Any year WRX better than others?

I probably won't buy one in the near future, BUT, a local dealer has a '06 WRX for sale with low miles and a decent price. Which got me to thinking, from what I've read here, there are some WRXs that are more "adaptable" to GRM-type mods than other years. And of course, that should mean some years are more desirable than others.

So, which are "choice" years to look at and which years should be avoided?

I had a 2004 for seven years and I loved it, but if I were buying another, I'd get a 2006, first year for the 2.5. I think they also had bigger brakes.

Of the new body style, I know that the 2008s were softened up a bit too much. 2009+ are better.

Woody has it correct. The 06 is a 2.5 with the 4 pot front brakes, much nicer than previous

And 04 and ups had a slightly stronger gearset for the transmission.

07 was pretty much the same as the 06 except the 06 had aluminum control arms.

09+ were faster but the interior was all plastic and the build quality went down hill.

2006 Saabaru is the best WRX.

Bryce

The one I found, as stated, IS an '06...so the consensus so far says that is a "good" year. It's a 5 speed with 55K miles on it and there appear to be no mods of any kind on it.

Price? Only(?).... $9,000.

Oh, yeah, it's that medium blue with a two-tone grey and charcoal colored interior.

integraguy wrote: The one I found, as stated, IS an '06...so the consensus so far says that is a "good" year. It's a 5 speed with 55K miles on it and there appear to be no mods of any kind on it. Price? Only(?).... $9,000. Oh, yeah, it's that medium blue with a two-tone grey and charcoal colored interior.

Why haven't you bought it yet?

Bryce

PseudoSport wrote: 07 was pretty much the same as the 06 except the 06 had aluminum control arms. 09+ were faster but the interior was all plastic and the build quality went down hill.

I'll have to disagree there. The interior is pretty much the same quality on the 09+, but the seats are better. I'm at 65k hard miles on mine and have had no "build quality" issues whatsoever.

And the 09 is considerably faster in stock form than the 06-07, and has IRS and a backseat that adults can actually fit in. And also fold-down backseats, which are key for the track rats.

Just my opinion though. I love the 06-07s as well. The 09+ doesn't have 4-pots, but the braking is just as good (though mine has 4-pots on it, which bolt right up)

5 Speed with 55K? Triple nickle? 555? It was obviously destined to happen. Buy it.

Thats a smoking deal

integraguy wrote: The one I found, as stated, IS an '06...so the consensus so far says that is a "good" year. It's a 5 speed with 55K miles on it and there appear to be no mods of any kind on it. Price? Only(?).... $9,000. Oh, yeah, it's that medium blue with a two-tone grey and charcoal colored interior.

Yeah, if you aren't buying it, please let me know if it's close to Cincinnati, OH

06 is a great year for the WRX (I almost bought an 06 WRX wagon instead of my Mazdaspeed3). Just make sure it was well maintained. At least around here, WRXs typically lead a hard life of being thrashed, poorly modified, barely maintained, and put away wet.

After my last posting, I went over to Edmunds.com to see what they had as a "possible" price.....OMG, if this car is as advertised, it's a smoking deal.

My problem? Where I live isn't a great part of town. My '97 Civic was broken into a few months ago so some drug-addled maroon could get my 3 year old $100 stereo...he left my cheapy cellphone in the glove box but REALLY torn up the dashboard to get the radio out.

I'm also wondering about the size of the "driver's compartment" (for lack of a better way to put it). The '06 WRX is about the same size as my Civic...but has 4 doors to my cars 2.

Why don't you go berkeleying buy it already?

BTW, car in question is on CL for St. Augustine, Fl.

I checked it saturday evening and it was still there, haven't been to look at car "in the metal" yet.

integraguy wrote: I'm also wondering about the size of the "driver's compartment" (for lack of a better way to put it). The '06 WRX is about the same size as my Civic...but has 4 doors to my cars 2.

WRX vs Civic: More shoulder, leg and (astronomical)head room up front. More head and shoulder room out back, no more leg room. Back seats don't fold down on the sedan, which is a downer.

If you don't care about the extra power, the 2.5i is very similar in feel to the WRX. This WRX however, is priced like a 2.5i, so just buy it already.

ValuePack wrote:

integraguy wrote: I'm also wondering about the size of the "driver's compartment" (for lack of a better way to put it). The '06 WRX is about the same size as my Civic...but has 4 doors to my cars 2.

WRX vs Civic: More shoulder, leg and (astronomical)head room up front. More head and shoulder room out back, no more leg room. Back seats don't fold down on the sedan, which is a downer. If you don't care about the extra power, the 2.5i is very similar in feel to the WRX. *This* WRX however, is priced like a 2.5i, so just buy it already.

08+ wrx has significantly more rear legroom than the 07- models. I think an extra 3 or 4 inches, IIRC. I've had a 6'10 friend sit back there on several occasions with no problem.

and the rear seast in the 08+ sedan DO fold down.

Wow, that seems cheap for any '06 model car, let alone a WRX.

What's an "original" (i.e. 1st generation) WRX like? So far they're the only ones affordable to me.

Luke wrote: What's an "original" (i.e. 1st generation) WRX like? So far they're the only ones affordable to me.

They are an absolute blast to drive and even more fun in rain or snow. I loved mine for about 125,000 miles. I got rid of it because my three year old was getting too big to fit in the child seat in the back and a bunch of things were due for replacement. The clutch was original, I had to replace a cracked catalytic converter, which I suspect may have been caused by a worn engine mount, and I'm pretty sure that new wheel rear wheel bearings weren't that far off.

I'll probably own another turbo Subaru some day. The long term quality was much better than I had expected it to be. I wouldn't buy a used one with any modifications but there are a few out there that have avoided a life of hoonage.

Woody wrote: I wouldn't buy a used one with any modifications but there are a few out there that have avoided a life of hoonage.

There lies the catch. Most of the cheap ones have bling 18s, miscellaneous engine chips and cannon exhausts, etc.

An early WRX is one car I would relish keeping exactly stock. I think they'll be worth something some day.

integraguy wrote: BTW, car in question is on CL for St. Augustine, Fl. I checked it saturday evening and it was still there, haven't been to look at car "in the metal" yet.

Darn, a little to far for me to just hop on over :( Probably for the best, though.

irish44j wrote:

PseudoSport wrote: 07 was pretty much the same as the 06 except the 06 had aluminum control arms. 09+ were faster but the interior was all plastic and the build quality went down hill.

I'll have to disagree there. The interior is pretty much the same quality on the 09+, but the seats are better. I'm at 65k hard miles on mine and have had no "build quality" issues whatsoever. And the 09 is considerably faster in stock form than the 06-07, and has IRS and a backseat that adults can actually fit in. And also fold-down backseats, which are key for the track rats. Just my opinion though. I love the 06-07s as well. The 09+ doesn't have 4-pots, but the braking is just as good (though mine has 4-pots on it, which bolt right up)

And I have to disagree with you.

I ordered my old 2009 WRX new to replace my even older 2002 WRX wagon.I'll say one thing: It was much faster stock than my 2002, even when my 2002 was at "stage 2". But speed isn't everything. The build quality was terrible. The car was a rattle trap. Everything creaked and cracked over every imperfection in the road. The seats were OK, but were flat and didn't have a lot of lateral support. And that's just the interior stuff. For the record, my 2002 was rattle free all the way up to my trade-in at 86K miles.

As the car got older, other problems started to occur.

-There was a strange out-of-balance feeling to the car at speeds over 60, and the wheels were perfectly balanced and the car had a perfect alignment. No one could figure that out. I took it to 3 different places, and that never got solved.

-Even with spending $200 on shifter upgrades, it still was a clunky mess, and it rattled, too.

-The paint sucked, and was falling off the front bumper. Cold weather cracked the damn paint! The A/C compressor was smoked at 60K miles.

-Even though I had the "Subaru Gold Plus" 10 year/100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, they didn't cover the belt under warranty, which cost me $150 to replace. The belt alone was $99 because they switched to a one-time use tensioner that has to be replaced every time you take the belt off.

-The clutch and brake pedals felt like they were going to fall off every time they were depressed. There's a lengthy thread on NASIOC about this. The only solution is to TIG weld an aluminum brace that goes from the pedal assembly hanger to the firewall to stop the whole assembly from flexing, and of course that's not something you can do at the dealer. If you are handy with a TIG and have all that equipment, then great. I, however, am not.

-The throwout bearing made lots of bad noises, starting at around 30K miles. They would not replace it under warranty because it was a "wear item", and that was a $1200 job.

-The transmission made squeaking noises when the pedal was depressed. Again, not covered. Again, another $1000+ job just to "inspect" it.

-The turbo was making bad noises under boost at around 3000rpm. It started doing it at around 45K miles. It sounded like a grinding, rattling noise. The dealer could not replicate the noise, so they wouldn't touch it.

There were more problems, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

Now mind you this is not some $2k project car. This is a $27,000+ modern car that should be able to withstand normal daily use. I never raced or tracked the car, and all of this happened. I also dodged the bad batch of cranks that came in the early 2009's by mere weeks. Before buying this car, I was a die-hard Subaru enthusiast.I was so disappointed by this turd of a car that I doubt I could ever buy another Subaru again (unless it was a Challenge-priced WRX), and just can't recommend a 2008+ car to anyone I know or remotely like.

All that said... and I would recommend that you look for a 2006. They had the best mix of the good parts, like the 4-pot/2-pot brake setup and the aluminum control arms, and these cars seem to also have the best build quality.

Oh, and for the record, the only modifications my car had were wider wheels (the 2011 cars have the same size wheels), a STI rear sway bar, and an aftermarket radio. The car was pretty much stock and I had all these issues. I can't imagine what would happen if I started to really mod it like I did with my 2002. I had 50,000+ miles of modded use on that car, with an upgraded exhaust, different ECU tune for more boost, upgraded struts and springs, upgraded brakes, etc. The only issues I had with that car were a harmonic rear diff noise (there's a recall on this) and the cold weather fuel line leak (also recalled).

Look, in full disclosure I had to have a new engine at 9k miles. I had one of the "early batch" (first 2 months production 09s) that had the improperly deburred cranks and got rod knock real quick. Every car with this problem was a "first 2 monther" to my knowledge. All have had engines and turbos replaced under warranty (as did I). It's running great at 65k now.

So, not to disagree with you, but just to discuss:

SilverFleet wrote: I ordered my old 2009 WRX new to replace my even older 2002 WRX wagon.I'll say one thing: It was much faster stock than my 2002, even when my 2002 was at "stage 2". But speed isn't everything. The build quality was terrible. The car was a rattle trap. Everything creaked and cracked over every imperfection in the road. The seats were OK, but were flat and didn't have a lot of lateral support. And that's just the interior stuff. For the record, my 2002 was rattle free all the way up to my trade-in at 86K miles.

seats are always going to be subjective. I think the lateral support is better than any of my other seats (which include Porsche 911 seats in the e30, Miata seats in the GT6, and many previous cars with "sporty" seats). Yeah, I'd rather have the STi seats, but the 09 WRX seats are great for long trips for me, and for track/autocross events (if not a bit flexy sometimes).

As to rattles, I'll agree there. That said, I had located all of them in the first 5k miles and eliminated all of them. I've been rattle-free for about 60k miles now, and this car gets beaten on terrible DC roads and snowy-mountain drives. Most of the rattles are just where panels intersect, and are easily fixed. I actually like the hard plastic interior panels....light, don't get dirty, etc.....

SilverFleet wrote: -There was a strange out-of-balance feeling to the car at speeds over 60, and the wheels were perfectly balanced and the car had a perfect alignment. No one could figure that out. I took it to 3 different places, and that never got solved.

no idea what that is from. I've used 4 different wheels, several different tire sets (icnluding the stock ones for 20k miles), stock suspension for 20k miles, then STi springs, then Bilsteins....never had any issues and my daily commute is around 80mph on lousy highways

SilverFleet wrote: -Even with spending $200 on shifter upgrades, it still was a clunky mess, and it rattled, too.

Mine was a SPT edition car with the STI short shifter. I actually love it. I did add a urethane lower bushing and it's very direct and not clunky or rattling at all. I will agree, the base/stock WRX shifter is pretty bleh.....but then again so has every non-STI subaru shifter I've ever felt been.

SilverFleet wrote: -The paint sucked, and was falling off the front bumper. Cold weather cracked the damn paint! The A/C compressor was smoked at 60K miles.

I came from Nissan, so chipping paint is nothing new to me. My wrx at 60k (black) is no worse than my Maxima was at 60k (black also).

A/C compressor should be the same one that's on the 06-08 cars, so don't know if that's a specific 09 issue....

SilverFleet wrote: -Even though I had the "Subaru Gold Plus" 10 year/100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, they didn't cover the belt under warranty, which cost me $150 to replace. The belt alone was $99 because they switched to a one-time use tensioner that has to be replaced every time you take the belt off.

wait, what belt? AC belt is $99? I didn' tbuy the warranty, but haven't had any need to use it sicne my bumper to bumper ran out 35k miles ago.

SilverFleet wrote: -The clutch and brake pedals felt like they were going to fall off every time they were depressed. There's a lengthy thread on NASIOC about this. The only solution is to TIG weld an aluminum brace that goes from the pedal assembly hanger to the firewall to stop the whole assembly from flexing, and of course that's not something you can do at the dealer. If you are handy with a TIG and have all that equipment, then great. I, however, am not.

I fixed it with two bolts. No welding required. Also, the Grimmspeed M/C brace makes a HUGE difference (as it does on all wrx's). But yeah, the firewall is pretty flexy.

SilverFleet wrote: -The throwout bearing made lots of bad noises, starting at around 30K miles. They would not replace it under warranty because it was a "wear item", and that was a $1200 job.

mine makes an occasional noise, but only on really cold mornings and only until the car warms up. Seems pretty common on 08+ wrx's. I had the same noise for 100k miles on my Maxima, and it never hurt anything.

SilverFleet wrote: -The transmission made squeaking noises when the pedal was depressed. Again, not covered. Again, another $1000+ job just to "inspect" it.

haven't had that one.

SilverFleet wrote: -The turbo was making bad noises under boost at around 3000rpm. It started doing it at around 45K miles. It sounded like a grinding, rattling noise. The dealer could not replicate the noise, so they wouldn't touch it.

sounds like my brother's DSM eclipse turbo at 15k miles, lol. Again though, it's a VF52 so that's not necessarily a 09 wrx issue. God knows plenty of people have had TD04s fail on them early too. Oil contamination? What oil were you using? Please dont' say Mobil1....

Anyhow, there are certainly areas of the newer WRXs where Subaru cheaped out, no question. But for a 290hp stock car (and yes, dynos over and over prove that 265 is way under the rea number on the 09s), with AWD, with alot of nice features, multi-link rear suspension, and good interior space for under $30k, gotta compromise someplace.

Hell, my co-worker who has a 2008 Audi S4 seems to have it in the shop once a month for something going wrong. and always something bigger than a rattle. Last visit was for an exploded radiator at 25k miles.

It is what it is. It's a cheap, fast, fun car. And IDK why I"m spending time on this anyhow since the OP is looking at an 06, haha...