want a subaru, but have tranny concerns
 

The tranny doesn't like drag racing. Or "power shifting". If you treat it nice it should last a long time. The honda guys like to say it has a "glass transmission" but we have 2 things over honda's. Torque and traction. (I do like honda's btw) When you have a lot of torque and a lot of traction and try to accelerate fast (from a stop) the power has to go somewhere and it will brake at the weakest spot which happens to be the tranny.

I have appx 310 hp and 300 ft/lbs at the flywheel. My stock tranny is doing just fine. I almost never launch hard but I do autocross and do open track days. I have 45k on the car too.

With that being said the tranny is a old design and hopefully subaru will redesign it or just use the 6 speed box with only 5 gears in the near future. The STI 6 speed is a great transmission.

If you can, I would highly recommend buying a STI or EVO over a WRX, I would but I have wasted so much money on my WRX it wouldn't be worth it and I would loose a lot of money in the trade.

p@

If you only rarely beat on your car, and dont do any 6000rpm clutch drops, you should be relativly fine...

i have driven 7000 miles on my new WRX, so far no tranny problems at all even with my everyday love to punch it from 1st to 2nd daily. so far so good, ofcourse im still under warranty so i dont have to worry if it does break, but hey dont worry about the tranny, its not that bad it works as long as u shift right.

For your info, subaru loves to use the line "looks like it has been driven hard" when younger guys bring in a WRX with a broken _____. Just because it is stock doesn't mean they won't warranty it.

Not that I am agreeing with them but don't go beating on it then come whining here if they don't fix it for free.

p@

Compared to my 1G DSM this trans is great. Those things are even worse than the WRX trans. I had it rebuild by Buschur Racing, only had about 6000 miles on it and it would grind into 3rd from about 4000 miles of hard driving. It is common to go to the DSM shootout in the summer at Norwalk Raceway in OH and see guys with 3 or 4 extra trannies in the trailor awaiting the inevitable.

reply to Akiata
 

I totally agree about the Subaru service departments. My 99 OBS had a problem with the brakes. They were insanely weak, and the pads would go about every 12000 miles. The dealer told my father after the third time that I was driving it like a race car and was dangerous. And I am a pretty calm driver, especially compared to most of my friends at the time. So naturally my father was upset with me. I begged him to let me take his Acura and have him drive the subaru and to see how he fared. He took my offer and made it 14,000 miles on the brake pads before they went. I'm at 35,000 since I got that acura from him, and he had 60,000 miles on those brake pads already. They haven't been changed yet. It's been almost 2 and a half years. Needless to say, my father traded in the OBS and got an A4 for himself.

Sorry for the offshoot, just wanted to tell the story, lol

But no, I would certainly not beat on it, drop the clutch, etc. I'd just like to be able to press it through the twisties from time to time :) Thanks for the advice though guys...

Re: reply to Akiata
 

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by sean96gsr [/i]
[B] My 99 OBS had a problem with the brakes. They were insanely weak, and the pads would go about every 12000 miles. [/B][/QUOTE]

My WRX has 13,000 miles and the pads have worn approx 15%. I expect 60k miles from the fronts and 100K miles form the rears. No problems with my Tranny, treat it nice and you'll be okay.

I have a 2002 WRX and when I do spank Hondas and Nissans on the street, I found a lift-Throttle launch to be the best way to takeoff. And Shift to 2nd sort of the same way and haven't seen any problems. My car has 20000 miles on it.