Originally Posted by john_pifer
Originally Posted by TCU_Adam
Originally Posted by john_pifer
Originally Posted by TCU_Adam
Thank you everyone for the (mostly positive) feedback! So let me try to address the questions y'all had. First, I'm not sure that going from RWD to FWD is going to be a deal breaker. Only way to find out is to do the test drive I think. As far as some of the tuning comments, I've read that there is one tune that won't even void the warranty. I believe it gets tuned to 290 HP on 87 octane, which seems like for this car would make it lightning quick. I'm aware that this isn't a race car and I don't intend to go crazy with modifications. As far as my job security, I work for an electric company so we're all still working and will be no matter how bad it gets. That's actually part of the reason why I'm thinking of getting a car at this time, there are some really good 0% deals.
Let me also say what kind of cars I like because some of you brought up the Golf. I'm not a fan of hatchbacks so that's out. It's just personal preference, I prefer coupes and sedans. I also want a manual transmission. This again, is personal preference. I know that nowadays automatics are better for performance, but as I said earlier, this isn't going to be a race car. I don't care about things like Android/Apple Car play, backup cameras, brake assist, lane assist, etc. In fact, I rolled my eyes when I was reading the Car and Driver review of the GLI and one of the cons was 'display screen too small'. I've done a little bit of research and I'd say that I've got it narrowed down to three cars. In no particular order: Jetta GLI, Honda Accord Coupe V6, Infiniti G37 S sedan. The Jetta may be the front runner right now because I can get it brand new. The other two cars are nearly impossible to find in the trims I mentioned with a manual transmission. To sum up, I'd like a coupe/sedan with a manual transmission that's reliable but also has some quickness.
Have you considered the WRX? It checks the performance boxes, and is only offered currently in sedan form.
They're killler cars. I had a 2016 for 3 years. Higher performance than anything you've yet listed. And, in my opinion, it's the best bang for the buck, performance to price, of anything on the market. Also highest resale value in its class.
Subaru has also reportedly fixed a couple of the main problems I had with my 2016 - rev hang, and inadequate brakes (heard there's far less rev hang for the 2020 model, and they went to 2-piece brake rotors for 2020, also).
I had tremendous amounts of fun flogging mine up and down the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.
Excellent, excellent chassis. Handled much better than my fiancee's current ride (see my dig), due to symmetrical nature of powertrain, low center of gravity. Very easy to service, also.
I miss the car. Only got rid of it to save some $$$ because I have a truck that's paid for, and I used my WRX as a weekend/fun car. I definitely want another WRX or something like it, again one day.
It was my "poor man's 911"!
I had a feeling someone would bring up the WRX. I had a base model Impreza (09) that went through 2 engines and a transmission. Granted this was a few years ago, but I think the car is very fragile when it comes to mechanics. It also ate oil like no tomorrow and having the company justify it by saying 'it says so in the manual' is just bad customer service. When they got sued and lost an oil consumption lawsuit a couple of years ago, I basically vowed to never buy a Subaru again. They used to be my favorite cars when I was in my teenage years but the first experience was so bad that I don't know if I can ever give it a second chance. I will say, I haven't heard too many issues from ~2006 model years and older but we're talking about a 15 year old car at that point.
Well, everyone has their own experience to go by. Personally, that was my only experience with Subaru. The only mechanical problem I had (other than brakes that were inadequate for the kind of driving I did, which was, honestly, track driving on the street), was the factory leaving an exhaust header stud nut off, which resulted in an exhaust leak and noise after a few months. It was repaired by the dealership, although the car did sit there for a long time. But Subaru of America did give me a free 7-year, 100,000-mile extended warranty for my trouble. I was happy with that. And the dealership always gave me a free loaner car.
I heard of the oil consumption problems with the old Subaru 2.5L engines, due to faulty piston ringlands. I experienced no such problem with my 2016 WRX 2.0 FA20DIT. B
ut, Subaru was aware of these problems with the 2.5, and made sure the new-gen WRX (2015 and up) didn't experience these issues. It's a completely new design vs. the old 2.5L.
I'm also familiar with proper engine break-in procedures, and I made sure I ran mine in hard, with gradually increasing RPMs, plenty of engine braking, varying of speeds and gears, and heat cycling. As a result, mine never used oil in any appreciable amount during the 3 years and 40,000+ miles that I drove it. And the engine spent plenty of time at high RPM.
I used Pennzoil Platinum 10W-30 only.
I think this fact might one day bring me back. I've looked recently and some people with Foresters are complaining that these engines are eating oil too, though it's not as widespread as I saw from models earlier that decade. I think at this point, I have too much PTSD from the Subaru brand
