My friend may have to trade in his S2000 for a sedan (probably a WRX), and was wondering about Subaru dependability.

I know I see a crapload of subaru's up north when I go snowboarding...they are pretty reliable right?

 

I know a few people with WRX's, and quite a few people with older scoobys, and their cars run great. Subaru's 2L boxer engine is known for being pretty bullet proof. I would say their reliability is on par with that of Honda, and Toyota.

 

I was checking out the iclub forums for the Subaru's and they have one major flaw that affects quite a few of the newer Subies such as the WRX. This defect has to do with ABS system sensor. There have been a few incidents where the brakes would suddenly lose all pressure when traversing bumpy roads or just going over expansion panels causing some of those cars to crash as the brake pressure wouldn't return until it was too late.

That little flaw would keep me away from that car for now.

 

My brother worked in Vail for a couple years as an Executive Chef. He (and many of his buddies) had older model subarus. To a man, they all swear by them. They're bulletproof and as long as you change the oil and maintain the cars appropriately, they'll run forever (just like a Honda or Toyota). They also swear that Subie does cut corners when it comes to paint quality and interior trimmings. (I agree with this based solely on driving one and riding in a few new WRX's). However, there's no reason to assume that the driveline, et al aren't stout.

 

DouglaS2000,

Whoh...I'll look into the iclub about that. Thanks!

Da Hapa,

You are right about the paint not being top notch. I hear my friend complain about it sometimes.

 

Tommi Makinen had some problems with his WRX overheating in Spain over the weekend: http://www.swrt.com/news/General_News.asp?...?article_id=151

Apart from that, I haven't heard too many bad things.

 

The driveline is bulletproof in stock trim. If you boost the power a lot and abuse it the gearbox and clutch can be weak points. People have stripped gears. Doesn't happen in stock cars driven with any kind of finesse. Interior and exterior trim quality is relatively poor, but the engineering is excellent.

 

I had a 2000 Turbo Model for a year before I saw the S-2000. The Subaru (called the GT at the time) was rock solid engineeringwise, but I had a few interior rattles. The interior finish on the WRX is said to be a vast improvement over the model I owned.

Jonas

 

Btt.

 

I had a '99 model. The only weak points I had were the brakes which seems to be of poor quality. The STI model has Brembos, not very sure of it though.

A good forum is IWOC in Yahoo! Groups, which I find is the best forum out there for Subaru Impreza GT/ WRX.