I'm just starting to make a short list of cars to consider as I'll likely be replacing our 2011 BMW 323i in the next 6 months. The 2015-2017 WRX looks like it's in the right price range for our budget. I wouldn't say I'm a huge Subaru fan, or even a big fan of all wheel drive but the WRX definitely checks some of the boxes for me, not the least of which is that it comes in manual. I don't know much about specific reliability concerns, known issues, things to watch out for, etc. when it comes to these. Any thoughts or experiences with these?
Thanks!
They sound better than the EJ-engined cars.
Beyond that, I got little experience with them, other than having to replace some timing chain guides in a Forester XT that the owner failed to keep oil in it and the chain beat the hell out of the guides. The turbo plumbing was.... annoying.
So, from a sample of two FA20 turbo equipped vehicles that I've worked on, they seem to consume oil like the FB25 engine used in base Foresters.
The cars themselves are pretty nice, although I am not a fan of multilink suspensions from a handling perspective, Subaru at least saw fit to use as few bushings as possible. The only bushings in the front suspension are on the stabilizer bar, everything else up front and half the pivot points in the rear are "pillow ball" type bearings.
I've got a 2015 WRX with about 133,000 kms that was my parent's before me. It's been 100% reliable with decent fuel mileage for what it is (in the 8.5L/100 km range). It's reasonably stiffly sprung for a stock car, not uncomfortably so, which helps it handle quite well as a result. I've had mine on track a couple times and it does quite well, but it could use more brakes. It's no luxury car, but it has all the features I want and the prices are very reasonable as a result.
A couple things I did to mine that I'd recommend are to replace the lower steering column with the STI part, as the stock one has a rubber donut in it that numbs the steering. The other thing to do is get a shifter stop to remove some of the over travel sloppiness on the left side of the shifter. I did a stiffer shifter bushing at the same time.
For street use my only real complaint would be that the drivetrain mounts are quite soft, which makes it prone to some jerkyness if you're not perfectly smooth on your shifts.
I thought we had a buyer's guide for the WRX, but I'm not seeing it.
If I'm able to track it down, I'll be sure to post it here.
I had a 15 STI, 16 WRX, and 16 FXT. Best friend has had his 2016 since new and put well over 100k on it with mods and a tune and it's still running well. I think if they are well maintained they will hold up well vs. a lot of my experience with previous gens. They are some of the more refined WRX models and interior quality was a bit better than previous gens.
The turbo plumbing is a pain, there was also a recall on one of the intake charge pipes so ensure that is done. Throwout bearings like to get squeaky too (had to have mine replaced along with a clutch at 10k miles, then a tech left a 10mm in the bell housing that required a whole new clutch, flywheel, etc). The aforementioned friend did have his AC compressor clutch go bad at 100k miles.
From 2016+ the infotainment is different, the non-base models got the inverted struts from the STI, and that's really all I can think of as major differences in the WRX lineup from those years. They are versatile cars, decent trunk space, fun to thrash, the way the power just stops at 5500rpm even though the redline is like 6500 is lame.
They feel quite powerful when you give it a quick blast of full throttle around town, but then there is that bit of a letdown when you pull out to pass someone on a 2 lane highway and that same power just doesn't seem to be there in the same way anymore. They allow for some over boost in limited situations,.which are time limited, so that's what I think happens in those short bursts. They are very responsive and can be lugged around at low rpm very effectively, but as stated, the high rpm power just isn't there. I came from an RX-7 and an RX-8, so was used to having to rev an engine to get power and the character of the engine is very different.
