Awsome car to drive but not so much fun to look at!

II bought this car while waiting for my MINI Cooper S to come in. I had the WRX as a daily driver while I had a 240bhp BMW M Roadster (M version of a Z3) in the garage.

I was reading a bit about the WRX and had a Isuzu Trooper as my daily driver. One night went to a local Subaru meeting where a couple of Subaru owners show up at a big parking lot to show of their cars. One guy gave me a ride in his and I was impressed enough to go to the dealer down the street to get a full test drive. Well the car was such a blast my girlfriend said get rid of that big SUV.
This car offered 4WD (as if I ever used that in CA!) in a sedan with a fun suspension and engine too.

I owned the car for 13,500 miles and here are my thoughts on the ownership experience.

At first glance this car is not very attractive. The wide fender flares up front and back look muscular but the round bug eye lights didn’t look great, although the large round fog lights did improve the front. The rear is pretty boring and the wing didn’t help so I didn’t get one. The side view was OK but the 16” alloy wheels are not the most aggressive nor attractive ones I have seen.

On the inside things get a bit better. The front seats are probably on my list of top 3 best seats I have sat in on any car. They are easily adjustable and hold you like a performance car seat should, yet they are not confining like most racing seats. The seats have a height adjuster which is nice in addition to the regular typical seat movements (front & back, recline). The steering wheel is a MOMO wheel with a very nice look (perforated leather) and feel. MOMO is an Italian company that makes racing seats, steering wheels among the long list of auto accessories they have. The wheel is a bit large for my taste but not enough to annoy me for more than a second. The dashboard is purposeful with the right dials right in front of you. The center of the console in the middle is taken up by the stereo which houses the radio, cassette and the in-dash 6 disc CD changer. The fact that this car comes with a 6 disk In-dash changer is so great!!! Wish it had steering wheels control for the stereo but the 6 CD in-dash alone is great as a standard option. One of the negatives about the interior is the fake aluminum finish on the center console area. It is cheap feeling plastic painted silver. Better to have had higher grade plastic and left it alone. The dashboard plastics are also too close to econo-box car material. The roots of this car show through in these areas as a small Japanese economy car. The interior has decent amount of compartments with a center armrest with storage inside of. The rear seating area is comfy if the front seats are not pushed back too far. I am 5㤓” and average height people were comfortable behind me. There is a small pass through to the trunk behind the read center armrest. On the wagon the seats fold down. On the sedan for the sake of higher structural rigidity the seats form part of the body stiffening structure. One complaint that may seem minor but bugged me so much was the CHEAPO thinly padded low grade vinyl sun visors this car came with. Every time someone grabbed the sun visor they would look at me as if these things came out of a VW bug of the 60’s.
The trunk was roomy for me although it felt real thin and closed with the feel of a cheap part. I know the hood is aluminum to save weight maybe the trunk was made thin to add to that weight saving. Also the hinges intrude into the storage area and can hit luggage if stacked too high. Would be better with hidden strut type system. Also the carpeting used to finish the trunk off is thin and cheap looking. But hey I guess I did pay under $25,000 for this car so I shouldn’t expect much. Funny how I still can’t believe that’s what is considered a budget minded car!

Start the engine and this car sounds like any regular Japanese 4 cylinder engine. Put the good shifting manual tranny into first and off you go. Keep it under 3500 RPM and you will feel like you are driving any regular4 cylinder Japanese car. The shifter is pretty good but not the most direct or short shifting unit. I think the short shift kit from the factory would help if a more sporty shifting action is wanted, but I didn’t want it to be too stiff so I stuck with the base shifter. Now after the all too important break in miles you can let the RPM needle climb past 3500 RPM and explore the sinful side of turbo heaven.

Once you dip the throttle enough to push the RPM needle past 3500 the engine sound gets a nice growl and the car starts to feel like it’s leaping forward with endless thrust. When you reach the redline snap into the next gear and off you go again on a fun ride to the redline. The smile that will appear on your face at this point is mandatory and trust me it will appear on your face while carrying out this exercise! This part of the car is such a blast going through the gears just feeling this car accelerate it really is like a dose of fun injected right into your body. You may think this is all the fun this car ca offer well you are wrong. Start mixing some of the above with some curves and even more fun can be had. As soon as you find some turn to take and get the hang of keeping the RPS in the sweet spot (4000-6500RPM) take some turns and see this car stick to the road as if the tires were made of that sticky gum you cant peel off. The all wheel drive lets you keep your foot on the throttle through curves that your gut will tell you to slow down for. In fact when you feel the car may lose control give it some gas and the all wheel drive will send power to the wheels with most grip and your going around the curve before you know it. Oh by the way this can be done when the road is wet! Once you’ve had this kind of excitement you feel this rush of being able to conquer anything.

But beware the car has it’s limitations, although the car warns you far ahead before loosing complete control. I may want to mention I eventually put 17” wheels on my car which helped handling significantly. The stock all season 16” tires where good in the rain but the 17” summer tires were much better for this level of performance.
Now all this fun can be had with this car at the high RPM range. So unless you are pushing the car into that area the torque from this engine is not significant. It really just feels like a regular commuter vehicle till the point that the turbo is kicking in. This does not mean turbo lag is great. The power builds up it does not just turn on at a certain point. This makes the power more progressive but after 3500RPM the increases are much greater.

During my 13,500 miles of ownership I never had to take it in for any unscheduled service except for regular oil changes at the 3500 mile intervals. The cars interior held up well during the short time I owned it. Although it would take a car with 50,000 or more miles to give a good evaluation. The paint seemed a bit thin for me. It seemed to flake of in one spot on the roof even though I waxed it and took good care of it.

A quick note about gas mileage. This car does good on the highway as far as mileage. Never measured what it was but Based on the Isuzu Trooper I had before I was spending probably less than half as much on gas. Sorry I don't have actual figures.


By the way on many a weekend when the convertible BMW with 240BHP was suppose to come out to have fun, the WRX just took over for the fun car duty.