Hey everyone I'm fairly new to this site, and I need some info on the WRX. I used to have a mitsubishi eclipse GST. I had to sell it though.. then I decided to go for a more reliable car. I ended up getting a Mazda3, dont get me wrong its a nice car but it just doesnt meet my need for speed..lol I was wondering what to look for when I test drive a wrx. also how much hp could you expect to keep a reliable daily driver? It was better for my eclipse to have a recirculatiing blow off valve. Are the Wrx's the same or can they vent into the atmosphere?? Is everyone happy with their wrx?? thanks for the help!!
Recir BOVs are better. And stage 2 wrxs which are about 280 CHP are fairly reliable. Stay away from boost controllers and the like, tune with good engine management and you will be ok.
so is a bigger turbo out of the question if I want to maintain daily driving reliability? Oh and is there anything I should be looking for (bad signs) while test driving? My friend test drove one that had exhaust and I'm not sure what else? (nothing I could tell just by looking under the hood) and it was pretty fast I was rather impressed. Now I want one really bad, and I am just trying to make sure I know what I'm doing before I go and get one!!
so is a bigger turbo out of the question if I want to maintain daily driving reliability? Oh and is there anything I should be looking for (bad signs) while test driving? My friend test drove one that had exhaust and I'm not sure what else? (nothing I could tell just by looking under the hood) and it was pretty fast I was rather impressed. Now I want one really bad, and I am just trying to make sure I know what I'm doing before I go and get one!!
No, you can have a reliable daily driver with a turbo upgrade.
You need to test drive a completely stock WRX so you can get a feel for the car and you can hear all the noises that it makes.
Make sure that the clutch engages smooth and you can shift gears without grinding.
I personally wouldn't get anything with more than 40k. I bought my wrx with 44k miles, and it already has 57 and I feel like I just bought it still. I wish I had bought one with less miles... It's not really bad getting one with more as long as you know the owner took care of it real well, but you don't always know that, so the less miles, the better.
Noise was a big thing when i first notice test drove my car. I'm used to not quite so much before I had a WRX. And then the turbo kicked in during the test drive. Fell in love. hah. As others have stated... you should stick with the recirculating blow off valve. Reliability as a daily driver has a lot to do how you drive it daily if you catch my drift. A turbo upgrade is definitely doable as a daily driver, provided you don't drive as if every moment is a race. As far as mileage i personally got my 02 with around 70K miles to it and have had zero issues. Others are so lucky. So i guess its all in how good the car is as far as condition is concerned. IN general the HP max number where reliability starts to sharply decrease is the 280 -300 WHP range.
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