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My buddy wants to buy his son a Subaru to tow his dirt bike around to races. The total weight of bike and trailer is about 600lbs with a tongue weight of about 40lbs. I recommended a Forester but his son is trying to convince him into a 02 wrx wagon with automatic.

 

My question is, will the wrx handle it. I know it has the power, but being a turbo, will it take the extra abuse.

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I towed WAY above the published limit with my 04 STi that had extensive upgrades. A WRX with an auto is a great towing platform with AWD and the 4EAT is a super tough trans, about the only upgrade I would strongly suggest is going to STi brakes. And a mild tune from a Cobb access port and a down pipe would pep it up nicely. 

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easy.  600 pounds is nothing.  some of us are towing a few thousand pounds.

 

IMO grade is more important than anything else.  i'd tow 5,000 pounds in flat land - it's so esay to drive and not very taxing.  in mountains the difference is astonishing.  you can feel that by moving a large trailer by hand - you can move a properly balanced heavy trailer easily in a flat parking lot - but not up even a tiny incline.

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Will it handle it? Yes. Both will do just fine with the weight.

 

The arguement against a WRX though is the reliability/maintenance. The WRX is more expensive to buy, more expensive to fix/maintain and will fail more readily than a NA forester.

 

That and as a general rule, young men/boys with flashy fast cars = trouble. Most will thrash an otherwise nice car to death with agressive/show off driving. If daddy is paying for juniors car, better that it be dependable and safe and not something that will get him speeding tickets, hefty repair bills and possibly a crash.

 

turbo subarus are more of a novelty car anyway. Not the best commuter or vehicle to take to 300k+ like the rest.

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Yeah, Both will do just fine. I've towed a fullsize bronco with my '09 forester (flat tow) just fine. 6 - 1200 lbs? ppft. not a problem. 

 

Being a turbo would actually, in a way, help with the towing. A lot of "big rigs" are turbos. 

 

Now that we got that out of the way. I would hate to agree with everyone else about the WRX and dad buying the kid one. This, I would not do. Why? Because I know how *I* was when i had one of those and it will not likley stand the time. Then again, not everyone's kid is the cliche "kid driver". Just my two cents.

 

But yeah, Both will do just fine. 

 

-Justin

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