[Rampant]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

And yet all of the modern turbo engines from BMW, Audi, Mercedes, and many others, do.

NO they don't. They don't give their "best" at all. They give good response. Better than the stock cars of 10 years ago. But not their "best". You have to change gear to get the best out of them. I wonder if you notice a theme developing here?

[Hammer Werke]

Originally Posted by Never_Enough

Not sure cars with huge wings etc count as a sleeper.

I took the wing off mine. But yea I meant wrx in general.

[lazyleo]

Thanks everyone for all the great answers. This discussion has been very helpful.

I took a WRX out for a test drive this weekend. I ended up actually quite enjoying the car.

Coming to the test drive, I thought that I will mostly not like the interior, but I ended up finding it very much acceptable. Not great, but not bad either. I can see myself not getting put off by it when using the car on daily basis. It is functional, without much added glamour, which I actually appreciate. There's a reason why I prefer BMW interiors over MB! I was not impressed by the 6.5' head unit, but I think it'll do the job. At least there's Android Auto this year. The standard audio is quite bad though, so I'll probably want to replace the speakers and add an amp, if I end up getting the car. Finally, there's enough soft plastics everywhere it matters.

Overall, I do think that I will miss the BMW interior a bit. The Subaru definitely lacks the nice details and refinement that the BMW has.

The seats (standard, non-Recaro) are ok. Some support on the sides, cloth.

Now, the drive itself was nice. The car feels very solid. Planted in the corners. Shifting the manual is a lot of fun. Though not as loud as the STI, there's still some engine rumble and the sound of turbo that my BMW lacks. This does make the drive a little more exciting, though not sure if long trips would be a little uncomfortable.

Being fairly new to a manual and sticking mostly to city roads, I've not been able to experience the drive to the fullest. But, I think I got enough indication that I'll like the way the car drives and handles.

I think I've got to go and test drive the 2 and the 4 now to finally make up my mind!

Oh, I also checked out the type - R. A very cool car with a great interior. The exterior with the huge wing is a little too out there for me though. Too bad they don't allow test drives!

[Questofthetune]

I hate the interior of the wrx. I really wanted one. Amd I wanted to love it but the interior to me is boring.

[Never_Enough]

Originally Posted by ravil

Oh, I also checked out the type - R. A very cool car with a great interior. The exterior with the huge wing is a little too out there for me though. Too bad they don't allow test drives!

Find a dealer that actually wants to sell you a car. I went through the no test drive bs with some Dodge dealers on the Hellcat. I walked. Fuck that bs.

[whyzee125]

Man, I don't know how to dissuade you aside from saying in my opinion it's a terrible mistake. Subaru is my second-least favorite car maker, eclipsed only by Nissan.

[lazyleo]

Originally Posted by Never_Enough

Find a dealer that actually wants to sell you a car. I went through the no test drive bs with some Dodge dealers on the Hellcat. I walked. Fuck that bs.

Yeah, agreed. If you're trying to sell me a $40K+ car, you better let me test drive it first. I guess they don't have problems selling these though, hence the policy.

[Rampant]

Originally Posted by whyzee125

Man, I don't know how to dissuade you aside from saying in my opinion it's a terrible mistake. Subaru is my second-least favorite car maker, eclipsed only by Nissan.

And yet *other* people may have Nissan and Subaru as their top 2 favourite car manufacturers. We're all different. The OP took a test drive and liked it. It's his decision.

Slàinte Mhath

Mark H

[AchtungF80]

Having gone from STI to M3...I wanted to chime in here.
I love the new Subaru platform. I think for the bang for the buck factor they are fantastic. I would only go WRX if you're willing to forego all the upward trim levels and options.

That means base WRX, no sunroof, halogen headlight, no keyless entry, base audio 6spd.
I believe that puts you at $26k which should be a good value proposition and there isn't much out there you can buy at $26k that delivers what a base WRX can deliver (AWD, 6spd manual) brand new.

Once you start looking at Premium / Limited then you should begin to question the WRX value proposition. In my opinion it is a compromise car going upwards in price. A limited model is just $1500 shy of a base STI but still has the sub $20k interior and hp levels. Also remember that any tuning modification you want to tack-on will require a pro-tune to function correctly and make a difference.

A base WRX is a no frills, fast daily driver and seems to do all the right things an enthusiast wants but is best priced at $25-26k.

I would love another Subie.

[lazyleo]

So, after long deliberations, I ended up picking up a 2015 435i with MPPK and manual

[domino_z]

i was looking at buying an 18 sti, i had an evo x around 5 years ago that i did a fun build on (turbo, dodson trans, fbo e85, ohlins etc while simultaneously owning an r35 gtr with the same build) and i wanted to do same with the sti, even go as far as a billet block, as i have the mod bug atm

until i drove it, and the nvh put me right off

the grass isn't greener, it's very hard to go back to jdm