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Looking for opinions from previous STI owners...

Velociraptor Thrust

Velociraptor Thrust

Go Kart Champion
A buddy of mine just bought an bug eye STI. He has a good amount of mods on it already, cobb tune, coils, stage II clutch etc... I drove it recently and fell in love. I've been scanning nasioc and a bit over whelmed. Anyone come from and STI? I really want AWD, 4 doors, and something a bit more... Japanese, I miss driving my G35. I'm looking/wanting/can afford an 06-07, hawk eye I believe. It seems the STI only changed body work between the bug eye and hawk? Let me know if you had any issues etc!
 
T

TRUboost

Go Kart Champion
I had a 06 and a 10. If your looking for a used GD I would stick with either a 05 or 06, 04 has the 5x100 hubs and no stereo. 07 is when they changed the emission system and they are finicky to tune from then on.
I loved my 06, I would still have it if someone didn't crash into it.
 
SwiftGTI

SwiftGTI

Go Kart Champion
GD and GR are just chassis codes for the STI.

GD = 04-07 sedan
GR = 08-13 hatch

I had an 09 STI hatch. Fun car, but if I was looking for an AWD sedan, I'd go with an Evo 9 or X since it's a better drive (quicker steering, less understeer and body roll, more chassis feedback, robust engine).

If you're really set on getting an STI, go with an older model (05-06) since they seem to have less issues with cracked ringlands.
 
squall

squall

Ready to race!
Velociraptor Thrust said:
A buddy of mine just bought an bug eye STI. He has a good amount of mods on it already, cobb tune, coils, stage II clutch etc... I drove it recently and fell in love. I've been scanning nasioc and a bit over whelmed. Anyone come from and STI? I really want AWD, 4 doors, and something a bit more... Japanese, I miss driving my G35. I'm looking/wanting/can afford an 06-07, hawk eye I believe. It seems the STI only changed body work between the bug eye and hawk? Let me know if you had any issues etc!
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I had two 05 subies. one being a wrx and the other an sti. not to metion that i just sold my 2015 sti as well. there is no such thing as a bug eye sti in north america. bug eyes are from 02-03. the blob eyes are from 04-05 and the hawk eyes from 06-07. An sti is a very different car than a wrx especially back then. Engine, tranny, diffs, hubs, etc...are all different. If you can find a nice 05, that would be the one i would take again. those years had mininal ringland issues. i had mine running 25lbs from a gt35 making upwards of 450 to the wheels. i daily drove that car for 60k and 40k of that was with that set up.
 
squall

squall

Ready to race!
Velociraptor Thrust said:
Woops! Sorry I thought my buddy said it was a bug eye. But my buddy bought an 05. I know I'd literally lose sleep at night if I didn't buy an sti if only because of the center diff control, forgot the acronym.

Would prefer and evo but I'm not too sure of Mitsubishi as a company and the quality of their products.
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i love the evo IX's. the are easy to work on and make very quick with almost nothing. the only issues i remember from most of my friend's older cars were the clutches in the GSR's and the 6sp's themselves in the MR's. To be honest if I were younger and had to do it over again, I would go for an evo IX. I would grab an intake, cam gears, full, exhaust, a MBC and a tune for 11's all day long.
 
ChrisB1

ChrisB1

Go Kart Champion
I came from a 2012 WRX to the GTI, and the transition was pretty rough due to the fact that I really don't care for FWD. Then again, I think I looked at something crazy, like 23 different cars, and couldn't find any single one that I liked more than the GTI, especially in the $25k to $35k price range new. In other words, I would have complained about any automatic car after driving a manual for 13 years and no longer being able to. Then again, if that's my worst midlife crisis, I think I am doing pretty good, hahahaha....

Although... Part of me still wishes I would have given the EVO X MR a try... I was scared off by some of the horror stories that one of my friends had with his TC-SST though.

As for problems with my WRX... I didn't have a single issue with the car itself, but the turbo did generate some weird interference that rendered radar detectors useless while it was spooling. Going further, it sometimes injected noise into the radio, both stock and aftermarket.
 
SwiftGTI

SwiftGTI

Go Kart Champion
Velociraptor Thrust said:
I've really want an evo, but the x is out of my price range. Didn't the 9 have weak crankcase and transmissions were garbage?
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From what I understand, the transmission issues on the Evo were overblown, even for the 6MT's. Unless you were repeatedly launching the car hard or putting serious heat into the transmission at the track (e.g., extended 4th gear pulls), they generally did ok. That said I've only owned an STI and not an Evo, so perhaps an Evo owner can answer this one.
 
NolaMKVI

NolaMKVI

Ready to race!
Rumor has it the 06 hawk eye is the best to go with for reasons mentioned above.
If I come across a good deal when the GTI is about ready to go the a 06 is what I'll be aiming for. If not then I'll be looking for a 99 WRX shell and will be putting a 06 motor/trans in it.

Ive always been a fan of subaru, but the newer body styles and specs have me worried, my fa few friends have newer ones. ONe being a 14 and another just being a plain blue 15wrx and they seem like theyve gone backwards.. they are always having problems... with that being said, I do truely believe in lemons and I think thats hwat they got a hold of sadly enough..
 
XGC75

XGC75

Go Kart Champion
Be ready to pay out the ass. 06-07 STi's in decent condition are still in the low 20's. Biggest automotive rip-off today IMO.

How about the 06-07 Saab 9-2X Aero? It's mostly the WRX of the same generation with some STi components and Sweedish chassis tuning. You'd have to spend some coin to update it to the STi spec (center diff control is one of them), but they price out at $13k for good low-mileage models. It's an instant $10k savings over an equivalent STi.

More info: The Saabaru has the steering rack out of the Sti, the engine from the WRX. Compare the prices of these two Saabarus to these actual Subarus.
 
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T

TRUboost

Go Kart Champion
XGC75 said:
Be ready to pay out the ass. 06-07 STi's in decent condition are still in the low 20's. Biggest automotive rip-off today IMO.

How about the 06-07 Saab 9-2X Aero? It's mostly the WRX of the same generation with some STi components and Sweedish chassis tuning. You'd have to spend some coin to update it to the STi spec (center diff control is one of them), but they price out at $13k for good low-mileage models. It's an instant $10k savings over an equivalent STi.

More info: The Saabaru has the steering rack out of the Sti, the engine from the WRX. Compare the prices of these two Saabarus to these actual Subarus.
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05-06 STIs are absolutely bulletproof, I doubt unmolested ones will get any cheaper anytime soon. That being said they are easy and relatively inexpensive to maintain.
 
XGC75

XGC75

Go Kart Champion
TRUboost said:
05-06 STIs are absolutely bulletproof, I doubt unmolested ones will get any cheaper anytime soon. That being said they are easy and relatively inexpensive to maintain.
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05 isn't the hawkeye. Did they do a chassis redesign underneath the bodywork?

Absolutely bulletproof is a bit facetious for the 04-05 sti. Had a friend who went through 3 engines, all of which blew with ringland issues. One of which was completely stock.

I still can't ignore that price. We're talking C5's and C6's in great condition for that price. Or a Golf R that's 8 years newer and arguably more "bulletproof" than an sti.

Velociraptor Thrust said:
At this point I've accepted I won't be able to get an unmodded sti or evo. I'd prefer one with less mods. My buddy paid 16 for his with 95k on it. Now I'd prefer less miles but all the sti's are around that milage.
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Would you consider the Saab?
 
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