WRX shopping

In my "what car" thread I decided on a WRX and I'm looking at possible cars now. I'm trying to stay away from modified cars but should I be too worried about that? For example this one says it has a new motor and has been professionally tuned. Do you think it would be safe to buy if the seller has receipts for the engine swap and tuning?

My budget is about $8500 max.

Find one as stock as you can get it. And when I mean stock, I don't mean a car that was modded and put back to stock. For that kind of money, you should be able to find a clean, never-modified stock one.

These cars a quirky and many mods that apply to other turbo sport compacts will damage one if not installed correctly. There are many no-nos with these, such as manual boost controllers, atmospheric blow-off valves, and certain cold air intakes. Sometimes, mods like these (for various reasons) will help to grenade your engine if you have a WRX.

Watch out for any evidence of modification, such as missing heat shields, aftermarket turbo inlets, strange wiring, etc. Also, as with any performance car, if the ad talks about how fast the car is, that usually means the previous owner beat the crap out of it. Good luck!!!

I've been considering getting one myself to replace my E36 328i. After getting a ride in my friend's STi though I realized how precise the handling of my 328i is. The STi is a sledgehammer the BMW is a scalpel. I remember when I went from my SpecMiata to the E36 I felt the E36 was a boat so who knows maybe you have to get used to the drive and feel of the car.

In my case, as much as I hate feeling trapped by a car manufacturer I'm back to looking at the BMWs, E46s or E39s. I need a good, safe, reliable highway cruiser for my 110 mile daily commute.

RussellH, Have you driven or ridden in an EVO? Its the scalpel your looking for.

Andrew

A scalpel with a tiny gas tank.

Few things I know from sharing my wifes 03. Megan Coilovers are really really bad! A stage 2 tune with a new uppipe and turbo back exhaust is really really fun and loud. You will have a really hard time fitting 3 kid seats across the back. A rear bar drastically improves handling. The ABS is occasionally weird-as in, I was stopping fine and then hit something slick and ended up 6 feet farther than I expected. Teen to college age boys will randomly complement your car all the time. A wife who formally drove a Saturn will suddenly become intolerant of slow interstate mergers and take to jumping to the far left lane and passing everyone in a fit. Same wife now won't accept us buying any car without power. They make 3 and 4 year olds go Weeeeeeee (excitement not urine) every time you roll into the throttle. 27mpg on the highway with liberal use of boost and 80mph cruising speeds. Overall a great car.

Accessport is a must...even if for stage 1. Stock engine management sucks.

They are nearly impossible to find unmodified. Good luck with that.

Don't think you're anonymous. Every punkass / redneck would harrass me and my wife every time we drove my stock white, debadged WRX....to the point of being annoying and one of the primary reasons I dumped the car.

Mr. Joshua - How are you getting 27mpg on the highway. The GRM project WRX's usually saw about 20 - 22 mixed and about 25 on the highway. My wifes 00 Impreza 2.2 5 speed sees maybe 23-25mpg at 80.

Greg Voth wrote: Mr. Joshua - How are you getting 27mpg on the highway. The GRM project WRX's usually saw about 20 - 22 mixed and about 25 on the highway. My wifes 00 Impreza 2.2 5 speed sees maybe 23-25mpg at 80.

Not sure-Accessport, tune and exhaust maybe? This used to be Dyintorace's car and IIRC he saw about the same.

On long road trips I've gotten 27-29 mpg out of my 07. It didn't get near that till the cats went missing and it got a stage 2 tune. Daily driving it gets 25-26 mpg.

In reply to Pseudosport:

when did the cats run away? sounds like you tuned wrxs get better mileage than the 2.5rs

I used to get 26-27mpg highway out of my Stage 2 (full catless exhaust and engine management) on a regular basis. Ask Pseudosport. He's seen it happen in my old car, and I can vouch for his insane mileage too. Evict the cats, and you'll get great mileage.

MrJoshua, all of the statements you made in your first post are hilariously true.

Also, you don't need an Accessport. Open source engine management is WAY cheaper (and GRM friendly) and much more customizable. You need a Tactrix cable, the jumper connectors that come with the cable, and a laptop. The cable used to be $80, now it's around $170. And Accessport is like $700, and you have to get their Street Tuner software which is another $200 or so to be able to tweak the preloaded maps. Put it this way: I did a full turbo-back exhaust, tune, K&N drop-in filter, tons of upgraded bushings, a Kartboy shifter setup (HIGHLY reccomended!!!!), rear sway bar, gauges, and a brake upgrade for LESS than the Accessport and Street Tuner setup costs!!!

Someday, I'd love to pick up another early WRX just to mod the hell out of. I really like my 2009 WRX, but I have really fond memories of my old one.

Thanks for the info on the Tactrix, that will save me a lot of money.

What exhaust do you recommend? I can go catless since there is no emissions check where I live.

We have emissions tests here and I still pass. As long as the check engine light is off and no one sticks there head under the car everything is fine. With the Tactrix cable and free software you can can make it so the the engine will not throw certain codes. Same thing goes for the Accessport I believe.

For exhaust I'm running a 3" downpipe mated to the stock system. I use to have a Borla Hush system on my 02 and like it because it was fairly quiet compared to other exhausts.

We had a tough time finding a clean, low-mileage example for our new project. Keep looking, they're still out there.

We'll start turning wrenches on our project shortly after the Mitty. Looks for these topics to be addressed. What else would you guys like to see us look at with the project?

Say, how big is a WRX? I'd love to have a small car I can get good mileage in, but I've got two pre-teens to fit in the back. Trouble?

DoctorBlade wrote: Say, how big is a WRX? I'd love to have a small car I can get good mileage in, but I've got two pre-teens to fit in the back. Trouble?

They don't get very good mileage. I do about 22mpg in mine.

DoctorBlade wrote: Say, how big is a WRX? I'd love to have a small car I can get good mileage in, but I've got two pre-teens to fit in the back. Trouble?

I've gotten 23.5 mpg on every tankful, regardless of how it's driven, for 115k miles. Backseat would be unpleasant, even for kids.

On the exhaust....

If you're looking at an early WRX (02-05) with the 2.0L, there are some things you should be aware of. First, there are three cats on these cars. There is one in the up-pipe that goes from the exhaust manifolds to the turbo, and two in the downpipe that comes off the turbo. First thing to do here is ditch that up-pipe cat by either gutting th estock one or replacing the pipe with a catless aftermarket unit. If the car sees any more boost than stock or hasn't been taken care of, the material in the cat will come apart and go though the turbo! And yes, it has happened may times, and it's no joke. Also, don't cheap out here if you are replacing it. Ask Pseudosport about the "metal butthole"! His cheap Ebay flex-sectioned up-pipe decided to implode and come apart.

Second is that the exhaust flange on the back of the turbo that goes to the downpipe is a non-conventional, weirdo Subaru-only flange. Because of this, there are pretty much three types of downpipes: the stock style (which sucks), the bell mouth design (which is good and cheap), and the divorced design (which is marginally better than the bellmouth, and usually expensive). The Subaru turbos have a internal wastegate, and from the factory, there's a plate that blocks it off to force anything that comes out of it back into the turbo. This isn't the best for performance, as you can imagine. The bell mouth and the divorced setups allow for that exhaust to leave, and help to increase boost. I say get a cheap bellmouth. I had (and so does Pseudosport) a Maddad catless 3'' bellmouth downpipe, and it is a nice piece. I'm not sure if he's in business anymore, but his stuff was nice. One thing to watch out for here is that some aftermarket downpipes may interfere with a drainage line for the a/c system. It can be either trimmed or moved if this is an issue. If you're replacing everything, make sure you get something that's 3'' with no taper at the end that meets with the catback.

Ok, onto catbacks... On these cars, catbacks really don't add too much power (5-10hp), but I would still replace it anyway. There's nothing like the sound of one of these cars with a nice exhaust. Pick your poison here, because there are hundreds of different catbacks on the market. Among the most common are the big angled fart cannon ones, stock appearing twin-tips, and stock appearing single tips. Most of the cheap ones on Ebay (Megan Racing, Tsudo, etc...) are decent but LOUD. On my car, I had an Autospeed twin-tip, but I can't reccommend it because they went out of business for shady business practices. If you find one used, they are super rare and they sound good and a bit loud, but don't expect to find a new one. If you want something on the quiet side, I'd check out the Tanabe Medallion Touring, the Borla Hush, and if he's still in business, the Maddad Whisper catbacks.

If you can, try to go used here. I got a killer deal on my old catback that was barely used, and I got it for hundreds less than it went for new.

WilberM3 wrote: In reply to Pseudosport: when did the cats run away? sounds like you tuned wrxs get better mileage than the 2.5rs

My dogs chased them away.

Hey Pseudo, what happened to keeping the Rex stock?

Woody wrote:

DoctorBlade wrote: Say, how big is a WRX? I'd love to have a small car I can get good mileage in, but I've got two pre-teens to fit in the back. Trouble?

I've gotten 23.5 mpg on every tankful, regardless of how it's driven, for 115k miles. Backseat would be unpleasant, even for kids.

Your standards are high. My 1 teen and 1 pre-teen (ugh..that makes me feel old.) fit in the back of the WRX fine. So do I, for that matter. It's not spacious, but it's adequate for us.

Oh, and I must add the obligatory...

GET A WAGON!!!! They are cool, hold more stuff than the sedans, and are usually cheaper.

But they don't have the same suspension if memory serves.

A cat before the turbo? Holy cow, I'll bet pulling that out makes a huge difference.

have you looked into the Saabaru? the 9-2X is less likely to be molested

I was planning on getting a wagon. I looked at sedans but after I found out the rear seats don't fold down I would rather have a wagon.

I have a few prospects, one as far as Little Rock.

I would really like a yellow wagon but I haven't yet seen one for sale.