I have recently fell in love with the 2004 style WRX and am selling my 240SX promptly to put a hefty down payment on one. I want out of the "mod" scene and want a fun, spirited, AWD turbo (non-dsm) platform.
I do not know anybody with a subaru, let alone a WRX, so I thought I would hop on here and maybe strike up a conversation!
Is there anything anybody would recommend while looking for my desired year WRX? Should I maybe look for a different year? Please excuse my ignorance, assuming casual driving with occassional spirited driving, are WRX's (with minor modifications) fairly reliable? I personally have not heard anything bad about subarus reliability, in fact, everything I have heard is fantastic. However, my knowledge is exceptionally limited.
I am very excited and anxious to get into and grab ahold of the reigns (or steering wheel, whatever lol) of the WRX. Any conversation about the cars in general would be appreciated.
Well, they are pretty freaking nice cars, the only thing i'd be too worried about is the transmission... they can be very weak (especially on the 02-03) the 04+ have a slightly updated tranny, but it's still nothing to go bragging about. They shatter gears left and right (if you abuse the tranny badly) If you take care when doing spirited driving and don't clutch dump when launching the car, then you should be OK....
Even if you don't want to mod the car, it will be too tempting You can throw in a few hundred dollars and have a fine vehicle. I'd recomend getting a DownPipe and UpPipe and then you'd be totally set... The uppipe is for safety of the turbo, the upipe has a cat in it and some pieces of it tend to break off and fall into the turbo, so getting an aftermarket no-cat uppipe is in order... The downpipe is supposedly the most restrictive part in your exhaust system, so it will give you some major power gains for a relatively cheap price... Up to 25whp depending on which one you use....
Do some researching around this forum and look up things you want to know, there are so many threads in this forum with so much information it's unbeleiveable... have fun and welcome to the forum also!
Try to buy one that has not/ does not have ANY engine mods.No BOV,intake,FMIC.A car thats been modded has been beat on no doubt.Private sellers are best to buy from because some will have kept vehicle maintenance records.If you can get one with a manual tranny.I always bring someone else with me when I look at/test drive cars.Another set of mechanical eyes and ears plus they get to play devil's advocate.Lord knows I have gotten excited about buying a car and would have overlooked alot of things just to get it home if it wasn't for someone else saying "Hey ,lets look at a couple for first.You might want to sleep on this one"
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Aarg matey!
ECU Pirated by RomRaider
For sure. I want something virgin and manual. I do not want to drive anything non-manual ever again lol.
In your opinions (not what KBB or other sites say) what is a fair price for an 04-05 WRX? Insurance is pretty cheap, progressive quoted me at ike $199 a month, not bad.
Also, what is the bias between the rear and front tires or is the AWD pretty even?
edit: Dumdum, your car looks fantastic. I love those headlight covers, they really take away the Neon'ish headlight look!!! Great job!
Price depends on location and miles. As far as the AWD goes its has the typical understeer that you always read about in the magazines. That can be sorted out with some nice swaybars and endlinks.
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Joshua
"They lied, not coming home till August 18th, Im rejoining civilization. Screw this sandbox"
Oh cool. Nice to know of a way to try and prevent the understeer.
I am very anxious, i hope my 240 sells soon
Growing out of the Drifting phase too eh?? Is it swapped with an SR or did you keep the OEM KA??
I have an 86' Corolla AE86 that i drift around once in a while, not even registered so i can't drive it around as much as i would like... I guess i don't really care too much about drifting anyway, moved to a VW Jetta I'll probably throw the Corolla into a couple autocrosses one of these days.... My Jetta is too front heavy, being a small car with a 2.8liter V6 in the front
its a boosted ka. 1998 240, kouki, with approximately $8,000 in performance alone.
Not exactly done with a drift phase, never got in it lol. Cars never been to any track or any event I just was building it to go fast and have some sideways fun too.
Im just done spending ALL my money on mods so I want to go to a platform that I will love driving without having to heavily mod it. AWD Turbo is what im looking for and I love the tone of a nice boxer. Thus, WRX
Nice!!! it's hard to find anyone who appreciates the KA anymore, everyone just gets lazy and swaps to an SR, not knowing that the KA is a better platform to build off of... Good choice in wanting a WRX, i tryed convincing my parents that getting a 230hp turbo AWD Subaru WRX was being responsible, but they didn't buy it. c'mon, it's a 4-door! Hahaha...
I just dont tell my parents that its turbo I just say the WRX is a nicer model on the interior and a diff aero package with a sport look. They bought it.
Im going to go to the subby dealer this weekend and test drive one. I am sure it will not dissapoint. I am so anxious for my car to sell, get out of the heavy mod game, and move onto a higher class nicer awd vehicle!
I will probably mod it to the point of reliable STi power output'ish then call it good. This way I wont feel bad about not having an STi when i see one lol
...and then you realize that the STi probably is lightly modded too maintaining the same advantage. Give up, STi envy is inevitable. You WILL fall to the darkside.
as long as its slightly modded to maintain STOCK STi power I should be happy. Hell, ill be happy with a stock WRX Subaru is quite a bit nicer than nissan, in my opinion, as far as actual interiors and comfort goes. Will be nice.
What is it like to do basic maintenance on a boxer? Alternator looks pretty easy. I havent seen one up close for quite awhile so it is hard to gauge the other stuff.
Diff fluids are a little more important than usual to change regularly. Other than that it's pretty much the same. Subarus are pretty easy to tinker with as everything is laid out with a mechanic in mind. You don't have to take apart the intake to change the battery (hi Chrysler) or anything like that.
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You can throw in a few hundred dollars and have a fine vehicle. I'd recomend getting a DownPipe and UpPipe and then you'd be totally set... The uppipe is for safety of the turbo, the upipe has a cat in it and some pieces of it tend to break off and fall into the turbo, so getting an aftermarket no-cat uppipe is in order... The downpipe is supposedly the most restrictive part in your exhaust system, so it will give you some major power gains for a relatively cheap price... Up to 25whp depending on which one you use....
I'll probably throw the Corolla into a couple autocrosses one of these days.... My Jetta is too front heavy, being a small car with a 2.8liter V6 in the front
c'mon, it's a 4-door! Hahaha...
I just say the WRX is a nicer model on the interior and a diff aero package with a sport look. They bought it. 
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