As far as brand goes, Consumer Reports did a comparison of oil brands a few years ago by putting different oils in taxi cabs for an extended period of time and then tearing down the engines to compare the wear. They concluded that no brand was better than the other. I'd just go with a name brand (mobil, penzoil, castrol, etc) and use the subaru recommended viscosity. I think the majority of people would recommend putting in dino oil one more time, but opinions do vary.

 

I switched to synthetic at 8,000 miles. I had 2 open track events on dino oil and so far 5 open track events since I switched to synthetic. I have 19k miles now. My wrx ate about a quart every oil change when I was on dino oil, now it eats about 1/2q in-between every oil change with synthetic. I think the reason it ate more before I switched synthetic was because the motor was still breaking in and oil consumption is normal at that stage.

At 19k my motor seems fine and I have put it through hell. I rarely drive the wrx as a point A to point B car. I own three cars and the wrx is my "drive it like you stole it" car. It probably sees redline at least 10x a day. It's seen everything from 95 degree open track days driven only in the upper rev-range for 30mins at a time all day long to 15-20 degree tahoe snowboarding trips sitting in traffic from the highway being closed down and being buried in snow all day long while I was hitting the slopes to weekend hard drives through mountain passes.

Because of this, I am very **** about the car and change the fluids twice as much as the factory recommends. I did my 30k at 15k. I always make sure I have fresh oil in the car and always check my coolant levels. After every open track event I get under the car and check everything, bushings, bolts, tie-rods, etc etc etc. I drive the car very hard and I can't afford something failing on me as I hit Thunderhills turn 1 or turn 8 at over 90mph so I keep the car at great operating condition. When I had the rear diff fluid changed at 15k, it looked like coffee. I'm glad I didn't wait till 30k to do that.

Plan your maintence schedules accordingly to your driving habits and your car will thank you later.

 

That's the great thing about the WRX. It really is a awesome do-everything car. Don't worry about snow trips in it, it sucks it all up and asks for more. Just don't get too close to cars in front of you because they will kick up debris from the mountain roads.

Although I have to say, I have had worse front paint damage happen at an open track event when I was setting up to pass a corvette and it kicks up a big-**** piece of melted tire and slams into my hood. Oh well. I guess that's what I get for embarrasing vettes.