to consider with a WRX... INSURANCE. Look into it before buying. Because these cars are so popular amongst young punks, most of them get wrecked, and insurance prices show it. Because these cars are so popular amongst young punks, it's hard to find a used one that hasn't been dessicrated with untasteful performance modifications. Be careful who you buy a used one from. Another thing, if you want a manual transmission, is the transmissions aren't "strong". For a typical owner, they're fine but if you up the boost and drive it hard, the transmissions really take a beating. The STI 6spd is pretty much immune from this though - it is very stout.

If you can swallow the idea of a Forester, they were also available with turbo (Forester XT), as well as the Legacy sedan (Spec B) though I'm not sure the turbo Legacy came as a wagon.

Be careful with the 1996-2004 or 2005 2.5L naturally aspirated engines - they are VERY prone to head gasket issues. Very fixable, but you probably don't want to do it yourself.
 
My garage is very small and I have to make two very sharp turns to get into it. Ideally I would have a quad cab turbo diesel truck, but my local and living situation wont allow for it.

Im looking at the wrx / wrx sti because:

I beleive i can get everything i need into the back of the hatch (i.e soon to be dog owner, range equipment, hockey gear, beach gear, ski gear, bicycles etc)

I live in the Northeast where roads suck and weather is not optimal but roads are plowed. In my mind four wheel drive is optimal and ground clearnace isnt necesarry but good for shitty roads.

I like the idea of having a car I can justify to the wife (newly married) / wont be too flashy when i pickup the boss but will still be fun to drive solo.

Im not stuck to the hatchback but I think it will be more usuable (bicycle, dog)
 
I've had my WRX (sedan) for almost 11 years now. It has been a great car.

I like it so much I almost bought a new hatchback model. I decided I need more room for rifles, so I just ordered a Forester XT.

Can't go wrong with any Subaru.
 
I have a 2005 forester with 231000 miles.
Never had any issues with it.
Was looking at a crosstrek maybe when
The Roo give up the ghost.
It's the best car/wagon I have owned,
I've owned a lot.
They will not let u down
 
I have an 09 Subi Imprezza Outback Sport, not even close to a WRX performance wise. With the Outback Sport you get more ground clearance and some better stuff than the standard Imprezza. It is fair on gas mileage, about 28 mpg around town and 30 hwy. This is 30 mpg hwy at 75 mph at 5000 ft. It is awesome on snow, ice, gumbo muddy roads. It is great in the mountains around Montrose Colorado, Flagstaff Az and stuff like that. Great brakes, seriously great brakes - had a deer pop out in the mountains and if it was another car, I would have had an accident. Great handling and Goodyear Eagle GT's made it even better!

Good car, comfortable enough - heated seats! Stereo sucks. 6 disk changer that does not rock and was replaced once under warranty.

I like my wagon, it looks good, trailer hitch for the bike rack cause i don't like bikes on the roof. Roof rack for longer stuff and there are nice carriers available.

My wife digs on me cause it is a "chick car." And where I live, Subarus are mostly driven by females. Don't know why, but it does appear this way. I don't feel too diminished as my other car is a truck with a real old school V8, but it gets like 14 mpg.
 
On my 4th Subaru. Not sure I'll ever own another brand of car. I have two currently, a new Legacy sedan and a 03 Outback wagon. The legacy has the new CVT tranny which is very impressive both in terms of performance and mileage. I live in the country with crappy roads and the outback now has 160,000 miles on it, probably around half of those are on crappy roads (nothing ever replaced except tires and oil). Despite that it is still is more solid than my brothers Impala which is four years newer and 60,000 fewer miles. I have had a turbo Baja and another Outback. The Baja rocked. The only reason I sold it was because of the auto tranny. If that would have had a manual, I would still have it. My next car will either be a WRX or a Forester XT. (or a new turbo Baja manual if they come back into production)... I grew up on a farm driving Chevy pickups, but for a daily driver, I'll probably always own a Subie.
 
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I had the 04 wrx wagon and the 05 sti at the same time and I drove my wagon more than I did the sti cause that is all you would see is sti's everywhere and my little wagon made more power then my sti so that was another reason. now I see wagons everywhere
 
I have been driving my 03 Subaru Baja (like an off road el camino, half car half truck idea, updated BRAT for u Subaru guys) I love my Subarus, wife drives and 09 forester. We can go virtually anywhere, i fear no mud or snow or sand when im in my baja. She takes hills like a champ. Only gripe is i should have gotten the turbo version, she is a lil slow off the line. does great on the highway, i really like being able to throw stuff in the bed and just go, i always keep my table and easy up and my chairs in the back ready to go shooting. in a few years when shes a lil worn out i will be getting the cross trek, they have great clearance and mileage. the baja will turn into an off road beast at that point, wanting to import a Subaru boxer diesel engine and turbo it. not alot of speed but tons of power. (and i might have to "Import" it through Canada since we cant get them in the states). anyway, i vote yes for the Subaru obviously. you wont regret it. Let me just add that i have pulled trucks out of the mud with the baja. :D
 
I have the 2005 Outback XT (turbo) Limited. I'm really happy with it so far. Just hit 106K miles.

5-speed manual. ~250HP / ~250 ft/lbs of torque.

A lot of the WRX appeal, but likely to not have been subjected to the typical WRX owner.
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I bought a WRX when they first came out in 2003, it was a riot. I bolted on every possible performance part/mod you could do to it (I was young, no wife and kids). I routinely beat cars 2 and 3 times the price of the WRX, I also got many speeding tickets ;) I beat the shit out of that car and then sold it to my cousin who was turning 16, (I removed all of the performance mods first). He continued to beat the shit out of it and to this day the only thing that has been replaced is the clutch. The damn car was a tank, I would recommend one for sure!
 
turbo54 said:
Be careful with the 1996-2004 or 2005 2.5L naturally aspirated engines - they are VERY prone to head gasket issues. Very fixable, but you probably don't want to do it yourself.
Click to expand...

Yep - I have some friends who had encountered this problem. The engine is very easy to remove (especially after getting a few opportunities to practice). But the problem becomes much less fixable if the coolant manages to find its way into the crankcase (probably only an issue with the '99 and earlier engines; it's my understanding that later engines tend to fail with an leak to the exterior of the engine which is far less of a problem).
 
We currently have #3 & #4 along with a couple others. Both Wagons my only suggestion is get the 6 cylinder if you live in areas will a lot of mountain passes the 4 doesn't like the big hills. The other thing is if you've got dogs/kids get a roof box it makes all the difference when it comes to road trips!
 
Knock sensors(cheap)
headgaskets (not cheap)
Oil pump and cooler leaks are all common on the 2.5 engines.
i generally do about 1 head set a week in my shop.
95% of the time they leak on the bottom rear drivers side head first. You can generally see the corner of the head from the top of the engine looking down in the eng compartment. If you see a coolant crusty there it needs head gaskets. When they are leaking oil it will be all along the gasket on the bottom
The 3.0 eng is no peach either. We are seeing more of them with the rear timing covers leaking oil.
I highly recomend spending a few bucks on an independent used car inspection. It can save you tons of money and save you from buying a hunk of crap.
Also make sure to get some good adhesive remover. All those obama stickers will be hard to get off. Lol
 
My first car was a wrx, it saw it's share of auto crosses and general 16 year old shenanigans, only thing I replaced was clutches and tires. Liked everything about it except awd is hard on clutches but I saved on tires though.... ha
 
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Very pleasantly surprised to see quite a few hide members with subaru's. taking all advice to heart and looking at outback as well. Thank you all
 
My DD is a 02 WRX wagon with a full JDM STI spec C swap pushing about 425 horse to the wheels. Its a blast to drive hard, gets good mpg when I keep my foot outa the boost, and is dead nuts reliable. Its hillarious when I blow the doors off vettes and porches and what not and see the confused looks on the drivers faces.

My only problem is that Im 6 foot 8, and its too damn small for a man my size. Despite that its been my DD for 5 years, and ill miss it when I get rid of it, which is coincidentally soon.
 
I know the "wagon fear", plus the whole subaru culture in my state seems to be snot nosed green liberals.

Myself I drive a wrangler, and lust as a full size pickup. But driving 20-30k a year in miles hurts with the wrangler, and to get a back seat in a truck pushes things out of my price range. Plus I am a dyed in the wool manual transmission guy, which I lose with a fullsize.

I was looking at the crosstrec a month ago, seems like the perfect compromise. Good enough in CNY winters, decent ground clearance, ok gas miliage, and a back seat.

But I just can't get over the idea of being ready for a wagon... especially since I am single. =P
 
I had a 2002 WRX for almost 10 years, like Adam B I went wild with mods, blew a motor, put a new stroker in and it became a head ache project from there. The majority of people I know from thrash by world have had great luck if they stuck to minor bolt ons and tuning but once a car was taken further than that things tend to be pretty rocky over the life of the car. The newer ones are built far better than the 2002-2007 cars and should be near bullet proof if you leave them the way Subaru intended.

If you are really looking for a versatile wagon, the Forrester XT, Volvo XC70, and Audi Allroad are much better on space and can be had for reasonable prices on the used market. None will help you in the man card department but they give you the best of both worlds: car like driving and decent off-road capability.
 
Just traded in a 2011 Outback (OB) for a 2013 Crosstrek. Two completely different cars. OB was more plush, more feature rich, e.g., power driver seat, stereo which sounds a little better, few other things. The Crosstrek has a MUCH tighter steering and a MUCH MUCH firmer suspension. As far as storage capacity is concerned, I'll have a very difficult time even getting a well stuffed drag bag into the Crosstrek and concealed let alone my bikes. Still, I'd rather have the Crosstrek's shortcomings than the OB's crappy suspension and even worse steering.

The power on the Crosstrek is still something of a mystery to me. Only a WHOPPING 148hp to drive a 3200lb vehicle. There are moments whe I think it doesn't have enough power (I think that's when I'm hitting a head wind) and then moments when I'm saying to myself "Whoa, this thing's feeling a bit frisky today." If only they would build a turbodiesel model. Man that would be as sweet as a new Beanland.

One other thing, on the model years 2010 - 2011, they had a very nasty problem with the steering wheel shaking. If you go to subaruoutback.org and search for "shake" or "shaking" you'll find a lengthy thread or two on the subject. In dealing with the problem, Subaru began to completely replace the steering assembly from the steering wheel on down. My car probably had "the shakes" but was mitigated somewhat by the tires I purchased. Mitigated but not eliminated. Don't know how the new ones steer but if I were you, I'd go to that site and do some reading.

One last thing...man, I really never could get used to driving a..."wagon" - I don't care how sporty or capable it was. Now, I'm driving a "light attack vehicle.":D
 
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If you like rally racing, the STI is king, not exactly a girly car! It's also fast on the streets, I believe you're looking at over 300hp stock.
 
After having my 04 wrx for 10 years I've finally decided to sell it, just put it on autotrader today...188000 miles and still running strong. I know I'm gonna miss the shit out of it but if Subaru made a 4x4 truck I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
 
I owned a 2011 WRX hatch and had it for all of 6 months. The damn thing was cursed from the start. It was blood thirsty and ate random animals in the early morning hours. 1 pheasant, 1 Coyote and 1 large buck that almost ended up in my lap.
Needed to go before it got a hunger for humans.
Other then that the car got 22mpg and was relatively fun to drive. The interior was cheap and the sound system was the shittiest I have ever experienced. The Volume had to be all the way up in order to hear the radio most of the time.
Bought it with the intent of modifying it, but that never happened.

Would I buy another Subaru... not a chance. I'm perfectly happy with the VW Golf TDI and F150 ecoboost I drive now.
 
My Lezbaru (no really, gave a lesbian friend from work a ride to a friends funeral recently) is the bomb. It is a standard Outback, runs studded snows in the winter (overkill I know, but I haul my baby girl in it) and all seasons in the summer. Living at 8500 in CO and driving over 40 miles each way for work, reliability and handling crappy roads is key. Very happy with this, had no problems and it is 5 yrs old. I did do plenty of research to avoid the common problems mentioned before. All my friends threatened to put lib and Obama stickers on it, but they havent. Just slap one of the nice Larue stickers or some other gun sticker and watch the libs cry. Shoulda seen the hippy crying beside me at the grocery store today.....

Elija
 
Good stuff.

My Legacy is the forest green color all cars build in 1995 were. Its the only subie wagon you'll see in Ann Arbor Michigan with Glock, Smith and Wesson, CMP, and NRA stickers on it.

At least it's a 5 speed manual...
 
Is that a guy or gal above--hell, never mind I don't care. Will say here in Alaska where we have our fair share of snow and poor roads, you cannot go 3-feet without running into some member of the Subaru cult.

That said, what this has to do with snipers, cool guns, suppressors, dead animals, hot girlfriends, or any of the other reasons I visit this thread I have no idea. If it weren't for that last drink I would be asking myself why I am even writing this reply--decided it was more entertaining to me than talking to myself I guess.
 
Well if you're wondering what this thread has to do with guns, chicks, etc, it's a really good thing you never saw the thread about "What's the best vacuum cleaner?" Having said that, it's important to be able to shoot, MOVE and communicate.

Is it "vacuum" or "vacum?"
 
A couple of years ago wife wanted one so we bought a 2001 Forester with 50K miles on it. Heard all the wonderful stories of the superior reliability compared to the Fords we've owned. At 63K it started drinking huge amounts of antifreeze. There was a head gasket recall took it in, headgasket was covered but i had to pay $1800 for pistons, rings and valves. Couldn't convince them it was the result of consuming copious amounts of antifreeze due to a blown headgasket.
Then at 123K miles the tranny quit working, service manager said that was about normal. That was $2100, it has been the most expensive car we've ever owned.
All of the Explorers we've owned went well over 200k miles without that kind of repair investment.
My 2 cents and you can leave it on the counter
Rcih
 
Had my 04 wrx about a year and a half. Center diff lunched itself when the snap ring popped out. Never launched the car but I can't vouch for the previous owner. Bought a new one, TIG welded the ring in there and no other problems to report. The back seat in the sedans is not actually made for adults though so fair warning. Hell the daughter's car seat barely fits now and I had to get rid of the nice one because it didn't fit at all. Tax return is making the down payment on a Forester for the wife. Pretty sure the daily driver will be subaru from now on. However I'm handy with a wrench and a welder. Transmissions are not cheap and the older wrx ones are made out of glass.
 
Subaru WRX STi's are great little hot rods. I have driven a few of them. One of my lateral SGT's had one and she loved it. She let me drive it on a dirt road, and man was it freakin A FUN! The STi Hatch is a sweet ride too. Handles great on ups and downs and in the snow of upstate NY. If I had a few $10k lying around I would probably buy one of the older one's, a 2.5 RS and turn it into a 22B.
As for the Forester, look for the little tan one up in SoCo Nor-Cal and see how fast it disappears. My Pop's ol, a nice little Filipina has one and said it was a 'little sluggish'. Pop took it to the dealer and had the STi turbo kit put on it and as he said,"That little car Woke TFU!" He said it really cooks now.
 
I purchased my first subaru last year. A 2012 STI and I love it. I couldnt be happier, the thing has more power than most would ever need for daily driving but when you want it its there. I took it to the new road course out here last summer to see what it could do. Holly crap the car is amazing. Has plenty of room in the back when the seats are down to haul all the guns to the range as well. Looking at getting the Crosstrek for the old lady.

Parker
 
LEZBARU!:Dwe got more than a few dykes with mullets and 'staches around here rocking the outback sport:D

Whatever subie you might want, check for accessport from http://www.cobbtuning.com/

I'm on my third scooby right now, been hooked since '02 WRX.
I'm running a '12 STI hatch with COBB stage 2 and a air intake. For an hour or two of work and and $2500 I got around +80whp. Not much can hang with this on the twisty,steep hills of nor-cal roads.
It's pretty damn small in the back and downright tiny back seats.....

Outback XT turbo is worth a look for sure
 
Our family has had experience with 1 Forester and 2 Impreza wagons. The upshot is that they are solid cars that can take a beating. The wagon is lighter, has more solidity and lends well to mounting a roof rack. Before you think too long about the WRX, pick up the phone and have your insurance company to give you a quote. It's race car expensive! If you are a young or tend to wreck cars, take out a nice life insurance policy for the sake of your family. Suby drivers tend to turn a trip to the grocery into a chance to test the car's rally performance.

If the insurance is in your budget, there is no reason not to drive a WRX. If your buddies give you flak, just tell them to put their money where their mouth is and offer to race them for pinks on an off road course.

If you are buying used, good luck finding one that hasn't been rode hard. A cherry example owned by an old lady is gonna sell faster than a lightning bolt going off. '99-'01 Impreza's are highly sought after. Expect to pay double blue book for a really clean one.

Good luck.
 
Mike AOS,
Go here.http://www.cobbtuning.com/subaru-outback-xt-2005-s/7641.htm

Buy accessport,downpipe and air intake. If you can get the car lifted, it takes 3 hours max. Doing it again, I would probably be done under 2.

If you don't want to work, just get the accessport and plug it in.Set the settings,wait a few minutes, pow! instant power. I bet you'd roost on v6's all day.
It's quite safe for your car,and it only takes a minute to re-flash the map back to stock and unplug it. Like it was never there.

You will not be disappointed.
 
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