Anything wrong with 2016-2019ish Subaru WRX?

[john_pifer]

Many thanks for the explanation, make perfect sense. I believe emissions regulations is what partially killed the manual transmission, for reasons described above. Certifying another drivetrain type costs a ton of money, and then some engineering team was forced to cobble up programming to pass the benchmark. You can probably make that case to the bean counters with a WRX, Mustang, Camaro, etc. but I bet on an Accord, Camry and other ordinary vehicles, it falls on deaf ears.

I'll pay close attention and look for any annoying behavior when we go out and test drive one.

Look into the Cobb Accessport.

 

[PF52]

Later WRXs had better tuning and the rev hang was all but removed. But it was pretty bad with the 2015-2016 models. I'm not sure what year they finally got rid of it, or whether the latest models are still crippled by it.

I think by 2020 or 2021 it was much improved. I have a 2021 and I can't tell it from a 22+ model if I drive them back-to-back, but if I drive a '21 and a '16 back-to-back I notice the rev hang on the 2016.

I agree with you on the brakes. They might be barely adequate on the street but I am sure they are awful on the track.