Right now I have a 95 bmw 525i, but I'm going to get a different car now that's going to last me a long while as I enter college. I've more or less narrowed my options down the the g sedan, preferably a 6mt, or a subaru wrx, not an sti. I'm just looking for thoughts on what people think about reliability, mpg, handling, performance, etc. between the two. Thanks.

 

Some WRX's have transmission problems and the interior quality is garbage in comparison to the G. I think the G would make a much better and more comfortable daily driver. On the other hand, modding a turbo car is a piece of cake and you can squeeze some good power out of the WRX. I was looking at WRX's before my purchase and went with a G35 sedan without ever looking back.

 

My buddy at work has a '05 Saab 92-x Aero (this is a re-badged WRX by the way) 2.0 L boxer 4 cyl with turbo and top-mount intercooler. The car has no bawls unless you wind the **** out of the engine. He let me drive it several times and it's damn hard to get the car sideways, even on all-season tires it just doesn't want to slip... that's nice but sometimes you just want to kick the tail out. Easy to do in the G, although not as fun or as easy to control as say a Honda S2K or Mazda RX7.

Like others say, the WRX has a lot of potential with a little $$$ to go much faster, but the inside is pretty low-rent and the outside is actually kinda fugly.

 

Hmm, it's got better stock times than the g I think, but that's prob with a huge clutch drop. How about handling in general, and reliability? I know the wrx has a bit better mpg, and yeah, hard to pitch an awd car, especially one like the wrx which is set up to understeer.

 

heres my opinion of both cars as ive owned both.

the subaru is a great car for the money(you can get a wrx for dirt cheap these days). theyre fun and decently cheap to mod, have a great online community, and sound awesome. the transmissions in the 5mt wrx are known to be weak and have a tendancy to blow with 300+awhp, or with very abusive driving/shifting. the motor is good for about 350whp before it gives out. if youre young, and like having a flashy, loud car that you can get for cheap, go for this. the interior is pretty cheap in terms of quality(the whole car feels like a tin can actually...but what do you expect...its a cheap compact car. as far as mpg, i was averaging around 24mpg when the vehicle was stock, and 28mpg(no joke) with a good tune and upgraded turbo etc on a light foot. if you are buying a wrx with the stock re92 tires still on it, change those immediately...tires are complete garbage. stock suspension setup is meh...good for some offroad rally driving, but not for spirited driving. although, that can be fixed with a set of coilovers and upgraded sway bars(will handle like its on rails).


as far as the g35, its a completely different car in terms of reliability and luxury. as far as performance...both cars are about as fast as each other, but the g35 might feel faster as it has a lot more low end torque, and power. the car is heavier though, so it MIGHT not feel as "sporty" as a wrx(im not saying a stock wrx is a good handling car though). you can definitely tell that the build quality in the g35 is at least 2 notches higher than the wrx in both the exterior and interior. the engine in the g35 is great and responsive, but gets about an average of 20mpg. the 6mt transmission is ok, but ive definitely owned cars with better shifting transmissions. engine also sounds great. i havent really had any problems in my g35 besides random squeeks in the interior and my 05 rev up engine consuming oil.

 

I own both, an 04 G35 Sedan AT, and a 2004 Subaru WRX 5mt. What you heard about the weak transmission only applies to the 02 and early 03 models WRX. This issue was later fixed on the late 03's and have never had a problem ever since. Both cars are great, both are reliable as hell. To say the saab is a rebadged WRX shows that the poster knows nothing of the car. The engines may be both boxers but in terms of how they're built is night and day. Thats like saying a Porsche GT2 is the same as the saab, both are boxer engines. Saabs have serious reliability issues, where as the Subaru are very well built and have tons of experience in rally backing them. Thats what the WRX stands for, World Rally Xperiment. The WRX can be easily modded and have tons of power for cheap. Where as the only way to really gain power on the G35 is to add a turbo which cost an arm and a leg. Gas, i'd say both are the same depending on how heavy of a foot you have while driving the WRX. Depending on how long you plan to keep the car both may very well last you until you finish college. Subarus have been know to hit the high 200,000's and some foresters have even hit 300,000's with no problem. The G35 might is cheaper to insure due to amount of accidents of the WRX. Kids trying to be street racers, not the car's fault.

also the WRX auto has a 50/50 power split between front and rear. Where as the manual are 55/45 the autos are pretty nice but dont' expect to race with it, if all you need is a reliable car get the Auto, and if you're buying used; buy a WRX thats as stock as possible. NAT@FFTec can vouch this. Those who own WRX/STI's that are modded drive them like they stole em. Granted this isn't on a daily basis as anyone with a stage 2+ WRX/STi use them for rally/track purposes only. But still I would not want to buy a used car thats been modded and beaten on hard.

 

listen to the guys with firsthand experience. ^^^ nice info, gentlemen - except the 92x REAALLY was a rebadged WRX. i'm surprised you didnt know that.

i too came from the 4wd turbo group.

I went to the G35 looking for more comfort, practicality, and maturity - without losing too much performance. It was a perfect match.

 

actually i apologize, seems like im the uninformed here. Seem like the 95 was based on alot of WRX parts, even assembled by fuji industries. I am humbled. once again i apologize for offending anyone without any information.

 

its all good.

it was crazy while it was out though, because at the time, GM was giving crazy incentives for Saab, so a lot of people were basically getting brand new WRX's for 18k out the door - 5-6k less than what subaru was offering

 

well i be damned. Just looked at the interior. Looks exactly the same as the WRX. Even the transmission is the same as well as the radio. wonder how reliable these were. the 9-3 were horrible in terms of reliable. No wonder I didn't know about the 9-2, its a wagon I see you use to own the Evo. Why did you sell it? should've kept it as a weekend rally machine.

 

it seriously was a WRX with different bumpers and interior colors. everything else was the same. reliability / performance all trickled down.

My evo was fast, handled great, and stopped on a dime, but I really only got to stretch its legs on the road course. i was only able to track the car a few times and tracking gets real expensive, real fast. All the wear and tear on the brakes and tires adds up. Having that much performance for the street is useless, unless you constantly break the law. Driving around town and just running errands, all the attention and hassles were just lame. I'm not one of those people who breaks laws - so I sold the car.

Its funny you mention "weekend" rally machine, because thats pretty much the only time I really drove it. no use in having a car if you dont enjoy driving it. driving around town, staying out of boost, i might as well have owned a base-lancer.

there were other factors too - mainly I'm getting older, and owning those rally-rockets just seems so boy-racerish.

 

weekend rally cars are what the evo's, WRX, and STi's were made for! I rally mine quite frequently. If the brakes were the problems you should've gotten some Duralast rotors from autozone. They provide decent performance especially for some weekend fun and with the 2 year warranty, after you wear them down the weekend, bring them back for a new pair! I know what you mean. AWD and turbo makes a deadly combination. Can't help but keeping the boost up when it handles so well especially in hard rain or on some snow!

 

my gf lives 13 miles from me. i tried driving to her place without going into boost one time. it was the worst drive ever!

that car just never let u stay out of boost.

 

I loved my 07 wrx. Quick as he'll and very easy to mod. And no they dint fix the 5 speed trannies either still fragile but different gearing in the 06/07s so it's less of a shock on the system. My g is slot slower but a little more torqey than the 2.5 boxer. And yes they are damn near impossible to stay out of boost. Nasioc is your friend for subarus.

 

Hell no! never go to nasioc dude. Bunch of arrogant ***s seriously they are. The wauy they flash around their superiority complex you would think they're driving lambos or ferraris. I would say Porsche but they actually look down on porsche's. I never had a problem with my tranny, 80k miles and still going strong. Maybe you're just driving too hard? :P or course people who owns WRX and STi's might be pushing it hard every chance they got! btw I go to nasioc too; but i don't enjoy posting there as much as i enjoy posting and reading on G35driver.com