I have a 2023 WRX.

You can have mine. There are no less than five areas that rattle in my car when my stereo is 20 or above. There are certain songs I can't listen to, and even my news podcast I listen to has a little jingle that buzzes my interior.

There are frequent rattles and buzzes during the cold season with or without the stereo.

It's a piece of ****. I hate my 2023 limited WRX, and getting rid of my 18 STI for it was the biggest car mistake I've ever made.

Holy cow! Well I guess someone is trading their car in soon. Sorry to hear you are unhappy.



On a side note, you should test drive an Outback XT, then get back into the WRX. I had one as a loner last year. It was great at stoplight traffic and whatever because you mash the pedal and it goes, but try making a turn at speed. I remember telling my wife, "maybe we should trade for this, it's nice and comfortable and it has good pickup". But by the end of my experience with the car, I was so ready to get back into my WRX.



You should maybe think about the golf r or even the GTI. Last year for a manual.....

That's too bad. Funny you bring up noises. I had a trunk rattle that I couldn't figure out. I thought it was something else, but the dealer mechanic was able to find it. I guess I've been pretty lucky only having one noise, and being able to find it.... Eventually.

My neighbor just blew the motor on his 2014 STI, so I'm not going to agree with you on keeping the EJ25.

I honestly think it's a good car, but a far cry from the traditional WRX in terms of rawness. And what I mean by refined is, the car doesn't give you a crap ton of boost all at once, it builds it smoothly. It doesn't generate excitement, lol.

I do feel bad for you. Are you anywhere near upstate New York? Maybe I can help you find these stupid noises, lol!

I'm shopping around for something new this month, yeah, probably a GR Corolla or maybe one of the offroad-focused mid-size trucks. I'll take a hit on the trade since there are a glut of new WRX'es on lots but without mods to shore up some of the weak points of the VB it's too uninspiring to live with long term, and at that point I might as well just spend the dough to go to something else since this is my daily.

My wife had an OBW. The engine tuning wasn't far off from my WRX, minus the awful CVT. No, it doesn't corner the same due to the ride height and body roll but it makes about the same power and torque (and does it on regular gas). I unironically wish I had gotten the Wilderness myself instead of the WRX. Taking it off-road was fun and it looks great, plus as a wagon it's a lot more usable.

Ouch, I'd be mad as hell if I left an STI for this car.

I was going to get a GRC before I got the WRX, I even had a down payment on one!

But the wife hated the interior so much, so that was that. She wasn't wrong though, it's a penalty box of an interior. And I saved almost 15K getting the WRX instead. Between the 5K markup and the 5K discount I was able to get on the WRX, it was a no-brainer. And it's a limited, so it has all the bells and whistles.... Happy wife happy life

If I were you, I would see about test driving a golf r. Aside from the horrible infotainment setup, it's a much better daily, imo. I wouldn't want to be sitting in a penalty box on a daily basis, at least that's my take.

As far as the power on this car, you are spot on! Like you, my car is not tuned, and the car is a bit underwhelming at times due to that. I think the car more than makes up for it though once you hit a couple of twisty roads. It's really hard to upset this car in the handling department.

Of my 3 DDs in past 2 years (VA WRX, GRC, CTR in that order) the GRC is the only one of the three I miss. That's despite the painful interior and unusably small cargo area. I wouldn't go back to it even if I was given a net-profit deal on one, because of the usability. But I sure do miss those noises it made.

Fun-wise, it paled in comparison to GR86 so remembering that also helps me cope. I will one day G16 swap my GR86 and become whole.

Yeah, I would have loved to at least try the GRC out for a year or two, but such is life.

I've had a bunch of fun stuff too, most recently, 17 Challenger Scat Pack 6MT, 17 VA WRX 6MT, and my favorite, a 17 Fiesta ST ("FiST").

I had the FiST the longest, by far my favorite car I've ever owned! I miss that jelly Bean. The car just felt so alive and tossable and even with only 200 hp, you wouldn't believe how much fun that car is! I'm sure the GR86 is comparable in that respect.

I traded it in after the gear box started acting up; and I was able to get 3k more for it than I paid, lol! Got lucky on the Covid car market lottery. Godamn, I miss that car!

My dumbass crying day the day I had to give it up

My friend had one of those Fiestas with a COBB tune and it would do rolling burnouts if you floored it. Super fun car, that thing surprised a lot of people with how quick it was.

Who woulda thought. Imagine slapping a Cobb AP with an ethanol tune on it, cost probably 1000$ altogether.

now that the embargos are off the ID.BUZZ I'm shocked this thread hasn't been bumped with more minivan comparisons?

I personally think the price of the ID.BUZZ is as outlandish as the upper trim levels of the WRX, so if I were in the market for a minivan, it'd still be something Japanese.

the Germans may have invented the minivan market, and the Americans mass produced it, but the Japanese really perfected it.

So in other words, Had Subaru released an STI, it would've ran a great time without Overheating/limp mode issues. Hey Subaru Exec/Bean Counters, your market share is waiting for your return.

https://www.motor1.com/news/738159/s...buyers-manual/

83% of Sales were Manual huh, Well Yeah.. The SPT Holds back the powertrain of the car. The SPT also held back the manual in an Effort to make both Transmissions "Equal in Performance."
Meanwhile, they tell you "Yeah man! you can Tow with the Ascent no problem." - SO.... the Torque in the Lighter SPT WRX is because... ... EPA? CA EPA? Worried about Longevity? Well.. Yeah.. CVT.

Likely has very little to do with it. It's mostly about "enthusiasts don't drive autos" mentality. Lost count how many WRX that just WE'VE had that came in to buy a MT and didn't have much time(if any) driving one. Asked why not just get the HTCVT? "Nah man. This car has to have stick". But, that's totally fine. I actually looked at it as Subaru helping keep stick shift drivers on the road cause they'd learn to just for that car.



I have STILL yet to see a video of a MT vs HTCVT where the MT won. On these tracks where professional drivers go faster with the MT?......and how many dailies are driven like that? MmmmK. Now, I agree to some of the downsides of the HTCVT where it had a half sec lag on launch(without revving) and would get hot with intense use. When they took the SPT out for the marketing/commercial videos, they brought 2 cars in case one did overheat, they could use the other one to keep filming. They beat on that one ALL day without a hiccup. People may not like CVTs, but, the SPT ain't no slouch.

That very last part of your statement? I could see that. Towing with the Ascent is probably less frequent than a WRX SPT driver trying to race everything.

Yeah man its just me being salty at the performance you can obtain with the Elantra N for 33.7k msrp. Sub 5 sec is Audi S3 territory which is *Pop* "Noice." I doubt it would take "much" to make the WRX closer to a 5sec 0-60 car even with the SPT. The SPT drives nicely, and the untrained person would definitely think it was a regular Auto, especially its S+ mode.
Here's a video of a side by side test from 2 years ago, same altitude/location.
The Manual has a slight edge with just being able to draw out each gear via foot, and the weight of the auto makes some difference.
That was the same with us, I lost count with how many manual drivers keep coming in for an issue with 2nd Gear. Though sometimes it felt like they just were just still getting used to a "Subaru Manual." "Theres a grinding or a slop" was the common sentence.

But (And I don't know the data of course) but I was actually surprised that the Torque figure was set so low with the SPT because of the Heavier nature of Ascent. Maybe the fact that the Programming of a "8 speed" added increased stress/heat? Not sure..

Oh, I don't doubt it was to help protect things. Everything about that drivetrain was built to be more robust to hopefully have less of the issues the 2.0 and HTCVT had.

The SPT can handle more torque than the 6-speed manual. Not defending it by any means but if Subaru were to offer more power in the WRX they’ll need to use a different manual transmission or somehow beef up the existing one.

I still want to know what happened to all of the STi running gear. Do they no longer make these parts? Are they just sitting in inventory somewhere? I’d rather have a base VB with the STi running gear instead of this stupid adaptive suspension (which is nice when new but isn’t so nice when it comes time to replace) and blue trimmed interior tS pile of garbage that isn’t worth anywhere near $45,000.

Subaru needs to stop throwing parts at this car and get back to their rally car roots. We’re entering model year #4 with the VB and it’s just pathetic and painful to watch what they are doing to it. I personally would never buy anything offered by Subaru today but if I was forced into one I’d get an Ascent or Outback over a VB WRX.

My 6spd is tolerating ~600tq pretty good so fsr.

Do you have a build thread anywhere?

In the fa24 forum, about port injection mostly. But transmission is stock and still factory clutch. In fact it activated my tc dash light other day on a shift between 3-4 whilst surprising a twice-not-ready b58 2series. 23k on 450wtq and 5k on 520wtq+. 28k fun filled miles so far with many a day pulls.

The margins are no doubt better slapping in some Brembos, seats, and adaptive suspension, versus putting the STI drivetrain in the VB WRX. It's a shame because a VB WRX with a slight power bump (say, to 300HP) and the STI drivetrain would be competitive. We're clearly never getting that.