Wrx daily driver?

[Liftedlego96]

I'm considering purchasing a 2012 - 2014 wrx as a daily driver. I have not known anyone personally who drives one daily. I'm wondering if anyone could fill me in on what to expect? I just want a fun daily commuter that I can still take the family out in on the weekends, nothing heavily modded or beat on just a well taken care of wrx as close to stock as I can find. 

I baby my vehicles and am willing to turn wrenches when need be and perform regular maintenance reliably.

Any insight on the matter would be greatly appreciated, thanks 

[wtdash]

Since no one is jumping in....I'll offer my .03 (inflation!). 

- Any used Subaru Turbo is a gamble. Even if you find  a one-owner with meticulous records, I'd be cautious. The EJ255 in the '06-'14 WRX (and related EJ257 in the STi) was never a bullet-proof engine. Add in the turbo, and other turbocharged engine quirks and you're looking at a lot of potential repair$$. 

And with the current Mark(up)et for used cars you'll pay a premium...even for those that have been (ab)used. 

Since you're a DIY this may not dissuade you, just make sure you have another DD when the WRX needs some TLC. 

 

NASIOC.com is the definitive site with loads of specific info, and probably a 'bazillion' posts on the good vs. bad, too.

[GeneralDisorder]

Class action lawsuit on the rod bearings. Rod bearing failure will cost generally about $10k on up. 

Piston ring lands are weak and can shear off. Cost to fix with forged pistons is on the order of $5-$6k. 

Broken firewalls due to weak pedal assembly mounts. 

Intercoolers are plastic junk. 

Fuel economy is honestly terrible for a daily. Fun factor is kinda meh in stock form. STi's are pretty fun but really they get pretty meh also after you drive one that's stock for a while. You'll quickly want more power. It's a slippery slope - almost no one ends up leaving them entirely stock. 

Then you have the CANBUS electrical mess. That's a whole different topic and applies to almost all vehicles ~2005+ or in the case of Subaru about 2008+. Personally I can't own anything from the last ~18 years on the consumer side. It's all plastic crap that's smothered in electronics that's all the "intellectual property" of Subaru and essentially that means you really don't own the car at all - Subaru just lets you use it for a fee and when they decide to no loner support it you will have a nice lawn ornament rather than the car you "paid" for.

GD

[Daskuppler]

On 7/16/2022 at 12:11 PM, GeneralDisorder said:

Class action lawsuit on the rod bearings. Rod bearing failure will cost generally about $10k on up. 

Piston ring lands are weak and can shear off. Cost to fix with forged pistons is on the order of $5-$6k. 

Broken firewalls due to weak pedal assembly mounts. 

Intercoolers are plastic junk. 

Fuel economy is honestly terrible for a daily. Fun factor is kinda meh in stock form. STi's are pretty fun but really they get pretty meh also after you drive one that's stock for a while. You'll quickly want more power. It's a slippery slope - almost no one ends up leaving them entirely stock. 

Then you have the CANBUS electrical mess. That's a whole different topic and applies to almost all vehicles ~2005+ or in the case of Subaru about 2008+. Personally I can't own anything from the last ~18 years on the consumer side. It's all plastic crap that's smothered in electronics that's all the "intellectual property" of Subaru and essentially that means you really don't own the car at all - Subaru just lets you use it for a fee and when they decide to no loner support it you will have a nice lawn ornament rather than the car you "paid" for.

GD

I think you should change your handle to General Disappointment haha!

 

On a more relevant note, I agree with what the others said.  Subaru turbos are generally unreliable.  If you can do it yourself, great, but parts are definitely getting hard to find and the quality is worse now than when the car was made

[1 Lucky Texan]

GD just give us the truth.

 

"Truth needs no defense,it is a Lion, just release it and it can defend itself"

[azdave]

I daily drive my 2003 WRX wagon but that's not a like comparison to a 2012-14. I just ticked over 200K miles a few month back on the original, untouched engine. Plenty of small coolant hoses have needed fixed through the years and I just replaced the center diff but I can't complain about engine or turbo reliability.