2008 WRX Owner's Report

I recently bought my very first Subaru and its a 2008 WRX, sedan, manual tranny.

Having been a loyal Honda owner for a long time I never really thought about other cars too much. Honda's legendary reliability kept me buying Honda's for years now.

But I was given the opportunity to buy a new car and I was growing tired of Honda not having anything performance oriented. Sure they have the Civic Si, but I don't call a car thats front wheel drive with barely any torque to be a performance machine.

The S2000, while a nice car it still only has as much torque as my 4 cylinder Accord has and its over $30,000 in base trim. Sorry, but I'm not paying over $30k for a naturally aspirated 4 cylinder with barely 160ft-lbs of torque.

To make a long story short, I went with a 2008 WRX.

It's a great machine that's a blast to drive. It nails 0-60mph in under 6 seconds. You can be driving in 5th gear at 65mph on the freeway and then accellerate uphill without needing to downshift to a lower gear.

Exterior Looks:

I like the way it looks. Sure its not as "boy tuner" aggressive as the previous model, but its a good looking car. Period.

Interior:

Its comfortable. I am 6'00" and I find there is outstanding headroom, the seats are very comfortable, and I love the driving position. The steering wheel is leather wrapped and its thicker in the area where the driver would normally hold the wheel... Hence, the steering wheel is very compfortable. My 05 Accord has a pencil thin steering wheel and it causes my hands get kind of cramped up and I have to switch between my left and right hand when driving that car.

The dashboard layout is great. Some cars have instrument panaels that are hidden behind the steering wheel... Not so in the WRX. The layout of the gauges is great.

I've already touched bases on the comfortable seats, and the rest of the interior is very high quality. Some people in other reviews complain about the amount of plastic in the 2008 WRX.... Well, my wife just bought a new Mercury Mariner, top of the line, and that interior in that more expensive vehicle is absolute garbage. Cheepest plastic in the industry (and I work in automotive engineering and I know what junk is). There is NO MORE plastic in the WRX than any other car. The plastic in the WRX is very high quality plastic and it will hold up for the lifespan of the car. The interior is tastefull and yet aggressive enough to let you know that you're driving in a performance oriented vehicle.

In all honesty there is one piece of cheep plastic and its the sunvisors. Subaru did choose a cheap material for the visors... But come on, who spends their time looking at the sun visors??

The Engine:

This is where the WRX really shines. First, Subaru has DRASTICALLY underrated the horsepower and torque in the engine. Truthfully speaking, the WRX will puts out somewhere around +245 horses and NOT 224 has rated. Subaru has done that in order to not take away from the higher priced Legacy sedan. Trutfully, the WRX engine is the same engine found in the Legacy SpecB and its rated at around 245 horses in that car. The WRX is tuned to generate just as much horsepower and torque at 11.9 pounds of boost as what the Legacy puts out around 14 pounds of boost (it might be 13.5 pounds in the Legacy, I'm not sure).

There is hardly any turbo lag to be found in the 08 WRX. Around 2500 rpm, the engine comes to life in a hurry! Because it generates power and torque earlier than in the previous WRX its MUCH more drivable in stop and go traffic.
Again, there's hardly any turbo lag unless you unwisely choose the wrong gear when taking a corner you will never feel much lag in this car.

The manaul shifter needs improvement. Its not the most precise shifter out there but it gets the job done. The clutch feels really suited to the WRX. The brakes feel good. The steering.... There is NO torque steer on the WRX. If you have been driving FWD cars your whole life and then you get behind the wheel of the WRX you may wonder why the WRX DOES NOT pull one way or the other like other cars.

The WRX is fast. I've gotten good at launching the car and without being overly aggressive I can nail 0-60mph in around 6 seconds... even faster when driven more aggressively.

The tires:

The Subaru bean counters won that battle and the WRX rides on 205 width tires. They get the job done but Subaru really should have gone with 225's and at minimun 215's. That's the one thing that I really don't like on the WRX. The alloy wheels look great but the tires should have come wider from the factory.

That said, the suspension on the WRX again like everything else hits the nail on the head. It's not so stiff as to be unfortable (like other cars I won't mention) but is stiff enough to feel like a sporty car. I think the suspension is ideal for a sporty road car. Unless you're doing autocross or something, there is no need to touch the suspension at all.

Yes, the WRX is a little more than other cars in its class, but the other cars in its class are not AWD with a longitudinally oriented engine. The other "AWD" cars out there are not TRUELY AWD. They are systems that are in actuality FRONT WHEEL DRIVE except when the front wheels slip and then power is diverted to the rear wheels until the front regains traction again and the car become front wheel drive. The WRX is TRUE AWD all of the time... its a better a AWD system than in MANY SUV's on the road.

Again the WRX is a little more than the other compact/turbo's out there. But the WRX is AWD all of the time, has a VERY safe passenger compartment because of the ring reinforced steel and has a more costly to manufacture engine and transmission layout. In truth the front wheel drive cars with their engines laying sideways in the engine compartment are cheaper to produce because of the manufacturing process.... The WRX is layed like a TRUE sports car which just happens to be a more expensive layout to produce.

In brief: the 2008 WRX is one great ride. Its got more power than people know and it can lay waste to MANY other bigger cars on the road.