Longevity of WRXs...?

On 2006-04-11, David Betts penned:

Rex, huh? Don't much like the homophone implications.

Mine's named Roxie =)

Real roads, man... not freeways. Plus, these things are quick. That means you sometimes have to stop hard.

Fascinating. That's not the name of my car. WRX/Rex. It 's what they are all called.That and Scoobies.

On 2006-04-11, David Betts penned:

And I still don't like the fact that it sounds like "Wrecks" =)

On 2006-04-11, David Betts penned:

That's how you're driving it, not an innate characteristic of the car. If you can't drive it that quickly while also keeping an eye out for what's going on around you, then you're driving too fast for your abilities.

Speaking as someone who also rides a motorcycle, statements like "these things are quick, so you have to stop hard" give me the willies. An awful lot of motorcycles can out accelerate a WRX, and yet, if you don't learn how to pay attention to your surroundings (ie, recognize trouble in advance so that you don't have to brake hard all the time), you're dead. You just don't know it yet.

What she said. And I also speak from the motorcyclist pov. You seem truly not to understand or respect what's going on around you as a motorist, based on your incredible brake consumption.

Actually, there is (perhaps was) a sube model called REX. FWD econobox IIRC. here's some pics;

Carl

Damn, that thing's uglier than a Baja....

Oh dear! It is precisely because one is aware of what other motorists are doing that one sometimes has to pull quite a lot of speed off in a hurry. You haven't been in this newsgroup for very long so I accept that you don't know much about me. Quick summary - driving for 40 years, clean licence, no accidents, high-speed trained for the road by a mix of police class one and former GP drivers, driven everythying from Morris Minors to Ferraris, writing about motoring for years, etc.

Apologies if my comment might have sounded a bit glib, but I do know what I am talking about.

High performance cars like the Rex, when driven to their potential (however well and safely) will get through brake pads pretty quickly. If you are using up pads, you are also using up the discs. This is true of all modern cars, where the discs are regarded as sacrificial. It is not unusual to have to change the front discs on a high performance car every 20 or 30 thousand miles.

hah! There is also a video floating around the web of a couple Japanese guys e-brake drifting around a track in Rexes - in TANDEM. pretty funny actually - wait, I'll look......

found someone hosting it;

carl

On 2006-04-12, David Betts penned:

I question the idea that high performance cars can be driven to their potential on public roads and still be considered safely driven, especially as we're talking about situations which might require braking. Part of safety is realizing the average abilities of the other people on the road.

Part of safety is staying as far away as possible from drivers of average and below average abilities, which good amounts of acceleration and deacceleration will allow one to do, even well within the speed limits and traction limits present.

Back on topic: I got over 320k miles out of the original engine on my '83 Toyota (that's not anywhere near the top mileage on some of the Toyota engines which my mechanic has seen), and just bought a 2006 Subaru Legacy. Are Subaru boxer engines often good for that kind of mileage? If so, how do I take care of my new Subaru to get the best lifespan, in terms of miles, out of the vehicle? What RPM range is a non-turbo boxer engine happiest with?

Thanks. IMHO. YMMV.

Thank you Ron. Some common sense at last. Shan't be bothering with this discussion any more. Very hard to make a worthwhile contribution to this newsgroup these days. So many of the people who are buying Rexs seem to be complete tossers.

Most drivers believe they are above average - an impossible situation. I think the average driver is really pretty good, but our attention is drawn to the bad ones. It's a numbers game: if we encounter 200 drivers on the road, on average one of them will be the worst driver in 200. We will also encounter the best in 200 drivers, but won't notice him/her.

My preference is to let the hotshots get far enough ahead of me that I won't be hit by the shrapnel if they crash. As a former Lotus owner I don't have any fascination with speed or acceleration. After all, every experienced driver has had moments when they wished with all their hearts they were going slower or that their brakes magically worked better.

Mike

BD,

I've not looked at a single newsgroup for ages (and don't plan on reading all of the ones I've missed). Therefore, I don't know if anyone has discussed proper oil levels with you or not. So here's my story about "low oil":

In 2002 I bought a new Outback Sport (a little wagon, somewhat similar to the WRX) and recently I purchased a 2006 Outback Sport Special Edition. With the '02, everytime I took it for an oil change other than the dealer (they charge more than twice of most shops), they would tell me that when I brought the car in, that the oil was low. Then I'd ask how much they put in....5 quarts they'd say. Then I'd tell them that the owner's manual states the car only requires

4.2 quarts of oil and could they please go correct their error. Now I tell anyone doing the oil change that the car only needs 4.2 quarts BEFORE they repeat the mistake others had done in the past.I don't know if this might be what is happening with your car or not, but you might wish to look up the proper oil amount for your car, then check the records from oil changes in the past and see if there is a discrepancy between the two.

Stacey.

BD,

As I have not looked at a single newsgroup for ages, I don't know if anyone has brought this to your attention or not yet. In 2002 I bought a new Outback Sport (a little wagon, somewhat similar to the WRX) and recently I purchased a 2006 Outback Sport Special Edition. With the '02, everytime I took it for an oil change other than the dealer (they charge more than double of many shops), they would tell me that when I brought the car in, that the oil was low. Then I'd ask how much they put in....5 quarts they'd say. Then I'd tell them that the owner's manual states the car only requires

4.2 quarts of oil and could they please go correct their error. I don't know if this might be what is happening with your car or not, but you might wish to find the proper oil amount for your car, then check the records from oil changes in the past and see if there is a discrepancy between the too.

Stacey.

The N.A.-Spec STi does NOT have "cheap" brakes, and neither does the WRX. Additionally, rev-matching and/or double-clutching virtually eliminates wear on clutches and synchros, so unless there's some other reason, using engine compression to slow the vehicle isn't a bad idea so long as you do it cleanly. I.e. don't slip the clutch to slow down.. that's just using the clutch as a brake, and in that case, it's true: replacing clutches-as-brakes is much more expensive than replacing brakes-as-brakes.

Learn to rev-match!

It is not the clutch & brake wear but the extra reverse loading on engine bearings and of course valve train wear due to higher than necessary rpms. Unless one is trying to apply additional braking when racing I think it's not a good thing.