Well, I finally went and did it. Ever since it became my only car, I'd been wanting to replace my 2007 Civic coupe with something more fun. I looked at a variety of cars over the last few years years and got fairly close to pulling the trigger a couple of times but never did. Last weekend I put my money where my mouth is and did it! My wife has been encouraging me and is going to be quite happy not to have to hear me talking about this anymore!
I bought a 2011 WRX 5 door. It had been between this and the new Mustang, and the WRX won out due to a combination of functionality (I love hatchbacks) and price. Last weekend I noticed that my local dealer had one in stock and went to check it out. Ended up test driving it, thought about it overnight, went back the next day to check it out again and ended up buying it. It was almost exactly what I would've ordered had I ordered one - base model with the factory short throw shift kit, in dark gray (I had a tough time picking between the dark gray and the Subaru classic blue color but decided the gray was better for me given it stands out less).
Love the car so far. It's got a much more mechanical feel than the Civic all around. I love the shift action, and it's nice having a car again where you can feel that the shifter is connected to spinning gears by way of the slight powertrain vibrations that come up through the stick. Not to mention the practical side -- the seat fabric is easier to clean and having rear doors for the dog was very nice this past week.
Plenty of power, but I'm trying to hold myself back for the break in period -- the manual recommends keeping it under 4000 RPM for the first thousand miles. I haven't stuck to that religiously (had to test it out on the test drive, and I wasn't the only one to test drive it anyway -- I'm sure it got plenty hammered) but I'm trying to in general. I'm about halfway there and will be past the 1k mark next weekend after I visit a friend out of town. I can't wait -- under 4000 is tough in this car given the boost only really comes on starting at 3000-3500 .. the car is more a revver than a stump puller and it revs very smoothly. Feels and sounds much happier over 3000 than the Civic did. Well, of course it sounds better all through the rev range because it's got that great boxer engine burble w/ its unequal length headers.
The best part is that it handles quite neutrally. Give it some power going through a corner and it holds the line while accelerating. Being able to accelerate through corners without fighting the car is one of the things I missed while driving a FWD vehicle and is why the WRX was the only hot hatch I serious considered.
Since this is BITOG: First night home I checked the oil in the engine and the transmission (yes, this car actually has a manual transmission dipstick!) and all was well
. OCI recommendation is 7500 miles on 5w-30 synthetic, and I don't recall seeing a shorter interval for severe service though I might've just missed it. I will probably change the factory engine oil out at 2000 miles or so, and then go 5-6k from there on out. Complicating matters a little is that the car comes with free maintenance for 24000 miles -- but that just covers 7500 mile oil changes. Free is tempting but I don't think I want to stretch it that far right off, and in any case I've never actually taken a car somewhere for an oil change before. Maybe I'll do the transmission and differential at 10k or so, I don't know yet.
I took some pics but the photo host I use seems to be having some problems right now, so I'll post them later.
I bought a 2011 WRX 5 door. It had been between this and the new Mustang, and the WRX won out due to a combination of functionality (I love hatchbacks) and price. Last weekend I noticed that my local dealer had one in stock and went to check it out. Ended up test driving it, thought about it overnight, went back the next day to check it out again and ended up buying it. It was almost exactly what I would've ordered had I ordered one - base model with the factory short throw shift kit, in dark gray (I had a tough time picking between the dark gray and the Subaru classic blue color but decided the gray was better for me given it stands out less).
Love the car so far. It's got a much more mechanical feel than the Civic all around. I love the shift action, and it's nice having a car again where you can feel that the shifter is connected to spinning gears by way of the slight powertrain vibrations that come up through the stick. Not to mention the practical side -- the seat fabric is easier to clean and having rear doors for the dog was very nice this past week.
Plenty of power, but I'm trying to hold myself back for the break in period -- the manual recommends keeping it under 4000 RPM for the first thousand miles. I haven't stuck to that religiously (had to test it out on the test drive, and I wasn't the only one to test drive it anyway -- I'm sure it got plenty hammered) but I'm trying to in general. I'm about halfway there and will be past the 1k mark next weekend after I visit a friend out of town. I can't wait -- under 4000 is tough in this car given the boost only really comes on starting at 3000-3500 .. the car is more a revver than a stump puller and it revs very smoothly. Feels and sounds much happier over 3000 than the Civic did. Well, of course it sounds better all through the rev range because it's got that great boxer engine burble w/ its unequal length headers.
The best part is that it handles quite neutrally. Give it some power going through a corner and it holds the line while accelerating. Being able to accelerate through corners without fighting the car is one of the things I missed while driving a FWD vehicle and is why the WRX was the only hot hatch I serious considered.
Since this is BITOG: First night home I checked the oil in the engine and the transmission (yes, this car actually has a manual transmission dipstick!) and all was well
I took some pics but the photo host I use seems to be having some problems right now, so I'll post them later.
